Rock Evolution – The History of Rock & Roll - 1961 (pg 62)

[threespires]

Cubby Checker: “Let’s Twist Again”

I thought that was '62 but that was in the UK and it was indeed '61 in the US.

 

[GoatersLeftShin]

As for what's the most iconic rock guitar aesthetic, that's a great question. The SG is definitely in with a shout but I think it's one of those eye of the beholder things; I know people who think it's the Tele for the simplicity and minimalism etc. Personally I love the Casino and the Jazzmaster, also have a soft spot for the Thinline Tele's.

As a Gibson SG owner and a (Mexican) Fender Telecaster I'd have to say that whilst the SG is an iconic design, the Telecaster is a far better guitar and - like you say - the minimalism of it just marks it out. I never liked the Tele until I picked it up and then never put it down! The Stratocaster is too fancy for me, but the Tele just has everything right for me - design, tone, weight and balance. Finally, no matter what era you're in, no matter what music you play the Tele never looks out of place.

Strangely - and this will come up I daresay when we touch more on The Shadows and of course Jimi Hendrix - the Strat is 'the' guitar to have. I think when I was younger, I thought Hank Marvin was a useless guitarist and that thought has always tainted my view of that guitar and it's styling. As I've got older, and maybe wiser, I realise just what a great tone and ear he had - how joyous is Wonderful Land? I don't think he is a 'great' on the guitar but the guitarists I really admire - Dave Gilmour and Nile Rodgers in particular - play the Strat and their touch is incredible and I sometimes wonder if they could get that same touch and feel on another guitar. I suspect not.

Anyway, when I'm older I want a powder pink Gretsch 'jazz' guitar. The only problem is I can't play jazz! :)

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

1961


...
The Mar-Keys song Last Night was the first national release from a Memphis based regional record label called Satellite. Unfortunately, there was already a Californian record label with the same name, so the label owners Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton went down the easy route and just rechristened their company with the first two letters of each of their surnames and a legendary soul label was born. The Mar-Key’s young guitarist was called Steve Cropper and though the Mar-Keys name would become something of a footnote, he stuck around at Stax and the next year in our musical journey we’ll see him join forces with another great to form the nucleus of arguably the greatest ever house band.

Little does he know it but this young man (Steve Cropper)
will go on to play on many of the great records of the 1960s

Great initial write-up threespires, top notch as usual!

Let me add a plug for the great Stax Museum of American Soul Music in the city of Memphis that I have visited more than a few times. It is one of the great music museums I've been to that shows the history of that record label, its artists, and lots of history on many including Mr. Cropper above.

My first selection is going to stick to Rock and Roll and focus on a new invention with respect to the electric keyboard called a Musitron that was played by keyboard player Max Crook on this track. Crook, an electronics enthusiast, built the Musitron out of parts from other instruments and household appliances. He was unable to patent the Musitron because most of its components were already patented. The Musitron was a pre-synth electronic keyboard that created one of rock's most memorable instrumental breaks.

This song topped the Billboard charts for 4 weeks after the artist appeared on Dick Clark's American Bandstand in April of 1961. David Letterman in 1987 when introducing this song to be performed on his Late Night show remarked that the artist sold as many as 80,000 singles of this song per day at its peak in popularity.

"Runaway" - Del Shannon

 

[Resurrection Joe...]

As a Gibson SG owner and a (Mexican) Fender Telecaster I'd have to say that whilst the SG is an iconic design, the Telecaster is a far better guitar and - like you say - the minimalism of it just marks it out. I never liked the Tele until I picked it up and then never put it down! The Stratocaster is too fancy for me, but the Tele just has everything right for me - design, tone, weight and balance. Finally, no matter what era you're in, no matter what music you play the Tele never looks out of place.

Strangely - and this will come up I daresay when we touch more on The Shadows and of course Jimi Hendrix - the Strat is 'the' guitar to have. I think when I was younger, I thought Hank Marvin was a useless guitarist and that thought has always tainted my view of that guitar and it's styling. As I've got older, and maybe wiser, I realise just what a great tone and ear he had - how joyous is Wonderful Land? I don't think he is a 'great' on the guitar but the guitarists I really admire - Dave Gilmour and Nile Rodgers in particular - play the Strat and their touch is incredible and I sometimes wonder if they could get that same touch and feel on another guitar. I suspect not.

Anyway, when I'm older I want a powder pink Gretsch 'jazz' guitar. The only problem is I can't play jazz! :)

agreed. I would swap my candy red Gibson SG standard for a blonde Telecaster in a heartbeat...I always associate the SG devil horn design with heavy metal/hard rock...young. Iommi etc...but I was delighted to see Stster Rosetta playing one which is more my thang...

