How about The Bus Boys or the ironically named The Negro Problem
How about The Bus Boys or the ironically named The Negro Problem
Here's the rarest of the rare: The Pyramids, an early 60s surf band in which the rhythm guitar player, Willie Glover, was black. Also incredibly rare about them was all the members had shaved heads. They were the house band in the movie Bikini Beach.
Lou
Looking forward to my day in court.
As it was alluded to in the first post, rock and roll wouldn't even exist without being created by black musicians.
+1Originally Posted by Blah_Blah_Woof_Woof
Despite the Pat Boones of the world trying to whitewash it.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Well, it's not the "Pat Boones of the world" who've tried to whitewash it, but more so the record companies executives and uninformed people who think that rock n roll was "invented" by white people.
Recently, on Pawn Stars, Les Paul's nephew, I think he was, brought in a guitar that was owned by Les. In the process of explaining Les Paul, whichever idiot it was made a comment about Les "inventing rock n roll" or at least being involved in inventing it. Les had a lot to do with creating the technology that made certain aspects of the rock era possible (eg Queen would have never had those lush vocal and guitar harmonies without multi-track recording). But he never had anything to do with playing anything that could be remotely called "rock n roll". At best, he played jazz music, but he also made a lot of what could be termed elevator music, especially when he was working with Mary Ford.
I remember back in 2004, whichever corporate entity that is who now owns the RCA catalog, I think it's BMG, were hyping the 60th anniversary of the birth of rock n roll. Their official reckoning was that rock n roll was born the day Elvis recorded That's All Right. Now, I like some of what Elvis did, but I'm sorry but rock n roll was already happening by then. He wasn't even the first white guy doing it, because Bill Haley had already recorded Rock Around The Clock.
Whoever it was who "invented" rock n roll, I can promise you it wasn't a white man.
This is the whole formula that was behind the large, but short-lived, success of rapper Vanilla Ice... (not that Vanilla Ice should ever be compared to Elvis, but Im just making a formulaic analog)
I don't follow. What does Vanilla Ice have to do with it?
Like Elvis, he was one of the first guys to take a predominantly "black-culture music" and have commercial success with it. I dont think any white rapper had hit the charts in the previous 9 years since rap's inception. Rap was exploding with teenagers for years in the mid- and late- 80s, but Ice was the first to put "white peeeplez" on the charts with this style of music (Blondie's "rapture" had a rap part on it (and a lame one, too) but it wasnt a rap song, per se)....if you remember that, he was HUGE. Whether or not he was "good" or "bad" at rapping is irrelevent: Him being white and doing rap at the time had everything to do with his success. Like Elvis, it was almost taboo. Word yo.
The Beastie Boys predated Vanilla Ice by a few years, and were certainly no 'one hit wonder/flash in the pan' artists in the rap genre...
-=Will you stand by me against the cold night, or are you afraid of the ice?=-
I'm with Ernie, this is a bit of a strange thread...but:
Osibisa?
Yup, totally true and I agree --- but they were marketed as a Group under a group name, like "Bill Haley and the Comets"....... this is why Ice has the analog to Elvis
Assagai
Hannibal (Alex Boyce: Vocals)
I worked for a wholesale distributor in Oakland when Vanilla Ice came out. We sold tons of cassette singles before Capitol picked up on it. We were selling to a predominantly black clientele who did not know that he was white- The cassette did not have a picture on it. Sampling Queen gave it a familiarity that helped its popularity. Certainly his being white helped when marketing a video on MTV. MC Hammer also sold very well because of a familiar Rick James riff.
As to the creation of rock'n'roll, Louis Jordan took big band arrangements down to a smaller Jump Band format. This simplification sounds like r'n'r to me. Translating further by using guitars and a single sax player took the format closer. Elvis's choices of songs were covers of blues artists. Let's face it: Blues, jazz, gospel- They were created and perfected by black musicians. Rock and roll was certainly co-opted but was also evolved by white kids. Skiffle was the model for the British Invasion groups but they heard black rock and roll and blues through Radio Luxembourg and were more aware of that culture than American youth limited to our radio/payola playlists. Pat Boone does Fats Domino. The Twist was a watered-down version of Hank Ballard done by a man of color who was nothing more than an impersonator***. It's struggling but rock and roll is still alive sixty years later.
Same trick RCA used when promoting Charlie Pride back in the 60's: his earliest records didn't have pictures of him on them, so nobody knew he was black. In the late 70's, Motown did the same with Teena Marie's first album
Spock's Beard!
Sorry, Ernie. I pretty much agree with your sentiment.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
They are still together in various incarnations and did a few shows last year. I actually saw them on their first tour way back in 89 and they killed. Over the past 4 years or so I have become friendly with founding member, lead guitarist and singer Jimi Hazel. He is a great guy and huge music fan of all kinds of crazy stuff.
Have I shared the 80s AOR/hard rock act Xavion yet?
There’s also the prog band Easter Island, who had a black singer (Rick Bartlett).
Also: people here were bashing Prince earlier? For shame! Purple Rain, Around the World in a Day and Lovesexy were great albums!
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
Holy crap! How did I forget to mention Jon Butcher Axis?
An instrumental on the Along The Axis album was nominated for a Grammy that year, but lost out to Jeff Beck. I always that was kinda funny, because Jon is one of the singers "auditioning" for Jeff in the Ambitious video. I always dug that blue Strat he used back in the 80's.
Can't believe I forgot to mention the great guitarist Larry Mitchell, who has recorded many albums over the years. He tours with his band The Larry Mitchell Trio.
Charley Pride was a pioneer in another area. His tribute to Jim Reeves album was the first copy-protected CD, because you know all those kids just wanted to grab that puppy off Napster.
[QUOTE=GuitarGeek;203391]Holy crap! How did I forget to mention Jon Butcher Axis?
Life Takes a Life!
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Lotsa great names up for proposal here.
Brazil even had their sheer of black musicians in the 70s progressive rock movement of that country. Som Nosso de Cada Dia indeed sported a keys player and a drummer of African origins:
Som Imaginario had a black drummer:
Or how about a black cockney keyboardist and band leader? Julian Jay Savarin:
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
Band of Gypsys !
Death, out of Detroit, 1971:
Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes
I recall some Jon Butcher songs from a couple decades back, solid stuff if I remember correctly.
Any mention of Tony MacAlpine? He's a monster guitarist and keyboardist. And he's done a lot outside of his solo career, like being a sideman for Steve Vai, then bands like CAB, Planet X and others.
As to Prince, I never got what the big deal was, always found his music annoying at best. Multi-talented, yeah. Can he play guitar? Sure, but so can a lot of people. More often than not he's seen wearing the guitar like a piece of jewelery. Someone mentioned his use of falsetto, which is incredibly irritating. Now I have that awful song "Kiss" in my head. Make it stop! Remember "Batdance"? Uhhhhggg, horrible! I remember some good songs too, but nothing terribly exciting. Purple Rain? What a stupid movie, and the title track is pure dreck of a ballad. Talented but overrated.
As to Chuck Berry, I'm not much a fan of 50's rock, but definitely give Chuck his due as an inovator.
Hendrix? Supreme talent, and I love most of the Experience material. Band of Gypsies is not my thing. I do think people exaggerate his greatness a bit, but he does deserve accolades.
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