Development of the British Blues ---- show 7 ----

5-14-2014
Downliners Sect           1964-1966 
Nashville Teens            1964-1968
Spencer Davis Group   1964-1966

If there was such a thing as a wunderkind, a child prodigy for the British music scene of the sixties, that title would surely be bestowed upon Stevie Winwood who became the lead instrumentalist, lead vocalist and front man for the Spencer Davis Group at the age of fifteen.  Mostly playing keyboards and guitar, Stevie was the driving force behind the group comprised of his older brother Muff on bass, drummer Peter York and the guitar playing Welsh vocalist who gave the band its name.

Spencer Davis, the individual, was almost a full decade older than Stevie, being born on July 17^th 1939 in Swansea, South Wales.  While visiting London in the mid-50s Davis, like so many of that generation, came upon the Blues through Skiffle and Rock ‘n’ Roll.  The music of Lonnie Donegan led him to Leadbelly and Big Bill Broonzy so when he got to Birmingham University in 1960, his shared ambitions were to become a teacher and to play his twelve-string guitar.  He joined a Trad Jazz band and, for a short while, was in a duo with Christine Perfect before getting a solo gig in 1962 playing a mix of Jazz and Blues during intermissions at the Golden Eagle pub.  He was received with enthusiasm so he added his fellow student and drummer Peter York to the sessions.  This was about when he met the Winwoods.

Muff (contracted from his real name Mervyn) and Stevie Winwood grew up in North Birmingham, Muff born June 15^th 1943 and Stevie on May 12^th 1948, and fell into their appreciation for music well before their teenage years.  Their father was a saxophonist and there would often be more of his musician friends hanging around the home.  Lawrence Winwood encouraged his sons to get involved with instruments at their own pace, which for Stevie meant plunking away at the piano by the age of four.  By the time Stevie was twelve, he encouraged the brothers, now both playing guitar, to inject a Rock ‘n’ Roll medley into his band’s performances of more popular Cliff Richard-styled dance music.

“Later, I got into Jazz when I left school and we started the Muff-Woody Jazz Band with Stevie playing piano.  We played in pubs and had to turn the piano front to the audience so they couldn’t see, because he was so obviously too young.  We played Traditional Jazz, which was popular in the early sixties – Kenny Ball, Acker Bilk.  Then, we picked up on Modernist Jazz, John Coltrane and Roland Kirk.  We went into Jazz record shops and found, all of a sudden, Muddy Waters and (became) turned onto all these Blues players”, as Muff recalls.

They met Spencer while playing at a university gig and the exposure he provided them to his record collection of Folk and Blues music solidified their determination to join forces in an R&B band with Davis and York while Muff switched to bass.  This eventually led to a recurring Monday night spot at the Golden Eagle as the Rhythm and Blues Quartet.  Muff actually came up with the name Spencer Davis Group because it got the others out of the chore of having to do interviews, etc., the type of task Davis actually enjoyed.  However, it was their Jazz background that made them a solid choice to back up Jimmy Witherspoon a few times during his stay in the U.K.

Island Records owner Chris Blackwell became very impressed with the quartet and, while he wasn’t officially their manager, he provided them with advice and got them to sign with Fontana instead of Decca.  They did sign a publishing contract and all their releases bore a notation as “An Island Record Production”.

Their first release, in August 1964, was hampered by poor timing.  It was Dimples, a John Lee Hooker tune that got among the best crowd reaction in their live sets, but suffered from the coincidence of John Lee’s original version hitting the British sales counters almost simultaneously, so kind of an example of too much of a good thing.  Their next two singles were more Soul-based, I Can’t Stand It in October and January’s Every Little Bit Hurts.  Dimples failed to chart while the next two hit 47 and 41 respectively, and those singles along with Midnight Train, the B-side to I Can’t Stand It, were the only representatives from Their First LP (yes, that was the title) to make our playlist.  The fact that the first three singles and their B-sides were included on the LP bucked the trend of most Brit albums of the time, and the fact that there were only twelve as opposed to fourteen tracks seemed to have more in common with American releases.  The #44 Strong Love and its flipside This Hammer released in May, two months before the #6 rated album but recorded too late to be included, made our opening set along with Keep On Running, the U.K. chart topper released in November ’65 and their first vinyl to chart in the U.S. although at a meager #76.  These three songs also found their way onto the next album.

