art rock
SCOTT WALKER
One of the most enigmatic figures in rock history, Scott Walker was known as Scotty Engel when he cut obscure flop records in the late '50s and early '60s in the teen idol vein. He then hooked up with John Maus and Gary Leeds to form the Walker Brothers. They weren't named Walker, they weren't brothers, and they weren't English, but they nevertheless became a part of the British Invasion after moving to the U.K. in 1965. They enjoyed a couple of years of massive success there (and a couple of hits in the U.S.) in a Righteous Brothers vein. As their full-throated lead singer and principal songwriter, Walker was the dominant artistic force in the group, who split in 1967.
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Source: Richie Unterberger
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YES
Jon Anderson (vocals), Chris Squire (bass, vocals), Peter Banks (guitar, vocals), Tony Kaye (keyboards) and Bill Bruford (drums) formed Yes in 1968, going on to create some of the most innovative progressive rock music of their generation, pioneering the use of synthesizers and sound effects. Albums included "Roundabout," ‘Relayer,” "Close To the Edge," and "Awaken", using fantastic graphic images on their album covers by Roger Dean. By this time Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman were full members.
In the 1980s, Yes continued to experiment with digital technology producing in particular "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" and "Rhythm Of Love" and indeed pushed at the boundaries of rock through the following years and even set up their own record label, Yessongs.
Yes specialized in grandiose works, complex and often symphonic in style. "Tales from Topographic Oceans" for example consists entirely of four twenty minute pieces, in fact many would question whether they could be classed as rock at all.
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As is the way, the band split after numerous member changes, although has had a few reincarnations over the years and has recently reformed, however, replacing a somewhat surprised Jon Anderson with Benoit David from a Yes tribute band (it just shows there’s always hope!).
Original members include Jon Anderson (born October 25, 1944, in Lancashire, England; left group, 1980, rejoined, early 1980s, left, late 1980s, performed with Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, and Howe [ABWH], beginning in 1989, and with Yes, 1991), vocals; Peter Banks (left group, 1969), guitar; Bill Bruford (born May 17, 1948, in London, England; left group, 1972, performed with ABWA, beginning in 1989, and with Yes, 1991), drums; Tony Kaye (left group, 1969, rejoined, 1982), keyboards; and Chris Squire (born March 4, 1948, in London), bass.
Later members include Geoff Downes (joined group, 1980, left, early 1980s), keyboards; Trevor Horn (joined group, 1980, left, early 1980s), vocals; Steve Howe (born April 8, 1947, in London; joined group, 1969, left c. 1981, performed with ABWH, beginning in 1989, and with Yes, 1991), guitar; Patrick Moraz (born June 24, 1948, in Morges, Switzerland; joined group, 1973, left, 1976), keyboards; Trevor Rabin (joined group c. 1981), guitar, Rick Wakeman (born May 18, 1949; joined group, 1971, left, 1973, rejoined, 1976, left c. 1979, performed with ABWH, beginning in 1989, and with Yes, 1991), keyboards; Alan White (born June 14, 1949, in Durham, England; joined group, 1972), drums.
Group formed in London, England, 1968; released first album, Yes, on Atlantic Records, 1969.
Awards: Five gold albums; two platinum albums.
Addresses: Record company—Atco, 1290 6th Ave., New York, NY 10104.
Albums: (all albums produced by Atlantic unless noted)
Time and a Word, 1970.
The Yes Album, 1971.
Fragile, 1971.
Close to the Edge, 1972.
Tales from Topographic Oceans, 1973.
Relayer, 1974.
Going for the One, 1977.
Tormato, 1978.
Drama, 1980.
90125, Atco, 1983.
Big Generator, Atco, 1987.
Union, Arista, 1991.
Talk, Victory, 1994.
Keys to Ascension 2, Essential Records, 1997.
Open Your Eyes, Eagle Records (UK) and Beyond Music (US), 1997.
The Ladder, Eagle Records (U.K.) and Beyond Music (U.S.), 1999.
Magnification, Eagle Records (U.K.) and Beyond Music (U.S.), 2001.
Fly from Here, Frontiers Records (Europe, U.S.) and Avalon (Japan), 2011.
Source: Simon Glickman
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THE WHO
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by the original members Pete Townshend guitarist, Roger Daltrey on vocals, John Entwistle on bass and Keith Moon on drums. They were renowned for their energetic onstage performances, sold over 100 million records, according to New York Times and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
The Who first attracted attention through their amazing stage shows in United Kingdom, the release of the top ten hit singles including "My Generation" and five top albums in 1965 including "I Can't Explain". Success followed in the US with “I Can See for Miles” which was a top ten hit in 1967. The Who continued to have massive success in the US with a series of top five albums including Tommy (1969), Quadrophenia (1973) and Who Are You (1978). After Moon’s death in 1978, the band released another two studio albums Face Dances (1981) and It’s Hard (1982) before calling it a day.
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The band continued to perform together at events such as Live Aid and for their 25th Anniversary tour in 1989. Plans to record a new album were delayed with the death of Entwistle in 2002, however Townshend and Daltrey continue to perform as The Who and saw the release of the studio album Endless Wire in 2006.
