21: country rock and southern rock
"Whipping Post ♫,
" released in 1969, is the group's signature song and appeared on their first album, the eponymous The Allman Brothers Band. The song is in verse-chorus form, but two of the verses are played by instruments instead of sung; these instrumental verses give each of the lead guitarists a chance to play a solo. The song also features an instrumental interlude just before the last chorus, which offers a transition from the second guitar solo into the final statement of the song's chorus. "Whipping Post ♫" has an unusual rhythmic organization. Most of the music we have heard in thus far in this course has been in 4/4 meter, with four beats per measure. A few musical examples (such as "Tennessee Waltz ♫" and "After the Ball ♫") have been in 3/4, with three beats per measure. "Whipping Post ♫" alternates between 12/8 and 11/8 meters. It is easiest to think of 12/8 as having four beats per measure, but each individual beat is subdivided into three parts.
Buffalo Springfield
"Go and Say Goodbye ♫" and "Hot Dusty Roads ♫," have a distinctly country sound. Although the band itself was not specifically a country rock group, many of its members went on to record country rock music. Guitarist and singer Neil Young, guitarist and singer Stephen Stills, guitarist and singer Richie Furay, and bassist and recording engineer Jim Messina all had successful recording careers after ? disbanded in 1968.
The Marshall Tucker Band
, for example, included one lead guitar, a rhythm guitar, a steel guitar, bass, keyboard, and drums. They also frequently incorporated wind instruments such as saxophone or flute, gestures which reflected their jazz backgrounds. The ?'s lyrics celebrate their South Carolina heritage, praising their home state and the South. On their 1976 album Long Hard Ride, the Marshall Tucker Band invited two guest artists, fiddler Charlie Daniels and banjoist and mandolinist John McEuen, to join them
ZZ Top's First Album (1970)
After he left Moving Sidewalks, Gibbons teamed up with bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard. Hill and Beard were former members of a Dallas band called American Blues, and they brought with them the musical traditions for which their band had been named. The self-explanatory ? was not an immediate commercial success, but it featured prominent guitar distortion from Gibbons, blues-influenced barrelhouse styles, and the humorous innuendo that would continue to characterize the band's music for decades
artistic, regional, and personal expression.
Artists used rock for many different types of
blues roots
During the early 1980s, the group took a hiatus, during which Gibbons and Hill grew their iconic chest-length beards. (Interestingly, Frank Beard is the only member of ZZ Top who does not have a beard.) In the 1980s, ZZ Top released more commercially-oriented music, such as "Legs ♫" and "Gimme All Your Lovin ♫'." These and other singles from the period were a departure from the Southern rock they had recorded in the 1980s; much of the music from this period included pop instruments such as synthesizer and had greater pop appeal. In the 1990s, however, the group returned to their ? and played an increasingly guitar-based style again.
Charlie McCoy, Johnny Cash, and Charlie Daniels.
During the late 1960s, Bob Dylan recorded three albums in Nashville with the support of many musicians who were prominent in the Nashville scene, such as
solo artist
In 1970, Parsons left the Flying Burrito Brothers, and he recorded two albums on Reprise Records as a ?: GP (1972) and Grievous Angel (1973). Parsons included instruments from country music and bluegrass, such as fiddle, banjo, dobro, and pedal steel guitar, but he also used instruments from rock music, such as electric guitar, keyboard, and electric bass. Both of these solo albums feature Parsons and Emmylou Harris on vocals
Van Zant and Gaines
In 1977, the band's plane crashed in Mississippi, killing ? and seriously injuring the other members of Lynyrd Skynyrd. The surviving members disbanded, although they frequently regrouped in various combinations, such as the Rossington-Collins Band and the Allen Collins Band. In 1987, the group reformed with Ronnie Van Zant's younger brother Johnny taking over as the group's lead singer and songwriter.
"Free Bird ♫,"
Lynyrd Skynyrd's tribute to the late Duane Allman, charted twice during the 1970s. The song first appeared on their debut album and reached number 19 on the Billboard singles charts. The group released a live version of the song in 1977, which reached number 38 on the singles charts. The studio version of the song is just over nine minutes long, and the final four minutes of the song feature a three guitar solo.
Poco
Messina and Furay formed a new country rock group called ?, which included country music instruments such as pedal steel guitar and dobro in their regular instrumental lineup. Stills formed a rock supergroup with David Crosby (of the Byrds) and Graham Nash (of British group the Hollies), and they occasionally were joined by Young
"Lay Lady Lay ♫"
Nashville Skyline in particular had the standard instrumentation of country music: acoustic guitar, electric lead guitar, electric bass, piano played in a honky-tonk style, and drums. Dylan also occasionally added a pedal steel guitar to the mix, which can be heard in songs such as
country music
Other rock musicians began integrating lyric themes (regional pride or nostalgia) or vocal styles (yodeling or twangy delivery) of ? into their recordings.
Flying Burrito Brothers
Parsons quit the Byrds the same year that he joined, and then he started another band called the ?. The music recorded by this group was closer to a true fusion of rock and country because it included pedal steel guitar, the strong rock backbeat, and close, rockabilly style vocal harmonies reminiscent of the Everly Brothers.
Billy Gibbons
The Texas band ZZ Top combined Southern pride, the blues, and psychedelic rock in their music. ?, a singer and guitarist, played with a psychedelic band called Moving Sidewalks, which had opened for the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Gibbons studied Hendrix's feedback and distortion techniques closely and sought to imitate them in his own music.
