Sunday Morning Playlist: British Invasion - Page 4

In this self-contained group unit, the band gradually came to be expected to write its own material, instead of the traditional practice of relying on outside songwriters. The Beatles' 1964 album, A Hard Day's Night was the first album ever released by a rock group that contained only songs written by the group itself; soon, this became standard practice, putting the Tin Pan Alley roster of professional songwriters largely out of business.

 

The British Invasion was important also for helping to birth folk rock, by inspiring folkies like Roger (nee Jim) McGuinn to toss away their acoustics for electrics. The British Invasion led to the first psychedelic music (The Yardbirds), the power trio (The Who, Cream), progressive rock (Sgt. Pepper, The Moody Blues, Pink Floyd) and ultimately heavy metal (Argent, Led Zeppelin).

In the 70's, plenty of British acts continued to hit big in America, but no longer as a monolith; British artists who succeeded did so within their own specific musical genres, be it hard rock, heavy metal, progressive, singer/songwriter, punk, et. al. The original, classic British Invasion sound remains variations on the two guitars-bass-drums-maybe an organ-singer lineup, producing melodic pop or rhythmic rock.

Obviously, many of the well-known groups are great, and any recording of theirs is worth a listen. Some of the British Invasion groups were also pretty awful; either cloyingly saccharine, overly cute, or simply bland and uninspired. Thus, any anthology that claims to be a thorough overview of the era is bound to be a very bumpy listen. However, there is a lot of good stuff beyond the obvious names, much of it worth exploring. Not only for Beatles-Stones-Who-Kinks fans, but for anyone with an interest in rock's most formative years; its own teendom, in some respects.

Some important/influential British Invasion artists/songs include:

1. The Beatles: A Hard Days Night

From its opening 12-string guitar chime to its chiming 12-string coda, this is one of the Beatles' most self-assured and best recordings. The rhythm is jaunty, the Lennon/McCartney vocals stellar, the first appearance of a 12-string guitar on a rock record ultimately birthed folk-rock, the exhuberance is still real and unforced, the song writing duo really collaborated on it; it's essentially a perfect rock single. The Richard Lester film, A Hard Days Night, an absurdist take on a typical day in the boys' lives, was a major success, and earned kudos for its sophistication. The single reached #1, as did the album, A Hard Day's Night. The U.S. version of the album (on United Artists) contained the seven songs contained in the film, plus the film's incidental music (not featuring the Beatles) as padding, and Capitol combined leftover numbers from the British album with a British EP and a German language version of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" as Something New, thus the companies squeezed two albums out of one; both reached #1. During one week in 1964, the Beatles had singles in the #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #31, #41, #46, #58, #65, #68, and #69 positions, plus the #1 and #2 allbums. The following week, two more Beatle songs entered the Hot-100.

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