the greatest rock'n'roll site in the world: New York I Love Ya But Your Freakin' Me Out...part 1

Its hard to imagine contemporary music without New York City. Its seems that the big apple has trail blazed just about every musical innovation in modern music. A strong argument can be made that a healthy New York scene is imperative for contemporary music to flourish. From the early days of Jazz, through to the Greenwich Village Folk clubs, the CBGBs punk rock scene, disco, rap and hip hop to later day Indie rock have all found, if not their origins, then their leading lights in NYC. The image of New York City as the most vibrant city in the world has proved irresistible to the culturally aware and curious.

The origins of Jazz can be traced to the late 1800s in America's south, particularly New Orleans and Louisiana. In its purest form it combines traditional African and European sounds. During the first 1/4 of the 20th century it grew into a legitimate and influential movement. It was not until the 1930s that it started to fracture into its various sub genres. The Big Band sound, BeBop and Swing are a few exaplmes. Jazz had reached New York and through a combination of New York natives and migrants it flourished.The swing sound was the first to prosper. Swing is generally characterised by a strong rhythm section, usually double bass and it has a distinctive more upbeat style then traditional jazz. Almost all of the major exponents of swing lived in NYC. Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Artie Shaw, Coleman Hawkins, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Chick Webb (to name a few) all spent the vast majority of their working lives in New York.

The frenetic improv that is BeBop also can trace its roots to New York. All the major players, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Bud Powell all worked out of New York. Miles Davis and John Coltrane the genre busting exponents of modal jazz also spent most of the careers in New York. The hauntingly beautiful Jazz vocals of Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald spent their careers as New Yorkers.
The genesis of Jazz may belong to the south but it took NYC for it to explore its diversity and reach its potential

The concept of New York being the precursor to all things music is not a complete theory and a resounding exception to the rule is the birth of Rhythm and Blues and ultimately Rock'n'Roll. The Blues was almost exclusively a creation of the black underclass of the south. Early bluesman like Robert Johnson (Mississippi), Blind Blake (Florida) and Blind Willie Johnson (Texas) never ventured far from their birth place. When the white folk got involved in the mid '50s they to were predominately from the Southern States. Elvis (Tennessee) and Jerry Lee Lewis (Louisiana) are but two examples. However it shouldn't be forgotten that Jazz (especially BeBop) played a significant role in the formation of the Rhythm and Blues sound. Further there is a theory that rock'n'roll lineage can in fact be traced back to 1850s at the notorious 5 point slum district in Manhattan. It's said that it was the first time that African rhythms were fused with European melodies, specifically those associated with the Irish Jig.

The 1950s were dominated by the explosion of Rock'n'Roll. Elvis, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and Bill Haley to name a few erupted into the worlds consciousness. NYC was a bit player in the paroxysm, its under belly was moving in a very different direction.

Greenwich Village had for some time been known as the avant-garde capital of the US but it was the emergence of the 'beat' scene in the 50s that solidified its reputation. 'Bohemians' from America wide converged on the Village. Some of the most important contemporary writers in America traded their wares in the village. Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, Alan Ginsberg, William Burroughs, E. E. Cummings, Neal Cassady, Diane di Prima amongst others became known as the 'beat poets'. Coffee houses became performance spaces and the bars became the nightly venue for debate and parley. The Village scene was not limited to poets it was also the centre of the bourgeoning folk scene attracting many of the genres most important protagonist. Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Tim Hardin and Dave Van Ronk were a few of the growing scene. As in the tradition of American folk they spoke of the times, highlighting the issues pertinent to their environments. As a culture movement the Village Beats of the 50s was truly significant, their cultural legacy is still strong today but for many their most lasting legacy was the magnetism that drew the 1960s generation to the Village.
Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan were amongst the early 60s wave. Of these Dylan was the most significant. I've written more on Bob Dylan then anyone would care to read over the course of this blog but the Greenwich Village scene was a vital piece of what followed in the 60s and Bob was its leading light. Its almost impossible to truly qualify his musical, social and political relevance. Without Dylan's early landmark songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" (1962), "Masters of War" (1963), "Talking World War III Blues" (1963), "Only a Pawn in Their Game" (1963), "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" and "The Times They Are A-Changin'" (1964) would the 60s still have galvanised as they did. They were anthemic speaking of the times. Were they prophetic rallying cries motivating people to the cause or were they simply a portrait of the world that already existed. Certainly the themes of which he spoke were not at the mass protest point at the time of recording them. That this question can even be posed is testament to his lyrical power. Musically his influence is equally contentious. Would the Beatles have progressed from "I want to hold your hand" or would the Beach Boys have remained at "Surfin' USA". As I said its impossible to properly qualify this, its undeniable the influence was immense and that 60s would of been at least somewhat different without his recorded output.
In fact the entire Village scene was vital in creating the 60s, Dylan migrated there to meet his idols and once there adopted their philosophy for mass consumption.
Later 60s New York certainly benefited, Leonard Cohen, Tim Buckley, Peter, Paul and Mary, Joni Mitchell and Simon and Garfunkel were just some of the acts.

