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-What is your name? -Don Everly, aged 20. | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
Only a 20-year-old would say his name in the first place. | 0:00:04 | 0:00:07 | |
-How about you? What's your name? -Phil Everly and I'm 18 years old. | 0:00:07 | 0:00:10 | |
# Bye, bye, love | 0:00:10 | 0:00:13 | |
# Bye, bye, happiness | 0:00:13 | 0:00:16 | |
# Hello, loneliness | 0:00:16 | 0:00:18 | |
# I think I'm-a gonna cry-y # | 0:00:18 | 0:00:21 | |
Any musician with a set of ears was influenced by The Everly Brothers. | 0:00:21 | 0:00:25 | |
Well, this is the best harmony I've ever heard in my life. | 0:00:25 | 0:00:29 | |
And from that moment, | 0:00:29 | 0:00:31 | |
I was on the train called The Everly Brothers. | 0:00:31 | 0:00:34 | |
I don't think you'll ever find another pair that can match them. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:38 | |
# Here he comes That's Cathy's clown. # | 0:00:38 | 0:00:45 | |
Here's that thing about being brothers that the voices | 0:00:45 | 0:00:48 | |
were so similar that that's also why the harmonies just sounded, | 0:00:48 | 0:00:51 | |
you know, so great in unison. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:54 | |
# Wake up, little Susie We gotta go home. # | 0:00:54 | 0:00:58 | |
This programme contains some strong language | 0:00:58 | 0:01:03 | |
They had a very different sound. | 0:01:03 | 0:01:05 | |
They're fusing new elements into what had been up until then | 0:01:05 | 0:01:12 | |
an easy-listening format. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:14 | |
# I've been cheated Been mistreated | 0:01:14 | 0:01:22 | |
# When will I be loved? # | 0:01:22 | 0:01:28 | |
Some people are lucky enough | 0:01:28 | 0:01:29 | |
to live at the time of a new form, others are not. | 0:01:29 | 0:01:32 | |
The Everly Brothers were, | 0:01:32 | 0:01:33 | |
that moment when rock and roll | 0:01:33 | 0:01:35 | |
was just starting. | 0:01:35 | 0:01:36 | |
And their gifts were perfect for it. | 0:01:36 | 0:01:39 | |
Young at the right time, | 0:01:39 | 0:01:41 | |
two people singing as if one head with two voices. | 0:01:41 | 0:01:44 | |
# I can make you mine | 0:01:44 | 0:01:47 | |
# Taste your lips of wine | 0:01:47 | 0:01:50 | |
# Any time night or day | 0:01:50 | 0:01:54 | |
# Only trouble is | 0:01:54 | 0:01:58 | |
# Gee whiz | 0:01:58 | 0:01:59 | |
# I'm dreamin' my life away. # | 0:01:59 | 0:02:03 | |
For a period of five years, | 0:02:03 | 0:02:05 | |
from 1957 to '62, The Everly Brothers | 0:02:05 | 0:02:09 | |
were this amazing vocal duo | 0:02:09 | 0:02:11 | |
who just completely dominated the pop charts. | 0:02:11 | 0:02:14 | |
And they influenced a raft of musicians | 0:02:14 | 0:02:17 | |
and bands who came in their wake. | 0:02:17 | 0:02:20 | |
And the reason we all do what we do | 0:02:20 | 0:02:22 | |
is cos we heard that and wanted to do it. | 0:02:22 | 0:02:24 | |
# Walk right back to me this minute | 0:02:24 | 0:02:29 | |
# Bring your love to me | 0:02:29 | 0:02:31 | |
# Don't send it | 0:02:31 | 0:02:32 | |
# I'm so lonesome every day | 0:02:32 | 0:02:37 | |
# I'm so lonesome every day. # | 0:02:39 | 0:02:45 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:02:48 | 0:02:50 | |
It was 1957. | 0:02:51 | 0:02:53 | |
I went bowling in Jamaica with Paul. | 0:02:53 | 0:02:57 | |
I was on a school coach trip to the Lake District. | 0:02:57 | 0:03:01 | |
You had to take a transfer and change buses. | 0:03:01 | 0:03:03 | |
And on the jukebox was this wonderful sound... | 0:03:03 | 0:03:06 | |
BYE BYE LOVE INTRO PLAYS | 0:03:06 | 0:03:09 | |
And there the bus driver's radio | 0:03:09 | 0:03:12 | |
-had... -HE IMITATES THE BYE BYE LOVE INTRO | 0:03:12 | 0:03:17 | |
Which was Bye Bye Love | 0:03:17 | 0:03:18 | |
and I didn't know who was singing it or knew what the song was. | 0:03:18 | 0:03:22 | |
And for some reason, it played about nine times on the trot, | 0:03:22 | 0:03:25 | |
I think the jukebox was stuck. | 0:03:25 | 0:03:27 | |
My best friend Allan Clarke and I are attending | 0:03:27 | 0:03:31 | |
a Catholic school girls' dance on a Saturday night, | 0:03:31 | 0:03:34 | |
Bye Bye Love by The Everly Brothers | 0:03:34 | 0:03:36 | |
came on the big speakers | 0:03:36 | 0:03:37 | |
and it changed me and Allan's life completely. | 0:03:37 | 0:03:39 | |
# Bye, bye, love | 0:03:39 | 0:03:41 | |
# Bye, bye, happiness. # | 0:03:41 | 0:03:45 | |
-And both Paul and I went... -HE GASPS | 0:03:45 | 0:03:47 | |
"These guys are the greatest. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:49 | |
"How do they harmon...? Who are these people?" | 0:03:49 | 0:03:52 | |
I'd seen that it was by some act called The Everly Brothers. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:55 | |
"They're brothers, oh, no wonder, the DNA gives them a huge leg up." | 0:03:55 | 0:04:00 | |
I didn't know how many there were. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:02 | |
Whether they were a 10-piece band or what. | 0:04:02 | 0:04:04 | |
But it made an enormous impact on me. | 0:04:04 | 0:04:07 | |
# There goes my baby with-a someone new | 0:04:07 | 0:04:12 | |
# She sure looks happy I sure am blue | 0:04:12 | 0:04:18 | |
# She was my baby till he stepped in | 0:04:18 | 0:04:24 | |
# Goodbye to romance that might have been. # | 0:04:24 | 0:04:29 | |
It was the first time I ever heard music that I loved | 0:04:29 | 0:04:32 | |
and I thought, "Wow, if this is what music is like, | 0:04:32 | 0:04:34 | |
"I can't wait to find out more." | 0:04:34 | 0:04:36 | |
And then I spent the last 30 years looking for anything that's as good | 0:04:36 | 0:04:39 | |
as The Everly Brothers and there isn't anything. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:41 | |
I assumed that was the tip of the iceberg, | 0:04:41 | 0:04:43 | |
I thought all music was going to be that good. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:45 | |
No. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:47 | |
You bet music was changing. | 0:04:47 | 0:04:49 | |
What came before that was so tame - Patti Page and Perry Como. | 0:04:49 | 0:04:56 | |
Doris Day and Frank Sinatra and the Beverley Sisters. | 0:04:56 | 0:05:00 | |
The crooners came out of the war and the war era | 0:05:00 | 0:05:04 | |
when everybody needed to be on message, if you like, | 0:05:04 | 0:05:07 | |
and together and now you're starting to get the age of teenage rebellion | 0:05:07 | 0:05:12 | |
and younger people wanting music that they could identify with, | 0:05:12 | 0:05:15 | |
which was much more their own. | 0:05:15 | 0:05:17 | |
This stirring things up was much more... | 0:05:17 | 0:05:20 | |
subversive is the word I would use. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:22 | |
I guess the best place to start is at the beginning. | 0:05:22 | 0:05:24 | |
The beginning for Phil and I is just a small dot on the map | 0:05:24 | 0:05:27 | |
called Brownie, Kentucky. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:30 | |
I was born in Brownie, Kentucky, it was the Brownie coal mines | 0:05:30 | 0:05:34 | |
that named it Brownie, Kentucky, | 0:05:34 | 0:05:36 | |
and my father worked at the coal mines then. | 0:05:36 | 0:05:41 | |
These coal miners, you know, they worked five, six days a week | 0:05:41 | 0:05:44 | |
and on the weekends, they get together | 0:05:44 | 0:05:47 | |
and have their little parties | 0:05:47 | 0:05:49 | |
and play music and that kind of thing. | 0:05:49 | 0:05:51 | |
And my father, he came out of there playing a guitar. | 0:05:51 | 0:05:55 | |
My father was | 0:05:55 | 0:05:56 | |
a thumb picker out of Kentucky. | 0:05:56 | 0:05:58 | |
-DON: -But Mum and Dad moved to Chicago | 0:06:00 | 0:06:02 | |
and I don't remember the move cos I was very young. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:06 | |
