what happened after 1970 ?

D

danny havoc

Pharaoh Class
Joined
Feb 28, 2013
Hi All,
thought I'd pick some brains on here. i've always wondered what happened to garage bands after the 60s rock explosion ( say 1963-69) and the start of punk - new wave (1976-79). Ive read alot of histories of 1960s garage and 1970s punks, and the stories of small garage bands are remarkably similar, ( ie: new kind of music evolves, audience appears for that music, more opportunities of work for bands, independant records labels appear to market music, sound familiar?), but what about a group of young guys just wanting to play some local gigs, and maybe write a song and sell some 45s at a gig in 1971-75, were there gigs for straight rock n roll bands?, could you make a living from it?, could you sell a few records? would your local station play your song?
from what i read the market for rock bands playing live in the mid 1960s was huge, even quite avaerage bands could get 50 - 80 gigs a year earning better money than their dads were!!
Did this change at the start of the 1970s? and why?
What happened to the kids who just wanted to rock? Surely not everyone aspired to be David Bowie, or Black Sabbath, or The Osmonds, or Led Zep or worse the eagles?
was anyone there or know what changed or did it not change, have rock historians lied to me again?
Many thanks in advance, Dan
 
Rock historians have always lied. Rolling Stone lied. Lester Bangs was a liar. Greg Shaw - liar. Rock and roll is myth fantasy and fable (and I don't mean the prog / Roger Dean artwork / D&D stuff).

Bands made more money in the 1970s than the 1960s, at least until disco ruled. During the 1970s there were plenty of rock bands that played bars. The main difference that instead of teen (13-18) most places were 18 over as drinking age was 18. Many people made decent livings - as 'adults' living on their own, not teens living with parents - playing clubs. Records were not as relevant. Instead of DIY bands wanted to be signed to a big label and become rock stars for real. Punk brought back DIY in a big way but it was not gone from '70 to '77, as bands did release 45s and LPs on their own (a lot more LPs in the 70s than 60s). Some of these records got airplay on local radio, I heard several Cleveland/NE Ohio records on the radio back then, but not all of them.

A typical band in 1973 was not a lot different than 1966. You made money playing live, you played 2-3 sets a night, you played hits of the day mixed with some older songs. Playing 4-5 nights a week was possible for the top bands. Playing danceable stuff was relevant but not as much as the mid 60s. Bands had identities just like in the 1960s, there were Rolling Stones types, Led Zeppelin types, Who types, etc. Around 1974 there were Aerosmith and Kiss types. I'm not bothering to include the numerous prog and country rock bands.
 
danny havoc said:
What happened to the kids who just wanted to rock? Surely not everyone aspired to be David Bowie, or Black Sabbath, or The Osmonds, or Led Zep or worse the eagles?
Click to expand...

The problem is, once you have heard something, you can't "un-hear" it. Once you've been influenced by something, you can't ever fully escape that influence. Progressive rock was huge in 1968/9, and its influence still permeates today's rock music scene.

Garage bands of the mid '60s had never heard Jimi Hendrix or Cream, or the Grateful Dead (or the other artistes you mentioned). They were mostly influenced by early rock n roll, r&b and blues. And then British Invasion sounds of course. With such amazing influences, no wonder the results were incredible.

But things changed very quickly. By the late '60s there was a real peer pressure to appreciate, talk about, or play "progressive" music. If you happened to like something like Psychotic Reaction (Count Five) for example, you would be looked down upon, as having "commercial" taste. It'd be almost the same as saying you liked The Ohio Express or the 1910 Fruit Gum Company. Cool now, incredibly uncool then.

Styles changed every few months in the '60s. Everyone wanted to grow up fast, and everyone was tuned into the same basic musical trends, more or less. Commercial teen beat (which included much of the stuff we love) was dumped overnight, and replaced by serious "rock". The genocide was so ruthless that by 1972, the fad now known as '60s garage, was virtually wiped off the face of the planet. There were no compilations, there were no re-issues, nothing. It had to be re-discovered from scratch.
 
Thanks Guys for your quick thoughtful replies, i understand what you mean about pressure to play progressive music, i played professionally in a band for the first time in 1994, and we wanted to play similar "garagey" type rock of our heroes like the Hoodoo Gurus, Mondo Rock, The sTEMS and others of the mid 80s ( i'm an Aussie, as you've probably guessed!!), Great commercial, energetic rock n roll but frowned upon in the post grunge, navel gazing, depressed noise junk of 1994/5/6. Made it hard to get gigs, if you didnt play marshall stacks distorted so much you couldn't hear any vocals!!!!!!!

I guess I'm just always surprised there weren't more young bands in that era (1971-75) inspired by bands of those dAYS playing straightforward, funky rock like Creedence, Sir Douglas, Bob Seger System , Commander Cody but thats just me!!
 
danny havoc said:
What happened to the kids who just wanted to rock? Surely not everyone aspired to be David Bowie, or Black Sabbath, or The Osmonds, or Led Zep or worse the eagles?
Click to expand...
That era was my youth in Sydney. I was 14 in 1974 and you'd be lucky to hear anything that we would call garage these days. As Mark wrote, it had been pretty much wiped out by prog. There were neighbourhood groups. I recall seeing groups play at the local church hall. They would have long hair, flared jeans and play generic hard rock. Some of my friends were into music and started groups around '74/'75 and they were playing covers of Alice Cooper, stuff like that. Around that time we started to read about stuff like Velvet Underground and the Stooges and somehow that lead on to the punk scene and very soon after the rediscovery of '60s garage. But the early to mid '70s was pretty dull musically - glam, boogie, prog.
 
