I've been thinking lately about the improbable number of great musicians from Britain. I don't mean successful acts, I mean individual, highly talented people. The Yardbirds alone launched three of the world's best rock guitarists in Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. Led Zeppelin by itself had two world-class musicians in Page and John Bonham, a very good, very overlooked bassist in John Paul Jones, and a singer better than most Americans in Robert Plant. I think that the best three at each of the major rock instruments from Britain would compare favorably to the same list from America (assume that we're talking about relatively mainstream rock and/or blues). Let's take guitarists: America- Jimi Hendrix, Duane Allman, Stevie Ray Vaughan (these are my top three, some might disagree). Britain- Jimmy Page, Brian May, Clapton/Beck/maybe David Gilmour. Drummers: America- Carter Beauford, John Densmore, Mike Portnoy. Britain- John Bonham, Ginger Baker, Mitch Mitchell. Bassists: America- Flea (Michael Balzary), Krist Novoselic, and, I don't know, Tim Commerford, I guess. Britain- John Entwistle, John Paul Jones, Noel Redding. Vocals: America- Jim Morrison, Elvis (I guess), and maybe John Fogerty (who's at least very distinctive if not exactly a classically beautiful voice) or somebody. Britain- Freddie Mercury, Robert Plant, Joe Cocker (I might be the only one who thinks he's this good, but I love his voice). Considering that, at 58,000,000 people as of 2006, Great Britain is a little less than a fifth the size of America, it seems ridiculous that they have as many musicians of very high caliber as we do. I don't have much of an explanation for it, except that I think it must have something to do with the import/export nature of popular music between the U.S. and U.K. America exports its current music, Britain listens to it, adapts it, and sends it back in a different, newer form. This was especially visible with the blues, which was probably better received in Britain during the sixties than it was in America, due to the racial overtones at the time. Britain took in acoustic guitar and harmonica based blues from artists like Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, etc. and sent it back with amplification and distortion, all the while highlighting the most exciting and (literally) electric moments of the blues. Their guitarists learned how to take blues tropes and turn it into something new, and, in the process, developed new technical skills and much cooler solos. British musicians heard the potential for awe-inspiring drama in the blues and, due to their cultural distance, were able to isolate and extrapolate on it. That's my theory, anyway.
Speaking of the blues... I think it's sad that the blues has virtually disappeared from modern rock. Obviously, rock is a spiritual and musical descendant of the blues, but almost no bands today play outright blues. This used to be a staple of rock groups, but now seems completely nonexistent. For the purposes of illustration, look at the song "Train Kept A-Rollin'": it was originally written by Tiny Bradshaw, as a pure blues song. The most famous version of it, however, is the Yardbirds cover, which maintained almost all of its original bluesiness but made it tinged with British-Invasion-style rock. When Page left and started Zeppelin after the Yardbirds collapsed, they also covered it, its blues still almost intact but with some of that proto-hard rock feel. It was louder, more distorted, and bigger. Next, it was done by Aerosmith, who played it in a way that made it recognizably bluesy in origin, but undeniably too campy to be anything but a seventies rock song. Then, eventually, it made its way to Motorhead, who turned it into a mainstream heavy metal tune, complete with higher distortion, atonal guitar, and growled vocals. The chord progression remains blues, but all the flavor has gone out of it. I think this is a fair assessment of modern rock. It's musical composition remains blues-like, but none of the same trappings or feel is there, except in bands like the Black Keys (one of my favorites) and Radio Moscow (a Black Keys follower).
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