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you would think that American blues-based rock bands would take most of their influence from American blues

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but the case is that most of these bands were very influenced by the British bands of the 1960s

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it's as if the blues as to leave the United States, go to Britain, and come back again for Americans to play it

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e.g. the Stones and Creme were so big that when the American kids were listening to it became teenagers, this is the kind of music that they played

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when we talk about American blues-based rock, we are often talking of Southern Rock

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Southern Rock was the most blues-based rock music in the United States

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two most important representatives of Southern Rock

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1. Lynyrd Skynyrd

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best known for popularizing the Southern hard-rock genre during the 1970s

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formed in 1966 as the The Pretty Ones in Jacksonville, Florida

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took on the name Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1969

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at the peak of their success, three members died in an airplane crash in 1977

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Sweet Home Alabama

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Free Bird

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named after their gym teacher who had a strict rule that young men should not have long hair

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very radio-friendly style

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second album called "Second Helping", a sort of countrified-life term

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2. The Allman Brothers Band

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an American rock band

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based out of Macon, Georgia

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Ramblin' Man

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Album: At Fillmore East

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Gregg Allman

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Duane Allman

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dies in 1971

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basist died in 1972

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both in motorcycle accidents

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features

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blues influences

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extensive soloing

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a more improvised, live group

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so when you listen to a live album, you are getting a more accurate representation of who they are

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after Duane and Barry are gone

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bring in Chuck Leavell and Dickey Betts

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Album: "Brothers and Sisters" (1973)

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"Ramblin' Man"

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differences between these two

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Lynyrd Skynyrd more song-oriented, Allmand brothers more jam-oriented

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other representative groups of Southern Rock

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Charlie Daniels Band

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Charlie Daniels

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from South Carolina

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session musician

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played some bass on some Dylon records

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mentored a few Southern Rock artists

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a generation older

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1979: "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"

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The Marshall Tucker Band

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"Can't You See" (1973)

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marginal Southern Rock

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Texas-based Blues Rock

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certainly geographically

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but it's not really thought of as part of the South, but simply more as "Texas" or the Southwest if you are going to think about a region

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ZZ Top

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"La Grange" (1973)

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"Tush" (1975)

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Mexican-influenced Southern Rock

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Carlos Santana

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his group came out of the San Francisco psychedelic scene, similar to:

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Grateful Dead

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Jefferson Airplane

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combines Jazz, Blues, improvisation, and adds the Latin rhythm

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Black Magic Woman (1970)

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a close cover of a track that had been recorded by Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green on the guitar in 1968

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Evil Ways (1970)

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most representative of the Latin rhythms

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other American Blues Rock

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Steppenwolf

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Canadian/American rock group that was prominent from 1968 to 1972

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Born to Be Wild (1968)

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sometimes described as the first heavy metal song, and the second verse lyric "heavy metal thunder" marks the first use of this term in rock music

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featured in film Easy Rider (1969) starring Peter Fonda

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Magic Carpet Ride (1968)

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Three Dog Night

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vocal group of three singers

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produced by Beach Boy Brian Wilson

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Mama Told Me Not to Come (1970)

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Grand Funk Railroad

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Flint, Michigan

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Mark Farner

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deeply rooted in 1960s Soul and Blues

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I'm Your Captain (1970)

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more of an ambitious orchestral element

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We're an American Band (1973)

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often not given their due but a band that sold a lot of records and got a lot of people to show up at their concerts

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Aerosmith

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out of Boston

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an American version of the Rolling Stones

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because Joe Perry and Steven Tyler cut an image very much like Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

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Walk This Way (1975)

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Joe Perry and Steven Tyler did this as a Rock/Rap crossover record with Run DMC

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representative of the tension between Rock and Rap

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what makes Southern Rock Southern?

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is it southern because of where it comes from?

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much of what makes Southern Rock southern is the way in which it was packaged

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Southern Rock had it's greatest sales in northern cities simply because in the early 1970s, that's where most of the people were

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so what constituted Southern was what constituted Southern in the minds of northerners

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who in many cases didn't have any direct contact with the South and may have not ever been there

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so when you see Confederate flags and pickup trucks and big dogs and rifles and this kind of thing, this all stands for Southern life, almost a cartoonish version of it

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and one thing that the marketing people picked up about these recording labels was that if they could push this image, they could sell these groups and find a marketing niche for them

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because there is something interesting, heroic an fun-loving about images of the South

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not that these images were accurate, they were almost caricatures of things that people in the North had

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so one thing that really pulls these Southern Rock groups together is their imaging, their proud sort of demonstration of their Southern roots