what bands did 60s rockers used to listen to?

Surely you mean pre-1960s.

"If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry" - John Lennon

So apparently they were listening to him.

50s rock - Presley, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Jery Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly
Ray Charles
Yardbirds
Rolling Stones
the Shadows
the Animals
the Beatles
John Mayall Band
Cream
Beach Boys
Byrds
Jimi Hendrix Experience
the Kinks
James Brown
Mose Allison
Captain Beefheart
John Coltrane
Miles Davis
Bob Dylan
Fleetwood Mac
Traffic
the Band
Otis redding
Charles Mingus
Aretha Franklin
Them
Credence Clearwater Revival
Frank Zappa
Crosby Stills and Nash
Blues - Robert Johnson, Buddy Guy, Junior Parker, Albert King, Howlin' Wolf, Magic Sam, John Lee Hooker, BB King etc. etc.
Motown
Stax

There's probably quite a bit I've forgotten, and I haven't included folk/folk-rock, SanFran bands and the Velvet Underground

Actually Bavid Bowie's "Pin Ups" isn't a bad indication of the things they were listening to

I fully expect to get ripped apart for misunderstanding the question

My opinion is that that stuff was all about staged encounters on seaside resorts not any kind of musical divide

Post of the year.

There really were Mods and Rockers, too. The ultimate Mod band wasn't the Who, it was the Small Faces. The Creation, the Easybeats, and the Kinks were obviously more Mod than Rocker. Rockers believed rock and roll stopped when Eddie Cochran was killed in 1960--they were kind of the roots-rockers of their era. They did all get drunk and pilled up and fight at resorts, which was obviously a good thing for them to have done. Also a lot of that era was based on a healthy skepticism about jazz, specifically all that shitty "trad" stuff which was British people in bowties trying to recreate Dixieland, as well as skepticism about the whole post-bop scene. Altho in "Absolute Beginners" all that seemed to somewhat coexist.

Skiffle was British people doing jug-band music and ropey old American folk songs. Lonnie Donegan, who was one of the first signs of life in the British rock and roll scene. I mean why listen to that when you can hear Gus Cannon?

In America I think it was somewhat different, just because the musicians were so much closer to their sources. You had rednecks like Dan Penn all into Bobby Bland and soul music, and obviously lots of white soul bands doing "Knock on Wood" for sorority parties and so forth. And you had those guitar-lick worshippers playing blues just like in England, except that I'd say Mike Bloomfield and others tended to get the ethos of blues a bit better getting knives pulled on them in Chicago than someone who learned at the knee of Alexis Korner.

I hesitate to say it was a more fertile scene but it certainly seems less pretentious in every way than today, and it was probably more truly diverse. I just think that it's always a bad thing when musicians start wearing their influences on their sleeves instead of just doing what they feel like doing, and in that regard there's not a whole lot of difference between now and then...

So they all coulda been like Steely Dan?

The thing is, the '70s were all about mourning the fucking Beatles, but you also had an awareness of what jazz had done over the last forty years. Slightly more harmonic sophistication by then. It came from bebop but mainly from that so-called modal jazz scene of the '50s. It took rap music and various other things to get people away from the misconceived notion that the Beatles were the be-all of previous music. Because it was, you know, James Brown all along...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lennon's_jukebox

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/lennon/

But yeah, the de facto answer still is Chuck Berry. He was one of the main roots of their generation.

In the UK, Skiffle is to 1957 as Punk is to '77 and Acid House is to '89.

(thanks for the link)

They don't. They listen to "classic" hard rock from the 70s or 80s: Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Iron Maiden etc.

http://www.fsinet.or.jp/~eneman/MUSIC/obaka/obakapict/chris.jpg

But it's not really about the photos; Montez came into his own (such as it was) as an Alpert-produced balladeer, a few years after the lo-fi roller-rinky-dinkitudinous (but still classic) "Let's Dance", which left a somewhat less-than-lasting impression on subsequent rock, compared to "Louie Louie".

NO CONTEST.

Chris Montez's Call Me PWNS all other music anyway.

Uh, oh yeah, LOUIE LOUIE AND SHIT!! FUCK!!

1 The Modern Folk Quartet – This Could Be the Night 29
2 Alvin Robinson – Down Home Girl 27
3 Chris Montez – The Face I Love 25

-- PappaWheelie has no answers to any question that requires actual thought (evieandjo...), September 27th, 2006. (later)

The new PEW thread is 1,000x funnier

ah this song is SO AWESOME

TS: louie louie as a million cover versions vs. Let's Dance as covered by the Silicon Teens.

b-b-but Ramones cover "let's dance" on The Most Important Album of All Time! that david bowie cover sux though

I never knew he did Let's Dance though! I are stupid.

Chris Montez at AMG

One of the leading rockers in the Los Angeles Hispanic community after the tragic death of Ritchie Valens, Chris Montez later mellowed out under the tutelage of Herb Alpert and tallied several MOR-style hits. His first smash was on Monogram in 1962, "Let's Dance." It was a grinding rocker with roller-rink organ. Montez changed his attitude after signing with A&M. With Alpert producing, Montez adopted an easygoing approach on "Call Me," "The More I See You," and "Time After Time," all solid sellers in 1966. The formula quickly faded, however, and his final chart entry came the following year with "Because of You."

Hispanic Rock from the 50's-early 60's relly was a monster of it's own kind, with each head being incredibly different than the other (Ritchie Valens, The Premiers, Montez, etc.)

(btw - http://www.myspace.com/thesocietyofrockets)

So heres a question. What is the best cover of the Kingsmen version of 'louie louie' and what is the best cover of Montez's 'lets dance' (btw I'm assuming Montez's tune was an original)...

(shakey, if you've seen animal house, you've heard montez's let's dance)

Before you put too much more effort into it, I can give you one more tip. Paul McCartney appears on the recent Sun Records documentary too. You heard it here first!

I think it's nearly impossible to desecrate Louie Louie.

-- Squirrel_Police (goblinatri...), September 25th, 2006.

-- Squirrel_Police (goblinatri...), October 6th, 2006. (later)

Confuse your actions with others reactions much?