A huge volume that I will review in stages. These are the first ten chapters of the 52.
Foreword by Lenny Kaye
In New York City in the mid 1800's, George Templeton Strong was "writing meticulous accounts in his diaries" of visits to the opera, recitals, concerts and salons. If he was here today it would all be on a blog or other media.
Introduction
This book is a guide through the pop music of the first half of the 20th century. It's about records "that were made to sell".
Prologue
I wonder (like the author) who was first to stick a label in the middle of a record. That blank circle in the centre of a disc. They "became known as record labels". Apparently it was Emil Berliner (a German born inventor) who came up with that flat "gramophone disc". It was adopted by Columbia Records in 1901 through to 1960. "Cliff Richards' first half dozen singles were on 78's as well as the seven inch 45rpm". (Our first two records were Cliff''s Living Doll and Travelling Light both on 78's). Then notes about some early recordings of Stephen Foster's songs: Oh Susannah, Campton Races, Swanee River and Beautiful Dreamer in 1862! Unfortunately Foster died in 1864 at the age of 37. "The first writer of songs that were recognisably pop".
Chapter 1 Music Hall
I'm not sure this should start the birth of pop, but hey.
Chapter 2 Ragtime
This I understand. Black music, piano based and Scott Joplin it's "saddest victim". His Maple Street Rag was the first piece of sheet music to sell a million copies. The biggest ragtime hit of all. "Joplin was responsible for making ragtime the first true American music". But we get so much detail of artists of whom I had never heard (and I do know a lot from this period - see later). Until we reach Irving Berlin's big hit from 1911: Alexander's Ragtime Band. But only a passing mention of Jelly Roll Morton, and no mention what great piano he played. I have an old EP. Funnily enough, it's the last paragraph (it seems to have been added later) that is the best. It's about Fats Waller and his stride piano. He should have had his own chapter!
Chapter 3 Songs for Sale: Tin Pan Alley
We are in lower Manhattan, West 28th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue, where "a warren of song writer's offices" was named Tin Pan Alley. (I didn't know that). The first arrivals came in 1893. The birth of the new record players included the Victrola in 1906 with the consequential demand for records. We hear lots about the earliest recordings and then Capella male quartets or as we know it, barbershop. The Ziegfeld Follies gave us Shine on Harvest Moon and By the Light of the Silvery Moon. But "the most significant song in the development of American pop, written by a scrawny twenty two year old called Irving Berlin was Alexander's Ragtime Band. The chapter ends with a piece about Sophie Tucker, "the mother of American song". How she became a huge star, especially as the first white female artist, who had to black up when she started out.
Chapter 4 Doing What Comes Naturally: Irving Berlin
His original name was Israel Berlin, who "wrote hit songs for more than half a century". How that song described above was such a big hit and set him up. When his wife died, some maudlin ballads were huge (and still sung today). What'll I Do and All Alone. In late 1937 he wrote White Christmas. In the 1950's even more big hits. "He is American music".
Note: I'm not sure about how some of the writing is repetitive over a number of chapters.
Chapter 5 A Culture of Consolation: Music Hall and Musical Theatre
Not sure why this is here, just padding? Yes, it was very important in the first years of the twentieth century, but hardly anything to do with the birth of pop?
Chapter 6 On the Other Side of a Big Black Cloud: World War 1
I was hardly interested in all those wartime songs. "British popular music had effectively pressed the pause button for four years".
Chapter 7 A Conversation of Instruments: The Birth of Jazz
Hurrah! Coming out of New Orleans, "popular music would have no bother combining elements of ragtime , blues and jazz". The author tells us that "the most succinct description of jazz I've ever come across" was "a conversation of instruments, ad-lib on the subject of a tune". It was the Original Dixieland Jazz Band that first conjured the name, and their front line of cornet, trombone and clarinet became the template of all the bands to come. (Right through to the sixties - see post on Dunmow Jazz Club).
The "best selling jazz orchestra of the 1920's was in fact the band of Paul Whiteman. He was labelled the "King of Jazz". Although "his musicians followed carefully prepared arrangements", the solos I guess the only times of improvisation. The chapter ends with a note about the young George Gershwin, already writing hugely popular songs and the extraordinary Rhapsody in Blue.
Chapter 8 The Greatest Love of All: Louis Armstrong
I didn't realise that this book would take me back to my teenage years. When I went through my jazz phase in my late teens, I had most of Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings. His great love was the cornet, not the trumpet. He first of all joined Joe "King" Oliver's band when "it gave jazz it's voice". Joe put together the Creole Jazz Band, "effectively the first super group". They created the role for the soloist. Johnny Dodds was on clarinet that I remember from the Hot 5/7 tracks that also included Kid Ory on trombone.
I posted some time ago (7th February 2012) about Dunmow Jazz Club that I used to attend in 1962/3. Those bands booked by Derek Watson (on the National Jazz Archive) where he says "the village hall is quite big, more than a village hall .... people came from miles around .... some even from Portsmouth". "Shoulder to shoulder, nobody sat down ...... we used to run coaches ..... a coach from Braintree".
I was never sure when Louis turned to singing. He made the Fats Waller composition Ain't Misbehavin' a hit. I always preferred Fats' version. But Louis' vocals made him a star. Hello Dolly came much later. That's when" he became a "popular entertainer", the greatest sin in the eyes of the purists". (That's me). My post of the 28th January 2015 described my huge disappointment when he played the Hammersmith Odeon. (Stall on the right, not far from the front).
Chapter 9 The Blab of the Pave: Jerome Kern and Broadway
Our author talks about the four different stages of music from 1900 - the revue, vaudeville, burlesque and operetta. But this chapter is all about Jerome Kern: "the first modern Broadway writer, the first master of the twentieth century American musical". The inspiration for all those famous composers who followed.
When Kern was young, he made his way to the UK who, at that time, provided all the shows for the USA. Back home he was writing songs for many of these for which he never received a credit. But then his first stand out song They didn't believe me was for another imported show. The song was a trailblazer and we hear a lot about it's construction.
At the same time, Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart were writing so many songs with no success until, in 1925, a song for "The Garrick Gaieties" meant they joined the immortals. Manhattan is a classic that is still played today. (But why is this included in a section about Jerome Kern?) However in 1921, for a musical "Shuffle Along", came the standard I'm just wild about Harry. The top show of the late 1920's was "Showboat" with songs composed by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein.
Chapter 10 Let Me Entertain You: Al Jolson
Although we are told Jolson was the biggest star of the 1920's, I have no interest in his story. "Jolson is the biggest name in this book whose enormous success seems hard to fathom today (no surprise there). (his voice is not pleasant) whose crude, untutored, megaphone voice seems impossible to listen to as entertainment". Well, "The Jazz Singer" was the first talkie and Jolson was the star. Say no more. His longevity is explained.
