Thanks to VandalayIndustries (a user on Voat) for sending me this. It's a rememberance, with music by Van and the poetry of Paul Durkin, of what the European kids grew up with back in the '50's. How the early American musicians and their backgrounds influenced the birth of RnR on both continents. Music and it's reflection of culture went through a tremendous change during this time and the world was changed forever.
It's nice to remember the times before the 'Industry' owned it all. Back when the radio stations were regional and there were no Program Directors, the DJ's could play what they wanted. There were many artists and songs that may have never become well known unless a DJ somewhere liked them and played them. Of course I don't know how it was in Europe but imagine it was the same and this song mentions some of the radio stations they listened to. Very interesting.
It may be just a matter of semantics, but the people this references are the very roots of RnR. I tend to think RnR evolved into what we call Rock in the late '50's and through the '60's. It's the very times and stories I am interested in and trying to preserve. So much of the British Invasion was their artists who had sought out the early American roots and listened to growing up. As they say, the rest is history. There are so many examples but maybe this is a good snapshot; a 13 y/o Jimmy Page playing some American based music in a form called Skiffle, an early English version of RnR:
(post is archived)