My introduction to garage was essentially through Ugly Things and Easybeats, with HITMS, Pebbles, and BFTG hot on their heels. Therefore, unlike many Americans who appear to have a strong perceptual divide between “garage” (being essentially American), and “freakbeat”, “merseybeat”, or just “beat” originating from England, and who furthermore see garage as eminating from rock ’n’ roll - particularly as interpreted by the Northwest scene; even though I can hear and appreciate these differences, I instead zeroed in on the commonalities between the American and British styles. I see the more important formative influence on sixties garage as emanating from merseybeat.
After the novelty quickly wore off, by the time I was in my mid-teens, I found rock ’n’ roll to be deadly boring, precisely because of its unwavering adherence to the I-IV-V formula. I’ve never cared for drinking anthems or novelty either, so, thanks to Mike, I think I now better understand why I don’t like frat (except for some of the more atypical examples). It’s the unpredictability of merseybeat, and British invasion garage, which is one of its principal attractions to me. While I do like Northwest bands like the Sonics and the Kingsmen, I’ve never rated them that highly compared with the invasion-influenced bands of the southern, mid-western, and eastern states. It’s a similar story for me with R ’n’ B: the 12 bar blues formula quickly becomes repetitious, and an R ’n’ B song really has to stand out from the croud before I’ll call it garage - or it should at least contain an unexpected departure. I in fact see garage as a breakaway from the banality of rock ’n’ roll. Rock ’n’ roll may have been seen as anti-establishment when it started (although I think it was almost as staged as ‘70s punk was to be), but by 1964 it had become the establishment.
That’s just the way I see it, and others may see it differently, but I think at least it probably goes a long way to explaining why I have a different definintion of garage to some of the (mainly American) members here. It would aslo explain why I rate a certain portion of the TBM entries significantly differently. It’ll be interesting to hear other members views on this topic.