Second Album (again, yes, the imaginative title) climbed to #2 with its January release.  For our second SDG set, Georgia on My Mind, I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water and Watch Your Step were taken from the album.  Kansas City is a live studio recording from early 1967.

The third album, Autumn ’66 released in September and reaching #4, again went against the normal British labels' procedure by including the two A-sides that preceded it, Somebody Help Me (another chart topper from March, giving them back to back #1 singles) and When I Come Home, the August follow-up that hit #12.  

These two songs and their predecessor, Keep on Running, were all penned by Jackie Edwards, an Island Records artist, but Blackwell was convinced the boys had to start writing more of their own material instead of just the B-sides.  To this end, he left them alone in a studio and returned a short time later to find they had left for a round of drinking.  Upset, he began to berate them for giving up but was cut off when they asked him to come back to the studio and see what they had prepared.  As they explained, after a short time of playing around, they hit on a riff they liked and worked it through.  Convinced they had hit the mark, the boys then took the opportunity for a little celebration.  Blackwell concurred and quickly put the tune to tape and rushed it out for publication.

Gimme Some Lovin’ reached the music stores in October of 1966 and went to #2 in the U.K.  For its American version, which became their most successful U.S. charting at #7, percussion was added by some of the future members of Traffic and it was decided to include them again for the January-released I’m a Man.  The Winwood brothers agreed that when the time came they would leave the band together and set a departure date far enough in advance so as to give full promotion to their final single: April 1967.  The song climbed to #9 U.K. and #10 U.S. 

The first U.S. album would not come out until March of 1967, about the same time the Winwoods made their exit from the band.  New Music Express had determined the Davis Group the best new band for 1966, but Stevie was by then in the midst of jam sessions with percussionist Jim Capaldi and guitarist Dave Mason from the band Hellions who would soon join him, along with multi-instrumentalist Chris Wood, in forming Traffic.  “Steve was losing interest.  Because he was so young and never had a real growing up life, he was fed up.  Suddenly, he didn’t want to get up in the morning and play a gig.  He wanted to break out.”  Muff moved on to assist Blackwell in the early development of his Island Records, where he remained for more than a decade in varying capacities, and Steve continued on with Traffic leading into his solo career.  We will see him again when we check out Blind Faith.

Not that chart success is the truest mark of a great band, their popularity with the spending public is hard to ignore since the release of the first of three albums charting at numbers 6, 2 and 4, plus three #1 singles (not to mention the two others at relatively disappointing numbers of 9 and 12), all happening in the year and a half between July 1965 and January 1967.  I’m sure that Davis had established some form of credibility capable of recruiting competent musicians.  That said, even with the original group there was very little commercial success stateside, so it is no surprise his further exploits were hardly heard here.  Drummer Peter York stuck with him until November of 1968 when he and Eddie Hardin (who had replaced Stevie as vocalist and keyboard player) left to form their own duo.

I have been aware of the Spencer Davis Group ever since Keep on Running, but their music seemed difficult to find in the states.  I have a couple of very scratched up albums and a 13 track “best of” CD but was pleased to find there was a 51 track double CD compilation with everything Stevie did with the band with one minor exception.  The band was very popular in Germany.  Fortuitously, Spencer was a teacher of the German language and in their several tours there, the crowd loved it when he would introduce the songs in their native tongue,  Desire for a record in German produced Det War in Schoneburg, a jaunty pre-war folksong Muff compares to Greensleeves in the liner notes.  It strains my curiosity because it is not in this excellent package, but one cannot always get perfection.  The B-side was Stevie’s Groove, one of their three chord organ-led Blues instrumentals which we just didn’t have time for today.

 

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The Downliners Sect was one of the earliest of the British Blues bands and, like a few we’ve already seen, never had the opportunity to make a splash on the American scene.  In fact, the Sect was considered a little too quirky for the British press to feel comfortable with but built up a following that would keep them playing in the clubs and are now kind of a cult classic worldwide or, at least, on two continents.

The band was put together in 1962 by guitarist Don Craine, just one of the members to have changed from their given name.  His birth name was Mick O’Donnell so he was always called Don anyway, Craine being a stream that was near his home.  Even the name of the band changed from its origin as the Downliners in homage to Jerry Lee Lewis’ song Down the Line, penned by Roy Orbison.  Craine’s reason for putting together a band?  “I remember as a kid watching gangster films and you’d see these speakeasies where they’d have all the whores and booze and drugs.  The only people who didn’t get shot were the musicians on the bandstand.”  

