Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name. In the late 1970s, some rock critics retroactively identified it as an early incarnation of punk rock, and it is sometimes called garage punk, protopunk, or 1960s punk; however, the music style has predominantly been referred to as garage rock.

History[link]

Origins[link]

The term "garage rock" comes from the perception that many such performers were young and amateurish, and often rehearsed in a family garage.^[1] Some bands were made up of middle-class teenagers from the suburbs, but some were from rural or urban areas, while others were composed of professional musicians in their twenties.^[2]

The performances were often amateurish or naïve, with typical themes revolving around the traumas of high school life and songs about "lying girls" being particularly common.^[3] The lyrics and delivery were notably more aggressive than was common at the time, often with growled or shouted vocals that dissolved into incoherent screaming.^[1] Instrumentation was often characterised by the use of guitars distorted through a fuzzbox.^[4] Nevertheless, garage rock acts were diverse in both musical ability and in style, ranging from crude one-chord music (like the Seeds and the Keggs) to near-studio musician quality (including the Knickerbockers, the Remains, and the Fifth Estate). There were also regional variations in many parts of America with flourishing scenes particularly in California and Texas.^[3] The Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon had perhaps the most defined regional sound.^[5]

The style had been evolving from regional scenes as early as 1958. "Tall Cool One" (1959) by The Wailers and "Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen (1963) are mainstream examples of the genre in its formative stages.^[6] By 1963, garage band singles were creeping into the national charts in greater numbers, including Paul Revere and the Raiders (Boise),^[7] the Trashmen (Minneapolis)^[8] and the Rivieras (South Bend, Indiana).^[9] Other influential garage bands, such as the Sonics (Tacoma, Washington), never reached the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.^[10] In this early period many bands were heavily influenced by surf rock and there was a cross-pollination between garage rock and energetic and upbeat party frat rock, though the latter is sometimes viewed as merely a sub-genre of garage rock.^[11]

The "British Invasion" of 1964-6 greatly influenced garage bands, providing them with a national audience and leading many (often surf or hot rod groups) to adopt a British Invasion lilt.^[3] The Invasion also inspired new, and often very raw, bands to form. Garage rock bands were generally influenced by those British "beat groups" with a harder, blues-based attack, such as The Kinks, The Who, The Animals, The Yardbirds, The Small Faces, The Pretty Things, Them,^[12] and The Rolling Stones. A handful of British garage bands were formed, the most successful being the Troggs.^[13] Another influence was the folk-rock of the Byrds and Bob Dylan, especially on bands such as the Leaves.^[14]

Peak of popularity[link]

Thousands of garage bands were extant in the USA and Canada during the era and hundreds produced regional hits.^[3] Usually thought to be the first to enjoy national success were The Beau Brummels with "Laugh, Laugh" and "Just a Little", which both reached the top 10 in 1964.^[15] Other examples include: "Fortune Teller" by Des Moines's The Image (1967), "The Witch" by Tacoma's The Sonics (1965), "Where You Gonna Go" by Detroit's Unrelated Segments (1967), "It's Cold Outside" by Cleveland's The Choir, "Girl I Got News for You" by Miami's Birdwatchers (1966) and "1-2-5" by Montreal's The Haunted. Boston's Remains, though only able to make it onto Billboard's Bubbling Under charts, had enough of a following and reputation to open for the Beatles during their 1966 U.S. tour.^[16] Michigan's Shondells released a minor regional hit in 1964 before disbanding; when it was unearthed by a Pittsburgh DJ in 1965, the resulting success of "Hanky Panky" revived the moribund career of Tommy James, who formed a new group of Shondells and went on to chart twelve more Top 40 singles.^[17]

Decline[link]

