Why did British popular music rule the world in the 1960s? I can't answer that - leave a comment if you can - but I have found that some of the brightest stars of that generation had two things in common.
They sang in church choirs as boys, which meant they received a good musical education, and they had fathers who played in jazz bands, which meant they grew up familiar with black American music. It was, after all, Rhythm and Blues that inspired the British groups of that era.
Let's give some examples, sticking to Wikipedia entries...
McCartney's father was a trumpet player and pianist who led Jim Mac's Jazz Band in the 1920s. He kept an upright piano in the front room, encouraged his sons to be musical and advised McCartney to take piano lessons. However, McCartney preferred to learn by ear. When McCartney was 11, his father encouraged him to audition for the Liverpool Cathedral choir, but he was not accepted. McCartney then joined the choir at St Barnabas' Church, Mossley Hill.
From 1955 to 1959, Richards attended Dartford Technical High School for Boys. He never sat the eleven-plus due to illness. Recruited by Dartford Tech's choirmaster, R. W. "Jake" Clare, he sang in a trio of boy sopranos at, among other occasions, Westminster Abbey for Queen Elizabeth II.
His maternal grandfather, Augustus Theodore "Gus" Dupree, who toured Britain with a jazz big band, Gus Dupree and His Boys, fostered Richards's interest in the guitar. Richards has said that it was Dupree who gave him his first guitar.
His father Lawrence, a foundryman by trade, was a semi-professional musician, playing mainly the saxophone and clarinet. Steve Winwood began playing piano at the age of four while interested in swing and Dixieland jazz, and soon started playing drums and guitar. He was also a choirboy at St. John's Church of England, Perry Barr.
His father, Les Argent, was an aeronautical engineer who machined parts at the De Havilland aircraft factory; he had also been the leader of two semi-professional dance bands, the Les Argent Quartet and Les Argent and his Rhythm Kings. Although his father did not teach Argent music, he was raised hearing him playing the upright piano in the family home.
He decided to become a musician "aged eight or nine", and as a child, he sang as a chorister in the St Albans Cathedral Choir.
Quite an impressive list, and you wouldn't expect Keith Richards to conform entirely to any pattern, would you?
If you know of any more leading Sixties musicians who could be listed here, please let me know.
And here to play us up to the news are the Zombies with a Rod Argent song.
6 comments:
This is a fascinating observation, and I am going to waste far too much time trying to find others who fit both categories, i.e. father a jazz musician together with youthful participation in church music. Not found any so far, but would you allow half a point for Elvis Costello (Declan MacManus) whose father Ross was a trumpeter and who himself was an altar boy. OK, not a singer, but some of the influence must have rubbed off.....
I thought I'd share a vignette from Keith Richards' autobiography 'Life':
"At the end (of art school) your teacher says, 'Well I think this is pretty good.' and they send you off to J. Walter Thompson and you have an appointment, and by then, in a way you know what's coming – three or four smarty-pants, with the usual bow ties. 'Keith, is it? Nice to see you. Show us what you've got.' And you lay the old folder out. 'Hmmmm. I say, we've had a good look at this, Keith, and it does show some promise. By the way, do you make a good cup of tea?' I said yes, but not for you. I walked off with my folio – it was green, I remember – and I dumped it in the garbage can when I got downstairs. That was my final attempt to join society on their terms…"
Not many around with his attitude.
And a quote from a press interview with him:
Did he remember being a choirboy? He bridles with pride. "Albert Hall, Festival Hall and once at Westminster Abbey singing in front of the Queen. Frankly, my career's gone downhill ever since."
Pete Townshend's parents were both jazz musicians and Roger Daltrey sang in a church choir from the age of 7.
Another indirect one - Martin Carthy sang in the choir of the Queen's Chapel of the Savoy. Huge influence on the English Folk Song revival in the '60s, and also a big influence on Paul Simon, who was in the London Scene at the time.
Jeff Beck! According to Wikipedia and his Guardian obituary https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/jan/12/legendary-rock-guitarist-jeff-beck-dies-aged-78 Jeff Beck of the Yardbirds et al "sang in a Church Choir" but it doesn't say which one. However, the Sutton Lib Dems (!) mention him on their website with regard to ancestry searches in the Borough, so perhaps someone might be inclined to look further...
https://web.archive.org/web/20180625021847/http://www.suttonlibdems.org.uk/sutton_residents_gain_access_to_more_than_four_million_ancestors
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