The Real Rock 'n’ Roll Underground

Do you ever get so sick of the latest Leon Russell or Ten Years After album that you switch off the FM radio in disgust and head for the closet to root out those old Elvis 45s you’ve had since you were a kid? And listening to them, do you find yourself nodding your head and tapping your toes, and realizing how long it’s been since any music provoked this reaction? If so, perhaps you went on to wonder just what’s happened to rock & roll, why people will settle for so little when there’s so much more waiting to be discovered. Doesn’t anyone remember those old sounds, you muse? Am I the only one left?

. Well, you needn’t have worried, because I’m here to tell you that rock & roll lives on, in a loose-knit network of fanatics covering the entire world. As an organized movement, it seems to have had its beginnings in England. It’s a funny thing about England, you know, the way they look at American music. Whenever they can find some style that is neglected and dying here, a cult springs up over there to revive the music, glorify its practicioners, and index the records. ,It happened with folk and jazz in the late fifties (remember the “skiffle” and the “trad jazz” revivals?) and then with blues and finally rock & roll. I don’t know if it’s the same people each time (I rather doubt it) but the fact that the impetus and energy to keep a moribund musical form alive always seems to turn up in England is undeniable.

As nearly as I can tell, not having been on the scene then, blues collectors began organizing in the early 60s. Blues Unlimited and Blues World, the oldest surviving collectors’ magazines, started some time around 1963. Blties Unlimited started with a circulation of about 200, but editor Mike Leadbitter, a leading authority on blues records, filled its pages with top-flight articles, photos, interviews, record lists, and small ads where collectors could buy and sell. After a couple of years on a regular monthly schedule, BU had become the center for a world-wide blues revival. In England especially, BU, Blues World, and the people who wrbte for them, were responsible for setting up the conditions that made possible the release of all sorts of vintage blues records, and then persuading the like appearing in its pages.

The first real rock & roll fanzine, though, was Crawdaddy. The first four issues were mimeographed in small editions and distributed locally (in Cambridge) and through subscriptions. It * was the first magazine of any type devoted strictly to rock & roll, and though it was soon appearing on slick paper, distributed nationally, at the start it was a fanzine in the purest sense of the word.

This might be a good point to stop and examine the meaning and origin of the word “fanzine.” Though it now appears in the latest dictionaries, it was coined by a science fiction fan named Bob Tucker, who also coined such useful words as “gafia”, “egoboo” and “fanac”, way back in the ’30w. It replaced “fanmag”, a less graceful -term. Science fiction fandom, in existence since the late ’20s, is a good example of how special interest groups .evolve, because it is one of the oldest. Its history, I understand, will be covered in an upcoming issue of CREEM, so I’ll* just explain briefly how the first fanzines came about. Readers began writing to the names in the letter column of Amazing Stories (which at the time was the only “prozine”), and soon a whole circle of them were actively exchanging letters commenting on the latest SF stories. In 1930, either Forrest J. Ackerman, Sam Moskowitz or Lou McDermott (my memory is a bit shakey here) started a hektographed journal devoted to book reviews and letters, and soon there were a dozen or more. Today hundreds of SF fanzines are published each month, and have evolved to the point where science fiction itself is seldom discussed in many of them, but we are leaving the track here because rock & roll fandom is still in a relatively primitive state.

What distinguishes a fanzine from any other type of publication is the fact that it is usually the product of one person, published at his own expense^ and in his own house, for little or no reward above the pleasure of self-expression and writing about something he loves that is ignored in the larger press. They are read by people with the same interests who, for one reason or another, cannot be writers or editors themselves. It is record companies to issue them.

The early careers of the Rolling. Stones, John Mayall, the Animals and even the Beatles can be traced directly to this scbne. The blues enthusiasts who read Blues Unlimited also made up the audience for the British R&B bands. The oldest of these groups, Alexis Korner and the Blues Incorporated (Cyril Davies, Jack Bruce and Charlie Watts) provided the inspiration for the formation of a lot of more famous bands. As early as 1962 people like Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Dick Taylor and Paul Jones were hanging around the Marquee Club jamming with Korner. As trad jazz and Cliff Richard ^ruled the airwaves then, it was mainly record collectors and dedicated devotees of the old sounds who gave these musicians their starts.