Despite scores of bands being signed to major or large regional labels, most were commercial failures. For instance, "Going All the Way" by The Squires was issued on a national label under (Atco) and is now regarded as a genre classic, but was not a hit anywhere.^[18] It is generally agreed that garage rock peaked both commercially and artistically around 1966.^[3] By 1968 the style largely disappeared from the national charts (the minor hit "Question of Temperature" by The Balloon Farm being a notable exception). It was also disappearing at the local level as amateur musicians faced college, work or the draft.^[3] New styles had evolved to replace garage rock (e.g., progressive rock, country rock, bubblegum, etc.).^[3] In Detroit garage rock stayed alive well into the 70s, with bands like the MC5, The Stooges, The Up and Death, who employed a much more aggressive style. These bands began to be labelled punk rock and are now often seen as protopunk or proto-hard rock.^[19]

Revivals[link]

Iggy Pop of The Stooges onstage in 1977

The revival of garage rock can be traced to the release of the two disk Nuggets compilation in 1972 by future Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye, which drew together both commercially successful and relatively obscure tracks from the mid-1960s and whose sleeve notes helped coin the phrase "punk rock" to describe the phenomenon.^[20] Iggy Pop and the Stooges, arguably the last garage band, carried garage rock into protopunk in the early '70s.^[4] The mid to late 1970s saw the arrival of the quintessential garage punk bands, most notably The Ramones, who are usually considered the first punk band.^[21]

In the 1980s, another garage rock revival saw a number of bands linked to the underground music scene earnestly trying to replicate the sound, style, and look of the '60s garage bands, including The Chesterfield Kings, The Fuzztones and Lyres.^[22] This trend coincided with a similar surf rock revival, and both styles fed in into the alternative rock movement and future grunge explosion, which some say was partially inspired by garage rock from the Tacoma area like The Sonics and The Wailers, but was largely unknown by fans outside the immediate circles of the bands themselves.^[23]

This movement also evolved into an even more primitive form of garage rock that became known as garage punk by the late 1980s, thanks to bands such as The Nouns (Los Angeles, CA), The Gories, Thee Mighty Caesars, The Mummies and Thee Headcoats.^[24] Bands playing garage punk differed from the garage rock revival bands in that they were less cartoonish caricatures of '60s garage bands and their overall sound was even more loud and raw, often infusing elements of protopunk and 1970s punk rock (hence the "garage punk" term). The garage rock revival and garage punk coexisted throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s with many independent record labels releasing thousands of records by bands playing various styles of primitive rock and roll all around the world. Some of the more prolific of these independent record labels included Estrus,^[25] Get Hip,^[26] Bomp!,^[27] and Sympathy for the Record Industry.^[28]

The Black Keys performing in 2011

In the early 2000s, a garage rock or post-punk revival^[29] achieved the airplay and commercial success that had eluded garage rock bands of the past. This was led by four bands: The Strokes of New York City, The Hives of Fagersta, Sweden, The Vines of Sydney, Australia, and The White Stripes from Detroit, Michigan, christened by the media as the "The" bands, or "The saviours of rock 'n' roll".^[30] Other products of the Detroit rock scene included; The Von Bondies, Electric 6, The Dirtbombs and The Detroit Cobras^[31] Elsewhere, other acts such as Billy Childish and The Buff Medways from Chatham, England,^[32] The (International) Noise Conspiracy from Umeå, Sweden,^[33] The 5.6.7.8's from Tokyo, Japan,^[34] and Jay Reatard and the Oblivians from Memphis, USA^[35] enjoyed moderate underground success and appeal. A second wave of bands that managed to gain international recognition as a result of the movement included The Black Keys,^[36] Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Killers, Interpol, and Kings of Leon from the US,^[37] The Libertines, Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, Editors, and Franz Ferdinand from the UK,^[38] Jet from Australia,^[39] and The Datsuns and The D4 from New Zealand.^[40]

The mid-2000s saw several underground bands achieve some mainstream prominence. Bands such as Black Lips^[41] and Jay Reatard,^[42] who initially released their records on traditionally garage punk labels such as In The Red Records, began signing to larger, more well-known independent labels.^[43] Several bands followed them in signing to larger labels such as Rough Trade^[44] and Drag City.^[45]

See also[link]

• Garage punk
• Group Sounds (Japan)
• List of garage rock bands
• Pub rock (UK)
• Pub rock (Australia)

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• '60s Garage Bands – Researching the Local and Regional Bands of the 1960s
• About.com Profile of Garage Rock – another, slightly different, definition and history of Garage Rock.

