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Notes on video lecture:
American Blues Rock and Southern Rock
Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on January 4, 2015 (go to class or lectures)
Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
airplane, packaged, Dylon, South, blues, American, Confederate, Boston, images, song, gym, Texas, jam, motorcycle, Captain, 1966, live, British, Santana, Ramblin, northern, comes, Latin, Allman, Southern, Grange, heavy, Tucker, Creme
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you would think that American           -based rock bands would take most of their influence from American blues
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but the case is that most of these bands were very influenced by the                bands of the 1960s
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it's as if the blues as to leave the United States, go to Britain, and come back again for Americans to play it
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e.g. the Stones and            were so big that when the American kids were listening to it became teenagers, this is the kind of music that they played
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when we talk about American blues-based rock, we are often talking of                  Rock
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Southern Rock was the most blues-based rock music in the United States
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two most important representatives of Southern Rock
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1. Lynyrd Skynyrd
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best known for popularizing the Southern hard-rock genre during the 1970s
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formed in          as the The Pretty Ones in Jacksonville, Florida
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took on the name Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1969
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at the peak of their success, three members died in an                  crash in 1977
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Sweet Home Alabama
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Free Bird
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named after their        teacher who had a strict rule that young men should not have long hair
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very radio-friendly style
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second album called "Second Helping", a sort of countrified-life term
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2. The              Brothers Band
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an American rock band
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based out of Macon, Georgia
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              ' Man
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Album: At Fillmore East
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Gregg Allman
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Duane Allman
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dies in 1971
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basist died in 1972
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both in                      accidents
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features
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blues influences
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extensive soloing
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a more improvised, live group
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so when you listen to a          album, you are getting a more accurate representation of who they are
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after Duane and Barry are gone
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bring in Chuck Leavell and Dickey Betts
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Album: "Brothers and Sisters" (1973)
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"Ramblin' Man"
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differences between these two
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Lynyrd Skynyrd more         -oriented, Allmand brothers more       -oriented
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other representative groups of Southern Rock
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Charlie Daniels Band
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Charlie Daniels
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from            Carolina
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session musician
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played some bass on some            records
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mentored a few Southern Rock artists
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a generation older
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1979: "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"
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The Marshall              Band
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"Can't You See" (1973)
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marginal Southern Rock
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          -based Blues Rock
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certainly geographically
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but it's not really thought of as part of the South, but simply more as "Texas" or the Southwest if you are going to think about a region
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ZZ Top
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"La             " (1973)
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"Tush" (1975)
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Mexican-influenced Southern Rock
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Carlos               
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his group came out of the San Francisco psychedelic scene, similar to:
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Grateful Dead
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Jefferson Airplane
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combines Jazz, Blues, improvisation, and adds the Latin rhythm
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Black Magic Woman (1970)
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a close cover of a track that had been recorded by Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green on the guitar in 1968
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Evil Ways (1970)
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most representative of the            rhythms
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other American Blues Rock
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Steppenwolf
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Canadian/American rock group that was prominent from 1968 to 1972
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Born to Be Wild (1968)
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sometimes described as the first            metal song, and the second verse lyric "heavy metal thunder" marks the first use of this term in rock music
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featured in film Easy Rider (1969) starring Peter Fonda
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Magic Carpet Ride (1968)
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Three Dog Night
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vocal group of three singers
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produced by Beach Boy Brian Wilson
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Mama Told Me Not to Come (1970)
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Grand Funk Railroad
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Flint, Michigan
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Mark Farner
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deeply rooted in 1960s Soul and Blues
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I'm Your                (1970)
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more of an ambitious orchestral element
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We're an American Band (1973)
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often not given their due but a band that sold a lot of records and got a lot of people to show up at their concerts
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Aerosmith
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out of             
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an                  version of the Rolling Stones
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because Joe Perry and Steven Tyler cut an image very much like Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
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Walk This Way (1975)
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Joe Perry and Steven Tyler did this as a Rock/Rap crossover record with Run DMC
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representative of the tension between Rock and Rap
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what makes Southern Rock Southern?
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is it southern because of where it            from?
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much of what makes Southern Rock southern is the way in which it was                 
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Southern Rock had it's greatest sales in                  cities simply because in the early 1970s, that's where most of the people were
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so what constituted Southern was what constituted Southern in the minds of northerners
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who in many cases didn't have any direct contact with the South and may have not ever been there
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so when you see                        flags and pickup trucks and big dogs and rifles and this kind of thing, this all stands for Southern life, almost a cartoonish version of it
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and one thing that the marketing people picked up about these recording labels was that if they could push this image, they could sell these groups and find a marketing niche for them
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because there is something interesting, heroic an fun-loving about              of the South
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not that these images were accurate, they were almost caricatures of things that people in the North had
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so one thing that really pulls these Southern Rock groups together is their imaging, their proud sort of demonstration of their Southern roots