It’s hard to draw lines in Negro music? and as the blues revivalists widened their interest. from “pure” country blues to include more recent R&B such as Howlin’ Wolf, Slim Harpo and Chuck Berry, Blues Unlimited began giving coverage to these artists. But the main emphasis was still on country blues, and Blues World refused to widen their scope at all. It was at this point that a separate movement frorp rock & roll freaks became necessary. The whole scene was diversifying and specializing, anyway. Shout started sometime around 1965, devoted exclusively to soul, and various small publications, long forgotten nowj extolled the glories of Sun Records and the rockabilly sound.

And yet, it wasn’t until 1967 that a strong rock ‘n’ roll movement took shape in, England. In the meantime things were getting underway here in the United States. In New York, a scrawny teenager with a wild-eyed mania for black vocal groups and an encyclopedic knowledge of their recording history started a spirit-duplicated magazine called > The Big Beat, also known as Rhythm & Blues Train. His name was Lenny Goldberg and the year was 1964. In Venice, California, two guys were putting out a small magazine which straddled the blues and folk scenes. Paul Nelson, a big name in folk circles, shared the editing with Barry Hansen, whose record collection, one of the largest in existence, included rock & roll as well as blues. Little Sandy Review had been coming out since late in the folk craze, so many of its readers were surprised in 1965 to see reviews of Beach Boys albums and the almost by definition a limited thing, unknown to the majority, and yet some of the most interesting .writing to be found anywhere appears in fanzines.

Paul Williams came to rock & roll from science fiction fandom, which is why his approach took the form it did. I’d like to be able to say that his example was picked up and imitated widely, but unfortunately it didn’t happen. I know of only two other amateur rock & roll magazines produced in the U.S: in 1966. The first was Mojo Navigator Rock and Roll 'News, put out by myself and some friends. Though the last 2 issues were printed and distributed nationally, the first 12 were mimeoed like any other fanzine and never reached a circulation above 1,000. The other example is Electric Frog, published in Seattle by a chap named Janies Wright . . . another science fiction fan. Only three issues were produced, and EF folded in early ’67, having never caught on with the Seattle rock scene. James now spends his time climbing mountains and listening to gospel music.

Some time in 1967 the rock & roll revival beg'an taking on steam in England. Fan clubs for such artists as Little Richard, Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, Elvis, Ronnie Hawkins, Johnny Burnette, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent were either started or reborn. Some of them issued magazines, fanzines in a double sense. I’m not at all sure of the chronology but by early ’68 I think Penniman News, Haley News and Let It Rock were being published by, respectively, the Little Richard,. Bill Haley and Chuck Berry fan clubs. Except for Penniman News they did not confine themselves to their main artists, but featured long and painstaking discographies and articles on rock & roll singers of every variety, well-known and obscure. These, magazines were nothing like the sort of thing one usually gets from a fan club of, say, the Beatles or Tom Jones. The editors and contributors had a thorough knowledge of rock & roll and rhythm1 & blues, and huge collections to back them up.

It was around this time that some of the music, long out of print, started to be re-issued in England. From the frequency with which their names appear at the end of the liner notes, I .assume that, once again, the various fan publishers had a hand in arranging for their release. Material by Gene Vincdnt, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly and others, some of it never before released, came out of the vaults. Much of this music is still unavailable in the U.S.

The first “revivalist” band, the Wild Angels, had their start in 1967. Playing mostly “Sun sound” high-intensity rock & roll, they picked up a good following. This whole movement is not to be confused with the infamous “Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival” foisted ,on the American fans by certairi greedy press agents. The British reacted to this with unbridled §corn when it was offered to them in 1968. The British approach, as always, was scholarly and constructive.

Throughout 1968 and ’69 little happened to change this scene. Fanzines devoted to soul started up all over: Soul Bag, Rhythm & Blues, Jazz Panorama in France; Earshot, Soul Messenger, R&B Monthly, Jazzbeat and Blues and Soul in England. It was called The Boppin’ News (later changed to Rock ‘n’ Roll News) and, according to Charlie Gillett, it was the first collectors’ magazine to provide comprehensive discographies on virtually all important rock ‘n’ roll singers. In America, The Big Beat was still alone in its field, and it hadn’t had an issue in a long time.