After a tour of American military bases in France, the band had made it to the finals of a nationwide talent contest when neither the singer nor the bass player showed up because of girlfriend problems.  Disgusted, Don started totally anew, first by enticing a butcher’s apprentice to give up his job and play drums fulltime and then running an ad for a new singer, guitarist and bass player.  The only one Craine liked was another drummer who was willing to take up the bass.  So by 1963, with Sect now added to the moniker, they had the start of their long-lasting membership with drummer John Sutton, actually a holdover from the earlier band, and bassist \ vocalist Keith Grant (born Keith Evans).  They had also found a lead guitarist for a few months until he went off to college, replacing him with Terry Gibson, previously known as Terry Clemson until he decided to name himself after his guitar.

Like so many bands at the time, they were playing an R&B style based mostly on Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Jimmy Reed as they took on gigs at a rundown hotel on Eel Pie Island and Studio 51 in London’s West End, also known as Ken Colyer’s Jazz Club, while honing their chops.  Their earliest release was an EP that presented their versions of Berry’s Beautiful Delilah, Reed’s Shame Shame Shame, and Bo’s Nursery Rhymes along with Booker T & the MGs’ Green Onions.  Recorded live at the Studio 51 club by Contrast Sound, a label normally specializing in sound effects records, it was released with the title A Night in Great Newport Street.

Ray Sones’ harmonica became the band’s fifth instrument shortly after the EP.  The band soon was working with the independent producer Mike Collier who helped them get a deal with Columbia Records, putting out their first single, a cover of Reed’s Baby What’s Wrong with their own flipside Be a Sect Maniac, in June of 1964.  The Sect actually later got to tour Ireland with Reed.  Don tells of how wonderful Reed felt it was in the U.K., saying how well he was treated and that they pay him twenty pounds per gig.  “’No they don’t, you’re getting 150 pounds’ and his manager came in and said, ‘Well, we’ve gotta go now guys.’  And he had a black manager.”

September saw Sect Appeal, another original, backing the cover of the Coasters’ Little Egypt and the acceptance of their first two singles had the band roaming the English countryside en route to gigs as their popularity grew.  They were also a good draw on continental Europe, particularly in Sweden where their popularity never significantly waned.  They toured there often, playing in much larger venues than elsewhere, their first tour going non-stop for six weeks.  There was even a concert at Stockholm’s Ice Hockey Stadium where the show had to be shut down three songs into the performance as almost 15,000 exuberant fans attempted to join the band on stage.

The next 45 came out in September of 1964 featuring Find Out What’s Happening (with Craine playing rhythm on autoharp) and Insecticide.  Despite a strong record company campaign and Craine’s comment to the Daily Mirror that “We think it’s the best thing we’ve done in the eighteen months we’ve been together”, the disc did not get much of a push on the airwaves.  The band did not always get that same amount of critical support as evidenced when their first LP, released in December and simply titled The Sect, was panned by Melody Maker as sounding like “crude, third rate Rolling Stones”.  New Musical Express found the album acceptable, “(especially) when the five break in between Keith Grant’s monotone singing”.

March 1965 saw the group diverting from the Blues in the studio, while staying true to their R&B sensibilities on stage, with the release of Wreck of the Old ’97 and its B-side Leader of the Sect, the latter also being released on an EP The Sect Sing Sick Songs along with I Want My Baby Back, Midnight Hour and Now She’s Dead.  About the former, NME said it “bounces along jauntily with a sort of railroad rhythm”.  The country trend continued in June with the release of the novelty tune I Got Mine followed shortly by their second LP, The Country Sect.  Bad Storm Coming was taken from the album for their next single backed by Lonely and Blue.  While nothing about the LP, the 45 Bad Storm Coming nor its follow up All Night Worker (a Rufus Thomas cover with the flip side He Was a Square) brought much attention to the band, the ghoulishness and mention of necrophilia on the EP caused an instantaneous ban from the BBC and put our friends back in the limelight.

