Tonight I do not feel up to a full fledged blog entry, so I thought I would leave you with three songs from groups favoured by the Mods of the Mid-Sixties United Kingdom. Of course, here I have to point out that the music the original Mods preferred was Modern Jazz. Indeed, the term Mod derived from Modernist, someone who prefers Modern Jazz over Traditional Jazz (their polar opposites, then, would be Traditionalists). It was a little later that the preferred music of Mods became rhythm and blues and still later it shifted to rock bands such as The Who and Small Faces. Anyhow, without further ado, here are three songs from groups favoured by Mods.
"Sunny Afternoon" by The Kinks
This is the promotional clip to The Kinks' song "Sunny Afternoon," a single from 1966. The Kinks had established themselves with songs driven by power chords, such "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night." "Sunny Afternoon," with a bit of a musichall sound, was then a bit of a break with their previous style. It went all the way to #1 on the British charts.
"Heart Full of Soul" by The Yardbirds
"Heart Full of Soul" was written by Graham Gouldman, who also wrote The Yardbirds' hit "For Your Love," as well as hits for The Hollies, Herman's Hermits, and Wayne Fontana. He would become better known in the Seventies as one of 10cc.
"We Gotta Get Out of This Place" by The Animals
"We Gotta Get Out of This Place" was composed by the songwriting team Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, who wrote numerous hit songs over the years. Oddly enough, it was originally written with The Righteous Brothers in mind (Mann and Weil having written "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" for them earlier). Fortunately, Allen Klein would hear the song and give the demo to record producer Mickie Most. Most then gave the song to The Animals, whom he was producing at the time. The Animals' version was rearranged from what the original version had been. At any rate, it is hard to imagine The Righteous Brothers actually performing the song--it would have been very different if they had!
Loved the Kinks, especially their early stuff. They were banned from touring the US because of a drugs charge, it helped them become more of a British band and their songwriting reflected that, Waterloo Sunset for example is about watching the sun go down near Waterloo station in London.
ReplyDeleteDid you notice Jeff Beck playing lead guitar with the Yardbirds, he replaced Eric Clapton, Eric thought they weren't bluesy enough. Jeff is still a great guitarist as old geezer.
I always had a soft spot for the Animals, Eric Burden had a good career with War, the giant bass player Chas Chandler saw Jimi Hendrix in New York and invited him to come to the UK, the rest is history. The keyboard player was Alan Price, I saw him with Georgie Fame, had a few hits together. He wrote the score for "O Lucky Man" and was nominated for a Golden Globe.
LOVELOVELOVELOVE etc.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a cool post. Please do more of them!
Holte, I do think getting banned from the US helped The Kinks. They certainly did become more British, which helped set them apart from other groups. I have to wonder if they would've done The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society or Arthur if they had been a success here! Cool that you got to see Alan Price! Among all the things I love about O Lucky Man, the music is one of them!
ReplyDeleteSarah, I'm glad you liked it!