And their father was a great musician | 0:06:06 | 0:06:07 | |
and somebody who's knowledge of music and, you know, | 0:06:07 | 0:06:11 | |
folk music, in particular, was encyclopaedic. | 0:06:11 | 0:06:14 | |
He was a unique guitar player when he was up in Chicago | 0:06:14 | 0:06:17 | |
and the area, playing the honky-tonk. | 0:06:17 | 0:06:19 | |
Actually influenced Merle Travis. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:22 | |
Merle was the guy who went to Hollywood and made good | 0:06:22 | 0:06:26 | |
and influenced a lot of people. | 0:06:26 | 0:06:28 | |
Ike Everly and Merle Travis are the people that we feel | 0:06:28 | 0:06:33 | |
is really responsible for the thumb-and-finger style | 0:06:33 | 0:06:38 | |
or thumb style of guitar playing. | 0:06:38 | 0:06:40 | |
Chet Atkins, considered one of the greatest guitar players | 0:06:40 | 0:06:43 | |
in American history and certainly one of the most influential, | 0:06:43 | 0:06:46 | |
because he took a style | 0:06:46 | 0:06:47 | |
which was sort of playing the rhythm | 0:06:47 | 0:06:49 | |
with your thumb and using your fingers to sort of pick out | 0:06:49 | 0:06:52 | |
the melody and so you have sort of | 0:06:52 | 0:06:54 | |
a double guitar sound going on at once. | 0:06:54 | 0:06:56 | |
HE PLAYS WITH THE THUMB STYLE | 0:06:56 | 0:06:59 | |
The interesting thing about the finger-picking styles | 0:07:12 | 0:07:15 | |
were they were things that were handed from musician to musician. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:19 | |
Ike Everly was a tremendous influence on his sons | 0:07:19 | 0:07:23 | |
and, of course, made sure that even though | 0:07:23 | 0:07:29 | |
they were both left-handed, they played the correct way around. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:33 | |
Because you'll have trouble for the rest of your life | 0:07:33 | 0:07:36 | |
if you don't do that. | 0:07:36 | 0:07:37 | |
I'm left-handed. I'm completely left-handed in everything. | 0:07:37 | 0:07:40 | |
And he taught me right-handed, he wouldn't let me learn left-handed. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:44 | |
Don was probably six years old, Phil four years old, | 0:07:44 | 0:07:48 | |
they decided they did not want them to grow up | 0:07:48 | 0:07:51 | |
in a big town like Chicago, they wanted them to grow up | 0:07:51 | 0:07:54 | |
kind of like they did. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:55 | |
So, they moved off to western Iowa. | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
Back then, radio had artists that...they put their own shows on. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:04 | |
This is in the days, of course, when America had thousands | 0:08:04 | 0:08:06 | |
and thousands of very localised radio stations. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:09 | |
My mother and father figured out that they could go get us on air | 0:08:09 | 0:08:14 | |
as the Everly family. | 0:08:14 | 0:08:16 | |
'54 degrees in Shenandoah, 6.16 is the time. | 0:08:16 | 0:08:19 | |
'Now into part two with the Everly family.' | 0:08:19 | 0:08:23 | |
It was every morning, early morning radio show. | 0:08:23 | 0:08:27 | |
Before school. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:29 | |
And they appeared as Little Donnie and Baby Boy Phil. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:32 | |
# She was crying, softly crying | 0:08:32 | 0:08:37 | |
# Teardrops falling in the snow. # | 0:08:40 | 0:08:45 | |
'This is Dad Everly, | 0:08:45 | 0:08:47 | |
'speaking for Mum, Don, Baby Boy Phil. | 0:08:47 | 0:08:50 | |
'Saying so long, thank you for listening.' | 0:08:50 | 0:08:52 | |
Dad was teaching Phil and I to sing, you know, together. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:55 | |
They grew up with harmony. | 0:08:55 | 0:08:58 | |
It was like a language | 0:08:58 | 0:08:59 | |
and thus, they could speak it when they got older. | 0:08:59 | 0:09:02 | |
If you grew up in Louisville or you grew up in Kentucky, | 0:09:02 | 0:09:06 | |
you were used to hearing bluegrass singing, | 0:09:06 | 0:09:09 | |
you were used to hearing that kind of two-part harmony. | 0:09:09 | 0:09:12 | |
That was just part of their lives, cos their mum and dad | 0:09:12 | 0:09:14 | |
were doing that for years. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:16 | |
That was how they were brought up, | 0:09:16 | 0:09:17 | |
it was probably nothing strange for them. | 0:09:17 | 0:09:19 | |
We think it's strange, you know, | 0:09:19 | 0:09:21 | |
but I guess for them it wasn't strange, | 0:09:21 | 0:09:23 | |
-cos they were brought up that way. -BLUEGRASS MUSIC PLAYS | 0:09:23 | 0:09:26 | |
I went back to Tennessee | 0:09:26 | 0:09:29 | |
and then I started writing. | 0:09:29 | 0:09:31 | |
And it just came out of the clear blue. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:34 | |
Chet Atkins had a lot to do with it. | 0:09:34 | 0:09:36 | |
We went to a concert that he was at down in Oxford, Tennessee, | 0:09:36 | 0:09:40 | |
and my father called him over | 0:09:40 | 0:09:42 | |
and he got talking and he introduced Phil and I to him to chat | 0:09:42 | 0:09:47 | |
and told him that I was writing songs. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:50 | |
He was, you know, enamoured with, Ike Everly and his sons, | 0:09:50 | 0:09:53 | |
you know, he finds all of these talented singers, | 0:09:53 | 0:09:56 | |
so he encourages them to come to Nashville | 0:09:56 | 0:09:58 | |
and introduces them to Wesley Rose, who was running Acuff-Rose, | 0:09:58 | 0:10:01 | |
which was the biggest music publishing organisation in town. | 0:10:01 | 0:10:04 | |
We drove over from Knoxville and went to Chet Atkins' house. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:07 | |
He lived in Belle Meade at the time. | 0:10:07 | 0:10:09 | |
And we recorded something on Chet's tape in his house and he said, | 0:10:09 | 0:10:13 | |
"I'll publish 'em if I get 'em recorded." | 0:10:13 | 0:10:16 | |
And I said, "Fine." | 0:10:16 | 0:10:17 | |
The Everlys were very fortunate to have him | 0:10:17 | 0:10:20 | |
as their mentor in the early days. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:24 | |
But I think he recognised very early on | 0:10:24 | 0:10:26 | |
that there was a special talent there. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:28 | |
He was really instinctive | 0:10:28 | 0:10:30 | |
in the way he brought musicians and songs together. | 0:10:30 | 0:10:35 | |
So, that was a very inspired move | 0:10:35 | 0:10:37 | |
to give Kitty Wells, Don Everly's song - Thou Shalt Not Steal. | 0:10:37 | 0:10:43 | |
It sort of startled me that one of them was recorded already. | 0:10:43 | 0:10:46 | |
Kitty Wells, she was the first female country music star | 0:10:46 | 0:10:50 | |
and was beginning to bring in real-life concerns, | 0:10:50 | 0:10:54 | |
real-life issues, singing about, you know, | 0:10:54 | 0:10:57 | |
double standards for men and women. | 0:10:57 | 0:10:58 | |
It was a Bible song and it was about a cheating thing. | 0:10:58 | 0:11:03 | |
# But I can't trade my love for pride | 0:11:03 | 0:11:07 | |
# My conscience just can't be my guide | 0:11:07 | 0:11:11 | |
# Too late to heed the warning | 0:11:11 | 0:11:15 | |
# The love thou shalt not steal. # | 0:11:15 | 0:11:21 | |
She sold quite a few records. | 0:11:21 | 0:11:23 | |
I had got my cheque, that money got me and Phil to Nashville | 0:11:23 | 0:11:27 | |
when I graduated high school. | 0:11:27 | 0:11:30 | |
We're now living | 0:11:30 | 0:11:31 | |
in Nashville, Tennessee. | 0:11:31 | 0:11:33 | |
This is our town of Nashville. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:35 | |
Nashville as a music town, | 0:11:35 | 0:11:36 | |
you know, goes back to the start of the Grand Ole Opry in the 1920s, | 0:11:36 | 0:11:40 | |
