(Vocal/instrumental group, 1965–72, 1989, 1996) When the ‘classic’ line-up of Marty Balin (vocals), Grace Slick (vocals), Paul Kantner (guitar, vocals), Jorma Kaukonen (guitar, vocals) and Skip Spence (drums) found each other, a merger of an oblique form of folk rock with psychedelia ensured acceptance by their native San Francisco’s hippy community. They produced 1967 hit ...
Blind Lemon Jefferson (c. 1893–1929) opened up the market for blues records in 1926 when ‘Got The Blues’, backed with ‘Long Lonesome Blues’, became the biggest-selling record by a black male artist. It brought him the trappings of success, including a car and chauffeur, and he released nearly 100 songs over the next four years, before his death. ...
Although he is often cited as the first ‘folk’ bluesman to record, Blind Lemon Jefferson was actually much more than that: he was America’s first male blues pop star. On the strength of his recordings for the Paramount label – some of which are said to have sold upwards of 100,000 copies – Jefferson became a celebrity throughout the ...
(Vocal group, 1970–84) The successor band to Jefferson Airplane whose official debut was 1974’s Dragonfly although the name had been used by singer/guitarist Paul Kantner on Blows Against The Empire (1970). Former Airplane vocalist Grace Slick joined the new band along with David Freiberg (bass), John Barbata (drums), Pete Sears (keyboards) and Craig Chaquico (guitar). Ex-Airplane singer Marty Balin signed ...
During the mid-1960s, America’s military action in Vietnam was escalating out of control; students around the world were becoming more politically involved, civil rights and feminism were hot issues and the burgeoning youth movement was turning onto the effects of mind-bending drugs. Accordingly, certain strains of popular music melded attitude, experimentation and a social conscience, and ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1967–79, 1985–present) Not so much a premier folk rock ensemble as one of the most English of veteran rock bands, Fairport formed in London in 1967 in a vague image of Jefferson Airplane, but traditional folk pervaded a second LP, What We Did On Our Holidays (1969), on which singer Sandy Denny debuted, ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1970–present) Jefferson Airplane’s Jorma Kaukonen (guitar, vocals) and Jack Casady (bass) – together with drummer Bob Steeler – formed Hot Tuna in San Francisco in order to satisfy their interest in acoustic blues. After an eponymous debut album, the group went electric, added fiddler Papa John Creach and expanded its range to become a staple ...
A leading figure on America’s West Coast music scene, Jerry Garcia was born in San Francisco in 1942. His father was a retired professional musician, his mother a pianist. The musically inclined Jerry began taking piano lessons as a child. The emergence of Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran inspired him to learn guitar at 15, ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1966–73) The Grape, featuring singing guitarists Skip Spence, Jerry Miller and Peter Lewis, plus Bob Mosley (bass) and Don Stevenson (drums) were leading exponents of the psychedelic sounds wafting from California. Heavily over-publicized – as exemplified by the issue of six singles simultaneously – they sneaked into the US Hot 100 in 1967 with ‘Omaha’, ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1964–90, 2001, 2012–present) The last great Motown pop group, the brothers Jackson – Jackie, Tito, Marlon, Jermaine and Michael – signed in 1968 and were groomed for a year before their debut single ‘I Want You Back’ shot to US No. 1, followed by four more chart toppers in a row ...
For many people in the 1960s, folk was equated with acoustic music or even unaccompanied music – and electric guitars were the great taboo. The sense of propriety among the revivalists of the time made them fiercely protective of the music, determined to preserve its purity in the face of attack from the evil forces of pop. Many saw ...
Several musical movements are associated either directly or indirectly with a specific recreational drug or drugs; psychedelic rock went a step further, and was practically borne out of LSD or acid, as well as other hallucinogens including peyote, mescaline and even marijuana. Much psychedelic rock attempts to recreate the mind expanding and awareness-enlarging sensations of an acid trip ...
Early ’76 The Sex Pistols’ First Gigs The Sex Pistols played their first gig at London’s St Martin’s School of Art in November 1975, racing through a batch of Faces and Who numbers plus some of their own, including ‘Pretty Vacant’ and ‘Did You No Wrong’, while Rotten sneered at the audience, calling them ‘f***ing boring’. The pattern ...
Popular music’s most influential decade saw British and American rock develop in parallel, the creative torch passing across the Atlantic to The Beatles, then returning as the West Coast rock boom reflected the influence of drugs on music. In rock, guitar was now the undisputed focus of the music with ‘axe heroes’ like Clapton, Hendrix, Townshend ...
Of the entire century, the 1970s were the years of catching one’s breath. Superficially, the promise of the 1960s had faded or failed, the victim of wretched excess and just plain bad taste. America’s war in Vietnam sputtered to an end, international relations elsewhere seemed to stalemate in détente and economically the world suffered from stagflation: exhaustion ...
AUTHORITATIVE
An extensive music information resource, bringing together the talents and expertise of a wide range of editors and musicologists, including Stanley Sadie, Charles Wilson, Paul Du Noyer, Tony Byworth, Bob Allen, Howard Mandel, Cliff Douse, William Schafer, John Wilson...
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Classical, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country and more. Flame Tree has been making encyclopaedias and guides about music for over 20 years. Now Flame Tree Pro brings together a huge canon of carefully curated information on genres, styles, artists and instruments. It's a perfect tool for study, and entertaining too, a great companion to our music books.
David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.