BestRockBandsEver

The Beatles

 

The Beatles were an English rock group from Liverpool whose members were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. They are one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music.

In the United Kingdom, The Beatles released more than 40 different singles, albums, and EPs that reached number one. This commercial success was repeated in many other countries: their record company, EMI, estimated that by 1985 they had sold over one billion discs and tapes worldwide. The Beatles are the best-selling musical act of all time in the United States, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked The Beatles #1 on its list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. According to that same magazine, their innovative music and cultural impact helped define the 1960s, and their influence on pop culture is still evident today.

The Beatles led the mid-1960s musical "British Invasion" into the United States. Although their initial musical style was rooted in 1950s rock and roll and homegrown skiffle, the group explored genres ranging from Tin Pan Alley to psychedelic rock. Their clothes, styles, and statements made them trend-setters, while their growing social awareness saw their influence extend into the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s.

In March 1957, while attending Quarry Bank Grammar School in Liverpool, John Lennon formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen. Lennon and the Quarrymen met guitarist Paul McCartney at the Woolton Garden F?te held at St. Peter's Church on 6 July 1957 and added him to the group a few days later. On 6 February 1958, the young guitarist George Harrison was invited to watch the group (who played under a variety of names) at Wilson Hall, Garston, Liverpool. McCartney had become acquainted with Harrison on the morning school bus ride to the Liverpool Institute, as they both lived in Speke. At McCartney's insistence, Harrison joined the Quarrymen as lead guitarist after a rehearsal in March 1958, overcoming Lennon's initial reluctance because of Harrison's young age. Members continually joined and left the lineup during that period, and in January 1960 Lennon's art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe joined on bass. Lennon and McCartney both played rhythm guitar and the group had a high turnover of drummers.

The Quarrymen went through a progression of names "Johnny and the Moondogs", "Long John and the Beatles", "the Silver Beetles" (derived from Larry Parnes' suggestion of "Long John and the Silver Beetles") before settling on "The Beatles" in August 1960. There are many theories as to the origin of the name and its unusual spelling. It is usually credited to Lennon, who said that the name was a combination word-play on the insect beetles (as a reference to Buddy Holly's band, The Crickets) and the word beat. Cynthia Lennon suggests that Lennon came up with the name Beatles at a "brainstorming session over a beer-soaked table in the Renshaw Hall bar." Lennon, who was well known for giving multiple versions of the same story, joked in a 1961 Mersey Beat magazine article that "It came in a vision a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them, 'From this day on you are Beatles with an A'". During an interview in 2001, Paul McCartney took credit for the peculiar spelling of the name, saying that "John had the idea of calling us the Beetles, I said, 'how about the Beatles; you know, like the beat of the drum?' At the time, everyone was stoned enough to find it hilarious. It's funny how history is made."

In May 1960, the Silver Beetles toured northeast Scotland as a back-up band with singer Johnny Gentle. They met Gentle an hour before their first gig, and McCartney referred to the tour as a great experience for the band. For the tour the often drummerless group secured the services of Tommy Moore, who was considerably older than the others. Moore left the band soon after the tour and went back to work in a bottling factory as a forklift truck driver. Norman Chapman was the band's next drummer, but was called up for National Service a few weeks later. His departure posed a serious problem as the group's unofficial manager, Allan Williams, had arranged for them to perform in clubs on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Germany.

John Lennon said: "It was Elvis who really got me buying records. I thought that early stuff of his was great. The Bill Haley era passed me by, in a way. When his records came on the wireless, my mother used to hear them, but they didnt do anything for me. It was Elvis who got me hooked on beat music. When I heard 'Heartbreak Hotel', I thought this is it and I started to grow sideboards and all that gear...." He also commented: "Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn't been an Elvis, there wouldn't have been a Beatles."

Finding themselves drummerless before their upcoming engagement in Hamburg, on 12 August 1960 the group invited Pete Best to become their drummer. Best had played with The Blackjacks in the Casbah Club, owned by Pete's mother, Mona Best. This was a cellar club in West Derby, Liverpool, where The Beatles had played and often visited. In the documentary The Compleat Beatles, Williams said that Best "played not too cleverly, but passable".

Four days after hiring Best, the group left for Hamburg. The Beatles began playing in Hamburg at the Indra Club and moved on 4 October 1960 to the Kaiserkeller. They were required to play six or seven hours a night, seven nights a week. On 21 November 1960, Harrison was deported for having lied to the German authorities about his age. A week later, having started a small fire at their living quarters while vacating it for more luxurious rooms, McCartney and Best were arrested, charged with arson, and deported. Lennon followed the others to Liverpool in mid-December while Sutcliffe stayed behind in Hamburg with his new German fianc?e Astrid Kirchherr. The reunited group played an engagement on 17 December 1960 at the Casbah Club (with Chas Newby substituting for Sutcliffe).

The Beatles returned to Hamburg in April 1961, performing at the "Top Ten Club". While playing at the Top Ten Club they were recruited by singer Tony Sheridan to act as his backing band on a series of recordings for the German Polydor Records label, produced by famed bandleader Bert Kaempfert. Kaempfert signed the group to its own Polydor contract at the first session on 22 June 1961. On 31 October Polydor released the recording "My Bonnie (Mein Herz ist bei dir nur)", which appeared on the German charts under the name "Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers", a generic name used for whoever happened to be in Sheridan's backup band. In addition to the legend that this record led to the group's eventual meeting with Brian Epstein, it also resulted in their first mention in the American press.

Around the beginning of 1962, Cashbox mentioned "My Bonnie" as the debut of a "new rock and roll team, Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers". A few copies were also pressed under the Decca label for U.S. disc jockeys, as American Decca had a distribution deal with Polydor parent Deutsche Grammophon. (This was ironic, considering that by this time the then-unaffiliated British Decca had turned down the group's attempt to gain a recording contract.) When the group returned to Liverpool, Sutcliffe stayed on in Hamburg with Kirchherr. By then McCartney had taken over bass duties.

Their third stay in Hamburg was from 13 April to 31 May 1962, when they opened The Star Club. Upon their arrival, they were informed of Sutcliffe's death from a brain haemorrhage.

Epstein took over as the group's manager in January 1962 and led The Beatles' quest for a British recording contract. Epstein had been manager of the record department at North End Music Store (NEMS), an offshoot of his family's furniture store. He played on the status of NEMS as a major record dealer to gain access to producers and recording company executives. In a now-famous exchange, Decca Records A&R executive Dick Rowe turned Epstein down flat, informing him that "Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein." (See The Decca audition.) While Epstein was negotiating with Decca, he also approached EMI marketing executive Ron White. White (who was not himself a record producer) in turn contacted EMI producers Norrie Paramor, Walter Ridley, and Norman Newell, all of whom declined to record The Beatles. White did not approach EMI's fourth staff producerGeorge Martinwho was on holiday at the time.

After failing to impress Decca Records, Epstein went to the HMV store on Oxford Street in London to transfer the Decca tapes to discs. There, recording engineer Jim Foy referred him to Sid Coleman, who ran EMI's publishing arm. When Coleman heard the demo tapes he suggested taking the tapes to George Martin, who, Coleman explained, "does comedy records" and headed the Parlophone label at EMI. Epstein eventually met with Martin, who signed the group to EMI on a one-year renewable contract and scheduled their first recording session on 6 June 1962 at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in north London. Martin had not been particularly impressed by the band's demo recordings, but he instantly liked them as people when he met them. He concluded that they had raw musical talent, but said (in later interviews) that what made the difference for him was their wit and humour.

Martin did have a problem with Pete Best, whom he criticised for not being able to keep time. He privately suggested to Epstein that the band use another drummer in the studio. There was speculation by some that Best's popularity with fans was another source of friction. In addition, Epstein had become exasperated with his refusal to adopt the distinctive hairstyle as part of their unified look. Best also had missed a number of engagements because of illness. The three founding members enlisted Epstein to dismiss Best, which he did on 16 August 1962. They asked Ringo Starr (born Richard Starkey), the drummer for one of the top Merseybeat groups, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, to join the band; Starr had performed occasionally with The Beatles in Hamburg. The first recordings of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr together were made as early as 15 October 1960, in a series of demonstration records privately recorded in Hamburg while acting as the backing group for singer Lu Walters. Starr played on The Beatles' second EMI recording session on 4 September 1962, but Martin hired session drummer Andy White for their next session on 11 September.

Their recording contract paid them one penny for each single sold, which was split amongst the four Beatles one farthing per group member. This royalty rate was further reduced for singles sold outside the UK, on which they received half of one penny (again split between the whole band) per single. Martin said later that it was a "pretty awful" contract.

The Beatles' first EMI session on 6 June 1962 did not yield any recordings considered worthy of release, but the September sessions a few months later produced a minor UK hit, "Love Me Do", which peaked on the charts at number 17. ("Love Me Do" reached the top of the U.S. singles chart over 18 months later in May 1964.) On 26 November 1962, they recorded their second single "Please Please Me", which reached number two on the official UK charts and number one on the NME chart. Three months later, they recorded their first album (also titled Please Please Me). The band's first televised performance was on the People and Places programme, transmitted live from Manchester by Granada Television on 17 October 1962. As The Beatles' fame spread, the frenzied adulation of the group, predominantly from teenage female fans, was dubbed Beatlemania.

The band also began to be noticed by serious music critics. On 23 December 1963, The Times music critic William Mann published an essay extolling The Beatles' compositionstheir "fresh and euphonious" guitars in "Till There Was You", their "submediant switches from C major into A flat major", and the "octave ascent" in "I Want to Hold Your Hand", for example. The Beatles themselves were perplexed by this analysis by Mann: "...one gets the impression that they think simultaneously of harmony and melody, so firmly are the major tonic sevenths and ninths built into their tunes, and the flat-submediant key-switches, so natural is the Aeolian cadence at the end of 'Not a Second Time' (the chord progression which ends Mahler's 'Song of the Earth')." In 1980, Lennon commented, "To this day I don't have any idea what [Aeolian cadences] are. They sound like exotic birds."

Although the band experienced huge popularity on the UK record charts in early 1963, EMI's American operation, Capitol Records, declined to issue the singles "Please Please Me" and "From Me to You" (their first official number one hit in the UK). Vee-Jay Records, a small Chicago label, issued the singles as part of a deal for the rights to another performer's masters. Art Roberts, music director of Chicago powerhouse radio station WLS, placed "Please Please Me" into radio rotation in late February 1963, making it the first time a Beatles record was heard on American radio. Vee-Jay's rights to The Beatles were later cancelled for non-payment of royalties.

In August 1963, Philadelphia-based Swan Records released "She Loves You", which also failed to receive airplay. A testing of the song on Dick Clark's TV show American Bandstand produced laughter from American teenagers when they saw the group's distinctive hairstyles. In early November 1963, Brian Epstein persuaded Ed Sullivan to present The Beatles on three editions of his show in February, and parlayed this guaranteed exposure into a record deal with Capitol Records. Capitol committed to a mid-January release for "I Want to Hold Your Hand". On 7 December 1963, a clip of The Beatles was shown on the CBS Evening News. (The story originally had been scheduled to air on 22 November, and was aired on the CBS Morning News, but was preempted by the assassination of John F. Kennedy.) The clip inspired a teenage girl in Washington, D.C. to request a Beatles song on a local radio station. The station secured an imported copy of "I Want to Hold Your Hand"forcing Capitol Records to release the song ahead of schedule on 26 December 1963.