Ideas and Concepts:

How American Blues had to be exported to England before it came back to America to influence American Blues-based Rock, via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class: "You would think that American Blues-based rock bands would take most of their influence from American Blues, but the case is that most of these bands were very influenced by the British bands of the 1960s. It's as if the Blues had to leave the United States, go to Britain where it influenced British Blues-based Rock, and then come back again for Americans to play it. This can't be said in every case, but it's just that the Stones and Cream were so big and overwhelming as American kids grew up, that when they became teenagers in the 70s and started playing their own music, this is generally the kind of music that they played."
On the essence of Southern Rock, via today's History of Rock and Roll class:

"In United States music history, the Southern Rock genre is represented by bands such as Lynyrd Skynyrd ("Sweet Home Alabama", "Free Bird") and The Allman Brothers Band ("Ramblin' Man") from the 1970s. But what makes Southern Rock Southern? Is it Southern because of where it comes from? Would you be able to tell where it came from if you didn't know the name? The answer is yes, and the reason is because that's the way it was packaged.

Ironically, Southern Rock had its greatest sales in Northern cities simply because in the early 1970s, that's demographically where the highest concentration of people lived. So what constituted "Southern" was what constituted Southern in the minds of Northerners, who in many cases didn't have any direct contact with the South and may have never been there.

So when you see Confederate flags and pickup trucks and big dogs and rifles and this kind of thing, it all stands for Southern life, almost a cartoonish version of it. And one thing the marketing people picked up on was that if they could push this image, they could sell these groups and find a marketing niche for them especially in the North.

And so Southern Rock became a kind of marketing label that featured interesting, heroic, and fun-loving images of the South, not that these images were accurate, they were often simple caricatures that Northern people had of the South, but one thing that pulls these Southern Rock groups together is this advertising approach and the proud sort of demonstration of a band's Southern roots with all of its appropriate imagery."
Via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class, Southern Rock that I actually like, a live 1973 performance of "Can't You See" by The Marshall Tucker Band: "This song proves that you don't need a million chords or complicated passages for it to be great. All you need is a good groove and to play from the heart."
1970s: Hippie Aesthetic, Corporate Rock, Disco, and Punk
British Blues-Based Bands and the Roots of Heavy Metal
American Blues Rock and Southern Rock
The Era of Progressive Rock
Jazz Rock in the 70s
Theatrical Rock: KISS, Bowie, and Alice Cooper
American Singer-Songwriters of the 70s
British and Canadian Singer-Songwriters
Country Rock's Influence on 1970s Music
Black Pop in the 1970s
Sly Stone and His Influence on Black Pop, Funk, and Psychedelic Soul
Motown in the 1970s
Philadelphia Sound and Soul Train
Blaxploitation Soundtracks
The Uniqueness of James Brown
Bob Marley and the Rise of Reggae
The Backlash Against Disco
1975-1980: The Rise of the Mega-Αlbum
Continuity Bands in the 1970s
Rock and Roll in the Second Half of the 1970s
U.S. Punk 1967-1975
1974-77: Punk in the UK
American New Wave 1977-80
British New Wave 1977-80
The Hippie Aesthetic: 1966-1980
The Rise of MTV
Michael Jackson: MTV's Unexpected Boon
Madonna as Disruptive Shock Artist
Prince and Janet Jackson
Other Groups Who Benefited from MTV
1980s New Traditionalists and New Wave
1980s New Acts, Old Styles and Blue-Eyed Soul
1970s Progressive Rock Adapts to the 80s
1980's Heavy Metal
1980s Heavy Metal and L.A. Hair Bands
1980s Ambitious Heavy Metal
The Beginning of Rap
1980s: Rap Crosses Over to Mainstream
Late 1980s Hard Core Rap
Punk Goes Hardcore
Late 80s Indie Rock Underground
1990s: The Rise of Alternative Rock
1990s Indie Rock and the Question of Selling Out
1990s Metal and Alternative Extensions
Hip-Hop in the 1990s
Classic Rock of the 1990s
1990s Jam Bands and Britpop
Female Singer-Songwriters of the 1990s
The Rise of Teen Idols in the 1990s
1990s Dance Music