Author: Billy Bragg File Type: epub Roots, Radicals & Rockers How Skiffle Changed the World is the first book to explore this phenomenon in depth - a meticulously researched and joyous account that explains how skiffle sparked a revolution that shaped pop music as we have come to know it. Its a story of jazz pilgrims and blues blowers, Teddy Boys and beatnik girls, coffee-bar bohemians and refugees from the McCarthyite witch-hunts. Billy traces how the guitar came to the forefront of music in the UK and led directly to the British Invasion of the US charts in the 1960s.Emerging from the trad-jazz clubs of the early 50s, skiffle was adopted by kids who growing up during the dreary, post-war rationing years. These were Britains first teenagers, looking for a music of their own in a pop culture dominated by crooners and mediated by a stuffy BBC. Lonnie Donegan hit the charts in 1956 with a version of Rock Island Line and soon sales of guitars rocketed from 5,000 to 250,000 a year. Like punk rock that would flourish two decades later, skiffle was a do-it-yourself music. All you needed were three guitar chords and you could form a group, with mates playing tea-chest bass and washboard as a rhythm section.**ReviewSuperb account, by British folk-punker Bragg (A Lover Sings Selected Lyrics, 2016, etc.), of the politically aware, working-class skiffle craze of the 1950s.The so-called British Invasion of the 1960s was a repurposing of American music, a mix of blues, jazz, and country, that young people on the other side of the pond were hearing over American Armed Forces Radio and on records brought by Yankee ships. Yet there was a forgotten intermediary skiffle. Born of old-school British takes on jazz, it added a rebellious racket, with a strong rhythm section built on bass, drums, and often washboard throw thunderous guitars into the mix in the place of trombones and clarinets, and you have a homegrown recasting of an alien art form, one populated by unsung heroes and forgotten moments. Bragg finds skiffle on what he calls the dead ground of British pop culture, and he aims to sing of those heroes and to recall their gloriesand glories they were, marking a movement that anticipated punk in its insistence on DIY performances hampered largely by a lack of outlets for recorded music. The author traces skiffle to the early 50s, giving pride of place to Lonnie Donegan, a player whose recording of the old Lead Belly song Rock Island Linecovered at about the same time by Elvis Presley in the U.S.was a kind of declaration of skiffles intent. It took some time for the moment to get going as Bragg writes, David Whitfield and Mantovani could sleep soundly in their beds, at least for a little while, until skiffle overwhelmed their easy-listening ways. But when it did, there was little to stop the likes of Alexis Korner and the Ghouls from raising a ruckusand after them not just the Beatles, famously founded on skiffle, but also the Rolling Stones, whose founders cut their teeth on the skiffle sound. Writing with an expert practitioners appreciation for music, Bragg tells the story of British rock-n-rolls forerunner with verve and great intelligence. illustrations throughout Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review) In his first book, musician, left-wing activist, and sonic archivist Bragg has crafted a remarkable history of skiffle, a particularly British music genre. Initiated by amateur players obsessed with the blues, jazz, and folk, skiffle lured teenagers obsessed with all things American and eager to dance away post-WWII conformity and deprivation. With a DIY ethos and three-chord tunes, skiffle inspired a generation of British lads to pick up guitars, including among them Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page, and a young extraterrestrial who would later take the name David Bowie. Roughly a cross between folk and R&B, skiffle quickly succumbed to the other two genres and faded from the charts, even as its former disciples led the British Invasion. Bragg impresses throughout with engaging prose and painstaking research. He further enlivens the text with personal insights and witty asides that give the material a unique cast few professional writers would dare. The introduction of dozens of new figures in the last third of the book diffuses the narrative but thats a minor demerit to an accomplished work. Ending with a flourish, Bragg convincingly argues for the emotional connection between skiffle and punk rock, something Bragg would know about better than most. (July) Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)Review The story of the first DIY revolution a perfect mix of author and subject - Jon Savage (Jon Savage)

Author: Bernd Roeck File Type: pdf The book offers an overview of bourgeois culture and the aspects of everyday life in the German cultural area from the Renaissance to the end of the 18th century. At the same time, the reader is introduced to fundamental research problems. The spectrum of topics ranges from life styles to clothing and eating habits, from consciousness of time to the rites de passage, birth, marriage and death. Special attention is paid to the role of female and male citizens in music, literature and fine arts. This is a concise introduction for history and art history students, scholars and everyone interested in the pre-history of the modern world. References from important sources define the text together they are useful resources for teaching at schools and universities.About the AuthorBernd Roeck, University of Zurich, has published numerous books and essays on social and cultural history of the early modern times, amongst others Eine Stadt in Krieg und Frieden (1989), Aussenseiter, Randgruppen, Minderheiten (1991), Florenz 1900 (2001), Das historische Auge (2004), and Piero della Francesca, Geisselung (2006).