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2009)

Leslie West
Leslie West live at the Florida Theatre in 2008.
Background information
Birth name	Leslie Weinstein
Born	(1945-10-22) October 22, 1945 (age 66) New York City
Genres	Rock, hard rock, blues-rock, heavy metal
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Guitar, vocals
Years active	1965–present
Labels	Sony, Blues Bureau International, Lightyear
Associated acts	Mountain, West, Bruce and Laing, The Vagrants
Notable instruments
Gibson Les Paul Junior Dean Leslie West signature model Electra signature MPC model

Leslie West (born Leslie Weinstein on October 22, 1945) is an American rock guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is best known as a member of the hard rock band Mountain.

Biography[link]

West was born in New York City, grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey, and in East Meadow, Forest Hills and Lawrence.^[1] After his parents divorced, he changed his surname to West. His musical career began with The Vagrants, an R&B/Blue-eyed soul-rock band influenced by the likes of The Rascals that was one of the few teenage garage rock acts to come out of the New York metropolitan area itself (as opposed to the Bohemian Greenwich Village scene of artists, poets and affiliates of the Beat Generation, which produced bands like The Fugs and The Velvet Underground). The Vagrants had two minor hits in the Eastern US: 1966's "I Can't Make a Friend" and a cover of Otis Redding's "Respect" the following year.

Some of the Vagrants' recordings were produced by Felix Pappalardi, who was also working with Cream on their album Disraeli Gears. In 1969, West and Pappalardi would form the pioneering hard rock act Mountain, which was also the title of West's debut solo album. This was the second great "power trio" of the period, after Cream; Rolling Stone identified the band as a 'louder version of Cream'.^[2] With Steve Knight on keyboards and original drummer N. D. Smart, the band appeared on the second day of the Woodstock Festival on Saturday, August 16, 1969 starting an 11-song set at 9PM.

The band's original incarnation saw West and Pappalardi sharing vocal duties and playing guitar and bass, respectively. New drummer Corky Laing joined the band shortly after Woodstock. They had success with "Mississippi Queen", which reached #21 on the Billboard charts and #4 in Canada. It was followed by the Jack Bruce-penned "Theme For an Imaginary Western". Mountain is one of the bands considered to be forerunners of heavy metal music.^[3]

After the breakup of Mountain, West and Laing would produce two studio albums and a live release with Cream bassist Jack Bruce under the name West, Bruce and Laing. Mountain reformed in 1973 only to break up again in late 1974. But since 1981 it has continued to reform, tour and record on a regular basis.

West, along with keyboard player Al Kooper of Blood, Sweat & Tears, recorded with The Who during the March 1971 Who's Next New York sessions. Tracks included a cover of Marvin Gaye's "Baby Don't You Do It," and early versions of "Love Ain't For Keepin'" and The Who's signature track "Won't Get Fooled Again". Though the tracks were not originally included on the album (recording restarted in England a few months later without West or Kooper), they appear as bonus tracks on the 1995 and 2003 reissues of Who's Next and on the 1998 reissue of Odds & Sods.

West also played guitar for the track "Bo Diddley Jam" on Bo Diddley's 1976 20th Anniversary of Rock 'n' Roll all-star album.

Leslie West and Joe Bonamassa recorded Warren Haynes' "If Heartaches Were Nickels" together. West released it on Guitarded (2005), and Bonamassa on A New Day Yesterday (2000).

West contributed the music and co-wrote the lyrics to the song "Immortal" on Clutch's 2001 album Pure Rock Fury, which was a reworked cover of the song "Baby I'm Down" on Leslie West's first album.

In 2005 he contributed to Ozzy Osbourne's Under Cover album, performing guitar on a remake of "Mississippi Queen"

In addition to fronting Mountain, West continues to record and perform on his own. His latest solo album, entitled Blue Me, was released in 2006 on the Blues Bureau International label. In 2007 Mountain released Masters of War on Big Rack Records, an album featuring 12 Bob Dylan covers that sees Ozzy Osbourne providing guest vocals on a rendition of the title track.

