Happy Saturday, Spy Vibers! One of my greatest passions is looking at music history, and a particularly favorite pastime is tracing the musical and cultural roots of Rock, Jazz, and Blues. If we travel back through the breadcrumbs to see where most of the major British bands of the 1960s originated, we come to one of the most interesting periods in the 1950s when traditional jazz (Trad), blues, and folk music shared a time of popularity and cross pollination. Trad musicians like Ken Colyer, Chris Barber, and Lonnie Donegan famously devoted time in their sets to exploring American roots tunes by Leadbelly and others. Dubbed "Skiffle" music, Donegan's hit with Rock Island Line launched a major boom in the UK. As Billy Bragg points out in this clip below, Skiffle empowered a new youth generation that suddenly found themselves free of rationing, earning pocket money, and ready to express their identities through a DIY sensibility and a new symbol of independence- the guitar. Sales of acoustic guitars went from about 5,000 per year to 250,000 per year. Among those kids playing Skiffle were the likes of Van Morrison, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Jimmy Page, and the list goes on and on. I recently visited The British Music Experience in Liverpool where I got to see many artifacts from this era. The most impressive breadcrumb was John Lennon's personal copy of Donegan's Rock Island Line 78 record. Lennon had given it to Rod Davis, one of his fellow Quarrymen skiffle group members (see my photo below) back in the day. And there it was! The stuff of legends. The record that launched Lennon (and The Beatles). The evolution of 1960s pop culture would have been dramatically different without these roots in Trad and Skiffle. I'll dive further into the era soon. In the meantime, check out this great clip and pick up Bragg's new book about Skiffle, Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World. I think you can still order signed copies from Bragg's website. Photo trivia: the guitar next to Lennon's record below was owned by Lonnie Donegan. The cover image of the Youtube clip shows Leadbelly with New Orleans trumpeter Bunk Johnson (1940). Enjoy! In other news, check out my episodes of the Cocktail Nation radio show, where I introduce classic spy films/TV series and play soundtracks and rare cuts: Episode #1 (Danger Man) and Episode #2 (The 10th Victim), Epsiode #3 (On Her Majesty's Secret Service), Episode #4 (Roger Moore/The Saint), andEpisode #5 (The Avengers). Episode #6 (The Prisoner).
The iconic fashion and photography of Antonionni's 1966 Blow Up was featured in an exhibit at the Albertina in Vienna a couple of years ago. Looking again at images from the film, and by photographer David Bailey- an inspiration for David Hemmings' character, I'm struck by the film's interesting cocktail of alienation, ambivalent sexuality, and mystery. The film is often celebrated for its depiction of a mid-1960s London studio, fashion, and for its brief coverage of a Page-Beck era Yardbirds. But it also remains an intriguing who-done-it, if you will, as Hemmings obsessively examines his snaps from an afternoon stroll and discovers it was no walk in the park! The movie also starred Vanessa Redgrave Sarah Miles, jane Birkin, Veruschka von Lehndorff (Casino Royale), John Castle (The Prisoner, The New Avengers), Julian Chagrin (The Avengers), and TV spy regular Peter Bowles (The Avengers, The Prisoner, The Saint, The Baron, Danger Man, Adam Adamant Lives!, Department S). More exhibit info and commentary here. Below: images associated with the film and production. Note: Tazio Secchiaroli's famous still used for the movie's promotional materials and David Bailey's rare portrait of Beatles manager Brian Epstein (included in the exhibit). Enjoy!
