Pre-'64 Rock 'n' Roll Bands in America

[kopper]

Little Steven has this quote on his Facebook page:

"February 8, 1964, there was not one single rock 'n' roll band in the country. February 9, the Beatles played The Ed Sullivan Show. February 10, everyone had one....My life began on February 9, 1964." - Little Steven (quoted in Esquire, Dec 2008)

What do you think? I think in general he might be right, but I can think of lots of bands that existed prior to '64... the Wailers, the Sonics, the Pyramids, Paul Revere & the Raiders, etc.

While the Beatles appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show no doubt gave a huge shot in the arm to rock 'n' roll in the U.S. (and elsewhere) and helped spur on the garage-band BOOM of '65-'67, I just don't think it's fair to give them all the credit.

It's stuff like that that kinda annoys me about Little Steven.

[The Desperate Hour Podcast]

Kevin Schneider said:

I found this tidbit of trivia: the 1963 Grammy for best rock and roll recording went to Bent Fabric for "Alley Cat".

Which gave rise to the explosion of polyester powder blue pant-suited 55+ women grinding wedding receptions to a halt to do the Hully Gully. When they all died off, it was replaced by bolt-on boobed spray tanned 40-somethings doing the Electric Slide

[kopper]

Who ever wrote those notes...

I'm guessing it was Greg Shaw who wrote the liner notes in the Pebbles series, wasn't it?

Tim Warren's liner notes in the Back From the Grave series are great, too.

Joe's Garage said:

One of the old "Pebbles" vinyl LPs had a great set of liner notes that kinda summed up a good reaction to the notion that the "Beatles saved rock and roll". Who ever wrote those notes did a great job to note how before the Beatles, Britain had Lonnie Donegal singing "My Father is a Dustman" type of crap. I watched that show on Feb 9th 1964 and I can remember there was a lot of U.S. rock music back then too. And anyway, Beatles, Stones, Who etc. did not bring us recycled Lonnie Donegan...now did they???

[Rockin Rod Strychnine]

I think Greg Shaw commisioned a lot of his contributers to his magazine to do some of the gonzo styled ramblings that appeared on the back of the early pebbles. or he just used a lot of psuedonyms.