Several New York radio stationsfirst WMCA, then WINS and WABCbegan playing "I Want to Hold Your Hand" on its release day. The Beatlemania that had started in Washington was duplicated in New York and quickly spread to other markets. The record sold one million copies in just ten days, and by 16 January 1964, Cashbox magazine had certified the record number one (in the edition marked 23 January). On 3 January 1964, a film of The Beatles performing "She Loves You" was aired on the late-night Jack Paar Show.

The Rolling Stones

 

The Rolling Stones are an English band whose blues, rhythm and blues and rock and roll-infused music became popular during the "British Invasion" in the early 1960s. The band was formed in London in 1962 by original leader Brian Jones, but eventually led by the songwriting partnership of singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards. Pianist Ian Stewart, drummer Charlie Watts and bassist Bill Wyman completed the early lineup. Jones died in 1969 shortly after being fired from the band and was replaced by 20-year-old Mick Taylor. After Taylor quit in 1974, former Faces guitarist Ron Wood took over. Wyman retired in 1993 being replaced by Darryl Jones who has played bass on subsequent recordings, but is not an official member of the band.

The band has released 55 albums of original work and compilations, and have had 32 U.K & U.S top-10 singles. They have sold more than 200 million albums worldwide. 1971's Sticky Fingers began a string of eight consecutive studio albums at number one in the United States. In 1989 the Rolling Stones were inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2004 they were ranked number 4 in Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Their latest album, A Bigger Bang, was released in 2005 and accompanied by their highest-grossing tour, which lasted into late summer 2007. During the 1969 American tour, tour manager Sam Cutler introduced them as "The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World". Their image of unkempt and surly youth is one that many musicians still emulate.

In 1951 Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were classmates at Wentworth County Junior High School. They met again in 1960 while Richards was attending Sidcup Art College. Richards recalled "I was still going to school, and he was going up to the London School of Economics... So I get on this train one morning, and there's Jagger and under his arm he has four or five albums... He's got Chuck Berry and Little Walter, Muddy Waters" With mutual friend Dick Taylor (later of Pretty Things), they formed the band Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys. Stones founders Brian Jones and pianist Ian Stewart were active in the London R&B scene fostered by Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner. Jagger and Richards met Jones while he was playing slide guitar sitting in with Korner's Blues Inc. Korner also had hired Jagger periodically and frequently future Stones drummer Charlie Watts. Their first rehearsal was organized by Jones and included Stewart, Jagger and Richards - the latter came along at Jagger's invitation. In June 1962 the lineup was: Jagger, with his 32 inch penis, Richards, Stewart, Jones, Taylor, and drummer Tony Chapman. Taylor then left the group. Jones renamed the band The Rollin' Stones, after the song "Rollin' Stone" by Muddy Waters.

On 12 July 1962 the group played its first formal gig at the Marquee club in central London (the first had been an informal performance in Ealing, west London), billed as "The Rollin' Stones". The line-up was Jagger, Richards, Jones, Stewart on piano, Taylor on bass and Tony Chapman on drums. Jones intended for the band to play primarily Chicago blues, but Jagger and Richards brought the rock 'n roll of Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley to the band. Bassist Bill Wyman joined in December and drummer Charlie Watts the following January to form the Stones' long standing rhythm section.

The Stones' first manager Giorgio Gomelsky booked the band to play at his Crawdaddy Club for what became an eight-month residency during which their fan base grew to include the The Beatles. The Beatles in turn recommended the Stones to their publicist Andrew Loog Oldham, who promptly signed the band to a management deal with his partner and veteran booker Eric Easton. (Gromelsky had no written agreement with the band and was not consulted.) George Harrison likewise suggested to Dick Rowe of Decca Records (who came to regret turning down the Beatles) that he should sign the Stones. Their first EP, The Rolling Stones and album (also titled The Rolling Stones, titled in US England's Newest Hit Makers), were composed primarily of covers drawn from the band's live repertoire. A notable hit from the album was the band's first Top 40 single written by Jagger and Richards, "Tell Me (You're Coming Back)". After signing with Decca, the Stones began touring the UK and Europe. On their first tour of England, the Stones were packaged with American stars including Ike and Tina Turner, Bo Diddley, The Ronettes, The Everly Brothers and Little Richard. The first tour also cemented the Stones' shift from a rhythm and blues band to more of a pop band, resulting in a reduction in the number of blues songs the band played live. The Rolling Stones No. 2 (The Rolling Stones, Now! in the United States) (UK #1; US #5) again contained mainly cover tunes, but was augmented by songs composed by Jagger and Richards. After the album's release, the band began to tour constantly. The Rolling Stones' first UK chart-topper was the cover of "It's All Over Now" in June 1964.

During the first American tour in June 1964, the Stones began years of recording exclusively at American studios Chess Studios in Chicago and RCA Studios in Los Angeles. The Stones' version of Little Red Rooster, which went to number 1 in the UK, was banned in the US because of its objectionable lyrics.[vague] Oldham crafted the band's image of long-haired tearaways "into the opposite of what the Beatles [were] doing" . The Stones also appeared on American variety shows such as The Ed Sullivan Show. Sullivan reacted to the pandemonium the Stones caused and promised to never book them again, though he later did book them repeatedly .. They also played on the The Hollywood Palace where host Dean Martin made fun of their longish hair, which was considered provocative. In October the band appeared immediately after James Brown in the filmed theatrical release of The T.A.M.I. Show, which showcased American acts with British Invasion artists. According to Jagger in 2003, "We weren't actually following James Brown because there were hours in between the filming of each section. Nevertheless, he was still very annoyed about it...". The first American tour was not an overwhelming success: the band had not topped the charts and poor booking marred many live appearances.

The first Jagger/Richards composition at number 1 in the UK was "The Last Time" in early 1965. The U.S. version of that year's Out of Our Heads LP contained seven original songs, including "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" which became the band's first number one in the US where it remained for four weeks in July, and established the Stones as a worldwide premier act. Shortly thereafter they released their second number one, "Get Off of My Cloud". Out of Our Heads and the US-only released December's Children were also the last Stones albums to predominantly feature covers. The release Aftermath (UK number 1 ; US 2) in the late spring of 1966 was the first Stones album to be composed only of Jagger/Richards songs. The American version of the LP included the chart-topping, Middle Eastern-influenced "Paint It, Black", the ballad "Lady Jane", and the almost 12-minute long "Going Home", the first extended jam on a top selling Rock 'n' Roll album; later Jimi Hendrix, Cream and other sixties and seventies bands would release long jams routinely.

Jagger, Richards and Jones began to be hounded by authorities over illegal drug use. In 1967 the Sussex police, tipped off by the News of the World, raided a party at Keith Richards' home, "Redlands". Jagger and Richards were charged with drug offences. Richards said in 2003, "When we got busted at Redlands, it suddenly made us realize that this was a whole different ball game and that was when the fun stopped. Up until then it had been as though London existed in a beautiful space where you could do anything you wanted."

Amid this, January saw the release of Between the Buttons (UK number 3;US 2). The US version included the double A-side singles of "Let's Spend the Night Together" and "Ruby Tuesday". The Stones performed the former on The Ed Sullivan Show in the USA, where Jagger was forced to mumble the song's lyrics and change the chorus to "Let's Spend Some Time Together" due to the threat of censorship. The album was Oldham's last venture as the Stones' producer (and, effectively, manager as well). On his departure, Jagger said in 2003, "The reason Andrew left was because he thought that we weren't concentrating and that we were being childish. It was not a great moment really - and I would have thought it wasn't a great moment for Andrew either. There were a lot of distractions and you always need someone to focus you at that point, that was Andrew's job." Oldham, in his biography, says it was because his shortage of money led to his surrendering his management contract to others.

In May 1967, shortly before the trials of Jagger and Richards, Brian Jones was arrested for possession of cannabis He escaped with a fine and probation but was told to seek professional help. On 27 June Jagger and Richards were convicted and jailed. Following an editorial critical of the convictions and sentences in The Times, entitled "Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?", Richards' conviction was quashed on appeal, and Jagger's sentence reduced to a conditional discharge. The band recorded a new single, "We Love You", as a thank-you for the loyalty shown by their fans during the trials. It began with the sound of opening prison doors and in TV films to promote the record Jagger dressed in a style reminiscent of Oscar Wilde.

December 1967 saw the release of Their Satanic Majesties Request (UK number 3; US 2), released shortly after the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Satanic Majesties was recorded in difficult circumstances while Jagger, Richards and Jones were in and out of jail. (Bill Wyman wrote and sang a track on the album "In Another Land" and the front cover of the album had a kaleidoscope picture.) Jagger was a strong advocate of the psychedelic sound of the album, but rarely have any songs from the record been played live. Though the band has released psychedelic tracks, Satanic Majesties is an anomaly. It also marked the first time the Stones produced their own album.

By early 1968 the Stones had acquired Allen Klein as their new manager. The band spent the first few months of the year compiling material for their next album. Those sessions resulted in the song "Jumpin' Jack Flash", released as a single in May. The song, and later that year the resulting album, Beggars Banquet (UK number 3; US 5), marked the band's return to its blues roots with new producer Jimmy Miller. Featuring the album's lead single, "Street Fighting Man", and the opening track "Sympathy for the Devil", Beggars Banquet is another eclectic mix of country and blues-inspired tunes and was hailed as an achievement for the Stones at the time of its release. On the musical evolution between albums, Richards said, "There is a change between material on Satanic Majesties and Beggars Banquet. I'd grown sick to death of the whole Maharishi guru shit and the beads and bells. Who knows where these things come from, but I guess [the music] was a reaction to what we'd done in our time off and also that severe dose of reality. A spell in prison... will certainly give you room for thought... I was fucking pissed with being busted. So it was, 'Right we'll go and strip this thing down.' There's a lot of anger in the music from that period." During this time Richards started using open tunings, most prominently a 5-string open-G tuning (with the lower 6th string removed), as heard on the 1969 single "Honky Tonk Women", "Brown Sugar" (Sticky Fingers, 1971), "Tumbling Dice", "Happy", (Exile on Main St., 1972), and "Start Me Up" (Tattoo You, 1981). Open tunings lead to Stones' (and Richards') trademark guitar sound.

By the release of Beggars Banquet Brian Jones had contributed sporadically and was more troubled. Jagger said that Jones was "not psychologically suited to this way of life." His drug use had become a hindrance, and he was unable to obtain a U.S. visa. In a June meeting at Jones' house between Jagger, Richards, Watts, Richards said that Jones admitted that he couldn't "go on the road again." All agreed to let Jones, according to Richards, "...say I've left, and if I want to I can come back.'" His replacement was the 21-year-old guitarist Mick Taylor, of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, who started recording with the band immediately. On July 3, 1969, less than a month later, Jones drowned in the pool at his Cotchford Farm home in Sussex. All sorts of conspiracy theories have made the rounds ever since.

Despite the death of Brian Jones two days previously, a scheduled concert in London's Hyde Park went ahead in front of an estimated 250,000 fans. The band had just released "Honky Tonk Women" on 3 July, coinciding with the death. The band's performance was captured by a Granada Television production team, later to be shown on British television as Stones in the Park. Jagger read an excerpt from Percy Bysshe Shelley's elegy Adonais and released thousands of butterflies in memory of Jones. The concert was the first gig for the band in a little over a year .