which was pretty much the beginning of commercial radio, | 0:11:40 | 0:11:43 | |
commercial records or commercial music at all. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:45 | |
The Grand Ole Opry | 0:11:45 | 0:11:46 | |
was the nucleus of that | 0:11:46 | 0:11:47 | |
and people came here by the droves | 0:11:47 | 0:11:50 | |
to be on that show, which was broadcast on WSM, | 0:11:50 | 0:11:54 | |
which was a 50,000-watt clear channel. | 0:11:54 | 0:11:57 | |
And as the Opry grew, they had more reach than other radio stations, | 0:11:57 | 0:12:01 | |
so you could hear them in Texas, you could hear them in Michigan, | 0:12:01 | 0:12:04 | |
you know, you could hear them in Florida. | 0:12:04 | 0:12:06 | |
They were so paranoid that they thought at some point | 0:12:06 | 0:12:09 | |
they might have to make announcements | 0:12:09 | 0:12:11 | |
over the radio, nationally, | 0:12:11 | 0:12:13 | |
if there was a threat from the Soviet Union. | 0:12:13 | 0:12:15 | |
'We interrupt our normal programme to cooperate | 0:12:15 | 0:12:18 | |
'in security and civil defence measures.' | 0:12:18 | 0:12:20 | |
In the end, the technology was used in a more positive way | 0:12:20 | 0:12:24 | |
in terms of the music industry. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:26 | |
You had millions of people sitting by their radio | 0:12:26 | 0:12:30 | |
on those Saturday nights from the farms to the cities, | 0:12:30 | 0:12:35 | |
falling in love with artists that they'd never seen, | 0:12:35 | 0:12:40 | |
had never heard of, but were all of a sudden | 0:12:40 | 0:12:42 | |
becoming their best friends. | 0:12:42 | 0:12:44 | |
The Grand Ole Opry, which was on the radio, was a radio show | 0:12:44 | 0:12:49 | |
and radio shows really meant something. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:51 | |
It really helped win a national audience | 0:12:51 | 0:12:54 | |
for country music among young people. | 0:12:54 | 0:12:56 | |
It was crucial that kids listened to the radio and here, | 0:12:56 | 0:13:01 | |
hardware becomes important. | 0:13:01 | 0:13:03 | |
The invention of the transistor radio. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:05 | |
Most houses had a radio or a radiogram. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:10 | |
And that was in the sitting room. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:12 | |
And that was your parents' territory and that's what they controlled. | 0:13:12 | 0:13:16 | |
So, the transistor radio suddenly allowed young people | 0:13:16 | 0:13:19 | |
to take their music to their rooms, | 0:13:19 | 0:13:21 | |
listen to what they wanted to listen to. | 0:13:21 | 0:13:24 | |
As regional as America was still at that point, | 0:13:24 | 0:13:27 | |
you know, I think certain people in country music | 0:13:27 | 0:13:30 | |
realised that this didn't have to be just a regional music, | 0:13:30 | 0:13:34 | |
this could be a national music. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:37 | |
Nashville was buzzing | 0:13:37 | 0:13:39 | |
and a lot of things going on | 0:13:39 | 0:13:42 | |
if you were interested in music, this was the place to go | 0:13:42 | 0:13:45 | |
and see what was going on. | 0:13:45 | 0:13:48 | |
At that point in time, we had RCA, | 0:13:48 | 0:13:50 | |
we had Decca, we had Capitol, | 0:13:50 | 0:13:53 | |
and Columbia. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:54 | |
Those were the record companies in Nashville. | 0:13:54 | 0:13:57 | |
There's a great story about Chet Atkins. | 0:13:57 | 0:14:00 | |
Somebody asked him, you know, "Chet, like, | 0:14:00 | 0:14:02 | |
"what is the national sound?" | 0:14:02 | 0:14:04 | |
And he shakes his pocket and the coins all rattle and he goes, | 0:14:04 | 0:14:07 | |
"That's the national sound. That's the sound of money." | 0:14:07 | 0:14:10 | |
My parents, Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, | 0:14:10 | 0:14:14 | |
were the first songwriting duo | 0:14:14 | 0:14:16 | |
and team of professional writers in Nashville. | 0:14:16 | 0:14:21 | |
So, by 1957 when the Everlys had arrived, | 0:14:21 | 0:14:25 | |
my parents had had many hits. | 0:14:25 | 0:14:27 | |
They wrote every day. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:29 | |
It was their job and they would wake up every morning and write | 0:14:29 | 0:14:32 | |
and it was, you know, come rain or come shine or colds or sickness, | 0:14:32 | 0:14:37 | |
it didn't matter, this was their job. | 0:14:37 | 0:14:39 | |
They showed that you can make a living as songwriters | 0:14:39 | 0:14:42 | |
and they also showed that you had to go to work at it | 0:14:42 | 0:14:46 | |
and be a professional at it. | 0:14:46 | 0:14:49 | |
My brother and I were in the back seat one day driving to a home site | 0:14:49 | 0:14:53 | |
where we were building a new home. | 0:14:53 | 0:14:55 | |
And there was a light drizzle | 0:14:55 | 0:14:57 | |
and the windshield wipers were going. | 0:14:57 | 0:15:00 | |
And Dad started Bye Bye Love to the rhythm of the windshield wipers. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:05 | |
He says, "Listen to this, it was... | 0:15:05 | 0:15:07 | |
# Bye, bye, love | 0:15:07 | 0:15:09 | |
# Bye, bye, happiness | 0:15:09 | 0:15:10 | |
# Hello, something else | 0:15:10 | 0:15:11 | |
# I think I'm gonna... # | 0:15:11 | 0:15:13 | |
Die, cry or whatever the heck that was. | 0:15:13 | 0:15:16 | |
And I said, "Oh, yeah." I was really impressed. | 0:15:16 | 0:15:20 | |
DEL: Dad started showing it around | 0:15:20 | 0:15:21 | |
and a lot of people liked it, but turned it down. | 0:15:21 | 0:15:25 | |
I listened to it and I said, "We could do it." | 0:15:25 | 0:15:28 | |
And it was as simple as that. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:30 | |
I would've sung anything. | 0:15:30 | 0:15:32 | |
The idea that we were going to get the chance to record, | 0:15:32 | 0:15:35 | |
I knew we were going to make 64. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:38 | |
And 64 sounded real important to me at the time. | 0:15:38 | 0:15:41 | |
The real seismic change which had taken place in the '50s | 0:15:41 | 0:15:45 | |
in American music was this coming together | 0:15:45 | 0:15:47 | |
of black and white styles. | 0:15:47 | 0:15:49 | |
I think the change, to be perfectly honest, | 0:15:49 | 0:15:51 | |
was to do with black influence going mainstream, | 0:15:51 | 0:15:54 | |
you know, because all the way through the big band era, | 0:15:54 | 0:15:59 | |
it had been the, you know, the black musicians | 0:15:59 | 0:16:01 | |
that were kind of driving it. | 0:16:01 | 0:16:03 | |
And then into jazz, a lot of the black musicians | 0:16:03 | 0:16:05 | |
went into the jazz area and sort of drove that. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:08 | |
And I think probably for the first time, the younger people, | 0:16:08 | 0:16:13 | |
they actually didn't care where the music came from. | 0:16:13 | 0:16:16 | |
They cared about the music. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:19 | |
There was a lot of gospel music, black gospel music | 0:16:19 | 0:16:22 | |
on the radio back then. | 0:16:22 | 0:16:24 | |
And it was wonderful music. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:28 | |
So, you have the blues with black people, | 0:16:28 | 0:16:31 | |
you have country and western with white people, but equally sincere. | 0:16:31 | 0:16:35 | |
And then comes this moment in the mid-50s | 0:16:35 | 0:16:39 | |
when the two were fused and the living synthesis is Elvis Presley. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:44 | |
I think what was so shocking about it was that for the first time, | 0:16:44 | 0:16:48 | |
you know, a white artist was doing what black people had been doing | 0:16:48 | 0:16:52 | |
for years and years and years and people were anxious about that. | 0:16:52 | 0:16:55 | |