 

[KS55]

As a Gibson SG owner and a (Mexican) Fender Telecaster I'd have to say that whilst the SG is an iconic design, the Telecaster is a far better guitar and - like you say - the minimalism of it just marks it out. I never liked the Tele until I picked it up and then never put it down! The Stratocaster is too fancy for me, but the Tele just has everything right for me - design, tone, weight and balance. Finally, no matter what era you're in, no matter what music you play the Tele never looks out of place.

Strangely - and this will come up I daresay when we touch more on The Shadows and of course Jimi Hendrix - the Strat is 'the' guitar to have. I think when I was younger, I thought Hank Marvin was a useless guitarist and that thought has always tainted my view of that guitar and it's styling. As I've got older, and maybe wiser, I realise just what a great tone and ear he had - how joyous is Wonderful Land? I don't think he is a 'great' on the guitar but the guitarists I really admire - Dave Gilmour and Nile Rodgers in particular - play the Strat and their touch is incredible and I sometimes wonder if they could get that same touch and feel on another guitar. I suspect not.

Anyway, when I'm older I want a powder pink Gretsch 'jazz' guitar. The only problem is I can't play jazz! :)

The thing about Hank was his innovation. Who else had ever played like his effort on Wonderful land? He had no British players to learn from, so in 1960 he was a mile ahead. So many players cite him as an influence. Jeff Beck used to have a section in his gigs that was a tribute to Hank.
If he wasn’t a great player, he was a great influencer.
#apache

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

“The Wanderer” - Dion

I came across the other hit from Dion that year when "searching" for songs, but then I found the double standard irony of the topic discussed in both songs almost too much to resist. In fact, the more I thought about it, it's almost like both songs need to be heard back to back to get it. Just a thought, but I had never put these two songs together to make that association before given all of this was released well "before my time". Maybe this was all the vantage point back then, and it certainly wasn't gone by my formative years, but the song takes by a single artist in the exact same year were interesting on the different gender point of view.

Maybe it's just me, but since thinking about it, I can't shake it.

"Runaround Sue" - Dion

 

[OB1]

I thought that was '62 but that was in the UK and it was indeed '61 in the US.

I know. :)

 

[KS55]

This thread is nostalgia on a stick. Mention of Helen Shapiro and her astonishing voice had me ‘Walking back to Happiness.’ Not sure whether Adam Faith has been mentioned. His 1959 hit, “What do you Want?” Was on everybody’s lips and Faith impersonators usually singing ‘Poor Me’ were ten a penny. I shall keep for another day the story of how he picked up my friend Andy from his house in a white Roller with ‘Adam’ emblazoned in gold on the side.

 

[threespires]

I came across the other hit from Dion that year when "searching" for songs, but then I found the double standard irony of the topic discussed in both songs almost too much to resist. In fact, the more I thought about it, it's almost like both songs need to be heard back to back to get it. Just a thought, but I had never put these two songs together to make that association before given all of this was released well "before my time". Maybe this was all the vantage point back then, and it certainly wasn't gone by my formative years, but the song takes by a single artist in the exact same year were interesting on the different gender point of view.

Maybe it's just me, but since thinking about it, I can't shake it.

"Runaround Sue" - Dion

Prompted by your post it occurred to me to Google to see whether life reflected art.

Dion DiMucci has been married to the same woman since 1963. She's called Susan :-)

They have three daughters and you'd like to think they didn't apply the double standards espoused in 1961 during their upbringing but then he is American Italian Catholic so who knows!

Where he has been something of a wanderer is musically and theologically. In the 80s he switched to making Christian music and did well for himself but then went back to secular music in the 90s. At the turn of the millennium he started making blues albums which seemingly are well regarded and viewed as by far the best output of his career.

In a lovely little piece of symmetry, this year at 85 years young he released an album called Girl Friends where every track is with a different female blues player such as Susan Tedeschi. It is not recorded which one he has tattooed on his chest :-)

 

[threespires]

This thread is nostalgia on a stick. Mention of Helen Shapiro and her astonishing voice had me ‘Walking back to Happiness.’ Not sure whether Adam Faith has been mentioned. His 1959 hit, “What do you Want?” Was on everybody’s lips and Faith impersonators usually singing ‘Poor Me’ were ten a penny. I shall keep for another day the story of how he picked up my friend Andy from his house in a white Roller with ‘Adam’ emblazoned in gold on the side.

Adam Faith has had a mention but nothing on a playlist yet. As we're in '61 there's four singles to choose from. I was going to put Who Am I on the list for the trademark vocals but feel free to pick another if you want?

It's easy to forget with time how big these artists were and how enduring. I wasn't even born when 'What do you Want?' came out but I can do a terrible impression of that catch in his voice and sing the song, so somewhere along the line it was burnt into my consciousness.

We need to know your mate Andy's story!