Thursday 16 October 2008
Skiffle
A track called Gamblin' Man by the great Lonnie Donegan who spearheaded the skiffle movent in the 50's and made lots of spotty teenagers realise they could make music too. All you needed was a cheap guitar to strum a few chords on, a tea chest bass, a washboard, an old mangle and various household implements. Skiffle was the first DIY music phenomenom - way before Punk came along. John Lennon and Paul McCartney met whilst John was playing in The Quarry Men, a skiffle group he played in. Most of the pop groups of the 60's started out in skiffle groups. I used to watch them of Tv shows like 6 : 5 Special and listen to them on Saturday Club with Brian Matthew.
Discover more about Lonnie Donegan HERE.
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6 comments:
Yes, I too love this man and the whole Skiffle thing. Miles better than punk. Didn't Lennon play banjo chords on his guitar in the early days of the Beatles? You can't get more skiffle than that.
PS. The song that I have on an old shelac single, and its B-side I believe, is Tom Dooley. Fabulous song!
I agree entirely. There would be no Beatles or Stones without skiffle and civilization as we know it would be vastly different.
Instead of the fabulius rock and roll programmes on telly now we would be stuck with dancing on ice, amateur singing shows and choirs etc.
Oh.
I had the privilege of seeing him live - what a showman! A vastly underrated guitar player and influence on popular culture. A pity he's best remembered for rubbish like "My old man's a dustman"
Rubbish? But surely that is wot bein' a dustbinman is all abhat?
Maybe but it's not what a musical trailblazer is all about
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