I was very interested in black music and then country music too, | 0:16:55 | 0:16:59 | |
the two together made rock and roll, I believe. | 0:16:59 | 0:17:03 | |
I think Don had mentioned to Chet that he really loved Bo Diddly | 0:17:03 | 0:17:08 | |
and he said, "How does he get that sound on his guitar?" | 0:17:08 | 0:17:12 | |
BO DIDDLY PLAYS GUITAR | 0:17:12 | 0:17:14 | |
I fell for Bo Diddly sounds and the rhythm that he got. | 0:17:19 | 0:17:24 | |
And I just loved it. Loved it. | 0:17:24 | 0:17:27 | |
BO DIDDLY PLAYS GUITAR | 0:17:27 | 0:17:30 | |
Whoo! | 0:17:31 | 0:17:33 | |
The drive that Bo Diddly had in his music | 0:17:35 | 0:17:40 | |
is this incredible kind of rumble. | 0:17:40 | 0:17:43 | |
That's there in The Everly Brothers' songs. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:45 | |
I've followed him, you know, his music | 0:17:45 | 0:17:48 | |
and I was trying to get it involved in my music | 0:17:48 | 0:17:51 | |
and Archie Bleyer, the head of Cadence Records said, | 0:17:51 | 0:17:55 | |
"Well, why don't you take that arrangement | 0:17:55 | 0:17:57 | |
and put it on Bye Bye Love? | 0:17:57 | 0:17:59 | |
And I said, "I never thought of that." | 0:17:59 | 0:18:01 | |
THEY PLAY THE BYE BYE LOVE INTRO | 0:18:01 | 0:18:04 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:18:04 | 0:18:06 | |
You see, there are some things you can't do | 0:18:06 | 0:18:10 | |
in classical, regular tuning. | 0:18:10 | 0:18:12 | |
You can only do it where you've got these weird | 0:18:12 | 0:18:16 | |
little country tunings and stuff. | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
HE PLAYS THE BYE BYE LOVE INTRO | 0:18:19 | 0:18:21 | |
And I guess it rubbed off on me. | 0:18:24 | 0:18:27 | |
Don's acoustic guitar, | 0:18:27 | 0:18:30 | |
that rhythm guitar was rocking, man. | 0:18:30 | 0:18:33 | |
And now, eight seconds later, the intro's over, the song begins. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:38 | |
# Bye, bye, love | 0:18:38 | 0:18:42 | |
# Bye, bye, happiness, | 0:18:42 | 0:18:44 | |
# Hello, loneliness | 0:18:44 | 0:18:46 | |
# I think I'm-a gonna cry-y. # | 0:18:46 | 0:18:49 | |
You have to write material that | 0:18:49 | 0:18:51 | |
can sustain those two voices, | 0:18:51 | 0:18:53 | |
running through the whole song. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:55 | |
So that when the individual voice comes in, you know, | 0:18:55 | 0:18:58 | |
usually Don's, you know, that really has a dramatic impact, | 0:18:58 | 0:19:02 | |
because mostly they're singing harmony all the way through. | 0:19:02 | 0:19:05 | |
# I'm-a through with romance | 0:19:05 | 0:19:08 | |
# I'm a-through with love | 0:19:08 | 0:19:10 | |
# I'm through with-a countin' the stars above | 0:19:10 | 0:19:16 | |
# And here's the reason that I'm so free | 0:19:16 | 0:19:21 | |
# My lovin' baby is through with me | 0:19:21 | 0:19:25 | |
# Bye, bye, love. # | 0:19:28 | 0:19:30 | |
The Everly Brothers were the first example in rock and roll | 0:19:30 | 0:19:34 | |
of something that happens very rarely, | 0:19:34 | 0:19:37 | |
but always beautifully in popular music, | 0:19:37 | 0:19:39 | |
which is family groups singing in close harmony. | 0:19:39 | 0:19:42 | |
The Andrews Sisters, the Bee Gees who were the Gibb brothers, | 0:19:42 | 0:19:46 | |
The Beach Boys, who were a family group. | 0:19:46 | 0:19:48 | |
And these exquisite harmonies come from people | 0:19:48 | 0:19:53 | |
who've just been together all their lives. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:55 | |
They cannot be separated. | 0:19:55 | 0:19:58 | |
The classic model is thirds. | 0:19:58 | 0:20:01 | |
One guy sings... HE VOCALISES | 0:20:01 | 0:20:03 | |
And the other guy goes... HIGHER PITCHED VOCALISATION | 0:20:03 | 0:20:06 | |
The interval is thirds. | 0:20:06 | 0:20:08 | |
# La da... # | 0:20:08 | 0:20:10 | |
If you hold that interval you have a very simple and pleasing, | 0:20:10 | 0:20:14 | |
sweet, kind of folky harmony. | 0:20:14 | 0:20:16 | |
Boudleaux designed that harmony. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:18 | |
You know, and I just sang it. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:20 | |
That was... But he designed it to be that way. | 0:20:20 | 0:20:22 | |
And that's all the greatness... All that stuff really counted. | 0:20:22 | 0:20:25 | |
Phil was such a genius at matching Don's sound | 0:20:25 | 0:20:30 | |
that they produced two halves of a whole. | 0:20:30 | 0:20:33 | |
Boudleaux could hear harmonies. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:35 | |
He could see what he wanted to | 0:20:35 | 0:20:38 | |
happen with that piece of material. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:40 | |
# Bye-bye love | 0:20:40 | 0:20:43 | |
# Bye-bye sweet caress | 0:20:43 | 0:20:46 | |
# Hello emptiness | 0:20:46 | 0:20:48 | |
# I feel like I could die... # | 0:20:48 | 0:20:51 | |
The difference is that Phil's voice was pitched in a tenor range | 0:20:51 | 0:20:56 | |
and Don's was more baritone tenor | 0:20:56 | 0:20:59 | |
so that the two-note difference that gives you the thirds interval | 0:20:59 | 0:21:05 | |
was perfectly comfortable for Phil to be higher. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:08 | |
# Bye-bye my love | 0:21:08 | 0:21:10 | |
# Goodbye | 0:21:10 | 0:21:11 | |
# Bye-bye my love | 0:21:11 | 0:21:12 | |
# Goodbye... # | 0:21:12 | 0:21:14 | |
There was a little buzz about this record, you know. | 0:21:14 | 0:21:17 | |
This was a pretty good record. | 0:21:17 | 0:21:18 | |
So we got the job down in Mississippi and Alabama. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:22 | |
On that trip, the record came out | 0:21:22 | 0:21:25 | |
and we were making 90 a week apiece, which was a fortune to us. | 0:21:25 | 0:21:28 | |
The team in New York that did the promotion for Cadence Records | 0:21:28 | 0:21:33 | |
made a mistake with the record Bye Bye Love. | 0:21:33 | 0:21:36 | |
They sent it out to all of the radio stations. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:40 | |
The country ones they had received addresses on, and the pop stations. | 0:21:40 | 0:21:44 | |
By the time we got back to Nashville on the end of that tour, | 0:21:44 | 0:21:47 | |
we were in the top ten. | 0:21:47 | 0:21:48 | |
In pop and in country. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:51 | |
And that was the... The game was on. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:56 | |
Teddy Bear by Elvis Presley was number one. | 0:21:56 | 0:21:58 | |
Bye Bye Love by the Everly Brothers was held at number two. | 0:21:58 | 0:22:02 | |
You go and you record...a thing like that just happens to you. | 0:22:02 | 0:22:06 | |
You don't know why, where or how. | 0:22:06 | 0:22:09 | |
You can be talented, but that isn't enough sometimes. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:13 | |
You've got to be lucky. | 0:22:13 | 0:22:14 | |
You've got to be at the time the market is ready for you. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:17 | |
That the public is ready to listen to you. | 0:22:17 | 0:22:20 | |
You've got to have that on your side. | 0:22:20 | 0:22:22 | |
Almost all the other artists that could | 0:22:22 | 0:22:24 | |
fill in the gaps between Elvis records were the | 0:22:24 | 0:22:29 | |
black rhythm and blues pioneers such as | 0:22:29 | 0:22:31 | |
Fats Domino, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, | 0:22:31 | 0:22:33 | |
who had already been going. | 0:22:33 | 0:22:35 | |
They had really brought what Alan Freed called rock and roll | 0:22:35 | 0:22:40 | |
to the public consciousness. | 0:22:40 | 0:22:42 | |
So the radio stations had all of these wonderful | 0:22:42 | 0:22:45 | |
African American artists and Elvis Presley. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:48 | |
"Let's get some more white people into the mix." | 0:22:48 | 0:22:50 | |