Then, in 1970, a tremendous boom took place. In Britain, a whole school of magazines sprang up to pay homage to Sun Records. Sun Sound Special, edited by, “Gaspin’ Gus”, had at least 7 issues. Rock W' Roll Collector (Roger ‘Hot Rock’ Ford and Hank ‘Big Cat’ Taylor) published information, discographies and old photographs of obscure rockabilly artists. An entire booklet (The Sun Legend, by 'Paul Vernon) was issued in a mimeographed edition of 1500. Rock ■N’ Roll Scene, Memphis Mag (which had 9 or more issues) and SMG were other magazines in this vein. There were also new soul and blues fanzines, Collecta, Collector’s Soul, Motortown Review. And, what’s more, there were now rock fanzines coming out all over the world. Rockville International In Denmark, Jbm in Sweden, IRC News in Switzerland, and Blues News in New Zealand!

The same thing was happening in America in 1970, though the emphasis was more on blues and vocal group harmony than rockabilly. In southern California Bob Hite, Richard Hite and Claude McKee put out the first issue of a bimonthly magazine called R & B Collector in January. At the same time in San Francisco Richard Horlick published two issues of Quartette in January and March, devoted to vocal group sounds. He then moved to Los Angelas and joined the staff of R & B Collector, the title of which was changed to R & B Magazine and a giant gala “merger issue” put out. In New York, where The Big Beat had been dormant almost two years, Lenny Goldberg came out with the first issue of Stormy Weather in July, then moved to the Bay Area and put out two more. Back in southern California Art Truce began Record Exchanger lafb in ’69, and in Chicago a magazine called Living Blues started along the lines of Blues Unlimited. Finally, here in the Bay Area, yours truly launched Who Put The Bomp.

What caused this sudden proliferation? In England, it seems to have been part of a whole developing movement. Early in the game a number of British dealers had come over here and bought up warehouses full of old rock & roll records, which were then sold to a large audience in England, creating even greater interest in the music. Bands like the Wild Angels kept the sounds before the public, inspiring many of them to investigate further. Also, 1970 saw a new spate of record reissues in England — albums by Ronnie Hawkins, Johnny Otis, Smiley Lewis, Johnny Burnette, Esqugrita, the Jodimars, Merrill E. Moore and many others opened people’s eyes to the delights of rock & roll’s forgotten era; The American resurgence might have been inspired to some extent by all this action across the Big Pond; and has perhaps been held back by the lack of those records.

Much harder to explain is the way many of the rock & foil fanzines have faded away in the last few month*. The only ones still coming out of England with any regularity are Shout and Penniman News. After six superb issues, Rock ‘N’ Roll Collector seems to have folded. Earshot, SMG and Let It Rock have been a long time between issues. Over here, it has..been eight months since R&B Magazine had an issue, though work is in progress on another, anBL Record Exchanger is equally overdue. Only Stormy Weather has really kept to a regular schedule.

Of course,' in dealing with fanzines one learns not to pronounce them dead if they fall a month or two or even more behind their announced schedules. When a guy’s paying for thef thing out of his own pocket he usually feels no strong obligation to meet any deadlines, especially if he happens to need his time or money for more pressing things. Since few fanzines ever pass the 1,000 mark in circulation, it is not exactly the most profitable enterprise going. Still, I have a feeling that many of the fanzines in 1970’s bumper crop are no longer with us. Even so, the rock & roll fanzines available today offer a wide and varied selection, and are very much in need of (and deserving) support form outside the small circle of collectors.