The release of Let It Bleed (UK number 1 ; US 3) came in December. Their last album of the Sixties, Let It Bleed featured "Gimme Shelter", "You Can't Always Get What You Want", "Midnight Rambler", as well as a cover of Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain". Most of these songs became part of the live show for the resulting tour of America, their first in three years. Making their way from New York to California, the tour culminated with the band's staging of the Altamont Free Concert, at the disused Altamont Speedway, about 60km east of San Francisco. The concert was a disaster, due in part to the hiring of Hell's Angels to undertake security. Meredith Hunter, a young man, was stabbed and beaten to death by the Angels. The tour and "Altamont" were documented in Albert and David Maysles' film Gimme Shelter. As a response to the growing popularity of bootleg recordings, the live album Get Yer Ya-Yas Out! (UK #1; US #6) was released in 1970 and was considered by critic Lester Bangs the best live record ever.

By 1969, the band's 1963 contract with Decca Records ended, and the Stones formed their own record company, Rolling Stones Records. Sticky Fingers (UK number 1; US 1), released in March 1971, was the band's first album on their own label. The album contains one of their best known hits, two of which, "Brown Sugar", and the country-influenced "Wild Horses" were recorded at Alabama's Muscle Shoals Sound Studio during the 1969 American tour.

Sticky Fingers continued the band's immersion into heavily blues-influenced compositions. The album is noted for its "loose, ramshackle ambience" and marked Mick Taylor's first full release with the band. Taylor collaborated on several songs with Jagger, like "Sway" and "Moonlight Mile", partially because of Richards' drug addictions and resulting unreliability. However, when released, all original songs were credited to "Jagger/Richards".

Following the release of Sticky Fingers, the Stones left England after allegations by the UK Inland Revenue service of unpaid income tax. The band moved to the South of France where Richards rented a chateau, Villa Nellc?te, and sublet rooms to band members and entourage. Using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio they continued recording sessions that stretched as far back as 1969. The subsequent recordings were finished at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles by the band. The resulting double album, Exile on Main St. (UK number 1 ; US 1), was released in May 1972. Given an A+ grade by critic Robert Christgau and disparaged by Lester Bangs who reversed his opinion within months Exile is now accepted as one of the Stones' best albums. The film Cocksucker Blues, never officially released, documents the subsequent, highly publicised 1972 North American ("STP") Tour, with its retinue of jet set hangers-on. The band's early 1973 Pacific Tour saw them banned from playing in Japan and almost banned from Australia.

In November 1972, the band began sessions in Kingston, Jamaica for their follow-up to Exile, Goats Head Soup (UK number 1 ; US 1) (1973). The album spawned the worldwide hit "Angie", but proved the first in a string of commercially successful but tepidly received studio albums. The sessions for Goats Head Soup led to a number of outtakes, most notably an early version of the popular ballad "Waiting on a Friend", not released until Tattoo You eight years later. The making of the record was hindered by another legal battle over drugs, this one dating back to their stay in France.

The band went to Musicland studios in Munich to record their next album, 1974's It's Only Rock 'n Roll (UK 2; US 1), but Jimmy Miller, who had drug abuse issues, was no longer producer. Instead, Jagger and Richards assumed production duties and were credited as "the Glimmer Twins". Both the album and the single of the same name were hits, even without an immediate tour to promote them.

Nearing the end of 1974, Taylor began to get impatient because there had been no tours since October 1973. The band found itself in a stalemate, with members opting to spend time abroad between recording sessions, while Jagger was getting exasperated with Richards, who was becoming more unpredictable. The other members of the band ended up paying the fines and legal bills resulting from Richards' convictions, which led to the band being denied entry to certain countries and to missed income for all. Taylor spent his time helping Jagger compose and record songs in the studio, while Richards was often absent. Jagger promised Taylor recognition for his contributions in the form of official credits on tracks. When this did not happen, and with no tour in sight by the end of 1974 and a recording session already booked in Munich to record another album, Taylor quit The Rolling Stones. Taylor said in 1980, "I was getting a bit fed up. I wanted to broaden my scope as a guitarist and do something else... I wasn't really composing songs or writing at that time. I was just beginning to write, and that influenced my decision... There are some people who can just ride along from crest to crest; they can ride along somebody else's success. And there are some people for whom that's not enough. It really wasn't enough for me."

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U2

 

U2 (IPA: /?jutu?/) are a rock band from Dublin, Ireland. The band consists of Bono (vocals and guitar), The Edge (guitar, keyboards and vocals), Adam Clayton (bass guitar), and Larry Mullen Jr. (drums and percussion). U2 have been one of the most popular acts in the world since the mid-1980s. The band has sold more than 170 million albums worldwide, and has won 22 Grammy Awards, more than any other rock band.

U2 formed in 1976 when the members were teenagers with limited musical proficiency. By the mid-1980s, however, the band had become a top international act, noted for its anthemic sound, Bono's impassioned vocals, The Edge's textural guitar playing, and a toned and in-time rhythm section. Their success as a live act was greater than their success as a record-selling act until their 1987 album, The Joshua Tree, brought them mega-stardom. Their 1991 album Achtung Baby and the accompanying Zoo TV Tour were part of a significant reinvention for the band; it was a response to their own sense of musical stagnation, the dance and alternative rock revolutions, and criticism of their image. This experimentation continued for the rest of the 1990s.

In the early years of the 21st century, U2 have pursued a more traditional sound while maintaining influences from their previous musical explorations. They continue to enjoy high levels of commercial and critical success. The band is active in human rights, international development, and social justice causes, such as Amnesty International, Make Poverty History, the ONE Campaign, Live Aid, Live 8, Bono's DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa) campaign, and Music Rising.

U2 formed in Dublin, Ireland on 25 September 1976. Larry Mullen Jr., then fourteen, posted a notice on his secondary school notice board (Mount Temple Comprehensive School) seeking musicians for a new band. Seven teenage boys attended the initial practice in Mullen's kitchen.N1 Known for about a day as "The Larry Mullen Adventure," the group featured Mullen on drums, Adam Clayton on bass guitar, Paul Hewson (Bono) on lead vocals, Dave Evans (The Edge) and his brother Dick Evans on guitar, as well as Ivan McCormick and Peter Martin, two other friends of Mullen. Soon after, the group settled on the name "Feedback", because it was one of the few technical terms they knew. Martin did not return after the first practice, and McCormick left the group within a few weeks. Most of their material consisted of cover versions, which the band explained was not their forte.N2

In March 1977, the band changed its name to "The Hype". Dick Evans, who was older and by this time at college, was becoming the odd man out as the rest of the band was leaning towards the idea of a four-piece ensemble; he was 'phased out' in March 1978. During a farewell concert in the Presbyterian Church Hall in Howth, which featured The Hype playing covers, Dick ceremoniously walked offstage. The remaining four band members completed the concert playing original material as "U2". The origin of the name "U2" is unclear; on a list of six names provided by the Dublin punk rock guru Steve Averill, "U2" was chosen for its ambiguity and open-ended interpretations, and because it was the name that the members of the band disagreed with the least.N3

On Saint Patrick's Day in 1978, U2 won a talent show in Limerick, Ireland. The prize consisted of ?500 and funding to record a demo, which was an important milestone and affirmation for the fledgling band. The band recorded its first demo tape at Keystone Studios, in Harcourt Street, Dublin, in April 1978. In May, Paul McGuinness, who had earlier been introduced to the band by Hot Press journalist Bill Graham, agreed to be U2's manager. U2's first release, an Ireland-only EP entitled Three, was released in September 1979, and was the band's first Irish chart success. In December 1979, U2 performed in London for their first shows outside Ireland, although they failed to get much attention from audiences or critics. In February 1980, their second single "Another Day" was released on the CBS label, but again only for the Irish market.

Island Records signed U2 in March 1980, and "11 O'Clock Tick Tock" became the band's first internationally released single that May. The band's debut album, the Steve Lillywhite-produced Boy, followed in October, and was praised as one of the better debuts in rock history. Although Bono's lyrics were unfocused and seemingly improvised, common themes appeared that described the hopes and frustrations of adolescence, such as fear over sex, identity confusion, death, and uncontrollable mood swings. The album included the band's first UK hit single, "I Will Follow". Boy's release was followed by U2's first tour of continental Europe and the United States. Despite being unpolished, these early live performances demonstrated U2's potential, as critics noted that Bono was a "charismatic" and "passionate" showman.

The band's second album, October, was released in 1981 and contained overtly spiritual themes; Bono, The Edge, and Mullen had joined a Christian group in Dublin called the 'Shalom Fellowship', which led them to question the relationship between the Christian faith and the rock and roll lifestyle. The album was met with mixed reviews, and sales indicate it is U2's lowest selling album.

Resolving the doubts of the October period, U2 released War in 1983. A record where the band "turned pacifism itself into a crusade," War's sincerity and "rugged" guitar was intentionally at odds with the "cooler" synth-pop of the time. The album included "Sunday Bloody Sunday," where Bono had lyrically tried to contrast the events of Bloody Sunday with Easter Sunday. Rolling Stone magazine wrote that the song showed the band was capable of deep and meaningful songwriting.N4 War was U2's first album to feature the photography of Anton Corbijn, who remains U2's principal photographer and has had a major influence on their vision and public image. U2's first commercial success, War debuted at #1 in the United Kingdom, and its first single, "New Year's Day", was the band's first overseas hit.

On the subsequent War Tour, the band performed to sold-out concerts in mainland Europe and the U.S. The image of Bono waving a white flag during performances of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" became a familiar sight. U2 recorded the Under a Blood Red Sky live album on this tour and a live video was released, both of which received extensive play on the radio and MTV, helping expand the band's audience. Their generally unfavourable record deal with Island Records was coming to an end, and in 1984 U2 signed an unusually lucrative extension. Forgoing a larger initial payment, they instead negotiated the return of their copyrights (such that they owned the rights to their own songs), an increase in their royalty rate, and a general improvement in terms.

The Unforgettable Fire was released in 1984. Ambient and abstract, it was at the time the bands most marked change in direction. The band feared that following the overt rock of the War album and tour, they were in danger of becoming another "shrill", "sloganeering arena-rock band". Thus, rather than become another formula band, experimentation was sought; as Adam Clayton recalls, "We were looking for something that was a bit more serious, more arty." The Edge admired the ambient and 'weird works' of Brian Eno, who, along with his engineer Daniel Lanois, eventually agreed to produce the record.

The Unforgettable Fire has a rich and orchestrated sound. Under Lanois' direction, Larry's drumming became looser, funkier, and more subtle and Adam's bass became more subliminal; the rhythm section no longer intruded, but flowed in support of the songs. Complementing the sonic atmospherics, the album's lyrics are open to many interpretations, providing what the band called a "very visual feel". Bono's recent immersion in fiction, philosophy, and poetry made him realise that his songwriting mission about which he had always been reluctant was a poetic one. Due to a tight recording schedule, however, Bono felt songs like "Bad" and "Pride (In the Name of Love)" were incomplete "sketches". "Pride (In the Name of Love)", about Martin Luther King, was the album's first single and became the band's biggest hit at that point, being their first to enter the U.S. top 40.

Much of the Unforgettable Fire Tour moved into indoor arenas as U2 began to win their long battle to build their audience. Translating the complex textures of the new studio-recorded tracks, such as "The Unforgettable Fire" and "Bad", to live performance was problematic. One solution was programmed sequencers, which the band had previously been reluctant to use, but are now used in the majority of the band's performances. Songs criticised as being "unfinished", "fuzzy", and "unfocused" on the album made more sense on stage.

U2 participated in the Live Aid concert for Ethiopian famine relief at Wembley Stadium in July 1985. U2's performance was considered one of the show's most memorable and was a turning point in the band's career. During the song "Bad", Bono leapt down off the stage to embrace and dance with a fan, showing a television audience of millions the personal connection that Bono could make with audiences. In 1985, Rolling Stone magazine called U2 the "Band of the 80s," saying that "for a growing number of rock-and-roll fans, U2 have become the band that matters most, maybe even the only band that matters."

