EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
History of Rock, 1970-Present
John Covach, University of Rochester
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E Country Rock's Influence on 1970s Music Notes taken on April 7, 2015 by Edward Tanguay |
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the idea of blending country music together with rock and roll at the end of the 1960s was kind of a bold thing to do
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because in the United States country music was the music of relatively conservative, what we would call today "red state" people
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who had no respect or regard for hippies or hippy music and rock and roll
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we often associate red state people with country music which is very much juxtaposed against rock
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so when people like the Byrds went to Nashville to record Sweetheart of the Rodeo in 1968
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they were really doing something that no one thought of doing before
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the idea of blending country music and country musicians with rock musicians
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bands which combined country and rock
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The Byrds
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The Band
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1968: The Weight (took a load off Fanny)
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1969: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
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embraced country, Americana, and Southern culture
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Bob Dylan
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1969: Nashville Skyline
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Crosby, Stills, and Nash
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1969: Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
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country influences
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characteristics
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song-oriented music
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polished, lead vocals
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rich, vocal harmonies
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a lot of country touches
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harmonica
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steel guitar
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country rock was a reaction against the excessiveness of psychedelic music
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going back to acoustic sounds
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going back to the roots
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an embrace of Americana
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this apparent simplicity seemed more honest and authentic to people
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not full of studio trickery
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was about a singer, a song, and acoustic instruments
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precursor to country rock
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Creedence Clearwater Revival
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hard to classify them, like
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Three Dog Night
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Grand Funk
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played an important role in rock history
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came from San Francisco but was not representative in any way of the psychedelia that was going on there in late 1960s
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John Fogerty
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voice that sounded like it was somewhere between country-western music and blues
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many people thought he was black
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1969: Proud Mary
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1969: Bad Moon Rising
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1969: Down on the Corner
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Linda Ronstadt
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You're No Good
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The Eagles
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there was no group who better wrapped up this country rock thing for the first half of the 1970s
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no group that was more emblematic of country rock
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some of them started as backup musicians to Linda Ronstadt
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Glenn Frey
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Don Henley
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1971 broke off from Linda Ronstadt and formed their own group
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she was supportive of this
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a clear reference to The Birds
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decided to embrace the country sounds
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song oriented
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emphasizes the vocals
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like the Beatles
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lush, harmony vocals
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not a lot of fancy guitar playing
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Southern influence mixed with that Southern California sounds
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first couple albums produced by Glyn Johns
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didn't always get along with the band
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British
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worked with the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and the Who
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recorded in London
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1972 Take It Easy
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banjo
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lush harmony vocals
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country twang to the lead vocal
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1972 Witchy Woman
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1972 Peaceful Easy Feeling
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1973 Desperado
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concept album of the Wild West
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disappointing follow-up
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1974 On the Border
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decide they don't like Glyn Johns
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want to be more rocky
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Best of My Love
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1975 One of Those Nights
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1975 Lyin' Eyes
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1975 Take It to the Limit
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morphed into a different kind of group
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Hotel California
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The Long Run
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characterized the second half of the 70s
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trends
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we can connect up music from the 1960s psychedelic era until the end of the 1970s around this idea of the hippy aesthetic
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whether the groups were musically ambitious or relied more on simplicity
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all of them embrace some aspect of this hippy aesthetic idea
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first half of 1970s speciality styles coming out of psychedelia
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also see the building of the music business, getting bigger than anybody expected it to do
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brings more money into the business
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what had been a wider variety of styles in the beginning of the 1970s becomes more and more homogenized down into safe bets of things that people know they can sell a lot of, synthetic music constructed for no other reason than to sell albums and tickets to concerts.
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what grows out of this is (1) punk rock which attempts to defeat both the hippy aesthetic and this kind of corporate rock, and (2) disco, which, whether it wants to defeat the hippy aesthetic and corporate rock or not, stands in juxtaposition against it
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technology is
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what started at 4 tracks in the 60s becomes 8, 16, 32, and 48 by the end of the 70s
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the musicians tend to fill them up with things
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Steely Dan plays a big role in the development of sound