Jimi Hendrix was another immensely influential musician who lived his creative life in NYC. Without Hendrix would we of got Sabbath and Led Zeppelin? Without those two acts would we have heavy metal today?

Of course New York also produced Andy Warhol's factory scene. The Velvet Underground were its musical stars.

They are probably the most oft acknowledge band in the world. Never has a band been so influential and sold so few albums. In a time of LSD and flower power they wore leather and wrote songs of heroin, bondage and despair. A direct link between the Velvets and the mid 70s CBGBs scene is easily exposed (all be it via the Stooges in a few cases). Their overall influence is almost impossible to gauge - garage, punk, indie rock and pop would of been very different if not for the Velvet Underground.

With a few notable exceptions the first half of the 70s was dominated by acts who had created profile in the 60s, English Glam Rock and awful prog/art rock bands. Through the early 70s NYC was relatively quiet musically. This was to change by the mid 70s, a change that would alter popular music forever. The Country, Blue Grass, and Blues club (CBGBs) was opened in the Bowery district of Manhattan by Hilly Kristal in 1973. As its name implied, Kristal intended the bar to feature Country, Bluegrass and Blues music, in actuality the bar played host to a very different musical genre.

It became famous as the birthplace of the punk movement. Ramones, Television, Mink Deville, Suicide, Patti Smith, The Dead Boys, The Heartbreakers, The Dictators, The Fleshtones, Blondie, and Talking Heads were all major players in the CBGBs scene. For a club that can lay a very serious claim to being the most important live music club ever, the reality was it was dump. It was tiny (in its original incarnation only holding 250 people), graffitied and crumbling. That aside from 1974 until '77 it played host to a remarkable scene. The first 'alternative' gig there was a one off by Suicide in late '73. It didn't really solidify into an alternative venue until March '74 when Television were given a weekly Sunday night residency. The NYC punk scene spread to England primarily via the efforts of Malcolm McLaren. In '74 he spent time in New York, during which time he managed the New York Dolls and made an ill fated attempt to manage an early incarnation of Television. On his return to the UK he recruited the sex Pistols and the rest is history.
It was reported that Hilly Kristal actually died last week at age 75. New York Times tribute can be read here. Rolling Stone's tribute is here . It includes this great Patti Smith quote : “Hilly dying made a flood of things come back to me. On that last night [at the club], he knew that we loved him. He stood up and we saluted him. I’m not trying to romanticize anything because in some ways it was a shithole. The sound was crappy, there was always things breaking down and glasses breaking and people vomiting and the rats scurrying around in the back, but it was our shithole and that was the greatest thing."

Tomorrow : Part 2 - NYC gives us Disco, rap and hip-hop, Sonic Youth and relaunches the Indie rock guitar music with The Strokes, Yeah Yeah, Yeahs, Interpol etc. Also electro can be cool - LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture.

To Download : The wonderful Ella Fitzerald's two disc set 'Recordings from 1936-37' and Television's seminal 1997 album 'Marquee Moon'

Ella Fitzgerald (Disc 1 of 2), Recordings from 1936-1937

Ella Fitzgerald (Disc 2 of 2), Recordings from 1936-1937

Television - 'Marquee Moon'

Some Videos :

Miles Davis & John Coltrane - 'So What'