Friendships with Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Keith Richards encouraged the band to look back to the roots of rock music and focused Bono on his skills as a song and lyric writer. Realising "that U2 had no tradition, we were from outer space", the band explored American blues, country, and gospel music. The band wanted to build on The Unforgettable Fire's atmospherics, but instead of its out-of-focus tracks, they sought a harder-hitting sound within the strict discipline of conventional song structures.

U2 interrupted their 1986 album sessions to serve as a headline act on Amnesty International's A Conspiracy of Hope Tour; but rather than be a distraction, the tour added extra intensity and power to their new music. In his 1986 travels to San Salvador and Nicaragua, Bono saw the distress of peasants bullied in internal conflicts subject to American political intervention; this first-hand experience later became a central influence on the album. The album juxtaposes antipathy towards America against the band's deep fascination with the country, its open spaces, freedom, and what it stands for. The band wanted music with a sense of location, a 'cinematic' quality; the album's music and lyrics draw on imagery created by American writers whose works the band had been reading.

The Joshua Treeso named as a "tribute" to, rather than a "metaphor" for, Americawas released in March 1987. It became the fastest-selling album in British chart history, and was number one for nine weeks in the United States. It won U2 their first two Grammy Awards. The album's first two singles, the 'rock & roll bolero "With or Without You" and the rhythmic gospel "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", quickly went to #1 in the U.S. U2 became the fourth rock band to be featured on the cover of Time magazine, which declared U2 "Rock's Hottest Ticket". The album brought U2 to a new level of mega-stardom and is cited by Rolling Stone as one of rock's greatest. The Joshua Tree Tour, the first during which the band consistently played in stadiums, sold out arenas and stadiums around the world.

The documentary Rattle and Hum featured footage recorded from The Joshua Tree Tour, and the accompanying double album of the same name included nine studio tracks and six live U2 performances. Released in record stores and cinemas in October 1988, the album and film were intended as a tribute to American music. The film included tracks recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis and tracks performed with Bob Dylan and B.B. King. Despite a positive reception from fans, Rattle and Hum received mixed-to-negative reviews from both film and music critics. The band did not tour in support of the album except for the brief Lovetown Tour, which primarily consisted of shows in Australia. With a sense of musical stagnation, Bono announced at an end-of-decade concert that the weary U2 had come to the end of an era and had to "...go away and just dream it all up again".

The Grateful Dead

 

Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in San Francisco, California. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, country, jazz, psychedelia, space music and gospeland for live performances of long musical improvisation. In particular, the band frequently made use of "long jams"whereby Jerry Garcia would spend lengthy periods engaging in rock lead guitar solos that evoked various "depth moods." Other bands utilized long improvisational jams, but "The Dead" took it to extremes. "Their music," Lenny Kaye wrote, "touches on ground that most other groups don't even know exists."

The Grateful Dead's fans, some of whom followed the band from concert to concert for years, were known as Deadheads and were renowned for their dedication to the band's music. Many followers referred to the band simply as "the Dead".

Their musical influences varied widely, and in concert or on record album one can hear psychedelic rock (in the late sixties), the blues, rock nuggets, country-western, bluegrass, country-rock, and although they rarely played jazz music, the band certainly borrowed for their music the kind of long improvisatory sequences that jazz artists such as Charles Mingus and John Coltrane perfected in the 1950s. These various influences were distilled into a diverse and psychedelic whole that made the Grateful Dead "the pioneering Godfathers of the jam band world."

Lead guitarist Jerry Garcia was often seen both by the public and the media as the leader or primary spokesperson for the Grateful Dead, but was reluctant to be perceived that way, especially since he and the other group members saw themselves as equal participants and contributors to their collective musical and creative output. Garcia, a native of San Francisco, grew up in the Excelsior District. One of his main influences was bluegrass music, and Garcia also performedon banjo, one of his other great instrumental loves, along with the pedal steel guitarin the bluegrass band Old and in the Way with mandolinist David Grisman. Classically trained trumpeter Phil Lesh played bass guitar. Bob Weir, the youngest original member of the group, played rhythm guitar. Ron "Pigpen" McKernan played keyboards, harmonica and was also a group vocalist until shortly before his death in 1973 at the age of 27. All of the previously mentioned Grateful Dead members shared in vocal performance of songs. Bill Kreutzmann played drums, and in 1967 was joined by a second drummer, New York native Mickey Hart, who also played a wide variety of other percussion instruments. Hart quit the Grateful Dead in 1971, embarrassed by the financial misdealings of his father, Dead money manager Lenny Hart, and leaving Kreutzmann once again as the sole percussionist. Mickey Hart rejoined the Dead for good in 1975. Tom "TC" Constanten was added as a second keyboardist from 1968 to 1970, while Pigpen also played various percussion instruments and sang. After Constanten's departure, Pigpen reclaimed his position as sole organist. Less than two years later, in late 1971, Pigpen was joined by another keyboardist, Keith Godchaux, who played grand piano alongside Pigpen's Hammond B-3 organ. In early 1972, Keith's wife, Donna Jean Godchaux, joined the Dead as a backing vocalist.

Following the Grateful Dead's "Europe '72" tour, Pigpen's health had deteriorated to the point that he could no longer tour with the Dead. His final concert appearance was June 17, 1972 at the Hollywood Bowl, in Los Angeles, California. Keith and Donna Jean left the band in 1979, and Brent Mydland joined as keyboardist and vocalist. Keith Godchaux died in a car accident in 1980. Mydland was the keyboardist for the Dead for 11 years until his death in 1990. He became the third Dead keyboardist to pass away. Almost immediately, former The Tubes keyboardist Vince Welnick joined on keyboards and vocals. From September 15, 1990 to March 24, 1992, Welnick was joined by Bruce Hornsby on piano; Hornsby had previously appeared as a sit-in player beginning in 1988 and continued as such from 1992 until 1995. Welnick died on June 2, 2006, reportedly a suicide. Robert Hunter and John Perry Barlow were the band's primary lyricists. Owsley "Bear" Stanley was the Grateful Dead's soundman for many years; he was also one of the largest suppliers of LSD. . All eleven members of The Grateful Dead were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, and Bruce Hornsby was their presenter.

The Grateful Dead began their career in Menlo Park, California, playing live shows at Kepler's Books.

They began as The Warlocks, a group formed from the remnants of a Palo Alto jug band called Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions. But as another band was already recording under the "Warlocks" name, the band had to change its name. The Warlocks were originally managed by Hank Harrison, but Harrison went back to graduate school. After meeting their new manager Rock Scully, they moved to the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco. Many bands from this area, such as Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Big Brother & the Holding Company, and Santana, went on to national fame, giving San Francisco an image as a center for the hippie counterculture of the era. (Also see entry for the San Francisco Sound.) Of these bands, the Grateful Dead had members with arguably the highest level of musicianship, including banjo and guitar player Jerry Garcia, bluesman Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, the classically trained Phil Lesh and drummer Bill Kreutzmann. The Grateful Dead most embodied "all the elements of the San Francisco scene and came, therefore, to represent the counterculture to the rest of the country".

The name Grateful Dead was chosen from a dictionary. Some claim it was a Funk & Wagnalls, others, the Bardo Thodol (Tibetan Book Of the Dead), but according to Phil Lesh, in his biography (pp. 62), "...Jer [Garcia] picked up an old Britannica World Language Dictionary...[and]...In that silvery elf-voice he said to me, 'Hey, man, how about the Grateful Dead?'" The definition there was "the soul of a dead person, or his angel, showing gratitude to someone who, as an act of charity, arranged their burial."

The Grateful Dead formed during the era when bands like The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were dominating the airwaves. Former folk-scene star Bob Dylan had recently put out a couple of records featuring electric instrumentation. Grateful Dead members have said that it was after attending a concert by the touring New York City "folk-rock" band The Lovin' Spoonful that they decided to "go electric" and look for a dirtier sound. Gradually, many of the East-Coast American folk musicians, formerly luminaries of the coffee-house scene, were moving in the electric direction. It was natural for Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, each of whom had been immersed in the American folk music revival of the late 1950s and early '60s, to be open-minded toward electric guitars. But the new Dead music was also naturally different from bands like Dylan's or the Spoonful, partly because their fellow musician Phil Lesh came out of a schooled classical and electronic-music background, while Pigpen was a no-nonsense deep blues lover and drummer Bill Kreutzmann had a rock and R&B background. Listening to their first LP (The Grateful Dead, Warner Brothers, 1967), one is also reminded that it was recorded only a few years after the big "surfing music" craze; that California rock-music sound seeped in, to some degree, as well.

The Grateful Deads early music (in the mid 1960s) was part of the process of establishing what "psychedelic music" was, but theirs was essentially a "street party" form of it. This was natural, because they played psychedelic dances, open-air park events, and closed-street Haight-Ashbury block parties. The Dead were not inclined to fit their music to an established category such as pop rock, blues, folk rock, or country/western. Individual tunes within their repertoire could be identified under one of these stylistic labels, but overall their music drew on all of these genres and more, frequently melding several of them. Often (both in performance and on recording) the Dead left room for exploratory, spacey soundscapes. Most connoisseurs believe that the Grateful Dead's true spirit was rarely well captured in studio performance.

The early records reflected the Dead's live repertoirelengthy instrumental jams with group improvisation, best exemplified by "Dark Star"but, lacking the energy of the shows, did not sell well. The 1969 live album Live/Dead did capture more of their essence, but commercial success did not come until Workingman's Dead and American Beauty, both released in 1970. These records largely featured the band's laid-back acoustic musicianship and more traditional song structures.

As the band, and its sound, matured over thirty years of touring, playing, and recording, each member's stylistic contribution became more defined, consistent, and identifiable. Lesh, who was originally a classically-trained trumpet player with an extensive background in music theory, did not tend to play traditional blues-based bass forms, but opted for more melodic, symphonic and complex lines, often sounding like a second lead guitar. Weir, too, was not a traditional rhythm guitarist, but tended to play jazz-influenced, unique inversions at the upper end of the Dead's sound. The two drummers, Mickey Hart and Kreutzmann, developed a unique, complex interplay, balancing Kreutzmann's steady beat with Hart's interest in percussion styles outside the rock tradition. Garcia's lead lines were fluid, supple and spare, owing a great deal of their character to his training in fingerpicking and banjo.

For the band's primary lyricists, Robert Hunter and Barlow, common themes in their work include those of love and loss, life and death, gambling and murder, beauty and horror, chaos and order, God and other religious themes, travelling and touring, etc. Less frequent ideas include the environment and other issues from the world of politics.

Although he intensely disliked the appellation, Jerry Garcia was the band's de facto musical leader and the source of its identity. Garcia was a charismatic, complex figure, simultaneously writing and playing music of enormous emotional resonance and insight while leading a personal life that often consisted of various forms of self-destructive excess, including well-known drug addictions, obesity, tremendous financial recklessness, and three complex, volatile, often unhappy marriages. What is less well known about Garcia was the fact that he suffered for most of his life from a condition called sleep apnea. His sleep apnea was apparently diagnosed before he died, but it is unlikely that he ever took any steps to treat it. That his case might have been relatively severe may be surmised by the comments of his band mate, Phil Lesh. In Lesh's book, Searching for the Sound, My Life with the Grateful Dead, Lesh relates how he and others were impressed with Garcia's loud and widely fluctuating snoring.

