is this true? the question has been haunting me for a while now -- did shocking blue have an american equivalent? the closest i could come was CCR -- radio-ready party rock, very simple, shouty vocals and persistent beats, a little psych, a little country, a lot of rock, never letting "authenticity" get in the way of a good single, though CCR were definitely part of that strain of band/dead/byrds hippie americana. and CCR never had a "venus."
this is the thread where we unlock the mysteries of shocking blue. the thread title comes from elvis telecom, who said the above when we were discussing this last night. we were talking about their "foreignness," i guess, that weird '60s-'70s eurovision/abba sensibility that americans can't really understand even if they like it. this is a tough subject because it's easy to make condescending generalizations about other cultures and how they must have viewed the ascent of american/UK rock and pop when it was still a pretty new thing. i don't want to paint anyone as a clueless naif. holland had a GREAT psych scene, and it'd be wrong to belittle it by saying "furriners, aw bless," etc.
is there an american shocking blue, though?
― get bent, Friday, 1 June 2007 16:27 (eighteen years ago)
lemme throw this in the ring too: the mamas and the papas were the american abba.
― get bent, Friday, 1 June 2007 16:29 (eighteen years ago)
The Great Society (Grace Slick's pre-J.Airplane band) was reasonably close sound-wise to the Shocking Blue.
― C. Grisso/McCain, Friday, 1 June 2007 16:32 (eighteen years ago)
They don't have that little in common with later AOR acts such as Boston. Only technology had come a bit further by the mid 70s, which meant that generation had less rough edges.
― Geir Hongro, Friday, 1 June 2007 17:30 (eighteen years ago)
when i think of shocking blue, i think if the american wave of bubblegum/garage bands in the '60s. the music explosion "little bit o' soul," things like that. weren't the shocking blue kinda exactly of that generation?
― fact checking cuz, Friday, 1 June 2007 20:03 (eighteen years ago)
There is a Turkish Shocking Blue, though. At least, there's a turkish language adaptation of "Send me a postcard" by Mavi Isiklar on the Turkish Delights singles compilation.
― Trip Maker, Friday, 1 June 2007 20:10 (eighteen years ago)
wtf is up with people's obsession with the idea that every American or British act must have a transatlantic equivalent?
― Alex in Baltimore, Friday, 1 June 2007 20:28 (eighteen years ago)
Dunno. But let's get back to talking about Dutch groups.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 1 June 2007 20:33 (eighteen years ago)
Hahahahahahahaha I was confusing Shocking Blue with Pruss14n Blue for a second there and getting progressively baffleder.
― HI DERE, Friday, 1 June 2007 20:38 (eighteen years ago)
Well, how about the Velvet Underground with Nico. Sure, Nico was European.
― moley, Friday, 1 June 2007 22:29 (eighteen years ago)
Yeah, I thought Great Society/Jefferson Airplane immediately, as soon as I saw the thread title.
― xhuxk, Saturday, 2 June 2007 02:04 (eighteen years ago)