West was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on October 15, 2006.^[4]

West married his fiancée Jenni Maurer on stage after Mountain's performance at the Woodstock 40th anniversary concert in Bethel, New York (August 15, 2009). Over 15,000 people were present and the couple walked through a bridge of guitars held by Levon Helm, Larry Taylor and Corky Laing among others. West now lives in New Jersey.^[5]

Johnny Ramone, a fan of West, has called him, "one of the top five guitar players of his era".^[6]

West continues to make occasional appearances on radio, notably on Howard Stern's radio show.^[2]

In May 1987, West played the band leader in a series of late night pilot shows for Howard Stern on the FOX network. He taped a total of 5 shows with Stern, which never aired. Stern went on to form a new show dubbed the Channel 9 show without Leslie.

West was affectionately nicknamed "The King of Tone" by his legions of fans, referring to his influential and world renowned guitar tone. West was also nicknamed "The Fattest Fingers in Rock N' Roll", due to his large build.

On June 20, 2011 West had his lower right leg amputated as a result of complications from diabetes.^[7] Leslie made his 1st public appearance after his surgery on August 13, 2011 ^[8]

Equipment[link]

West is renowned for helping popularize use of the Gibson Les Paul Jr. guitar with P90 pickups, along with the use of Sunn Amplifiers, to create a tone which became his trademark sound.

Guitars[link]

West frequently used two Les Paul Juniors, one "TV Yellow" and the other a sunburst.^[9] West also used a modified Gibson Flying V, with the neck pickup removed (he used the hole for an ashtray) and a P90 fitted at the bridge position, West also had a two-pickup Flying V which he used after the ash tray vee broke (the s/n of that flying vee is s/n 906965).^{[clarification needed]} West also used a plexiglass Dan Armstrong for slide guitar.^[9]

From 1977 to 1982, he used a signature on-board effects MPC model guitar, created by the Japanese company Electra.^[9] He currently uses a signature model from Dean Guitars, the USA Soltero Leslie West Signature model,^[9] fitted with a custom-designed Dean pickup called "Mountain of Tone."

West has also long favored "headless" guitars, and can be seen playing them on some of the videos he has appeared in. In an interview segment on "Night Of The Guitars - Live!" West stated that he had narrowed his commonly played instruments down to two: an off-the-shelf Steinberger and an Ed Roman LSR with DiMarzio pickups. So impressed was he with the LSRs that he agreed to serve as spokesperson and defacto salesman, the specific styles with his name on them available only directly from Ed Roman or else from West himself. [1]

Amplifiers[link]

In 2005, West received a sponsorship with Carlsbro amplifiers, and could frequently be seen playing through "Carlsbro 50 Top" valve heads. His studio amplifier is a Marshall JMP. Live, he used Marshall JCM 900s. He started endorsing and using Budda Amplification in 2008.^[9] He was also associated with Sunn amplifiers, and used a Sunn Coliseum PA head, when it was shipped to him by accident. He claims that this is the amp that gave him his signature sound in this Gibson Interview with West.

Effects[link]

West uses octaver, chorus and delay effects.

Discography[link]

For his work with Mountain and West, Bruce and Laing, see their pages.

• 1969 Mountain
• 1975 The Great Fatsby
• 1976 The Leslie West Band
• 1988 Theme
• 1989 Alligator
• 1989 Night of the Guitar- Live!
• 1993 Live
• 1994 Dodgin' the Dirt
• 1999 As Phat as it Gets
• 2003 Blues to Die For
• 2005 Guitarded
• 2005 Got Blooze
• 2006 Blue Me
• 2011 Unusual Suspects (UK chart peak: #153)^[10][11]

A compilation of singles recorded in the 1960s by The Vagrants was released as The Great Lost Album in 1986. Mountain also recorded a live album entitled 'Mountain - Live' (1972 Island Music - ZCI 9199) The B-side features an 18 minute version of "Nantucket Sleighride".

References[link]

External links[link]

• Mountain Official site
• Audio Interview with Leslie West on Guitar Jam Daily
• Mountain Tour Archive