Garcia's early life was profoundly affected by a series of tragedies. As a small boy, at the age of five, he witnessed his father's death by drowning in a freak accident while fishing in the Russian River. Earlier, at the age of four, in another accident, the middle finger on his right hand was accidentally amputated by his brother while the two boys were splitting kindling. Finally, as a young man, he was involved in a horrendous car accident which resulted in the death of a close and talented friend.

Velvet Underground

 

The Velvet Underground was an American rock band first active from 1965 to 1970 (& 1970 to 1973 in a different incarnation). Its best-known members were New Yorker Lou Reed and Welshman John Cale.

Although never commercially successful whilst together, the Velvet Underground are often cited by critics as one of the most important and influential groups of their era. A famous remark, often attributed to British musician Brian Eno, is that while only a few thousand people bought the first Velvet Underground record upon its release, almost every single one of them was inspired to start a band. Their sound influenced many later musicians in many genres, including experimental, punk, new wave, and gothic rock.

The foundations for what would become the Velvet Underground were laid in late 1964. Singer/guitarist Lou Reed had performed with a few short-lived garage bands and had worked as a songwriter for Pickwick Records, which Reed described as being a poor mans Carole King. Reed met John Cale, a Welshman who had moved to the United States to study classical music. Cale had worked with experimental composers John Cage and La Monte Young, but was also interested in rock music. (Youngs use of extended drones would be a profound influence on the early Velvets sound). Cale was pleasantly surprised to discover Reeds experimentalist tendencies were similar to his own: Reed sometimes used alternate guitar tunings to create a droning sound. The pair rehearsed and performed together, and their partnership and shared interests steered the early direction of what would become the Velvet Underground.

Reeds first group with Cale was the Primitives, a short-lived group assembled to support a Reed-penned single, The Ostrich. Reed and Cale recruited Sterling Morrisona college classmate of Reeds who had already played with him a few timesto play guitar, and Angus MacLise joined on percussion. This quartet was first called the Warlocks, then the Falling Spikes.

The Velvet Underground was a book about the sexual underground of the early 60's by Michael Leigh that Reed found when he moved into his New York City apartment (left by previous tenant Tony Conrad). Reed and Morrison have reported the group liked the name, considering it evocative of underground cinema, and fitting, due to Reeds already having written Venus in Furs, inspired by Leopold von Sacher-Masochs book of the same name, dealing with masochism. The band immediately and unanimously adopted the book's title for its new name.

The newly named Velvet Underground rehearsed and performed in New York City. Their music was generally much more relaxed than it would later become: Cale described this era as reminiscent of beatnik poetry, with MacLise playing gentle pitter and patter rhythms behind the drone.

In July 1965, Reed, Cale and Morrison recorded a demo tape at their Ludlow Street loft. When he briefly returned to Britain, Cale gave a copy of the tape to Marianne Faithfull, hoping shed pass it on to Mick Jagger. Nothing ever came of the demo, but it was eventually released on the 1995 box set Peel Slowly and See.

When the group accepted an offer of $75 for their first paying performance at Summit High School, in Summit, New Jersey, MacLise left the group, protesting what he considered a sellout. Angus was in it for art, Morrison reported.

MacLise was replaced by Maureen Moe Tucker, the younger sister of Jim Tucker, a friend of Morrison. Tuckers abbreviated drum kit was rather unusual: she generally played on tom toms and an upturned bass drum, using mallets as often as drumsticks, and she rarely used cymbals. (The band having asked her to do something unusual, she turned her bass drum on its side and played standing up. When her drums were stolen from one club, she replaced them with garbage cans, brought in from outside.) Her rhythms, at once simple and exotic (influenced by the likes of Babatunde Olatunji and Bo Diddley records), became a vital part of the groups music. The group earned a regular paying gig at a club and gained an early reputation as a promising ensemble.

Andy Warhol became the bands manager in 1965 and suggested they feature the German-born singer Nico on several songs. Warhols reputation certainly helped the band gain a higher profile. Warhol helped the band land a coveted recording contract with MGMs Verve Records, with himself as nominal producer, and gave the Velvets free rein over the sound they created.

During their stay with Andy Warhol, the band became part of his multimedia roadshow, Exploding Plastic Inevitable, for which they provided the music. This show played a couple of months in New York City, then took to the road all over the United States and Canada until its last installment in May 1967. The show included 16 mm film projections and colors by Warhol.

In 1966 MacLise temporarily rejoined the Velvet Underground for a few EPI shows when Reed was suffering from hepatitis and unable to perform. For these appearances, Cale sang and played organ and Tucker switched to bass guitar. Also at these appearances, the band often played an extended jam they had dubbed Booker T, after the leader of the musical group Booker T. and the MGs; the jam later became the music for The Gift on White Light/White Heat. Some of these performances have been released as a bootleg; they remain the only record of MacLise with the Velvet Underground. MacLise was said to be eager to rejoin the group now that theyd found some fame, but Reed specifically prohibited this.

In December 1966, Warhol and David Dalton designed Issue 3 of the multimedia Aspen. Included in this issue of the magazine, which retailed at $4 per copy and was packaged in a hinged box designed to look like Fab laundry detergent, were various leaflets and booklets, one of which was a commentary on rock and roll by Lou Reed, another an EPI promotional newspaper. Also enclosed was a 2-sided flexi disk, side one produced by Peter Walker, a musical associate of Timothy Leary, and side two titled Loop, credited to the Velvet Underground but actually recorded by Cale alone. Loop, a recording solely of pulsating audio feedback culminating in a locked groove, was a precursor to [Reeds] Metal Machine Music, say Velvets archivists M.C. Kostek and Phil Milstein in the book The Velvet Underground Companion. Indeed, Loop predates Reeds almost identical concept (Metal Machine Music being a double album, and being released to a larger audience, obviously with different feedback) by nearly ten years (and also predates much industrial music as well). More significantly, from a retail standpoint, Loop was the groups first commercially available recording as the Velvet Underground.

At Warhol's insistence, Nico sang with the band on three songs off their d?but album, The Velvet Underground and Nico. The album was recorded in three separate studios during 1966; primarily in Scepter Studios in New York City during April. It was released by Verve Records in March 1967.

The album cover was famous for its Warhol design: a bright yellow banana with Peel slowly and see printed near a perforated tab. Those who did remove the banana skin found a pink, peeled banana beneath. This would later be used as the cover to one of several Velvets boxed sets, also titled Peel Slowly and See, released in 1995.

Eleven songs showcased their dynamic range, veering from the pounding attacks of "Im Waiting for the Man" and "Run Run Run", the droning "Venus in Furs" and "Heroin" to the quiet "Femme Fatale" and the tender "Ill Be Your Mirror", as well as Warhol's own favorite song of the group, the magnificent "All Tomorrow's Parties".

The overall sound was propelled by Reeds deadpan vocals, Cale's droning viola, Morrison's often rhythm and blues or country-influenced guitar, and Tuckers simple but steady beat. Nico's European-accented vocal contributions lent an otherworldly quality to the group.

The album was released on March 12, 1967, peaking at #171 on Billboard magazine's Top 200 charts. The promising commercial d?but of the album was dampened somewhat by legal complications: the albums back cover featured a photo of the group playing live with another image projected behind them; the projected image was a still from a Warhol motion picture, Chelsea Girls. The films cinematographer, Eric Emerson, had been arrested for drug possession and, desperate for money, claimed the still had been included on the album without his permission (in the image his face appears quite big, but upside down). MGM Records pulled all copies of the album until the legal problems were settled (by which time the record had lost its modest commercial momentum), and the still was airbrushed out.

The Velvet Underground performed live often, and their performances became louder, harsher and often featured extended improvisations. Cale reports that at about this time the Velvet Underground was one of the first groups to receive an endorsement from Vox. The company pioneered a number of special effects, which the Velvet Underground utilized on White Light/White Heat.

After the VU severed its relationship with Andy Warhol and Nico, they recorded their second album in September 1967, White Light/White Heat, with Tom Wilson as producer.

The recording was raw and oversaturated. Cale has stated that while the debut had some moments of fragility and beauty, White Light/White Heat was consciously anti-beauty.

The title track and first song starts things off with John Cale pounding on the piano like Jerry Lee Lewis. The eerie, hallucinatory Lady Godivas Operation remains Reeds favorite track on the album.

Despite the dominance of noisefests like Sister Ray and I Heard Her Call My Name, there was room for the darkly comic The Gift, a short story written by Reed and narrated by Cale in his deadpan Welsh accent. The meditative Here She Comes Now was later covered by Galaxie 500, R.E.M., Cabaret Voltaire, and Nirvana.

The album was released on January 30, 1968, entering the Billboard Top 200 chart for two weeks, at number 199.

However, tensions were growing: the group was tired of receiving little recognition for its work, and Reed and Cale were pulling the Velvet Underground in different directions. The differences showed in the last recording session the band had with John Cale in February 1968: two pop-like songs in Reeds direction (Temptation Inside Your Heart and Stephanie Says) and a viola-driven drone in Cales direction (Hey Mr. Rain). (None of these songs were released until they were included on the VU and Another View compilation albums.) Further, some songs the band had performed with Cale in concert, or that he had co-written, were not recorded until after he had left the group (such as Walk It and Talk It, Guess Im Falling in Love, Ride into the Sun, and Countess from Hong Kong).

Before work on their third album started, Cale was eased out of the band and was replaced by Doug Yule of Boston group the Glass Menagerie, who had opened several VU shows. The Velvet Underground was recorded in late 1968 (released in March 1969). The cover photograph was taken by Billy Name. Released on March 12, 1969, the album failed to make Billboards Top 200 album chart.

It has often been reported that the early edition of the Velvet Underground was a struggle between Reed and Cale's creative impulses: Reed's rather conventional approach contrasted with Cale's experimentalist tendencies; according to Tim Mitchell, Morrison has reported that there was creative tension between Reed and Cale but that its impact has been exaggerated over the years.

In any case, the harsh, abrasive tendencies on the first two records were almost entirely absent on their third platter, The Velvet Underground. This resulted in a gentler sound influenced by folk music, prescient of the songwriting style that would form Reed's solo career. Another factor in the change of sound was the band's Vox amplifiers and assorted fuzzboxes being stolen from an airport while they were on tour; they obtained replacements by signing a new endorsement deal with Sunn. In addition, Reed and Morrison had purchased matching Fender 12-string electric guitars. Doug Yule plays down the influence of the new equipment, however.

Morrison's ringing guitar parts and Yule's melodic bass guitar and harmony vocals are featured prominently on the album. Reed's songs and singing are subdued and confessional, and he shared lead vocals with Yule, particularly when his own voice would fail under stress. Doug Yule sang the lead vocal on "Candy Says", which opens the LP, and a rare Maureen Tucker vocal is featured on "After Hours", a song that Reed said was so innocent and pure he couldn't possibly sing it himself. The album's influence can be heard in many later indie rock and lo-fi recordings.

The Velvet Underground spent much of 1969 on the road, feeling they were not accepted in their hometown of New York City and not making much headway commercially. The live album 1969: The Velvet Underground Live was recorded in October 1969 and released in 1974 on Mercury Records at the urging of rock critic Paul Nelson, who worked in A&R for Mercury at the time. Nelson asked singer-songwriter Elliott Murphy to write liner notes for the double album which began, I wish it was a hundred years from today.

During the same year, the band recorded on and off in the studio, creating a lot of material that was never officially released due to disputes with their record label. What many consider the prime of these sessions was released many years later as VU. This album has a transitional sound between the whisper-soft third album and the pop-rock songs of their final record, Loaded.

