This course, part 1 of a 2-course sequence, examines the history of rock, primarily as it unfolded in the United States, from the days before rock (pre-1955) to the end of the 1960s. This course covers the music of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Phil Spector, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, and many more artists, with an emphasis both on cultural context and on the music itself. We will also explore how developments in the music business and in technology helped shape the ways in which styles developed. Rock emerged in the mid 1950s as a blending of mainstream pop, rhythm and blues, and country and western--styles that previously had remained relatively separate. This new style became the music of the emerging youth culture and was often associated with teen rebellion. We will follow the story of how this rowdy first wave of rock and roll (1955-59) was tamed in the early 60s but came roaring back with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and then went psychedelic by the end of the decade.
Producers and Girl Groups
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From the course by University of Rochester
History of Rock, Part One
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From the lesson
The Demise of Rock and the Promise of Soul (1959-63)
Was this era the dark ages for rock music or was it a golden era cut short by the British invasion? The music of teen idols, the folk revival, early surf music, sweet soul, rockabilly pop, and girl groups. The Brill Building songwriters and the rise of the producer. Playlets and splatter platters.
Meet the Instructors
John CovachProfessor of Music and Director
Institute for Popular Music
I mentioned earlier, in the lectures this week, about the rise of the producer.
And I'd like to take a little bit more time to focus on that, and the way that
developed during this period here. in, in Rock and Roll between 1960 and
'63. In previous times, before this started to
happen around 1960. The producer of the session was basically
what's called an A and A man, artists and repertoire.
An A and R man, at a, at a session, was basically the guy who was trying to make
sure that everything was organized. So that you got to pay for studio times
so if you've got a two hour session or a three hour session you've got to make
sure everything gets done. So the record company would send somebody
down there to be sure everything was getting done.
But usually that, that person was not in charge of the musical matters there, but
more just making sure that things happen in a timely fashion.
That the musicians and the other people there didn't fritter away the record
company's money not moving the session along in an efficient way.
But what started to happen under the influence of, of, of Leiber and Stoller,
is that there was somebody at the session who's job, it was to sort of help shape
the way the record would sound. They, they might have been the
songwriter, but sometimes, they might not have been the songwriter, they might be
producing somebody else's song. And so, you start to think about these
records as not, not just being snapshot performances of what my otherwise be just
a live performance. I mean, think about it, if you take a
snapshot recording of a performance, you imagine, you don't need a producer at
all. The performer just performs the piece and
songs, and as long as you've got your levels right and your microphones placed
properly, that's all it takes. But what's starting to happen now, is
people are beginning to realize, that there are ways of getting things to sound
better at a recording studio. Maybe even better or differently or more
interestingly than they can actually sound, acoustically in the real world.
As you begin to place mics in different kind of places and mix them together you
get sounds that you couldn't get in a live situation.
And people start to become experts at this kind of thing, not just recording
[UNKNOWN]. But people who have an idea of how they
want they record to sound. Or different styles they wanted to touch
on, various kinds of ways in which they want to project the song.
So you're starting to move towards this idea, that, that actually moves away from
the old Tin Pan Alley idea of a song being something that, you know it
basically can be, can be reproduced in various versions.
You're starting to move toward an idea here already that,it's a particular
version that sounds a particular way that you might want to have.
We're starting to move toward the kinds of things we'll see Brian Wilson doing in
Pet sounds, or the Beach Boys doing in Sgt Pepper.
It's very early days now, Leiber & Stoller, as I say importantly, working
with the Coasters, we've talked about that already.
talked about them, mentioned that they weren't so much writing songs anymore,
but writing records. Course having worked with, with Elvis and
written songs for Elvis and worked with him on the movie Jailhouse Rock.
They had a certain amount of ability to demand certain kinds of things cause they
were the top songwriters in the business. Starting from working on, on, on
producing singles for the Robins, Smokey Joe's Cafe, 1955.
as I was talking before, they work with The Coasters.
some of the, some of those playlets that we talked about before, Down In Mexico
from 1956. and Yakety Yak from 1958.
Charlie Brown from 1959. Those are interesting records for the,
for the The Coasters and Leiber & Stoller, because they do what Chuck Barry
was doing. That is, Yakety Yak, talks about a kid
that, if he doesn't do his chores, he won't get his day, his weekly allowance.
Charlie Brown is about a kid who's always getting picked on, in high school.
Song, song approaches that really sort of, go right at teenage life, but we're
talking about 58 or 59, so that was, that was pretty current for that time.
The, the record that really kind of, breaks the whole production thing open
for Leiber and Stoller is, is a record for the Drifters called, There Goes my
Baby, from 1959. But we'll, we'll talk more about that
late, that, in the next video, when we talk about the development of, sweet
soul. After Leiber and Stoll, Stoller started
to show that you could sort of craft these records.
you get things like, we mentioned before The Shirelles doing Will You Still Love
Me Tomorrow a Goffin King song that was a big hit in 1960.