There was a very healthy Pub Rock scene in England in the '70s, and to a lesser extent I know in western Canada, here they were just bar bands. The seeds of do it yourself (continued from garage groups getting a single or two out locally), the anti-arena anti-corporate approach.

I've been told that in Holland 'canned' or dj music killed live shows, and then that darn Tammy Wynette hit seemed to corrupt everything.
 
Certainly there were bands going against the grain in the early '70s; witness the infamous Ohio "pre-punk" scene with bands like The Electric Eels and The Mirrors. Both bands did a fair amount of recording but nothing was released until after they broke up.

Can't forget the Modern Lovers who actually had a dalliance with a major label but due to Jonathan Richman's increasingly eccentric nature, it simply did not happen for them. Imagine if those John Cale produced sessions had come out in '72-'73. Would things have been different?
 
Thanks guys for your input, i always wondered about that era , it sounds like basic rock went into one of its frequent hibernations in these years. Maybe the Doug Sahm produced Louie and the Lovers, even Emmitt Rhodes, are the style of band i'm thinking of , and I wonder why there was no audience or market for this type of thing...

I'm always inspired by the guys who keep on rockin when the mainstream isn't, for example rock histories tell us not much happened between Buddy Holly's death and the coming of the Beatles, but then i listen to my hero, Del Shannon , and others (Dion, Gary US Bonds, Johnny Kidd, Link Wray, Dick Dale, Roy Orbison) who kept the flag flying in those years.

I understand what is being said about the inability of most bands to go against the grain, I remember a battle of the bands I played in 1994, our band played 2 originals, Summertime blues, I'm not like everybody else, and Little Latin Lupe Lu, and the other four bands all , ALL , played Enter Sandman!!!! Every single band !!!
Ahh , the good old days!
 
Most 60s garage bands tended to follow the popular trends of the day. At the time, bands like the Stones and the Kinks were playing good music. As a result, you had bands of American teenagers playing good music. When the big name bands adopted a different sound, the garage bands followed. It's unfortunate. Along with the changing sounds came the increasing popularity of the LP and decreasing popularity of the 45, longer-than-3-minute-songs, and FM radio. All these combined to draw local bands away from their earlier type of music. But the good stuff did get re-discovered and eventually influenced local and big-name acts once again.
I've always wondered if there weren't some garage bands in the late sixties and early seventies still playing the good stuff. Perhaps in out of the way locales far from big cities ?
 
JakeTheFlake said:
When the big name bands adopted a different sound, the garage bands followed. It's unfortunate.
Click to expand...
...especially when -the most influential band on earth aka- the Beatles became a "studio band", recording -sometimes great- but undanceable songs (how can you possibly record something danceable while playing your guitar while sitting?!). Ringo called Rubber Soul the "departure record"... because they quit the BEAT! Fortunately the impact was not immediate... and Jamerson & Dunn were still standing!
 
bosshoss said:
Garage bands of the mid '60s had never heard Jimi Hendrix or Cream, or the Grateful Dead (or the other artistes you mentioned). They were mostly influenced by early rock n roll, r&b and blues. And then British Invasion sounds of course. With such amazing influences, no wonder the results were incredible.
Click to expand...

Mark,

What exactly do you define as mid-60s? Hendrix and Cream were both a part of our playlist and both very influencial. To me they were both part of the mid-60s, 65-68.

And, as a historian, you do not lie. Nor do most of the guys on here. Buckeye is right about the early 70s. Bands were still very popular and busy but the venues had changed from teen to adult clubs and concerts were becoming more the norm than dance clubs of any kind. And, the music business was changing as fast as the music. 45's were no longer the major media platform and DJ's were losing the ability to select their own programming. But, in my opinion, some of the best music came out of the late 60's and early 70's. However, the greatest period in musical history was 63 through 67.
 
tom kirby said:
Mark,
What exactly do you define as mid-60s? Hendrix and Cream were both a part of our playlist and both very influencial. To me they were both part of the mid-60s, 65-68.
Click to expand...

So, what is late '60s? Just 1969? :cool:

I would define mid '60s as 1964/1965/1966

Early '60s would be 1960/1961/1962/1963

Late '60s would be 1967/1968/1969

Cream formed in late 1966. First LP Fresh Cream released in Dec. 1966 in the UK, and Jan. 1967 in the USA. Hendrix's first LP and 45 were both released in 1967. They both sit at the beginning of my definition of "late 60s".
 
bosshoss said:
So, what is late '60s? Just 1969? :cool:

I would define mid '60s as 1964/1965/1966

Early '60s would be 1960/1961/1962/1963

Late '60s would be 1967/1968/1969

Cream formed in late 1966. First LP Fresh Cream released in Dec. 1966 in the UK, and Jan. 1967 in the USA. Hendrix's first LP and 45 were both released in 1967. They both sit at the beginning of my definition of "late 60s".
Click to expand...
I couldn't agree more. ;)
 
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