Usually in history, it's the other way round. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:53 | |
Here were the Everly Brothers - a real deal - | 0:22:53 | 0:22:56 | |
genuine, white teenagers. | 0:22:56 | 0:22:58 | |
And they sang music with a rock and roll sensibility. | 0:22:58 | 0:23:01 | |
Even though it was not that far divorced from pure country music. | 0:23:01 | 0:23:05 | |
They were the country side of rock and roll. | 0:23:05 | 0:23:08 | |
But it was rock and roll. | 0:23:08 | 0:23:09 | |
After Bye Bye Love, we went on the road. | 0:23:09 | 0:23:12 | |
We were... Things were happening. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:15 | |
And we were travelling around this, that and the other. | 0:23:15 | 0:23:17 | |
And we had to start thinking about a second single. | 0:23:17 | 0:23:20 | |
And then you became the worry about one-record act. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:22 | |
Cos there were plenty of them in rock and roll. | 0:23:22 | 0:23:24 | |
Then Boudleaux brought in Wake Up Little Susie. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:27 | |
But he had designed Wake Up Little Susie | 0:23:27 | 0:23:29 | |
with the holes in it | 0:23:29 | 0:23:31 | |
for that guitar work. Cos he knew that this would work. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:35 | |
And therein is the power of what we had from Boudleaux and Felice. | 0:23:35 | 0:23:39 | |
That they started designing things for us. | 0:23:39 | 0:23:42 | |
I can never think of the Everly Brothers, knowing what I know | 0:23:42 | 0:23:47 | |
now about songwriting, that there were actually four people involved. | 0:23:47 | 0:23:52 | |
And the other two were Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, | 0:23:52 | 0:23:56 | |
who wrote all of those beautifully written songs. | 0:23:56 | 0:24:01 | |
And so well-suited to the boys' voices. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:03 | |
Isn't it terrible to think a few years from now, | 0:24:03 | 0:24:07 | |
these boys will both wind up looking like Yul Brynner? | 0:24:07 | 0:24:10 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:24:10 | 0:24:12 | |
# Wake up, little Susie, wake up. # | 0:24:18 | 0:24:24 | |
The way Don uses it, it's quite aggressive. | 0:24:24 | 0:24:26 | |
Rather than just be some gentle backing to fill out the track. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:31 | |
So it would punch through the mix, sort of thing. | 0:24:31 | 0:24:35 | |
And he'd get that... | 0:24:35 | 0:24:37 | |
HE PLAYS Wake Up Little Susie | 0:24:37 | 0:24:41 | |
It was downstrokes. Dan-da-da-da-da. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:45 | |
The intro was all downstrokes. | 0:24:45 | 0:24:48 | |
HE VOCALISES GUITAR PART | 0:24:48 | 0:24:52 | |
# Wake up, little Susie, wake up... # | 0:24:58 | 0:25:03 | |
Wake Up Little Susie would be recorded here. | 0:25:03 | 0:25:06 | |
It was the next record after Bye Bye Love. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:08 | |
I was upstairs. I hadn't gotten out of bed yet. And Boudleaux | 0:25:08 | 0:25:13 | |
was on the main floor, which wasn't carpeted. | 0:25:13 | 0:25:16 | |
And so the acoustics were just feeding up to the bedroom section. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:21 | |
And I hear this... | 0:25:21 | 0:25:22 | |
# Wake up, little Susie, wake up # | 0:25:22 | 0:25:25 | |
and I thought, "Man, that sounds great. Just that much." | 0:25:25 | 0:25:29 | |
And so, I thought I'd better get downstairs, | 0:25:29 | 0:25:32 | |
because Boudleaux was most capable of finishing stuff on his own. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:36 | |
And I had to jump in when I thought, | 0:25:36 | 0:25:39 | |
"We've got something here. I want a piece of this." | 0:25:39 | 0:25:42 | |
In its early stages, as Dad was writing it, | 0:25:42 | 0:25:46 | |
was a little bit what Mother thought was a little too risque. | 0:25:46 | 0:25:49 | |
She kind of cleaned it up. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:51 | |
I added some lyrics because I thought Boudleaux was getting | 0:25:51 | 0:25:56 | |
a little too rough, you know. | 0:25:56 | 0:25:59 | |
And so I put the bridge in. | 0:25:59 | 0:26:02 | |
"The movie wasn't so hot | 0:26:02 | 0:26:04 | |
"Didn't have much of a plot | 0:26:04 | 0:26:05 | |
"We fell asleep | 0:26:05 | 0:26:07 | |
"Our goose is cooked | 0:26:07 | 0:26:08 | |
"Our reputation is shot." | 0:26:08 | 0:26:09 | |
# The movie wasn't so hot | 0:26:09 | 0:26:12 | |
# It didn't have much of a plot | 0:26:12 | 0:26:14 | |
# We fell asleep | 0:26:14 | 0:26:16 | |
# Our goose is cooked | 0:26:16 | 0:26:17 | |
# Our reputation is shot | 0:26:17 | 0:26:19 | |
# Wake up, little Susie | 0:26:19 | 0:26:21 | |
# Wake up, little Susie | 0:26:21 | 0:26:24 | |
# We gotta go home. # | 0:26:24 | 0:26:26 | |
For an artist in those days, you would have what were called | 0:26:26 | 0:26:29 | |
regional breakouts and then they would go from region to region. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
So you would be popular for a long period of time | 0:26:32 | 0:26:34 | |
but not always in the same place at the same time. | 0:26:34 | 0:26:37 | |
So Bye Bye Love had a long chart life. | 0:26:37 | 0:26:40 | |
Peaking at number two from an extended run in the charts. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:43 | |
Then Wake Up Little Susie comes out and everybody is paying | 0:26:43 | 0:26:46 | |
attention at the same time and it's a very quick number one. | 0:26:46 | 0:26:50 | |
There is a kind of winking sexuality to Wake Up Little Susie. | 0:26:50 | 0:26:53 | |
You know, there's a sense that essentially | 0:26:53 | 0:26:56 | |
they spent the night together. | 0:26:56 | 0:26:57 | |
And they're in trouble. And the parents are upset. | 0:26:57 | 0:27:02 | |
And the friends are saying, "Ooh la la." | 0:27:02 | 0:27:04 | |
# Ooh la la. # | 0:27:04 | 0:27:06 | |
Which everyone knew was French for racy. | 0:27:06 | 0:27:08 | |
# Well, what are we going to tell your mama? | 0:27:08 | 0:27:12 | |
# What are we going to tell your pa? | 0:27:12 | 0:27:14 | |
# What are we going to tell our friends | 0:27:14 | 0:27:16 | |
# When they say, "Ooh la la!" | 0:27:16 | 0:27:19 | |
# Wake up, little Susie... # | 0:27:19 | 0:27:22 | |
It was banned in Boston. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:24 | |
And a couple of other places. | 0:27:24 | 0:27:26 | |
My father was thrilled because at that time, as today, | 0:27:26 | 0:27:30 | |
when something is banned with a certain amount of publicity, | 0:27:30 | 0:27:34 | |
it really has the tendency to spark interest and explode. | 0:27:34 | 0:27:38 | |
And indeed, Wake Up Little Susie did. | 0:27:38 | 0:27:41 | |
It's hard now for people to realise how scandalous that would | 0:27:41 | 0:27:44 | |
have seemed at the time. | 0:27:44 | 0:27:46 | |
But was much more in keeping with what was actually | 0:27:46 | 0:27:48 | |
realistically going on. | 0:27:48 | 0:27:49 | |
Every other word out of people's mouths in the 1950s | 0:27:49 | 0:27:53 | |
was about juvenile delinquents. | 0:27:53 | 0:27:55 | |
There was a lot of concern about | 0:27:55 | 0:27:56 | |
what was happening with rock and roll. | 0:27:56 | 0:27:58 | |
And a song like Wake Up Little Susie, | 0:27:58 | 0:28:01 | |
as innocent as it is, to a degree, participated in that. | 0:28:01 | 0:28:06 | |
It was really the emergence of the teenager as we know it. | 0:28:06 | 0:28:09 | |
The purse strings were also just in transition from being | 0:28:09 | 0:28:14 | |
the older generation to being a situation where the younger | 0:28:14 | 0:28:17 | |
generation was starting to have their own money. | 0:28:17 | 0:28:19 | |
For the first time, you had young people who could buy records | 0:28:19 | 0:28:23 | |