But that was a song where Carole King had such a specific idea.
About how she wanted some of the parts played.
For example the timpani part, that she couldn't just stay in the, in the booth
and issue instructions. She actually went into the studio and
demonstrated and played it for the person, exactly how, how she wanted it
done. Because she had a specific idea.
You could see that Carole King, Gerry Goffin working under Leiber and Stoller
almost as apprentices, Were beginning to sort of see that they
could begin to shape these sounds in the studio in the kind of way.
But, when we talk about the record producer in the early 60s, at least in
this country. Maybe if we were talking about the UK,
we'd be talking about someone like Joe Meek who has recently come, much more to
everyone's attention. But in this country, record producer,
early of the 60s we're talking about Phil Spector.
And if we're talking about Phil Spector, we're talking about The Wall of Sound.
Now Phil Spector goes back in the, in the popular music business at least to 1958,
as a member of the group called the Teddy Bears.
Who had a hit called To Know Him Is To Love Him.
Interestingly, it seems, Phil Spector, who wrote that song, got the title of the
song from an inscription on his father's tomb stone.
Which basically sort of, you know, gave the name and dates and said, to know him
was to love him. And so he thought, now there's a song
title. The mark of a song writer, probably who
can take inspiration from such things. And so that was basically a kind of a
doo-wop tune, To Know Him Is To love him, but he started to get under the, under
the sort of apprenticeship with Leiber and Stoller.
He started to get into the studio and developed his own approach to to record
production. Here's the best way to understand I think
Phil Spector's approach. Phil's records were done entirely in
mono. Which back in those days and still today
means all the sound is coming through a single speaker.
Now most people are use to listening to music in stereo so if your sitting in a
good room you're equally placed between two speakers your going to hear.
Sound coming out, not only from those two speakers but the illusion will be
created, there is sound all in front of you.
So that the snare drum can seem to be coming from the center of the mix, even
though there's not actually a speaker there.
A voice can be seem to be, seem to be coming over here, even there's not a
speaker there, because it's the way our ears work, get this thing in stereo.
So you start to get into the 70s. Groups like Steely Dan, other groups like
that sort of specialize in creating this really rich soundscape, where things are
spread out in front of you in stereo. Phil Spector, exactly the opposite of
that, it's all in mono. So what he wants to do in mono, he wants
to create the biggest sounding record he can.
So he gets tons and tons of instruments into a recording studio, everybody gets a
microphone. But the sound of this guy's instrument is
going into that guy's microphone, and it's all mixing together like a kind of
soup. Creating what he called the wall of
sound. And for its day, that particular
production technique of taking a lot of instruments in an enclosed space, miking
everything up. And then putting it all through the
mixing board and let it all sort of, you know sort of resolved together like a
kind of. I don't know like a kind of soup or
something like that where there are all kinds of different ingredients.
But you can't exactly pick out exactly what the different ingredients are.
Maybe you can taste a little bit of this, maybe a little bit of that.
But it all kind of blends together into a particular kind of distinctive taste.
This blends together into a distinctive kind of sound It's called The Wall of
Sound, and it's entirely associated with Phil Spector.
Back in those days most people felt like Phil Spector records sounded, on a little
kind of car speaker that people would hear these things on.
Sounded bigger than anybody else's records in the business.
So, if you want to hear a, some good examples of Phil Spector and the Wall of
Sound, check out The Crystals, Da Doo Ron Ron from 1963.
A song he wrote together with Barry, Man and Ally, Jeff Barry and Ally Greenwich,
which features Darlene Love on lead vocals.
Check out The Crystals Doo Ron Ron, or The Ronettes Be My Baby from 1963.
That one's got Ronnie Bennet to later become his wife Ronnie Spector on lead
vocals. Those two, Da Doo Ron Ron and Be My Baby
really give you sense of what Phil Spector and the wall of sound were all
about. A lot of people think Phil Spector was
kind of, offthe charts, once the Beatles came in, in 1964.
But his, his his version, his production of, the Righteous Brothers, You've Got
That Loving Feeling went, it was a big hit for him in 1964.
Or he was actually quite friendly with the Beatles, was sitting next to Paul
McCartney on the plane when it arrived in JFK.
When the Beatles came here for the first time.
Gave a lot of career advice, also gave the Rolling Stones a lot of advice.
Came back at the end of the Beatles career in '69 to produce that Let It Be
album. Produced the first couple solo albums by
John Lennon and George Harrison. So Phil Spector, a very important figure
in the history of Rock, but our story right now we're really thinking about
Phil Spector. This new role of the producer and his
invention of the idea of The Wall of Sound.
We now turn to thinking about the invention of sweet soul during this
period.
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