Feb 222010
OK, maybe you’ve had some time to think about this question, based on our current poll: Why do British rockers typically have more style than American rockers?
Is it, as the poll states:
- Because they’re still playing catch up to the original, stylish American rockers.
- Because they wear “trousers.”
- Because they lack America’s midwestern population of rockers still aspiring to look like The Raspberries.
- Another reason, which you will answer in this thread.
- Or do you disagree with this premise altogether and are ready to discuss it now?
Personally, I think the British have been working harder all these years to catch up to Elvis, Little Richard, et al.
It’s because Americans have more substance, as evidenced by the interminable bass solo that starts at about 1:30 in the Canned Heat video. Everything you need to know about American style can be seen at 6:25 – 6:35.
It goes back to the original war of American Independence. The British wore beautifully tailored bright red knee-length coats. They all stood in a row and fired guns in time. We hid in the trees in tee-shirts and jeans and hit them with sticks, bottles, arrows,and musketballs.
I never heard any canned heat until i clicked that video above. I hated it. i never want to hear that kind of shit again. That’s boogie isn’t it? I fuckin hate boogie. It’s what most “jam-sessions” devolve into at some point or another when the uninspired people you are playing with have to admit that they don’t have any songs. It’s like the grandfather of rap.
the Slade clip, on the other hand, was terrific! i never heard that song before. i love it.
the outfits? i’m not so sure.
shawn is pretty right on with the revolution thing. It was evidenced in 60s fashion as well. Brits were all wild styles and Carnaby street while Americans were all about being as filthy as possible. Being colonized by criminals gives Americans a distaste for style and fashion ’cause that shit’s for ponces and represents the classes they were fleeing from.
I know there are lots of Elvis fans here and I’m sorry but I gotta say that Vince Taylor video is 10x cooler than anything I’ve ever seen Elvis do.
Like Sammy, I was thinking about Carnaby Street. The mid-’60s seem to me the first time when rock was linked up not just with fashion choices, but an actual fashion scene/movement with favored designers and models.
Speaking a bit to my own tastes in rock, fashion and the intersection thereof, I don’t think America really has that many dandy fop icons in rock. UK has The Kinks, Syd Barrett, Ferry, Morrissey, Jarvis Cocker, etc. etc.
I don’t know, the Vince Taylor clip is fascinating, but it’s a bit camp, don’t you think? With the melodramatic poses and gestures, it’s like the Joan Crawford version of rock&roll, as though he was trying to get at the thrill of early R&R without grasping what it really was that made it great.
I’m not making any great claims for the Canned Heat clip. It would be possible to put a great guitar solo over that rhythm, but that’s definitely not a great guitar solo. But look how committed the band is to what they’re doing. Bob Hite, the singer, is totally grooving and encouraging the other band members, and it doesn’t seem fake at all.
Slade on the other hand couldn’t be less authentic. All dressed up and nowhere to go. I know they’re miming, so it’s not fair to compare, but they look bored with playing pop stars. Nothing wrong with having some fun, but no one looks like they’re having fun.
This is the way I feel right now. I’m totally capable of taking the other side in a style vs. substance argument.
It certainly doesn’t rawk but there’s a sinister underbelly with the black gloves and the echo. It’s Lynchian but also has a Kenneth Anger vibe about it. I don’t know Vince from squat but I’ve got a hunch he was into some dark stuff.
“Being colonized by criminals gives Americans a distaste for style and fashion………”
Umm,sammymaudlin, America was colonized by religious dissenters like the Purtitans, who also probably weren’t too hep on style ‘n fashion.
diskoe, America was colonized by criminals, debtors and yes, puritans. All n’eer-do-wells by European standards and good riddance by Britain and others.
I’ve read that something like 1/4th of all people sent from Britain to the new colony were criminals and, I’m not a history scholar, but I think all of Georgia was settled as a criminal/debtor colony. I only know this as this where my family comes from and my son had to do a family history thing a few years ago.
I also think that Australia was heavily populated with criminals as well. Not a lot of stylish rockers coming out of there either. AC/DC don’t put up with no ponces.
Off-list mail I’ve been receiving tells me our Puritan readers are furious at your accusations, sammy.
Figures.
The Slade clip you chose is a bit pedestrian – Slade were definitely not boring. Perhaps a live clip would have made for a better comparison – showing the sartorial splendour of Slade, as well as their ability to “boogie” with the best of them – may I suggest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m-loYwaCJI&feature=related
plasticsun, thanks for providing a more representative clip. The reason I chose it was to highlight their sense of fashion as a British band that was as working-class and meat-and-potatoes as Canned Heat. And because it was so weird hearing them play a sensitive ballad!
Hey, is that latter day Canned Heat after their geeky guitar hero, Al Wilson was his name, I believe, left. Other than Bob Hite he’s the only one, i can picture, and I don’t see him in this lineup. And don’t go dissin’ the boogie based on this later version of the Heat. Hite isn’t even rockin’ his famous overalls with no shirt look.
Yes, Alan Wilson, the guy who had sung Goin’ Up the Country, was gone by this time (OD, unconfirmed suicide). I’m pretty sure that’s Henry Vestine on lead guitar. And if I have my Canned Heat line-ups straight, that would be Larry Taylor on bass, the same Larry Taylor who has played upright bass with Tom Waits in recent years.
If you have your Canned Heat line-ups straight? Christ, that’s a scary thought!