More the music of you guys than me (Lawr especially), just saw this tonight and it was quite excellent. Not quite It Might Get Loud (more my music than yours), still quite excellent nonetheless.
My guess is you guys probably know the gist – this bunch of unheralded primo musicians made the entire 60’s more like The Monkees than anyone wanted to admit at the time. Please do see it. You will like it:
The whole notion that you have to be an arrogant wastrel asshole to be an authentic rocknroller was bullshit from Day One. (I believe Lester Bangs started it, anyway he was the high priest of the rituals.) Howlin Wolf and especially James Brown held their bands to strict standards – no drinking onstage, miss an accent and get fined $5 when they were making $35 a week, like that, and the band members mostly went along. Elvis, Gene Vincent and Jackie Wilson all wanted to be crooners in their hearts. Most of the Atlantic, Stax, Chess, and Motown musicians were 9-to-5ers like the Wrecking Crew. Some of them didn’t even LIKE rocknroll. Who cares? It didn’t stop them from making a whole lot of the best of it. Chubby Checker is my idol.
I don’t even know your point Mr McCaffrey and I agree 1000 percent. I think we fail because we don’t understand how connections made so much pop, um, pop!
But Jackie Wilson and Gene Vincent and so many others gassed audiences then. The process wasn’t meritocratic. Go Chubby Checker!