From Aces to Angels

Booms and Revivals

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Let's now have a look back over the musical trends  through the decade of the sixties:
  It opened with a revival of traditional and  Dixieland jazz around 1960 (I was never quite sure what the difference between Dixieland and traditional was). The charge was led mainly by men like Acker Bilk and Kenny Ball. The traditionalists didn't have it all their own way of course for occasionally a modern jazz number would sneak into the charts. Numbers like Dave Brubeck's 'Take Five' in October '61 and 'Unsquare Dance' in May '62.
  The jazz era was followed in 1962 by the 'Mersey Sound' or 'beat' music which revolutionized pop music nearly everywhere. It was spearheaded of course by the 'Fab Four,' the Beatles, when they released their first record 'Love Me Do' in October of that year. They were ably assisted by groups like Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Hollies and a million other hopeful quartets.
  Next came the rhythm 'n' blues boom (a watered down commercial version of real Chicago blues) around 1963.  At the forefront of this were groups like the Rolling Stones and the Animals. Shortly after that there was a 'true' blues explosion in England (John Lee Hooker and Howlin' Wolf both had songs in the charts in June 1964) the prime movers here being bands like John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, Savoy Brown Blues Band and later, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac.
  In the early sixties also, there was a fair spattering of American country music about and this had a particular influence on the some of the Showbands in Ireland. The American scene was led by singers like Jim Reeves and Hank Locklin. Their popularity was emulated in Ireland by people like Larry Cunningham and Big Tom.
  About 1965 there was the 'Soul' and Tamla Motown music which utilised a lot of brass and piano instead of the usual electric guitars. The main protagonists here in the soul sphere were James Brown, Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding. In the Tamla Motown scene artists like The Four Tops, Diana Ross and The Supremes and Litle Stevie Wonder led the way.
  Almost contemporaneous with soul music we had the folk revival, both traditional and modern. In America this was led by people like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, and in Europe by Donovan and groups like The Clancy Brothers and The Dubliners. Another music which was dubbed 'folkrock' evolved from the folk scene. Groups like The Byrds, and later Bob Dylan himself promulgated this musical hybrid which affronted many 'purists.'
  While all this was going on there was another music getting an airing, a music (and you have to say this in hushed tones) called 'Underground.' These dark, mind blowing sounds were only meant for the ears of the initiated and the other-worldly. The high priests of this esoteric movement were groups like The Grateful Dead, Tangerine Dream and The Zombies.
  All through these disparate musical trends ran the thread of mainstream pop which varied in quality from serious tasteful songs to unashamed commercial drivel. By the end of the decade all these booms and revivals had petered out. Even the pillars of the beat generation, the mighty Beatles, had crumbled, leaving us to face an unknown new era and the uncertain future of contemporary music.
  Since then, a lot of musical trends have come and gone. Trends like the four rocks, i.e. 'Country,' 'Hard,' 'Glam,' 'Punk' and 'New Wave' of the 70s, the 'New Romantics' of the 80s right through to the present day with it's various forms of 'Dance' music. While a lot of folks may have found all these fads exciting, with the exception of the music of groups like  'The Band, 'Free' and 'Bad Company' in the first half of the 70s, I'm afraid they didn't mean very much to me.

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