I suppose the recent passing of Richie Hayward of Little Feat got me thinking about my past and particularly the 1970s and how I got into this style of music in the first place. Naturally I got to thinking about the records that introduced me and got me hooked. Not necessarily the best records made in the genre (though some of them probably are) but those that provided me with an introduction into that wide musical territory we sometimes call Americana(whatever that is!). I was going to do this as just a list-you know the 5 albums that got you into Americana sort of thing but I decided to jot down some thoughts instead…
Well here goes then…first a little background…I remember arriving at university in the mid 70s and installing my new music centre (remember them?) in my room. For the first time I was away from home and my new found independence began to show in what I started to listen to. Go back a few months and my induction into this type of music had begun in the latter stages of school life. Most 16-18 year old guys at that time were into Led Zep, Yes, ELP, Focus, Bowie etc. We had a record player in the 6th form common room and I remember one day a friend of mine, Andy brought in an album called “Good Ole Boys” by the one and only Randy Newman. Of course I’d never heard of Newman, though I had heard some of his songs not knowing he had written them e.g. “Simon Smith and his Amazing Dancing Bear”, which had been a hit in the UK for Alan Price (ex-Animals). I was fascinated by his voice and certainly more so by his songs. This was something entirely different to what I’d ever heard before. The previous summer I had been over to the USA to visit relatives in North Carolina and somehow these songs of the South just seemed to stir my imagination. I hasten to add none of my relatives were like any of the dysfunctional characters in Newman’s songs on the album but it did provide some form of geographical context. At around the same time I was listening to Radio Caroline, the pirate radio station (mostly very late at night and under the bed clothes so as not to disturb my parents sleeping in the adjacent room. No I pods of course in those days-I didn’t even have earphones). Radio Caroline had been in its heyday in the 60s really but was in its last death throws in the mid 70s. They kept playing the new Dylan album particularly two tracks, “Tangled Up in Blue” and the epic “Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts”. At the same time I remember hearing the American top 40 on the BBC and taking interest in new names that I’d never heard of before. Linda Ronstadt’s versions of “You’re No Good” and “When Will I Be Loved” were favourites. I really loved her voice. A song by another female artist called Jessi Colter which I found intriguing also caught my attention. This was the quirky “I’m Not Lisa” which was a hit single in The US but of course over here(UK) it never got any airplay to chart. Before this I remember liking certain other singles. In school you were either a rock fan or Motown lover and never the twain shall meet. This seems ridiculous now of course but that’s what kids are like, I suppose, looking for an identity. I fell into the former camp (though secretly did like some of the stuff my older cousins used to play when I visited their house-The Four Tops , Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson etc). However I digress. Obviously I liked The Beatles, The Stones and other British bands of the time but the singles that really caught my attention as a 12/13 year old were Creedence’s “Bad Moon Rising” and later “Green River”. I also was attracted by the name…Creedence Clearwater Revival…they sounded good before you had even heard their songs. I’m still to this day a massive John Fogerty fan.
Ah yes back to University, well chronologically , in fact, that should be forward to student days. At Uni I arrived with my newly found interest in “countryish music” and the first albums I remember purchasing were the likes of The Ozark Mountain Daredevils first 2 albums, Emmylou Harris “Elite Hotel” which led to my purchasing “GP” and getting into the whole Gram thing. From Emmylou I got into Townes van Zandt and remember buying “Live at the Old Quarter” from the market stall run by the guy who was later in the 80s to develop Andy’s Records retail chain , sadly to go out of business (or was it bought out ?) like many an independent record retailer. I could tell Townes car key joke to all my college friends without fear that they would have heard it. From there it was but a short musical step to Guy Clark’s “Old No.1” and then Jerry Jeff Walker(“It’s A Good Night for Singing” and “Viva Terlingua”). I avidly read the record covers for influences and checked out who had written which songs leading me on to new artists. I started buying fanzines like ZigZag and Omaha Rainbow and bought albums by John Stewart(“California Bloodlines”) and Jackson Browne(“Late For The Sky”). The latter album helped me wallow through many a romantic rejection. At this time I also started to get into Little Feat. I think” Sailin’Shoes” was the first of their albums I bought. Their appearances on OGWT also stood out for me and then I did get to see them live with Lowell but unfortunately only the once. I also remember buying The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s classic triple album, “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” using some of the money I had been given for my 21st birthday. Meanwhile my friends in college had more regular tastes of the time and couldn’t understand, what to them, was my oddball obsession with this hick form of music. That is apart from one guy called John, my neighbour who used to play Sonny Rollins albums* and assorted jazz. Even though, at the time, I didn’t care for his taste i.e. jazz, I did feel a certain musical affinity with him for kicking against the conventional wisdom. And he did like Joni and the Dan too. Seem to remember the guy failing his finals because he wrote Beatles lyrics as answers to exam questions. I remember distinctly emptying my room of coffee drinking friends on the playing of Waylon, Willie, Jessi and Tompall’s 1976 “Wanted!Outlaws” album. For them that was the last straw and they needed more than caffeine! Unfortunately their heroes hadn’t always been cowboys and they retreated to their rooms to listen to “Tales from Topographic Oceans”.
Footnote:*I do now own a copy of “Saxophone Colossus” -some things do change after all.