The rest of the recordings, as well as some alternate takes, were bundled on Another View. After Reeds departure, he later reworked a number of these songs for his solo records (Stephanie Says, Ocean, I Cant Stand It, Lisa Says, Shes My Best Friend). Indeed, most of Reeds early solo careers more successful hits were reworked Velvet Underground tracks, released for the first time in their original version on VU, Another View, and later on Peel Slowly and See.

Led Zeppelin

 

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band that formed in September 1968. Led Zeppelin consisted of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham. With their heavy, guitar-driven sound, Led Zeppelin are regarded as one of the first heavy metal bands. Their rock-infused interpretation of the blues, and folk genres also incorporated rockabilly, reggae, soul, funk, jazz, classical, Celtic, Indian, Arabic, pop, Latin, and country. The band did not release the popular songs from their albums as singles in the UK, as they preferred to develop the concept of album-oriented rock.

Over 25 years after disbanding following Bonham's death in 1980, Led Zeppelin continue to be held in high regard for their artistic achievements, commercial success, and broad influence. The band have sold more than 300 million albums worldwide, including 109.5 million sales in the United States, and they are the only band to have had all their albums reach the U.S. Billboard Top 10. Led Zeppelin are ranked No. 1 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.

On September 12, 2007, it was confirmed during a press conference by promoter Harvey Goldsmith that the surviving members of Led Zeppelin will reunite for the Ahmet Erteg?n tribute show at The O2 in London on December 10, 2007.

The beginnings of Led Zeppelin can be traced back to the British blues-influenced rock band The Yardbirds. Page joined The Yardbirds in 1966 to play bass guitar after the original bassist, Paul Samwell-Smith, left the group. Shortly after, Page switched from bass to second lead guitar, creating a dual-lead guitar line up with Jeff Beck.

Following the departure of Beck from the group in October 1966, The Yardbirds, tired from constant touring and recording, were beginning to wind down. Page wanted to form a supergroup with himself and Beck on guitars, and The Who's rhythm section - drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle. Vocalists Donovan, Steve Winwood and Steve Marriott were also considered for the project. The group never formed, although Page, Beck and Moon did record a song together in 1966, "Beck's Bolero", which is featured on Beck's 1968 album, Truth. The recording session also included bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones, who told Page that he would be interested in collaborating with him on future projects.

The Yardbirds played their final gig in July 1968. However, they were still committed to performing several concerts in Scandinavia, so drummer Jim McCarty and vocalist Keith Relf authorised Page and bassist Chris Dreja to use the Yardbirds name to fulfil the band's obligations. Page and Dreja began putting a new line-up together. Page's first choice for lead singer, Terry Reid, declined the offer, but suggested Robert Plant, a Birmingham singer he knew. Plant eventually accepted the position, recommending a drummer, John Bonham from nearby Redditch. When Dreja opted out of the project to become a photographerhe would later take the photograph that appeared on the back of Led Zeppelin's debut albumJohn Paul Jones, at the suggestion of his wife, contacted Page about the vacant position. Being familiar with Jones' credentials, Page agreed to bring in Jones as the final piece.

The group played together on record the first time on the final day of sessions for the P. J. Proby album, Three Week Hero. Proby recalled, "Come the last day we found we had some studio time, so I just asked the band to play while I just came up with the words. ... They weren't Led Zeppelin at the time, they were the New Yardbirds and they were going to be my band."

The band completed the Scandinavian tour as The New Yardbirds. One account of the band's naming, which has become almost legendary, has it that Keith Moon and John Entwistle suggested that a possible supergroup containing themselves, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck would go down like a lead zeppelin, a term Entwistle used to describe a bad gig. The group deliberately dropped the 'a' in Lead at the suggestion of their manager, Peter Grant, to prevent "thick Americans" from pronouncing it as "leed".

Grant also secured an advance deal of $200,000 from Atlantic Records in November 1968, then the biggest deal of its kind for a new band. Atlantic was a label known for its catalogue of blues, soul and jazz artists, but in the late-1960s it began to take an interest in progressive British rock acts, and signed Led Zeppelin without having ever seen them, largely on the recommendation of singer Dusty Springfield. With their first album not yet released, Led Zeppelin made their live debut at the University of Surrey, Guildford on October 15, 1968. This was followed by a U.S. concert debut on December 26, 1968 (when promoter Barry Fey added them onto a bill in Denver, Colorado) before moving on to the west coast for dates in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities.

The group's eponymous first album was released on January 12, 1969, shortly after their first tour. Its blend of blues, folk and eastern influences with distorted amplification made it one of the pivotal records in the creation of heavy metal music. However, Plant has commented that it is unfair for people to typecast the band as heavy metal, since about a third of their music was acoustic.

In an interview for the Led Zeppelin Profiled radio promo CD (1990) Page said that the album took about 36 hours of studio time to create (including mixing), and stated that he knows this because of the amount charged on the studio bill. Peter Grant claimed the album cost ?1,750 to produce (including artwork). By 1975, the album had grossed $7,000,000.

Led Zeppelin's album cover met an interesting protest when, at a 28 February 1970 gig in Copenhagen, the band was billed as "The Nobs" as the result of a threat of legal action from aristocrat Eva von Zeppelin (a relative of the creator of the Zeppelin aircraft), who, upon seeing the logo of the Hindenburg crashing in flames, threatened to have the show pulled off the air.

In their first year of existence, Led Zeppelin managed to complete four US and four UK concert tours, as well as find time to release their second album, entitled Led Zeppelin II. Recorded almost entirely on the road at various North American recording studios, the second album was an even greater success than the first and reached the number one chart position in the US and the UK. Here the band further developed ideas established on their debut album, creating a work which became even more widely acclaimed and arguably more influential. It has been suggested that Led Zeppelin II largely wrote the blueprint for 1970s hard rock.

Following the album's release Led Zeppelin completed several more tours of the United States. They played often, initially in clubs and ballrooms, then in larger auditoriums as their popularity grew. Led Zeppelin concerts could last more than three hours, with expanded, improvised live versions of their song repertoire. Many of these shows have been preserved as Led Zeppelin bootleg recordings.

In July 1969, Led Zeppelin were the headliners of the Schaefer Music Festival in New York City's Central Park, along with The Byrds, Chuck Berry, Fleetwood Mac, Miles Davis, B.B. King, The Beach Boys, Frank Zappa and Patti LaBelle.

For the composition of their third album, Led Zeppelin III, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant retired to Bron-Yr-Aur, a remote cottage in Wales, in 1970. The result was a more acoustic sound (and a song, "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp", misspelled as "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" on the album cover, which was a complete remake of Bert Jansch's song "The Waggoner's Lad"). Strongly influenced by folk and Celtic music, the album revealed the band's versatility.

The album's rich acoustic sound initially received mixed reactions, with many critics and fans surprised at the turn taken by the band away from the primarily electric compositions of the first two albums. Over time, however, its reputation has recovered and Led Zeppelin III is now generally praised. It has a unique album cover featuring a wheel which, when rotated, displayed various images through cut outs in the main jacket sleeve.

The album's opening track, "Immigrant Song", was released in November 1970 by Atlantic Records as a single against the band's wishes (Atlantic had earlier released an edited version of "Whole Lotta Love" which cut the 5:34 song to 3:10, removing the abstract middle section). It included their only non-album b-side, "Hey Hey What Can I Do". Even though the band saw their albums as indivisible, whole listening experiencesand their manager, Peter Grant, maintained an aggressive pro-album stancesome singles were released without their consent. The group also increasingly resisted television appearances, enforcing their preference that their fans hear and see them in person.

The album finishes with Hats Off To (Roy) Harper, a track dedicated to their influential contemporary, Roy Harper, that both honours Harpers work and acknowledges the bands roots in acoustic music.

Ramones

 

The Ramones were an American rock band often regarded as the first punk rock group.

After forming in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, in 1974, they performed 2,263 concerts, touring virtually non-stop for 22 years. In 1996, after a tour with the Lollapalooza music festival, the band went on a brief nightclub tour and then disbanded. The band's three founding membersJoey Ramone, Johnny Ramone and Dee Dee Ramone, died within eight years of the break-up.

The Ramones failed to achieve much commercial success during their years of recording and performing. Their only album to reach certified gold status in the U.S. was their compilation album Ramones Mania. Appreciation of the band has grown since the 1980s, and they now regularly appear on "all-time greatest" lists, such as Rolling Stones list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock and Mojo's 100 Greatest Albums. In 2002, the Ramones were voted the second greatest rock and roll band ever in Spin Magazine, trailing only The Beatles. On March 18, 2002, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The pre-history of the band is centered in and around the middle-class neighborhood of Forest Hills in the New York City borough of Queens.

Most of the members had been in various bands since the late 1960s - Johnny and Tommy had both been in a high school garage band circa 1966-67 known as the Tangerine Puppets, and Joey was in the short-lived early 1970s glam rock band Sniper. The initial version of the Ramones included Jeffrey Hyman on drums, John Cummings on guitar, and Douglas Colvin on bass and lead vocals. Colvin was the first to use the name Ramone, calling himself Dee Dee Ramone. He was inspired by the fact that Paul McCartney used the pseudonym Paul Ramone. He convinced the other members to take on the name, and came up with the idea of calling the band the Ramones. Hyman and Cummings would become Joey Ramone and Johnny Ramone.

The band held their rehearsals at a New York City studio managed by a friend of the band, Thomas Erdelyi, who would become the band's manager and Monte A. Melnick who would become the bands tour manager. Soon after the band was formed, Dee Dee realized that he couldn't sing and play bass at the same time, so Joey became the band's lead vocalist (Dee Dee would continue, however, to count off each song's tempo with his trademark rapid-fire shout of "1-2-3-4!"). Joey would also realize that he could not sing and play drums at the same time, and left the position of drummer. While auditioning new drummers, manager Thomas Erdelyi would often take to the drums and demonstrate to auditioners how to play the songs. It became apparent that he was able to play the group's songs better than anyone else, and he joined the band as drummer Tommy Ramone.

The band played their first concert on March 30, 1974 at Performance Studios in New York. The songs they played were very fast and very short; most clocked in at under two minutes. In the early 1970s, a new music scene emerged in New York when many bands started to play in clubs on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, such as Max's Kansas City, and most famously CBGB's. Ramones concerts at CBGB's became legendary, due in part to their brevity: most concerts were twenty to thirty minutes long, much shorter than their contemporaries', and are often described by their witnesses as extremely fast, crude, energetic, and desperate. The Ramones' live set was so short they sometimes needed to repeat it twice a show. Mostly, the songs would be performed back to back, but were also regularly interrupted by arguments among the band members. A few super8 movies of these shows have survived, and are present in a couple of the band's later videos.

After garnering considerable attention for their performances at CBGB's, the group was signed to a recording contract by Seymour Stein of Sire Records in Autumn 1975, whose wife Linda Stein had seen them play at CBGB's, and would later co-manage the band with Danny Fields. They soon recorded their debut album, Ramones on an extremely low budget; about $6,400. The band was plagued by hostile audience reactions outside of New York City; it wasnt until they made a small tour of England that they began to see the fruits of their labour: a performance at The Roundhouse in London on July 4, 1976 (second-billed to the Flamin' Groovies), which Linda Stein had organized, was a huge success. Their appearance galvanized the burgeoning UK punk rock scene, inspiring future punk stars, including members of The Clash, The Damned, and the Sex Pistols.The Flamin' Groovie/Ramones double-bill was successfully reprised at The Roxy in Los Angeles the following month, which also inspired local Los Angeles musicians.