and they bought them in droves. | 0:28:23 | 0:28:24 | |
It was the times. | 0:28:24 | 0:28:26 | |
It was America coming | 0:28:26 | 0:28:27 | |
out of the Eisenhower administration | 0:28:27 | 0:28:30 | |
and the greyness, straightness of that administration. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:34 | |
America did not realise how lucky it was in the 1950s. | 0:28:34 | 0:28:37 | |
First of all, it had not been bombed, | 0:28:37 | 0:28:39 | |
with the exception of Pearl Harbor, which was off in Hawaii somewhere, | 0:28:39 | 0:28:42 | |
the mainland had not been bombed in the war. | 0:28:42 | 0:28:45 | |
So it was not spending millions to rebuild. | 0:28:45 | 0:28:49 | |
There was an incredible sense of optimism in the country. | 0:28:49 | 0:28:52 | |
The economy was booming. | 0:28:52 | 0:28:55 | |
The country felt very young. | 0:28:55 | 0:28:56 | |
There were a lot of young kids around. It was the baby boom. | 0:28:56 | 0:28:59 | |
What started to become more relevant was fashion and cars, | 0:28:59 | 0:29:05 | |
you know, things which were sort of style objects | 0:29:05 | 0:29:09 | |
which were much more about the youth of the day. | 0:29:09 | 0:29:13 | |
Back then, it was brand-new. Rock and roll was brand-new. | 0:29:13 | 0:29:17 | |
Nobody knew how to do it. | 0:29:17 | 0:29:20 | |
Don was very smart about guitar parts and arrangements. | 0:29:20 | 0:29:24 | |
And I'm sure Chet had some say in that too. | 0:29:24 | 0:29:26 | |
The drums are barely part of those early records. | 0:29:26 | 0:29:29 | |
It's mostly just guitars, bass and electric guitar. | 0:29:29 | 0:29:33 | |
But it's very carefully thought out. It's well arranged. | 0:29:33 | 0:29:36 | |
And it's so well recorded. | 0:29:36 | 0:29:38 | |
Everything was just in the right place. | 0:29:38 | 0:29:41 | |
So simple but so difficult to do. | 0:29:41 | 0:29:43 | |
I'm sure that you recognise this as a golden record. | 0:29:43 | 0:29:47 | |
And this is the third golden record that the boys have won. | 0:29:47 | 0:29:50 | |
This year. | 0:29:50 | 0:29:51 | |
This, of course, is All I Have To Do Is Dream | 0:29:51 | 0:29:54 | |
by the Everly Brothers. | 0:29:54 | 0:29:55 | |
Donald told me that one night they were on the | 0:29:55 | 0:29:59 | |
rock and roll tour bus and Buddy Holly came over | 0:29:59 | 0:30:02 | |
and sat down next to him and he goes, | 0:30:02 | 0:30:04 | |
"Hey, man. I wrote a song for you guys. It's called Not Fade Away." | 0:30:04 | 0:30:09 | |
He played it for them. | 0:30:09 | 0:30:11 | |
And Donald says to me, "Yeah. That's great." | 0:30:11 | 0:30:14 | |
He says, "I love it, but we can't do it." | 0:30:14 | 0:30:16 | |
He says, "We're going back to Nashville. | 0:30:16 | 0:30:19 | |
"We've got to cut some ballad called Dream." | 0:30:19 | 0:30:22 | |
After a novelty like Bye Bye Love, you have to come in with | 0:30:22 | 0:30:26 | |
another novelty. Wake Up Little Susie. | 0:30:26 | 0:30:29 | |
After that, you've got to give them... | 0:30:29 | 0:30:34 | |
You can live longer on a ballad. | 0:30:34 | 0:30:35 | |
Dream, I think actually made us a... | 0:30:35 | 0:30:39 | |
The difference between sort of an act | 0:30:40 | 0:30:43 | |
and then being here forever, you know? | 0:30:43 | 0:30:45 | |
At that time in America, there were different categories, | 0:30:45 | 0:30:49 | |
different charts - pop charts, country charts, | 0:30:49 | 0:30:53 | |
what they called the race records charts. | 0:30:53 | 0:30:57 | |
And not many artists crossed over | 0:30:57 | 0:31:01 | |
because they were marketed very differently. | 0:31:01 | 0:31:03 | |
Bye Bye Love, Wake Up Little Susie, | 0:31:03 | 0:31:06 | |
and Dream I think were all in the R&B charts. | 0:31:06 | 0:31:08 | |
They were on the pop charts and they were on the country charts. | 0:31:08 | 0:31:12 | |
They were on all three charts at that time. | 0:31:12 | 0:31:14 | |
# Dream, dream, dream | 0:31:14 | 0:31:16 | |
# When I feel blue | 0:31:16 | 0:31:19 | |
# In the night | 0:31:19 | 0:31:20 | |
# And I need you | 0:31:20 | 0:31:23 | |
# To hold me tight | 0:31:23 | 0:31:25 | |
# Whenever I want you | 0:31:25 | 0:31:27 | |
# All I have to do | 0:31:27 | 0:31:29 | |
# Is dream. # | 0:31:29 | 0:31:33 | |
At this particular time now, we're having success with the Everlys | 0:31:33 | 0:31:38 | |
so we wrote for them specifically. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:41 | |
On the slow ones, the harmonies can really stretch out. | 0:31:41 | 0:31:45 | |
And that is the forte of the Everly Brothers. | 0:31:45 | 0:31:50 | |
# I can make you mine | 0:31:50 | 0:31:53 | |
# Taste your lips with wine | 0:31:53 | 0:31:55 | |
# Any time, night or day | 0:31:55 | 0:32:00 | |
# Only trouble is | 0:32:00 | 0:32:03 | |
# Gee whizz | 0:32:03 | 0:32:05 | |
# I'm dreamin' my life away... # | 0:32:05 | 0:32:10 | |
That line, "Only trouble is, gee whizz, I'm dreaming my life away" | 0:32:10 | 0:32:13 | |
is a great line. | 0:32:13 | 0:32:14 | |
He says, like, you know, gee whizz is one of the lyrics. | 0:32:14 | 0:32:17 | |
I don't think that now it's going to have the same appeal, | 0:32:17 | 0:32:21 | |
but, you know, that's the beauty of it. | 0:32:21 | 0:32:24 | |
It was a time and it was, you know... | 0:32:24 | 0:32:27 | |
At the time, it was really cool. | 0:32:27 | 0:32:30 | |
I still think it's cool. | 0:32:30 | 0:32:31 | |
They've recorded All I Have To Do Is Dream 31 times. | 0:32:31 | 0:32:35 | |
Back in those days, you couldn't record like you can now. | 0:32:35 | 0:32:39 | |
You didn't have the digital tracks so you could slice and cut. | 0:32:39 | 0:32:42 | |
If you messed up, you backed up, started all over again. | 0:32:42 | 0:32:46 | |
And something happens then. You get a warmth and a power. | 0:32:46 | 0:32:50 | |
And, of course, adjusting the mics all the time. | 0:32:50 | 0:32:52 | |
In between each outtake. | 0:32:52 | 0:32:54 | |
So eventually it comes together and you hit the centre and bam, | 0:32:54 | 0:32:57 | |
you've got it. And you go, "That's it, we can all go home." | 0:32:57 | 0:33:00 | |
# Whenever I want you | 0:33:00 | 0:33:02 | |
# All I have to do | 0:33:02 | 0:33:04 | |
# Is dream | 0:33:04 | 0:33:07 | |
# Dream, dream, dream | 0:33:07 | 0:33:10 | |
# Dream | 0:33:10 | 0:33:12 | |
# Dream, dream, dream | 0:33:12 | 0:33:15 | |
# Dream | 0:33:15 | 0:33:17 | |
# Dream, dream, dream | 0:33:17 | 0:33:20 | |
# Dream. # | 0:33:20 | 0:33:23 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:33:23 | 0:33:25 | |
There is the second level of hits | 0:33:25 | 0:33:30 | |
after the big three. | 0:33:30 | 0:33:32 | |
The big three established what they can do. | 0:33:32 | 0:33:35 | |
It establishes them internationally. | 0:33:35 | 0:33:36 | |
Well, then, they've got to do something else. | 0:33:36 | 0:33:38 | |
But they can't make a breakthrough any more | 0:33:38 | 0:33:41 | |
because they've already made the breakthrough. | 0:33:41 | 0:33:43 | |
They've made their contribution. | 0:33:43 | 0:33:45 | |
They can just have more hit records. | 0:33:45 | 0:33:46 | |
And so they have this period of very enjoyable songs, | 0:33:46 | 0:33:50 | |
which would be late '58 and '59. | 0:33:50 | 0:33:53 | |
# Johnny is a joker | 0:33:53 | 0:33:55 | |
# He's a bird | 0:33:55 | 0:33:57 | |
# A very funny joker | 0:33:57 | 0:33:59 | |
# He's a bird | 0:33:59 | 0:34:00 | |
# But when he jokes, my honey | 0:34:00 | 0:34:02 | |
# He's a dog | 0:34:02 | 0:34:03 | |
# His joking ain't so funny | 0:34:03 | 0:34:05 | |
# What a dog | 0:34:05 | 0:34:06 | |
# Johnny is a joker that's a-tryin' to steal my baby | 0:34:06 | 0:34:10 | |
# He's a bird dog. # | 0:34:10 | 0:34:12 | |
Great lyrics again. I mean, daft but brilliant. | 0:34:12 | 0:34:15 | |
There was another one. They threw it in there. | 0:34:18 | 0:34:22 | |
Oh, it's in Problems, isn't it? Yeah. | 0:34:22 | 0:34:24 | |