Most fanzines have small circulations, rarely more than a few hundred' and there’s a reason for that. The type of material panted in most of them has little appeal to anyone but serous collectors. Label listings for Herald or Aladdin Records wouldn’t mean much to most people, and a magazine full of such things can be a powerful soporific. The well-edited fanzines, though, present a wide enough range of material that anyone with a genuine interest in old rock & roll can find something to enjoy in them. So while the discographies in R & B Magazine might bore you, perhaps the interviews with Johnny Otis and Dootsie Williams, or the photos of Roy Milton and His Solid Senders from 1952 will hold your attention. Or if you’d rather listen to the music than read about it, fanzines are the only place you’ll find out about limited edition bootleg pressings, or see really detailed reviews of what reissues the big companies put out. R & B, Stormy Weather, Record Exchanger, Blues Unlimited and Who Put The Bomp, as a rule, offer something for everyone, and might be a good place to begin investigating the fanzine scene if this article has aroused your interest at all. In particular, Stormy Weather and WPTB try to cover interesting aspects of recent and contemporary music as well as oldies.

The following list is divided into categories: blues, rock &. roll, soul, and “current scene”. Occasionally one will overlap two categories, but not often. Those in the last group deal with contemporary artists rather than oldies, but their outlook is sufficiently different from that commonly found in the professional rock papers that they are also worth getting. At the end I’ve listed some whose publishing status is uncertain. I suggest writing to them for a sample copy before subscribing, in case they really are defunct. For the others, when possible, I’ve included the price for a subscription and a sample copy.

(Greg’s too. shy, though; WPTB V.2 No. 3 is out now and as good as most prozines. Ijt-’^s really incredible! Everyone interested in oldies should check it out — Ed.)

BLUES and R&B

BLUES NEWS (216 Atkinson Rd, Titirengi, Aukland, New Zealand)

BLUES RESEARCH (65 Grand Ave., Brooklyn, NY. 11205)

BLUES UNLIMITED (38a Sackville Rd, Bexhill-On-Sea, Sussex; Eng)

BLUES WORLD (22 M-anor Cres., Knutsford, Cheshire, Eng)

LIVING BLUES (1612 Fargo, Chicago, Ill. 60626)

R&B MAGAZINE (Box 1229, Santa Monica, Ca. 92804) $3.00/sample 50c RECORD EXCHANGER (Art Turco, Box 2144, Anaheim, Ca. 92804) $3.00/sample 5J3c

ROCK *N* ROLL

PENNIMAN NEWS (Veronica & Derek Day, 74 Roberts Rd, Belgrave, Leicester LE4, 5HF, Eng) sample 50c

SMG (T. Waghome, 16 Laurel Ave, Gravesend, Kent, ENG) Sample 50c (soul too)

STORMY WEATHER (Lenny Goldberg, 95 Moss Ave. No. 5, Oakland, Ca. 94611) $3.00/sample 50c

WHO PUT THE BOMP (64 Taylor Dr., Fairfax, Ca. 94930) $2.00/sample 50c

SOUL

SHOUT (Clive Richardson, 46 Slades Dr., Chislehurst, Kent BR7 6JX, Eng) sample 50c SOUL BAG (36 Marius Aufun, Levallois-Perret 92, France)

CURRENT SCENE

NEW HAVEN ROCK PRESS (Jon Tiven, 528 Lambert Rd., Orange, Conn. 06477) sample 25 c

TWAS EVER THUS (Jonh Ingham, 21157 Kingscrest, Saugus, Ca. 91350) sample 25c TUESDAY AFTER LUNCH (Len Bailes, Box 474, 308 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, Ca. 90024) sample 25c

UNCERTAIN

BIG BEAT (George Collange, Buddy Holly Memorial Society of France, 10 Ave. Paul Delorme, 69 Sathonay, France)

COLLECTA (64 Bucknells Dr, Bricket Wood, Watford, Herts WD2 7PN, Eng) COLLECTOR’S SOUL (29 Westfield Rd, Brockworth, Glos. Eng)

EARSHOT (Peter Bums, 20 Bulwer Rd., London N18, Eng)

HALEY NEWS (Hugh McCallum, 26 Airedale Rd., South Ealing, London W5, Eng) $2.00

LET IT ROCK (Chuck Berry Soc., 64 Greenfield Rd., Harboume, Birmington 17, Eng)

MOTORTOWN REVIEW (59 Cornwall Crescent, Stanford Le Hope, Essex, Eng) ROCK ‘N’ ROLL COLLECTOR (Hank Taylor, 63 Eastbourne Rd., West Ham, London E15, Eng)

RECORD MART (16 London Hill, Rayleigh, Essex, SS6 7HP, Eng)