Johanson
The group also included bassist Barry Oakley and keyboardist Greg Allman, who was Duane's brother and thus the inspiration for the band's name. Many members of the group had strong backgrounds in the blues, and this influence was evident in the prominent role that instrumental solos played both in their recordings and in their live performances. It is also worth noting that ? was the only black member of the band
ZZ Top's
Their albums that were released later in the 1970s had more commercial success, charting singles such as "La Grange ♫" (an homage to a brothel in their home state of Texas) and "Tush ♫," a play on the word's double meaning ("tush" can refer either to buttocks or to a lavish lifestyle). "Tush ♫" is based on the 12-bar blues form, and the guitar solos use the bottleneck technique, both of which are borrowed from the blues tradition. ? Southern imagery focused on scenes from Texas and the American southwest, such as cacti and snakes.
Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968)
When Parsons joined the Byrds, the group recorded a country album, ?. The album contained original songs that Parsons had written, as well as covers of folk and country songs by artists such as Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard, and Woody Guthrie; more like a country album with moments of rock interspersed.
country folk
With Blonde on Blonde in 1966, John Wesley Harding in 1967, and Nashville Skyline in 1969, Dylan established yet another new approach to folk music—
petal steel guitar
a guitar that has no frets, is played while the player is seated, and the player changes pitch by changing the position of a metal bar (called a steel)
dobro
a resonator guitar, that is, an acoustic guitar that has metal resonators instead of a wooden sound board
"One Hundred Years From Now ♫"
a song written by Parsons, is the most rock-like song on the album, with its strong backbeat and fast tempo.; is still audibly country, though, with its pedal steel guitar and vocal harmonies.
Country rock
fusion of rock music with country; some rock musicians added instruments from country music, such as the pedal steel guitar and the dobro; Other rock musicians began integrating lyric themes (regional pride or conservative values) or vocal styles (yodeling or twangy delivery) of country music into their recordings
Charlie daniels
he is typically considered a country musician rather than a Southern rock musician.
modern jazz
his use of complex and asymmetrical meters reveals the band's interest in ?, which also experimented with unusual arrangement of the rhythms.
"Boulder to Birmingham ♫" (1975),
in 1973 when Parsons died of a drug overdose. After Parsons's abrupt death, Harris kept working in the country rock genre, and she continues to write and record music to this day. Her song ? which expressed her grief over the Parsons's death, has become one of her signature songs.
southern rock
incorporates themes from the American South into music that is otherwise relatively standard rock in its sound and instrumentation.; focuses on values and ideas of the American South, but the instrumentation is that of a standard rock ensemble
"Sweet Home Alabama ♫" (1974)
is probably the group's most famous song as well as its most outspoken statement of its Southern pride. ? was Lynyrd Skynyrd's response to two songs recorded by Neil Young, "Southern Man" and "Alabama." In those songs, Young addressed issues of racism in the American South, and the members of Lynyrd Skynyrd felt that the Canadian singer-songwriter had unfairly characterized the South. In their attempt to set the record straight about Alabama, Lynyrd Skynyrd criticized Alabama governor George Wallace, who had tried to prevent two black students from entering the University of Alabama in 1963, and they took a shot at Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal.
Allman Brothers Band
ne of the earliest and most successful Southern rock bands was the ?. Their music combined elements of soul, rhythm and blues, rock, jazz, blues, and country music. The instrumentation of the Allman Brothers Band was notable for several reasons. First, they had two lead guitars instead of just one. Both Duane Allman and Richard Betts served as lead guitarists for the group, and they played at the same time; occasionally, they doubled each other or played the same part an octave apart, and other times, they played two different ideas simultaneously. They would also improvise new melodies at the same time, trading off every two measures in a technique that is called trading twos. Second, the group had two drummers, Jaimoe Johanny Johanson and Butch Tracks. By doubling the number of guitarists and drummers, the Allman Brothers Band had a much thicker, fuller sound compared to other rock bands of the period.
Lynyrd Skynyrd.
the Southern rock genre was the Florida-based group ?. As the title of their first album explains, the name of the band is Pronounced Leh-nerd- Skin-nerd. The group's name was a corruption of the name of a high school teacher who had criticized their long hair.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
the members of ? included vocalist Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Allen Collins, guitarist Gary Rossington, bassist Ed King, pianist Billy Powell (who had begun as a roadie for the band but joined full time after he wrote the introduction to "Free Bird ♫"), and drummer Bob Burns. Like the Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd included two lead guitars in their lineup. In fact, bassist King would frequently play guitar as well, which then gave Lynyrd Skynyrd three lead guitars. Unlike the Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd's music was more radio-friendly and explicitly Southern.
trading twos
trading off every two measures in a technique that is called
Gram Parsons
was a member of the International Submarine Band until 1968, when he left that group and joined the Byrds
Duane Allman
was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1971. Their first recordings after Allman's death simply included one lead guitar, but eventually, Greg Allman hired a keyboard player to replace himself and switched to lead guitar in order to replicate the sound the band had had before his brother's death. With this lineup, the Allman Brothers Band had their only single to reach the Top Ten, 1973's "Ramblin' Man ♫." The group broke up in 1976, but several members went on to create new bands or record solo projects.