On a side note, Ray Sones departed after a falling out with Craine sometime before the country LP and was replaced by Pip Harvey.  Until shortly after when the new harmonica player had to go into hiding to ditch the police.  But he did stick around long enough to sing Ballad of the Hounds from the Country Sect LP.  By now, Craine’s trademark had become a deerstalker cap like the one associated with Sherlock Holmes.  Don liked it because when they passed the hat, it could hold much more loot than the ordinary variety.

1966’s LP The Rock Sect’s In took the group, now remaining a quartet, close to the ideals of their first album but The Sect is the definitive recording by the band.  But the band was still willing to try, shall we say, unique subject matter as with the next single, Glendora.  Brought out in June with the B-side I’ll Find Out, it told the tale of a man who fell in love with a mannequin.  Although it was relatively well accepted, the culmination of the band’s past frustrations and a steady decline in the number and quality of gigs brought about a dissolution of the band. Craine and Grant were given a backing track of The Cost of Living to which they added acoustic guitar and vocals.  The two wound up 1966 with the formation of The New Downliner Sect and a single on the Pye label.  While Craine packed up his deerstalker’s cap to pursue other endeavors, including Irish Folk music, Grant toughed it out for another couple of years being kept afloat in large part by their continued popularity in Sweden, where he continued to release New Sect tracks.

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The original Nashville Teens lineup featured two vocalists in Art Sharp and Ray Phillips, pianist John Hawken and bass player Pete Shannon back in 1962.  After about a year, the original guitarist and drummer were replaced by John Allen and Barrie Jenkins respectively.  During their 1963 stay in Hamburg, the band had the opportunity to back up Jerry Lee Lewis on his album Live at the Star Club during their several months in residence at the venue, the club likely best known for the extended stay by the Beatles.  I have read that the band acquitted themselves admirably for the album, but statements that they were toned down in the mix combined with its high price have caused me to forego adding it to my collection.

Upon returning to England, the Teens backed another Rock icon, Bo Diddley, on his UK tour.  The next step was into the studio to record Tobacco Road, the John D. Loudermilk song inspired by Erskine Caldwell’s 1932 novel of the same name, written about rural white poverty in the southern United States.  Theirs was a powerful version that climbed to #6 in its July 1964 UK release and #14 US in October.  My impression was that it did better than that since it was a favorite of just about every garage band in its day and has held up through the test of time, almost half a century later.

The song title became the album title but the quality was not the same, although listening to the CD surpassed my recollection of the scratchy old LP that I bought at a flea market well over four decades ago.  For the follow-up in October, another Loudermilk song from the LP was chosen, Google Eye, which got to #10 at home.  They also performed in two movies, Pop Gear and Gonks Go Beat.  They were also chosen to back Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins, but success in the recording industry was just not to fall their way.  Hey, no matter what the album notes say, they were outmatched by many more talented bands.

Not really a lot of information to give you on the band (the liner notes used a lot of space to praise the one song and then a little more informing us about its author), but we were able to put together a fun little set for your listening pleasure.  You were probably tired of reading my prattle anyway, so just enjoy the rest of the show.

Key to the Highway

May 14^th, 2014

Dimples

I Can’t Stand It

Midnight Train

Every Little Bit Hurts

Strong Love

This Hammer

Keep on Running

   Spencer Davis Group

Little Egyp

One Ugly Child

Lonely and Blue

Guitar Boogie

Too Much Monkey Business

Sect Angel

Baby What’s on Your Mind

Easy Rider

Bright Lights

Insecticide

   Downliners Sect

Tobacco Road

Mona

Bread and Butter Man

Google Eye

Too Much

Parchment Farm

How Deep is the Ocean

That’s My Woman

La Bamba

TNT

Devil-in-Law

Revived 45 Time

Sun Dog

Find My Way Back Home

   Nashville Teens

Wreck of the Old 97
Rocks in My Pillow
Midnight Special
All Night Work

Hey Hey Hey Hey

Comin’ Home Baby

Why Don’t You Smile Now

Lie to Me

I’m Looking for a Woman

Brand New Cadillac

I’ll Find Out

The Cost of Living

   Downliners Sect

Georgia on my Mind

Kansas City

I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water

Watch Your Step

Somebody Help Me

Nobody Knows You

   When You’re Down and Out

When I Come Home

When a Man Loves a Woman

Dust My Broom

Gimme Some Lovin’

Blues in F

I’m a Man

Goodbye Stevie

Waltz for Lumumba

I Can’t Get Enough of It

   Spencer Davis Group