Where that keeps, that thing, the... | 0:34:24 | 0:34:26 | |
HE PLAYS Problems | 0:34:26 | 0:34:28 | |
That bit. That's the Everly Brothers' thing. | 0:34:28 | 0:34:31 | |
# Problems, problems, problems all day long | 0:34:35 | 0:34:39 | |
# Will my problems work out right or wrong? # | 0:34:42 | 0:34:46 | |
My father was working...digging ditches and stuff up there | 0:34:48 | 0:34:51 | |
by the end. | 0:34:51 | 0:34:53 | |
And he told us that he couldn't support us any more. | 0:34:53 | 0:34:55 | |
I said, "It's OK. We're making money now." | 0:34:55 | 0:34:57 | |
And then I said, "You've got to quit your job and come back with us." | 0:34:57 | 0:35:03 | |
The trappings of success were, certainly back then, | 0:35:03 | 0:35:06 | |
very straightforward material things. | 0:35:06 | 0:35:09 | |
A nice place to live, a nice car, nice clothes, | 0:35:09 | 0:35:13 | |
be able to go out to the higher class establishments. | 0:35:13 | 0:35:18 | |
In the late '50s... | 0:35:18 | 0:35:21 | |
everybody... | 0:35:21 | 0:35:23 | |
You did the normal thing. | 0:35:23 | 0:35:25 | |
You bought them a house and everything. | 0:35:25 | 0:35:27 | |
# Worries, worries pile upon my head | 0:35:27 | 0:35:32 | |
# Woe is me, I shoulda stayed in bed... # | 0:35:35 | 0:35:39 | |
I was paying 90% taxes, though. | 0:35:39 | 0:35:42 | |
First taxes I paid were 90%. | 0:35:42 | 0:35:45 | |
I couldn't believe that. But that was the way it was. | 0:35:45 | 0:35:48 | |
# Problems, problems, problems | 0:35:48 | 0:35:55 | |
# They won't be solved until I'm sure of you. # | 0:35:55 | 0:36:01 | |
90% is a lot of money to pay to the government for nothing. | 0:36:01 | 0:36:05 | |
It was for, you know, for bombers and things. | 0:36:05 | 0:36:08 | |
# Problems, problems, problems all day long. # | 0:36:11 | 0:36:17 | |
I played one of the Everly Brothers signature editions. | 0:36:17 | 0:36:21 | |
I think it was, yeah, it was one of the Gibson ones. | 0:36:21 | 0:36:24 | |
It was just one of those. | 0:36:24 | 0:36:25 | |
You pick it up and it was a pretty magical thing. | 0:36:25 | 0:36:28 | |
It had that top end sound to it, which is just them. | 0:36:28 | 0:36:33 | |
We designed it. I said I wanted a smaller guitar. | 0:36:33 | 0:36:37 | |
I said, "Make it three-quarters size of it." | 0:36:37 | 0:36:40 | |
And I said, "That's the size we want. And I want a black guitar." | 0:36:40 | 0:36:43 | |
And he said black guitars wouldn't be any good cos they wouldn't sell. | 0:36:43 | 0:36:46 | |
And I said, "Well, that's what I want." | 0:36:46 | 0:36:49 | |
Didn't play that good. | 0:36:49 | 0:36:51 | |
They looked good. | 0:36:51 | 0:36:52 | |
They looked like a '50s Cadillac. | 0:36:52 | 0:36:54 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:36:54 | 0:36:57 | |
I could see why they were hits. | 0:37:04 | 0:37:06 | |
They were great fucking records. Every one. | 0:37:06 | 0:37:09 | |
For about 12, 13 in a row. | 0:37:09 | 0:37:11 | |
For the first few years, I would buy my Cadence Records, | 0:37:11 | 0:37:15 | |
produced by Archie Bleyer, take it home and go, "The streak continues. | 0:37:15 | 0:37:20 | |
"They just don't quit in how great they are, these guys." | 0:37:20 | 0:37:24 | |
# Take a message to Mary | 0:37:24 | 0:37:28 | |
# But don't tell her where I am | 0:37:28 | 0:37:33 | |
# Take a message to Mary | 0:37:33 | 0:37:37 | |
# But don't say I'm in a jam | 0:37:37 | 0:37:41 | |
# You can tell her I had to see the world | 0:37:41 | 0:37:46 | |
# Tell her that my ship set sail | 0:37:46 | 0:37:50 | |
# You can say she'd better not wait for me | 0:37:50 | 0:37:55 | |
# But don't tell her I'm in jail. # | 0:37:55 | 0:37:58 | |
When I listen to it, it sends the shivers up your spine. | 0:37:58 | 0:38:02 | |
It's a good sadness, you know. | 0:38:02 | 0:38:05 | |
It makes you feel a certain way. | 0:38:05 | 0:38:08 | |
It's not a typical sadness. | 0:38:08 | 0:38:10 | |
Take A Message To Mary was a stone in the vacuum cleaner. | 0:38:10 | 0:38:14 | |
Click. Click. Click. | 0:38:14 | 0:38:18 | |
# Take a message to Mary. # | 0:38:18 | 0:38:20 | |
At the session, when they were recording this, | 0:38:20 | 0:38:25 | |
Archie Bleyer, who knew nothing about my vacuum cleaner, | 0:38:25 | 0:38:29 | |
said to Boudleaux. | 0:38:29 | 0:38:31 | |
He said, "You know, Boudleaux, I hear a chink, chink, | 0:38:31 | 0:38:36 | |
"chink in this Take A Message." | 0:38:36 | 0:38:38 | |
And he said, "Somebody bring me a Coke bottle. | 0:38:40 | 0:38:43 | |
"And somebody get me a screwdriver." | 0:38:43 | 0:38:45 | |
So he says, "Here, Boudleaux, you belong to the union." | 0:38:45 | 0:38:48 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:38:48 | 0:38:50 | |
He says, "Hit this Coke bottle." | 0:38:50 | 0:38:52 | |
And he says, "That'll take care of what I think I hear." | 0:38:54 | 0:38:58 | |
So that's what you hear on the Everlys' record | 0:38:58 | 0:39:01 | |
of Take A Message To Mary. | 0:39:01 | 0:39:03 | |
You hear Boudleaux playing a Coke bottle. | 0:39:03 | 0:39:05 | |
# You can tell her I had to change my plans | 0:39:05 | 0:39:09 | |
# And cancel out the wedding day | 0:39:09 | 0:39:13 | |
# But please don't mention my lonely cell | 0:39:13 | 0:39:17 | |
# Where I'm gonna pine away | 0:39:17 | 0:39:21 | |
# Until my dyin' day. # | 0:39:21 | 0:39:26 | |
The Everlys could pull your fucking heartstrings out. | 0:39:26 | 0:39:31 | |
And still do when I listen to the records. | 0:39:31 | 0:39:35 | |
They couldn't not sound good. | 0:39:35 | 0:39:39 | |
You know, they would take a song, take it apart, | 0:39:39 | 0:39:42 | |
put it back together and... | 0:39:42 | 0:39:45 | |
it's still really, really interesting and solid. | 0:39:45 | 0:39:49 | |
Till I Kissed You was Don Everly, I think he wrote that on his own. | 0:39:49 | 0:39:53 | |
Yeah, it had a great da-dum, that drum sound on it. | 0:39:53 | 0:39:59 | |
The drum was quite an important part of the rhythm, | 0:39:59 | 0:40:02 | |
which was unusual for the Everlys. | 0:40:02 | 0:40:04 | |
# Never felt like this until I kissed you | 0:40:04 | 0:40:08 | |
# How did I exist until I kissed you? | 0:40:10 | 0:40:14 | |
# Never had you on my mind | 0:40:17 | 0:40:20 | |
# Now you're there all the time | 0:40:21 | 0:40:24 | |
# Never knew what I missed till I kissed you | 0:40:24 | 0:40:28 | |
# Uh-huh | 0:40:29 | 0:40:30 | |
# I kissed you | 0:40:30 | 0:40:32 | |
# Oh, yeah. # | 0:40:32 | 0:40:34 | |
It's funny, you know. | 0:40:34 | 0:40:35 | |
If you listen to the records, when the harmonies are singing, | 0:40:35 | 0:40:38 | |
Phil's voice is the louder voice. | 0:40:38 | 0:40:40 | |
His voice was pure. He had a pure voice. You know? | 0:40:40 | 0:40:45 | |
Pure harmony. | 0:40:45 | 0:40:47 | |
And everybody liked that harmony. | 0:40:47 | 0:40:48 | |
They would sing along with the records. | 0:40:48 | 0:40:51 | |
So they equated it with Phil. | 0:40:51 | 0:40:53 | |
# Mm, you got a way about you | 0:40:53 | 0:40:57 | |
# Now I can't live without you | 0:40:57 | 0:41:01 | |
# Never knew what I missed till I kissed you | 0:41:01 | 0:41:06 | |
# Uh-huh. # | 0:41:06 | 0:41:07 | |
If you didn't know, you wouldn't guess they were brothers. | 0:41:07 | 0:41:10 | |
They are wholly different personalities. | 0:41:10 | 0:41:13 | |
We never got along. | 0:41:13 | 0:41:15 | |
He was...different than I. | 0:41:15 | 0:41:16 | |
He was a Republican. I was a Democrat. You know? | 0:41:16 | 0:41:20 | |
And I couldn't believe he was voting for Republicans. | 0:41:20 | 0:41:23 | |
I just couldn't believe it. | 0:41:23 | 0:41:24 | |
I was a complete Democrat. I was...just a leftist, you know? | 0:41:24 | 0:41:30 | |
You'd find that you wouldn't really get along with both. | 0:41:30 | 0:41:34 | |
You wouldn't be in both camps. | 0:41:34 | 0:41:35 | |
You would fall into one or the other. | 0:41:35 | 0:41:38 | |
