As a starter, I just like to know your idea on these genres. What do you like about it, what do you hate about it. What artists do you respect, which do you dislike. Once we started discussing this, we can (maybe) move on to more discussions in this area.
What I like about these old songs and artists is the fact that it's such simple music, yet so great. Today's music is too full, imo. What I mean with this is that guitars are so distorted, you don't hear the beauty of the instrument anymore. Drums exist out of 100 pieces, so you hardly can hear the BEAT. (Don't you hate those drummers who kick double bass constantly and hit their cymbals every second? You hardly hear the melody anymore!)
In the good old days, they understood that less is more. Drums were mostly a hi-hat, a snare, a floortom and a single cymbal. A double bass for the gut/heavy bassfeeling, a guitar to play the melody and a voice. It was as easy as that. In country though there were offcourse also instruments such as lapsteel, banjo's and fiddles. Yet the music got never too full!
On stage, people gave a show with what they had: great songs and lots of humor. They really performed! And they had to! No internet, hardly any TV. If you wanted to get somewhere, you HAD to be talented. You had to make people talk about you. You had to hit them in the soul. People really controlled their instrument/voice back then. No hi-tech stuff to edit a false note. Everything was so pure...
I have no idea if you get what I mean. It's easier to explain in dutch, but then I guess hardly anyone would understand...
Artists I like, and I think EVERYONE should check out:
R&R: Elvis (the sun sessions) , Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent (first three albums with the amazing Cliff Gallup on guitar), Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, Cliff Richards (only his first year in music!! 58-59), Link Wray (great guitarplayer!), Janis Martin, Wanda Jackson, and almost ANY early Sun Recording (with artists such as Jack Earls, Mack Self, Charlie Rich, early Orbison, Sonny Burgess, Gene Simmons, Carl Perkins,...). And the most underestimated performer/writer RONNIE SELF. He did bad stuff in late sixties, but in the fifties and early sixties he wrote great songs such as Bopalena, Ain't I'm a dog (one of my fav songs all time!) and he wrote lots of hits for other artists back then.
All the music these guys released was as tight as a virgin's buttcheecks! (sorry, couldn't find another thing that's REALLY tight.) Every single note was right placed. The singin was pure sex. For example, listen to Gene Vincent's hick-up singin. He could sing so low, and the next phrase extremely high, without any sweat. Woman Love is a nice song to know what I mean with the 'sex voice' thing.
Country: Hank Williams (a real bad boy, and maybe the first EMO!
songs such as long gone lonesome blues, I'm so lonesome I could cry...hit you right in the soul!), The Louvin Brothers (those harmony's!), Jimmie Rodgers (invented country together with the Carter Family??). In country it's mostly SONGS I prefer, not artists. Lots of the country songs back then where standards/old folk songs, that sound awesome by almost every artist. Check songs such as * KNOXVILLE GIRL, a murderballad which was originally a 19th century Irish ballad called The Wexford Girl.
* Wild Side of life (aka I didn't know God made Honky Tonk Angels). After a few years there was an answer to this song (can't remember who wrote/originally recorded this) by a lady: It wasn't God who made Honky Tonk Angels.
What I like about this old traditional country, is that they all told a story. Most of these songs can be seen as American History Writing.
There was a guitarplayer, a studio musician who recorded alot of country and rock and roll, with BIG names such as Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Brenda Lee, Johnny Burnette, and hundreds of others. His name was Grady Martin. He recorded especially in the DECCA studio's. He did some own stuff with his backup band Slew Foot Five, but that stuff is EXTREMELY RARE to find. At least in Europe. Anyone who can score some stuff by them, pls PM me...
He had a very specific guitar sound, and he, together with that Cliff Gallup dude, ment more to today's guitar playing than anyone can ever imagine. No Hendrix, Richards, Clapton or Page without those two. You will probably NOT believe me, but history will show you some day...
Now let me hear what you guys think and feel about all this. Let's start discussing music! Let's really try it for once, without bashing. Turn back time, and realise these times must have been awesome for a musician! Everything was still so new. The roads were wide open. Almost everything still had to be invented. It were golden times!!
(notice I didn't put CASH in my list, for the simple reason that today it seems everybody likes him, but not for the right reasons. If you really like him for his music, you MUST check out more time related stuff. I think anyone agrees his fifties work was among the best!)
Discuss people! DISCUSS!!