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THE VELVET UNDERGROUND
The influence of the Velvet Underground on rock greatly exceeds their sales figures and chart numbers. They are one of the most important rock and roll bands of all time, laying the groundwork in the Sixties for many tangents rock music would take in ensuing decades. Yet just two of their four original studio albums ever even made Billboard’s Top 200, and that pair – The Velvet Underground and Nico (#171) and White Light/White Heat (#199) – only barely did so. If ever a band was “ahead of its time,” it was the Velvet Underground. Brian Eno, cofounder of Roxy Music and producer of U2 and others, put it best when he said that although the Velvet Underground didn’t sell many albums, everyone who bought one went on to form a band. The New York Dolls, Patti Smith, the Sex Pistols, Talking Heads, U2, R.E.M., Roxy Music and Sonic Youth have all cited the Velvet Underground as a major influence.
The Velvets’ addressed such taboo subjects as sexual deviancy (“Venus in Furs”), drug addiction (“Heroin,” “White Light/White Heat”), paranoia (“Sunday Morning”) and the urban demimonde (“All Tomorrow’s Parties”). In so doing, they brought rock and roll into theretofore unexplored experiential realms with a literary and unabashedly adult voice. Musically, the group ranged from droning, avant-garde improvisations (“Sister Ray”) to songs built upon time-tested rock and R&B foundations (“I’m Waiting for the Man”). The Velvet Underground managed to be both arty and earthy, reflecting the duality within the college-educated but streetwise Lou Reed, who wrote most of the material.
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The group—vocalist/guitarist Reed, keyboardist and viola player John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Maureen “Moe” Tucker - played their first show together in 1965. The following year they were taken under the wing of artist Andy Warhol, who saw them perform at Cafe Bizarre in Greenwich Village. The Velvets soon became the house band at Warhol’s studio, the Factory, and the centerpiece of his multimedia extravaganza, the “Exploding Plastic Inevitable.” Their debut album, The Velvet Underground and Nico, featured a classic Warhol-designed pop-art jacket that depicted a big yellow banana. Inside were 11 songs that radically revised the rock and roll sensibility - especially two songs about drug addiction, one despondent and sobering (“Heroin”) and another a ribald slice of Harlem street life (“I’m Waiting for the Man”). Several songs, notably “Femme Fatale” and “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” featured the heavily accented vocals of cool German chanteuse Nico.
The Velvet Underground’s second album, White Light/White Heat was more sonically radical. Filled with leakage and distortion, its chaotic centerpiece was the 17-minute “Sister Ray.” The group’s self-titled third album was, by comparison, quiet and introspective, defined more by cautious optimism (“Beginning to See the Light”) and soul-searching (“Jesus”). By then, John Cale had left at the insistence of Reed, with whom he clashed, and was replaced by Doug Yule. Between the releases of The Velvet Underground and Loaded – officially, their fourth album – the group recorded enough unreleased material to fill two albums. Indeed, two albums of archival unearthings from 1969 were issued in the mid-Eighties as VU and Another View.
When Loaded appeared in late 1970, only Reed and Morrison remained from the original lineup. The group had switched record labels, from MGM/Verve to Atlantic/Cotillion, and adapted a more pop-oriented approach. Loaded contained some of Lou Reed’s most accessible compositions, many of them sung by the pop-voiced Doug Yule. Yet though Reed felt the album was “loaded” with hits, it was their second in a row not to chart at all. That seems inconceivable today, given its high quality and enduring influence. The album’s ten tracks were hooky and melodic, yet informed by Reed’s literary intellect, and two of them – “Sweet Jane” and “Rock and Roll” – have become acknowledged classics. Of Loaded’s anthem to the power of popular music, Reed explained, “’Rock and Roll’ is about me. If I hadn’t heard rock and roll on the radio, I would have had no idea there was life on this planet.”
Prior to the release of Loaded, Reed left the Velvet Underground to embark on a solo career. And though a Yule-led Velvet Underground briefly kept the name alive, that was essentially the end of the story: four brilliant albums that formed a blueprint for the next three decades of rock and roll. The founding members reunited in 1993 for a brief European tour; it had been 25 years since they’d shared a stage. A double-disc documentary, Live MCMXCIII, appeared later that year. There was talk of a new studio album, but the reunion turned out to be short-lived. A new wave of interest in the Velvet Underground was stirred by the 1995 release of Peel Slowly & See, a five-CD box set that included their first four albums and numerous rarities. At their 1996 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Velvet Underground sang a new song, “Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend,” a tribute to guitarist Sterling Morrison, who’d died of cancer the previous year.
Members included John Cale (born December 5,1940, in Crynant, Wales; bass, viola, guitar, and vocals; left group in 1967, was replaced on base by Doug Yule, 1968), Sterling Morrison (born Holmes Sterling Morrison, Jr., August 29, 1942, in East Meadow, NY; guitar and vocals), Nico (born Christa Paffgen, [most sources say] March 15, 1943, in Budapest, Hungary [one source says Cologne, Germany]; left group in 1966; died in 1988; vocals), Lou Reed (born Louis Firbank, March 2, 1942 [one source says 1944], in Freeport, NY [one sources says Brooklyn, NY]; vocals, guitar, and piano; left group in 1970), and Moe Tucker (born Maureen Tucker, c. 1945, in New Jersey; drums and vocals).
Albums:
Source: Simon Glickman
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This information is provided as a brief overview and not as a definitive guide, there are other sources on the net for that. If however you have a story or information that is not generally known we would love to hear from you. Content@rokpool.com.