On December 31, 1977, the Ramones recorded It's Alive, a double live concert album, at the Rainbow Theatre, London, which was released in April 1979. The title is a reference to the 1974 horror movie of the same name. Upon returning from England, they found themselves prophets without honour in their own country: their subsequent two albums, Leave Home and Rocket to Russia (both 1977), failed to become the hits the band desired. Both records were co-produced by Tony Bongiovi, the cousin of Jon Bon Jovi. Tommy, tired of touring, left the band at this time but continued to produce; he was replaced by Marc Bell, who became Marky Ramone.

The first three Ramones albums mainly contained songs written during their pre-contract years. Their fourth album, Road to Ruin, was packed with brand new songs, including some stylistic flourishes acoustic guitar, several ballads, songs over three minutes that might have been concessions to mainstream tastes, but the album still failed to chart highly. Despite excellent reviews for both their albums ("Rocket to Russia is the best American rock & roll of the year and possibly the funniest rock album ever made," Dave Marsh wrote in Rolling Stone magazine) and their live performances, the Ramones remained a cult band. The highly publicized dissolution of the Sex Pistols in 1978 seemed to signal the end of punk as a viable commercial force and branded the Ramones as outsiders.

After the band's movie debut in Roger Corman's Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979), the legendary producer Phil Spector became interested in the Ramones and produced their 1980 album End of the Century. During the recording sessions, Spector pulled a gun on Dee Dee, and forced him to repeatedly play a riff. The band would later consider this one of their "not-so-great" albums they had released, crediting tensions between the producer and the artists. Johnny recalls that he was disappointed with the outcome of End of the Century. When asked in interviews, Johnny would indicate that he favored the band's more aggressive punk material (he also conveyed this feeling with the title and track selection of the post-breakup collection cd, which he compiled: Loud, Fast Ramones: Their Toughest Hits); by contrast, End of the Century material such as the syrupy, string-section laden Ronettes cover "Baby, I Love You" is entirely lacking in the guitarist's trademark "buzzsaw" sound.

In 1981 the Ramones released Pleasant Dreams, which continued the trend established by End of The Century of diluting the rawer punk sound showcased on the band's initial four albums. Instead, slick production was again featured, this time provided by Graham Gouldman of UK pop act 10 cc. Johnny would contend in retrospect that this direction was a record company decision and represented a continued futile attempt to get airplay on American radio. On August 1 of that year, however, while promoting the album, they did become the first band to be interviewed on the newly formed cable video station MTV, which temporarily provided a more receptive outlet for the band's music than FM. After the release of 1983's Subterranean Jungle, Marky Ramone was fired from the band because of his alcoholism and eventually replaced by Richard Reinhardt (under the name Richie Ramone). The first album the Ramones recorded with Richie was Too Tough to Die in 1984, produced by former drummer Tommy Ramone. The album was largely considered a return to form after the non-flattering pop-production techniques characterizing the previous three full length releases. Some rock critics contend that it represents their final high quality album.

In 1986 the Ramones were invited to record the soundtrack to the Sid and Nancy movie. During their work, some management problems developed, and the deal was cancelled. However, a handful of songs created for this movie were included in their 1986 album Animal Boy. This uneven release, produced by Jean Beauvoir of NYC punk rock/heavy metal/shock rock act the Plasmatics, featured full throttle, cartoon-hardcore punk rants such as the title song, a concession to the on-going underground punk scene that the band helped to inspire, uncomfortably mixed with decidedly poppier material. In 1987 the band recorded their last album with Richie Halfway to Sanity. Halfway to Sanity was the first collaboration with producer and former Shrapnel (another late 1970s NYC punk band) guitarist Daniel Rey (Rey went on to co-write "Pet Semetary" with Dee Dee, produce the band's swansong album Adios Amigos!, and also produce solo albums by Dee Dee and Joey), and featured a more consistent display of the cartoonish punk/hardcore sound hinted at in Animal Boy. Longtime fans generally were not impressed, feeling that whatever this effort had going for it in terms of energy, it lacked the effervescent humor and originality of the bands vintage material. Richie left in August 1987, upset that after being in the band for five years, the other members would still not give him a share of the money they made selling t-shirts.

Richie was replaced by Clem Burke (Elvis Ramone) from Blondie. According to Johnny, the shows with Burke were a disaster. He was fired after two shows because his drumming couldn't keep up with the rest of the band. Marky, now clean and sober, returned.

Dee Dee Ramone left after 1989's Brain Drain, and was replaced by Christopher Joseph Ward (C.J. Ramone), who performed and recorded with the band until their break-up. However, Dee Dee did continue contributing to the music of the Ramones by lending his lyrics for use in later songs. Dee Dee left to pursue a brief solo career as a rapper, adopting the name Dee Dee King.

While the quality of band's recorded output may have been uneven during the 1980s, those 10 years comprised the middle period of their nearly nonstop touring on their way to 2,263 concerts.

Pink Floyd

 

Pink Floyd are an English rock band that initially earned recognition for their psychedelic rock music, and, as they evolved, for their progressive rock music. They are known for philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative cover art, and elaborate live shows. One of rock music's most successful acts, the group has sold over 300 million albums worldwide and an estimated 74.5 million albums in the United States alone.

Pink Floyd had moderate mainstream success and were one of the most popular bands in the London underground music scene in the late 1960s as a psychedelic band led by Syd Barrett; however, Barrett's erratic behaviour eventually forced his colleagues to replace him with guitarist and singer David Gilmour. After Barrett's departure, singer and bass player Roger Waters gradually became the band's leader and primary songwriter from around 1971 until his eventual departure from the group. The band recorded several albums, achieving worldwide success with The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), and The Wall (1979). In 1985, Waters declared Pink Floyd defunct, but the remaining members, led by Gilmour, sued Waters for rights to the name; they continued recording and touring as Pink Floyd and enjoyed commercial success with A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and The Division Bell (1994), eventually reaching a settlement with Waters over the use of the name.

Waters performed with the band for the first time in 24 years on July 2, 2005 at the London Live 8 concert, playing to Pink Floyd's biggest audience ever.

Pink Floyd has influenced rock music artists of the 1970s such as David Bowie, Genesis and Yes; and various modern artists such as The Flaming Lips, Dream Theater, Tool, The Mars Volta, Radiohead, Porcupine Tree, The Orb and Nine Inch Nails.

Pink Floyd evolved from an earlier rock band, formed in 1964 , which was at various times called Sigma 6, the Meggadeaths, Tea Set and The Abdabs. When the band split up, some members guitarists Rado "Bob" Klose and Matt Willmering, drummer Nick Mason, and wind instrument player Rick Wright formed a new band called "Tea Set". After a brief stint with a lead vocalist named Chris Dennis, guitarist and vocalist Syd Barrett joined the band, with Waters moving to bass.

When Tea Set found themselves on the same bill as another band with the same name, Barrett came up with the alternative name The Pink Floyd Sound, after two blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. For a time after this they oscillated between Tea Set and The Pink Floyd Sound, with the latter name eventually winning out. The Sound was dropped fairly quickly, but the definite article was still used regularly until 1968. The group's UK releases during the Syd Barrett era credited them as The Pink Floyd as did their first two U.S. singles. David Gilmour is known to have referred to the group as The Pink Floyd as late as 1984.

The heavily jazz-oriented Klose left after recording only a demo, leaving an otherwise stable lineup with Barrett on guitar and lead vocals, Waters on bass guitar and backing vocals, Mason on drums and percussion, and Wright switching to keyboards and backing vocals. Barrett soon started writing his own songs, influenced by American and British psychedelic rock with his own brand of whimsical humour. Pink Floyd became a favourite in the underground movement, playing at such prominent venues as the UFO club, the Marquee Club and the Roundhouse.

At the end of 1966 the band were invited to contribute music for Peter Whitehead's film Tonite Let's All Make Love in London; they were filmed recording two tracks ("Interstellar Overdrive" and "Nick's Boogie") in January 1967. Although hardly any of this music made it onto the film, the session was eventually released as London 1966/1967 in 2005.

As their popularity increased, the band members formed Blackhill Enterprises in October 1966, a six-way business partnership with their managers, Peter Jenner and Andrew King, issuing the singles "Arnold Layne" in March 1967 and "See Emily Play" in June 1967. "Arnold Layne" reached number 20 in the UK Singles Chart, and "See Emily Play" reached number 6, granting the band its first national TV appearance on Top of the Pops in July 1967. (They had earlier appeared, performing "Interstellar Overdrive" at the UFO Club, in a short documentary, "It's So Far Out It's Straight Down". This was broadcast in March 1967 but seen only in the UK's Granada TV region.)

Released in August 1967, the band's debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, is today considered to be a prime example of British psychedelic music, and was generally well-received by critics at the time. It is now viewed as one of the best debut albums by many critics. The album's tracks, predominantly written by Barrett, showcase poetic lyrics and an eclectic mixture of music, from the avant-garde free-form piece "Interstellar Overdrive" (sample (info)) to whimsical songs such as "The Scarecrow", inspired by the Fenlands, a rural region north of Cambridge (Barrett, Gilmour and Waters's home town). Lyrics were entirely surreal and often referred to folklore, such as "The Gnome". The music reflected newer technologies in electronics through its prominent use of stereo panning, tape editing, echo effects and electric keyboards. The album was a hit in the UK where it peaked at #6, but did not do well in North America, reaching #131 in the U.S., and that only after it was reissued in the wake of the band's state side commercial breakthrough in the 1970s. During this period, the band toured with Jimi Hendrix, which helped to increase its popularity.

As the band became more popular, the stresses of life on the road and a significant intake of psychedelic drugs took their toll on Barrett, whose mental health had been deteriorating for several months. Barrett's strange behaviour has often been attributed to his drug use. In January 1968, guitarist David Gilmour joined the band to carry out Barrett's playing and singing duties, though evidently Jeff Beck was considered.

With Barrett's behaviour becoming less and less predictable, and his almost constant use of LSD, he became very unstable, occasionally staring into space while the rest of the band performed. During some performances, he would just strum one chord for the duration of a concert, or randomly begin detuning his guitar. The band's live shows became increasingly ramshackle until, eventually, the other band members simply stopped taking him to the concerts. The last concert featuring Barrett was on January 20, 1968 on Hastings Pier. It was originally hoped that Barrett would write for the band with Gilmour performing live, but Barrett's increasingly difficult compositions, such as "Have You Got It, Yet?", which changed melodies and chord progression with every take, eventually made the rest of the band give up on this arrangement. Once Barrett's departure was formalised in April 1968, producers Jenner and King decided to remain with him, and the six-way Blackhill partnership was dissolved. The band adopted Steve O'Rourke as manager, and he remained with Pink Floyd until his death in 2003.

After recording two solo albums (The Madcap Laughs and Barrett) in 1970 (co-produced by and sometimes featuring Gilmour, Waters and Wright) to moderate success, Barrett went into seclusion. Again going by his given name, Roger, he lived a quiet life in his native Cambridge until his death on July 7, 2006.

