Skiffle in the U.K.: the indigenization of a musical genre

ABSTRACT

This article examines the creation and diffusion of skiffle, and analyses how it emerged from the transatlantic flow of popular music from the United States to the United Kingdom, and the process by which it became “indigenized” in the U.K. I have also looked at the salience of race, the legacy of English music hall song traditions, and the idea of indigenization of music in post-WWII Britain. I have highlighted how skiffle eventually became “English,” its later impact on popular music in the U.K. in the 1960s and thereafter, and the complexities inherent in the idea of musical genre.

KEYWORDS:

• Skiffle
• geography of music
• British Invasion bands
• Lonnie Donegan
• rock and roll

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Alan P. Marcus is Professor, Department of Geography and Environmental Planning, Towson University. His publications include topicsabout Brazil, Immigration, geography of the blues, and sense of place.

ORCID

Alan P. Marcus http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1023-2361

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 With covers of Lead Belly’s “Midnight Special,” “Casey Jones,” “K. C. Moan” and “Take this Hammer.”

2 “Worried Man Blues” was a song by the Carter Family hugely popular with skiffle bands, and, “Down by the Riverside” was a traditional U.S. gospel song.

3 Many of Guthrie’s songs were skiffle group favorites. For example: “Gamblin’ Man,” “Dead or Alive,” “The Grand Coulee Dam,” “Talking Columbia Blues,” “This Land is Your Land” (based on the Carter Family’s “When the World is on Fire”). The Carter Family also influenced Donegan, and three of their songs became standards in the setlists of typical English skiffle bands: “Worried Man Blues,” “My Dixie Darlin’” and “Wabash Cannonball” (McDevitt 1997, 37; Leigh 2003, 10).

4 The influence and inspiration of Lead Belly on British skiffle is undeniable. As former recording skiffler, Chas McDevitt put it, “Lead Belly’s impact on the twentieth century can also be gauged by the fact that nearly 50 years after his death there still thrives a Lead Belly Society with a large international membership” (1997, 31). For example, in 2015, the Lead Belly Fest: A Tribute Concert was held at Royal Albert Hall, London, with the following artists paying tribute to Lead Belly: Van Morrison, Eric Burdon, Jools Holland, Billy Bragg, Eric Bibb, Paul Jones, Dennis Locorriere, Ruby Turner, Josh White Jr, Walter Trout, Laurence Jones, Gwen Dickey, Dana Fuchs, Slim Chance, Gemma Ray, and Tom Paley.

5 Lead Belly songs received small attention by white audiences through folk groups such as the Weavers. In the late 1940s and early 1950s the Weavers popularized songs such as “Good Night Irene,” however, Pete Seeger’s involvement with the U.S. communist party had blacklisted him throughout the country, and the band quickly dissolved in 1952. Most of Donegan’s hits were in fact, straight out of Lead Belly’s song list (e.g.; “Midnight Special,” “Bring a Little Water Silvie,” and “Jack of Diamonds”) (McDevitt 1997, 30).

6 An “EP” means “Extended Play,” while “LP” means “Long Play” (or 33-1⁄3 rpm microgroove vinyl record).

7 While the early 1960s music of theirs clearly shows this influence (e.g.; “Love Me Do”) by the time they got to iconoclastic songs such as “Strawberry Fields Forever” or “I Am the Walrus” in 1967, this influence was of course, decidedly less prominent.

8 Soon, another indigenized musical phenomenon would appear in Britain, known as the “British Invasion bands” (See Figure 2). This was a catch-all term for the British bands that did well in the United States during the 1960s, however, evidently the term “British Invasion” only meant something in the context of the United States (in Britain it made no sense).

9 This continuity is seen, for example, in 1963 with “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” by Herman’s Hermits, “written in the style of a traditional music-hall song” (Stratton 2010, 39).

10 New bands popped up throughout the U.K., notably in three cities: Newcastle (e.g.; The Animals), Liverpool (e.g.; The Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers), and, London (e.g.; The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Yardbirds, The Who) (See Figure 3).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the College of Liberal Arts, Towson University.