McIpedia
Rock & Roll Accompaniment
A Potted History by Steve Peters
THE EARLY DAYS
Rock ‘n’ roll in the USA went through several stages. Firstly the pre-drum stage. Bill Haley’s 1952 recording of ‘Rock the Joint’ and Elvis’s 1954 ‘That’s all right mama’ were both devoid of drums. These were the days when drummer Buddy Harmon was hidden behind a curtain on the Louisiana Hayride – a bit like pianist Ian Stewart was treated on ‘Stones’ gigs or how drummer Bobby Graham was alleged to have been treated on Dave Clark Five gigs. Drums gradually crept in. 'Crazy Man Crazy’ by Haley (1953) and ‘I’m left, you’re right she’s gone’, by Elvis (1955) had drums added.
By 1956 drums had arrived and we had some rip-roaring stuff, but Haley soon went out of fashion and after his initial splurge (ignore the appalling ‘Love me Tender’ soundtrack), Elvis soon started doing gentler, piano based stuff eg Teddy Bear, Party, Paralyzed. Pleasant enough, but hardly ‘My Baby Left Me’ sort of thing. Little Richard did his last New Orleans recordings in October 1956. Cliff Gallup left Gene Vincent. It all then went quiet for a while until the next generation made its presence felt.
THE SCENE MOVES ON
This next generation included Buddy Holly and Ricky Nelson (‘I’m Walkin’' was truly awful, but he did redeem himself later on). Jerry Lee Lewis recorded ‘Great Balls of Fire’ accompanied by a band consisting of Jimmy Van Eaton on drums – and nobody else. He pushed the boat out with ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’’ and had Roland Janes on guitar as well. NB no bass. Sadly when we see films of Jerry Lee and Little Richard from those days, one sees them accompanied by the dreaded ‘bass guitar’. The most soul-less instrument this side of a piano accordion. There was very little stuff recorded with the bass guitar in the ‘50’s. Apart from ‘Jailhouse Rock’, and some later stuff by Jerry Lee, Eddie Cochran and the Big Bopper, bass guitar on recorded rock ‘n’ roll was like rocking horse crap.
Britain never understood how to play rock ‘n’ roll. It was due mainly to a lack of ‘middle’. Britain had proficient bass players (but who could rarely ‘slap’), jazz guitarists who sounded as if they were picking with India rubbers and who couldn’t bend strings to save their lives, but no driving acoustic rhythm guitar like Elvis himself provided or thumping piano chords like we got from Cosimo Matassa’s recordings. Admittedly Gene Vincent’s records had no middle, but they did have Gallup on guitar!
THE DANELECTRO ARRIVES
By the end of 1957, in Nashville, Los Angeles and to a lesser extent New York, rock 'n’ roll was about to enter its finest phase. The Danelectro 6 string bass/baritone (tic tac) guitar had arrived. The first record to feature it of which I am aware was Marvin Rainwater’s ‘Whole Lotta Woman’ which had Floyd ‘Lightnin’ Chance on stand up bass with Grady Martin on tic tac. Whereas having Hank Garland on lead, Floyd Cramer on joanna and Buddy Harmon hardly held the production back, it was the interplay between Chance and Martin that drove this track along. There then followed around 5 years of glorious Nashville ‘A’ Team recordings featuring this idea. People in the recording industry distrusted a Fender Bass on its own (good judgement!), and so a Danelectro, played with plenty of treble, would be used in conjunction with a stand up bass. Sometimes they would play almost identical patterns (usual on Brenda Lee and Duane Eddy Records and to a certain extent those by Elvis) or play separate patterns on tracks such as ‘Cradle Of Love’ by Johnny Preston, ‘Carry On’ by Jimmy C Newman or ‘I’m Not Angry’ by the Everlys. Although Grady Martin and even Hank Garland sometimes played tic tac (the latter on ‘Stuck on You’ by Elvis and ‘What’d I Say’ by Jerry Lee), the tic tac eventually became the province of Harold Bradley, brother of Owen (proprietor of Bradley’s Studios) – although Neal Matthews of the Jordanaires played tic tac on ‘Little Sister’.
The combination of drums, stand-up, tic tac, acoustic rhythm and piano as a rhythm section almost guaranteed success – even Fabian’s records had good backing tracks. Sadly, Phil Spector went too far and added a third bass, a couple more pianos, and oodles of echo – he over egged it somewhat.
THE BRITISH SCENE
What about Britain? The ‘tic tac plus stand-up bass’ idea got used a bit in ‘power ballads’ such as Susan Maughan’s ‘Bobby’s Girl’. Eric Ford bought himself a Burns 6 string bass in 1962, and you got him ‘slurping’ on tracks like Jimmy Powell’s ‘Sugar Baby’, The Vernon Girls ‘You know what I mean’ and Kathy Kirby’s ‘Secret Love’. And Jet Harris, acting on a suggestion from Big Jim Sullivan, had a few hits with his Fender VI, until he lost his way due to alcohol problems.
But when the beat boom came along, there was proof positive that the British hadn’t a clue. Compare Chan Romero’s ‘Hippy Hippy Shake’ (featuring Rene Hall’s tictac plus stand-up) with the castrated version by The Singing Blue Jeans. Compare Neil Sedaka’s ‘I Go Ape’ with that by the ‘Rocking Vickers’ – what a nerve. No tictac, no King Curtis. Compare ‘Hey Joe’ (no not that one!) by Bob Luman with The Searchers ‘Live at the Star Club, Hamburg’ version. The Brits had learned nothing. Replicate the guitar solo and get the harmonies about right. Just one thing was missing (or was that two things?) - the balls!