This period was one of musical experimentation for the band. Gilmour, Waters and Wright each contributed material that had its own voice and sound, giving this material less consistency than the Barrett-dominated early years or the more polished, collaborative sound of later years. As Barrett had been the lead singer during his era, Gilmour, Waters and Wright now split both songwriting and lead vocal duties. Waters mostly wrote low-key, jazzy melodies with dominant bass lines and complex, symbolic lyrics, Gilmour focused on guitar-driven blues jams, and Wright preferred melodic psychedelic keyboard-heavy numbers. Unlike Waters, Gilmour and Wright preferred tracks that had simple lyrics or that were purely instrumental. Some of the band's most experimental music is from this period, such as "A Saucerful of Secrets", consisting largely of noises, feedback, percussions, oscillators and tape loops, and "Careful with That Axe, Eugene" (which went by a number of other names as well), a very Waters-driven song with a bass and keyboard-heavy jam culminating in crashing drums and Waters' primal screams.

Whilst Barrett had written the bulk of the first album, only one composition by him, "Jugband Blues", appeared on the second Floyd album. Barrett also played on the songs "Remember A Day" (recorded during the sessions for Piper) and "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun". A Saucerful of Secrets was released in June 1968, reaching #9 in the UK and becoming the only Pink Floyd album not to chart in the U.S. Somewhat uneven due to Barrett's departure, the album still contained much of his psychedelic sound combined with the more experimental music that would be fully showcased on Ummagumma. Its centrepiece, the 12-minute title track, hinted at the epic, lengthy songs to come, but the album was poorly received by critics at the time, although critics today tend to be kinder to the album in the context of their body of work. Future Pink Floyd albums would expand upon the idea of long, sprawling compositions, offering more focused songwriting with each subsequent release.

Pink Floyd were then recruited by director Barbet Schroeder to produce a soundtrack for his film, More, which was premi?red in May 1969. The music was released as a Floyd album in its own right, Music From the Film More, in July 1969; the album achieved another #9 finish in the UK, and peaked at #153 in the U.S. Critics tend to find the collection of the film's music patchy and uneven. The band would use this and future soundtrack recording sessions to produce work that may not have fit into the idea of what would appear on a proper Pink Floyd LP; many of the tracks on More (as fans usually call it) were acoustic folk songs. Two of these songs, "Green Is the Colour" and "Cymbaline", became fixtures in the band's live sets for a time and were a part of their live The Man/The Journey suite, as can be heard in the many available bootleg recordings from this period. "Cymbaline" was also the first Pink Floyd song to deal with Roger Waters' cynical attitude toward the music industry explicitly. The rest of the album consisted of avant-garde incidental pieces from the score (some of which were also part of The Man/The Journey) with a few heavier rock songs thrown in, such as "The Nile Song".

The next record, the double album Ummagumma, was a mix of live recordings and unchecked studio experimentation by the band members, with each member recording half a side of a vinyl record as a solo project (Mason's first wife makes an uncredited contribution as a flautist). Though the album was realised as solo outings and a live set, it was originally intended as a purely avant-garde mixture of sounds from "found" instruments. The subsequent difficulties in recording and lack of group organization led to the shelving of the project. The title is Cambridge slang for sexual intercourse and reflects the attitude of the band at the time, as frustrations in the studio followed them throughout these sessions. The band was wildly experimental on the studio disc, which featured Waters' pure folk "Grantchester Meadows", an atonal & jarring piano piece ("Sysyphus"), meandering progressive rock textures ("The Narrow Way") and large percussion solos ("The Grand Vizier's Garden Party"). "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" is a five-minute song composed entirely of Roger Water's voice played at varied speeds, resulting in a noise resembling rodents and birds. Large portions of the studio disc were previously played in their live The Man/The Journey concept piece. The live disc featured acclaimed performances of some of their most popular psychedelic-era compositions and caused critics to receive the album more positively than the previous two albums. The album was Pink Floyd's most popular release yet, hitting UK #5 and making the U.S. charts at #74.

1970's Atom Heart Mother, the band's first recording with an orchestra, was a collaboration with avant-garde composer Ron Geesin. One side of the album consisted of the title piece, a 23-minute long "rock-orchestral" suite. The second side featured one song from each of the band's then-current vocalists (Roger Waters' folk-rock "If", David Gilmour's bluesy "Fat Old Sun" and Rick Wright's nostalgic "Summer '68"). Another lengthy piece, "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast", was a sound collage of a man cooking and eating breakfast and his thoughts on the matter, linked with instrumentals. The use of noises, incidental sound effects and voice samples would thereafter be an important part of the band's sound. While Atom Heart Mother was considered a huge step back for the band at the time and is still considered one of its most inaccessible albums, it had the best chart performance for the band up to that time, reaching #1 in the UK and #55 in the U.S. It has since been described by Gilmour as "a load of rubbish" and Waters has said he wouldn't mind if it were "thrown in the dustbin and never listened to by anyone ever again." The album was another transitional piece for the group, hinting at future musical territory such as "Echoes" in its ambitious title track. The popularity of the album allowed Pink Floyd to embark on its first full U.S. tour.

Before releasing its next original album, the band released a compilation album, Relics, which contained several early singles and B-sides, along with one original song (Waters' jazzy "Biding My Time", part of The Man/The Journey recorded during the Ummagumma sessions). They also contributed to the soundtrack of Zabriskie Point, though many of their contributions were eventually discarded by director Michelangelo Antonioni.

Bob Marley and the Wailers

 

Robert "Bob" Nesta Marley OM (February 6, 1945 May 11, 1981) was a Jamaican singer, songwriter, guitarist, and activist. He is the most widely known performer of reggae music. A faithful Rastafarian, Marley is regarded by many as a prophet of the religion.

Marley is best known for his reggae songs, which include the hits "I Shot the Sheriff", "No Woman, No Cry", "Three Little Birds", "Exodus", "Could You Be Loved", "Jammin'", "Redemption Song", and "One Love". His posthumous compilation album Legend (1984) is the best-selling reggae album ever, with sales of more than 12 million copies.

Marley was born in the small village of Nine Mile in Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica. His father, Norval Sinclair Marley, (born in 1895), was a white Jamaican of English descent, with parents from Sussex. Norval was a Marine officer and captain, as well as a plantation overseer, when he married Cedella Booker, a black Jamaican then eighteen years old. Norval provided financial support for his wife and child, but seldom saw them, as he was often away on trips. Marley was ten years old when his father died of a heart attack in 1955 at age 60.

Marley suffered racial prejudice as a youth, because of his mixed racial origins, and faced questions about his own racial identity throughout his life. He once reflected:

I don't have prejudice against myself. My father was a white and my mother was black. Them call me half-caste or whatever. Me don't dip on nobody's side. Me don't dip on the black man's side nor the white man's side. Me dip on God's side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white.

Marley and his mother moved to Kingston's Trenchtown slum after Norval's death. He was forced to learn self-defense, as he became the target of bullying because of his racial makeup and small stature (5'4" or 163 cm tall) . He gained a reputation for his physical strength, which earned him the nickname "Tuff Gong".

Marley became friends with Neville "Bunny" Livingston (later known as Bunny Wailer), with whom he started to play music. He left school at the age of 14 and started as an apprentice at a local welder's shop. In his free time, he and Livingston made music with Joe Higgs, a local singer and devout Rastafari who is regarded by many as Marley's mentor. It was at a jam session with Higgs and Livingston that Marley met Peter McIntosh (later known as Peter Tosh), who had similar musical ambitions.

In 1962, Marley recorded his first two singles, "Judge Not" and "One Cup of Coffee", with local music producer Leslie Kong. These songs, released on the Beverley's label under the pseudonym of Bobby Martell, attracted little attention. The songs were later re-released on the album Songs of Freedom, a posthumous collection of Marley's songs.

In 1963, Bob Marley, Bunny Livingston, Peter McIntosh, Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso, and Cherry Smith formed a ska and rocksteady group, calling themselves "The Teenagers". They later changed their name to "The Wailing Rudeboys", then to "The Wailing Wailers", and finally to "The Wailers". By 1966, Braithwaite, Kelso, and Smith had left The Wailers, leaving the core trio of Marley, Livingston, and McIntosh.

Marley took on the role of leader, singer, and main songwriter. Much of The Wailers' early work, including their first single Simmer Down, was produced by Coxsone Dodd at Studio One. Simmer Down topped Jamaican Charts in 1964 and established The Wailers as one of the hottest groups in the country. They followed up with songs such as "Soul Rebel" and "400 Years".

In 1966, Marley married Rita Anderson, and moved near his mother's residence in Wilmington, Delaware for a few months. Upon returning to Jamaica, Marley became a member of the Rastafari movement, and started to wear his trademark dreadlocks (see the religion section for more on Marley's religious views).

After a conflict with Dodd, Marley and his band teamed up with Lee "Scratch" Perry and his studio band, The Upsetters. Although the alliance lasted less than a year, they recorded what many consider The Wailers' finest work. Marley and Perry split after a dispute regarding the assignment of recording rights, but they would remain friends and work together again.

Between 1968 and 1972, Bob and Rita Marley, Peter McIntosh and Bunny Livingston re-cut some old tracks with JAD Records in Kingston and London in an attempt to commercialize The Wailers' sound. Livingston later asserted that these songs "should never be released on an album they were just demos for record companies to listen to."

The Wailers' first album, Catch A Fire, was released worldwide in 1973, and sold well. It was followed a year later by Burnin', which included the songs "Get Up, Stand Up" and "I Shot The Sheriff". Eric Clapton made a hit cover of "I Shot the Sheriff" in 1974, raising Marley's international profile.

The Wailers broke up in 1974 with each of the three main members going on to pursue solo careers. The reason for the breakup is shrouded in conjecture; some believe that there were disagreements amongst Livingston, McIntosh, and Marley concerning performances, while others claim that Livingston and McIntosh simply preferred solo work. McIntosh began recording under the name Peter Tosh, and Livingston continued as Bunny Wailer.

Despite the breakup, Marley continued recording as "Bob Marley & The Wailers". His new backing band included brothers Carlton and Aston "Family Man" Barrett on drums and bass respectively, Junior Marvin and Al Anderson on lead guitar, Tyrone Downie and Earl "Wya" Lindo on keyboards, and Alvin "Seeco" Patterson on percussion. The "I Threes", consisting of Judy Mowatt, Marcia Griffiths, and Marley's wife, Rita, provided backing vocals.

In 1975, Marley had his international breakthrough with his first hit outside Jamaica, "No Woman, No Cry" from the Natty Dread album. This was followed by his breakthrough album in the US, Rastaman Vibration (1976), which spent four weeks on the Billboard charts Top Ten.

In December 1976, two days before "Smile Jamaica", a free concert organized by the Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley in an attempt to ease tension between two warring political groups, Marley, his wife, and manager Don Taylor were wounded in an assault by unknown gunmen inside Marley's home. Taylor and Marley's wife sustained serious injuries, but later made full recoveries. Bob Marley received only minor injuries in the chest and arm. The shooting was thought to have been politically motivated, as many felt the concert was really a support rally for Manley. Nonetheless, the concert proceeded, and an injured Marley performed as scheduled.

Marley left Jamaica at the end of 1976 for England, where he recorded his Exodus and Kaya albums. Exodus stayed on the British album charts for 56 consecutive weeks. It included four UK hit singles: "Exodus", "Waiting In Vain", "Jamming", "One Love", and a rendition of Curtis Mayfield's hit, "People Get Ready". It was here that he was arrested and received a conviction for possession of a small quantity of cannabis while traveling in London. Main article: One Love Peace Concert

In 1978, Marley performed at another political concert in Jamaica, the One Love Peace Concert, again in an effort to calm warring parties. Near the end of the performance, by Marley's request, Manley and his political rival, Edward Seaga, joined each other on stage and shook hands.

Survival, a defiant and politically charged album, was released in 1979. Tracks such as "Zimbabwe"