I didn't know anyone who was really friendly with both of them | 0:41:38 | 0:41:41 | |
at the same time. | 0:41:41 | 0:41:42 | |
It's just funny to think of the Everly Brothers as belonging | 0:41:42 | 0:41:44 | |
to another great rock tradition, which is | 0:41:44 | 0:41:47 | |
that of the brothers who can't stand each other. | 0:41:47 | 0:41:50 | |
When you have two talented people working together... | 0:41:50 | 0:41:53 | |
there's always going to be friction. And that friction | 0:41:53 | 0:41:56 | |
often leads to really good things. | 0:41:56 | 0:41:57 | |
After the Everlys came The Kinks... | 0:41:57 | 0:42:02 | |
Oasis, Creedence Clearwater Revival, | 0:42:02 | 0:42:06 | |
Jesus And Mary Chain. | 0:42:06 | 0:42:07 | |
It just seems that there's something about having two | 0:42:07 | 0:42:10 | |
brothers in with line-up which is a recipe for conflict and grief. | 0:42:10 | 0:42:15 | |
The fact that they happened to be brothers means that they | 0:42:15 | 0:42:18 | |
probably expressed themselves more directly to each other. | 0:42:18 | 0:42:22 | |
Phil died about a year and a half ago. Almost two years now. | 0:42:22 | 0:42:26 | |
And I miss him, you know? | 0:42:28 | 0:42:30 | |
# We used to have good times together | 0:42:32 | 0:42:38 | |
# But now I feel them slip away | 0:42:42 | 0:42:48 | |
# It makes me cry | 0:42:51 | 0:42:55 | |
# To see love die | 0:42:56 | 0:43:01 | |
# So sad to watch good love go bad. # | 0:43:01 | 0:43:06 | |
We went from Cadence to Warner Bros | 0:43:08 | 0:43:12 | |
because they offered us 1 million. | 0:43:12 | 0:43:14 | |
You have to think of what 1 million was then and what 1 million is now. | 0:43:14 | 0:43:20 | |
I mean, if you think about what a million dollars could have bought. | 0:43:20 | 0:43:24 | |
Warner Bros was a new company. | 0:43:24 | 0:43:26 | |
It was a spin-off of the film company, obviously. | 0:43:26 | 0:43:30 | |
And it started releasing film soundtracks, movie-related stuff. | 0:43:30 | 0:43:36 | |
But they wanted a rock group because rock and roll was big. | 0:43:36 | 0:43:40 | |
So they got the Everly Brothers in. | 0:43:40 | 0:43:43 | |
When we left Cadence, we had to give them 14 records. | 0:43:43 | 0:43:48 | |
Or 14 singles. | 0:43:48 | 0:43:50 | |
And I thought, "Oh, gosh. We have to do 14 singles, wouldn't work." | 0:43:50 | 0:43:54 | |
So I told Archie. I said, "Why don't we do Songs Our Daddy Taught Us?" | 0:43:54 | 0:43:58 | |
I had that idea, I thought it was a good idea. | 0:43:58 | 0:44:02 | |
It's like, "No, maybe we better make this record that shows | 0:44:02 | 0:44:06 | |
audiences a little bit who we are more fully." | 0:44:06 | 0:44:09 | |
I think it's inevitable that as well as doing | 0:44:09 | 0:44:13 | |
pop, rock and roll, as it was considered then, | 0:44:13 | 0:44:16 | |
they would go back to their roots. Cos their roots go deeper. | 0:44:16 | 0:44:20 | |
I mean, this was kind of mountain music and folk music. | 0:44:20 | 0:44:24 | |
And, you know, it was stuff that was very much | 0:44:24 | 0:44:28 | |
woven into the kind of communities that they lived in and grew up in. | 0:44:28 | 0:44:33 | |
One of these early songs which they use on that album | 0:44:33 | 0:44:35 | |
is a favourite of mine called Kentucky. | 0:44:35 | 0:44:38 | |
This was something of a standard in country circles. | 0:44:38 | 0:44:41 | |
I don't think it was an enormous pop hit. | 0:44:41 | 0:44:44 | |
But it was a favourite with the country audiences. | 0:44:44 | 0:44:46 | |
# Kentucky | 0:44:49 | 0:44:54 | |
# I miss you... # | 0:44:56 | 0:44:58 | |
They both had to get in on that one mic. | 0:44:58 | 0:45:01 | |
And that was really magical. | 0:45:01 | 0:45:04 | |
There was something about it | 0:45:04 | 0:45:05 | |
when they got on that one microphone, | 0:45:05 | 0:45:08 | |
we'd all look at each other and think, "Wow, listen to that!" | 0:45:08 | 0:45:11 | |
# I die... # | 0:45:11 | 0:45:14 | |
Don would do his... | 0:45:18 | 0:45:19 | |
HE STRUMS GUITAR | 0:45:19 | 0:45:21 | |
Maybe do his little solo bits and he'd lift it up to the microphone. | 0:45:21 | 0:45:26 | |
So you could hear it, you know? | 0:45:27 | 0:45:30 | |
I'd never heard anything so beautiful. | 0:45:34 | 0:45:36 | |
And by the time they'd got to the ending, | 0:45:36 | 0:45:39 | |
when they did this slide down at the end of it, | 0:45:39 | 0:45:41 | |
this vocal slide down together, I was standing there crying. | 0:45:41 | 0:45:45 | |
# Kentucky... # | 0:45:47 | 0:45:57 | |
Cathy's Clown was the first one for Warner's. | 0:46:01 | 0:46:05 | |
First one for Warner's had to be good. | 0:46:05 | 0:46:08 | |
That was one of the criteria. | 0:46:08 | 0:46:09 | |
Had it not been for the Everly Brothers, Warner Bros | 0:46:09 | 0:46:12 | |
probably would not exist today. Because of Cathy's Clown. | 0:46:12 | 0:46:15 | |
# Don't want your love any more... # | 0:46:15 | 0:46:22 | |
Huge international number one, Cathy's Clown. | 0:46:22 | 0:46:26 | |
So, at a time when Warner Bros is haemorrhaging money, | 0:46:27 | 0:46:32 | |
their balance sheet is saved not by a film star, | 0:46:32 | 0:46:36 | |
not by a soundtrack, but by the Everly Brothers. | 0:46:36 | 0:46:38 | |
You couldn't make it up. | 0:46:38 | 0:46:40 | |
# I die each time | 0:46:40 | 0:46:44 | |
# I hear this sound | 0:46:44 | 0:46:47 | |
# Here he comes | 0:46:48 | 0:46:52 | |
# That's Cathy's clown. # | 0:46:52 | 0:46:54 | |
Cathy's Clown was designed pretty much in the same way. | 0:46:54 | 0:46:58 | |
Donald designed that. | 0:46:58 | 0:47:00 | |
And what people mistook for the lead was the harmony part. | 0:47:00 | 0:47:04 | |
He wanted me on a sustained note. That was his idea. | 0:47:04 | 0:47:07 | |
And he dropped the lead down to that. | 0:47:07 | 0:47:09 | |
Phil told me that he had to call Donald and say, | 0:47:09 | 0:47:13 | |
"Hey, man, you better come over here. | 0:47:13 | 0:47:15 | |
"I think I wrote something good." So he goes over to his house | 0:47:15 | 0:47:18 | |
and he's got the chorus to Cathy's Clown written. | 0:47:18 | 0:47:20 | |
And Donald wrote the parts that he sang along. | 0:47:20 | 0:47:23 | |
"I've gotta stand tall." | 0:47:23 | 0:47:25 | |
# I've gotta stand tall | 0:47:25 | 0:47:29 | |
# You know a man can't crawl | 0:47:29 | 0:47:33 | |
# When he knows you're tellin' lies | 0:47:33 | 0:47:34 | |
# And he let's 'em pass him by | 0:47:34 | 0:47:37 | |
# Then he's not a man at all. # | 0:47:37 | 0:47:40 | |
They could express it, that sort of...young sort of yearning, | 0:47:40 | 0:47:47 | |
melancholy thing, | 0:47:47 | 0:47:49 | |
and still make you feel good. | 0:47:49 | 0:47:51 | |
You know? Even though it's so sad to see good love go bad. | 0:47:51 | 0:47:56 | |
You know? HE CHUCKLES | 0:47:56 | 0:47:58 | |
Cathy's Clown, which is credited to both of them, | 0:47:58 | 0:48:02 | |
was probably, in terms of sales, their biggest of all. | 0:48:02 | 0:48:05 | |
Which is interesting, because it is a magnificent pop record. | 0:48:05 | 0:48:10 | |
Superbly sung. | 0:48:10 | 0:48:11 | |
Great song. But it's not a universal theme, really. | 0:48:11 | 0:48:15 | |
I would guess that most of the audience wasn't listening to it | 0:48:15 | 0:48:18 | |
thinking like, "Yeah, everybody's making fun of me. | 0:48:18 | 0:48:21 | |
"That's why I like to listen to this song." | 0:48:21 | 0:48:23 | |
I think they liked to hear it cos the beat was so cool and the | 0:48:23 | 0:48:26 | |
singing was so powerful and the harmonies worked together so well. | 0:48:26 | 0:48:29 | |
And people just hadn't heard anything like that | 0:48:29 | 0:48:33 | |
and couldn't stop listening to it. | 0:48:33 | 0:48:35 | |
Because it was just such a visceral experience. | 0:48:35 | 0:48:37 | |
I started listening to like, you know, like Cathy's Clown and songs | 0:48:37 | 0:48:41 | |
like All I Have To Do Is Dream just because the harmonies were so cool. | 0:48:41 | 0:48:47 | |
I wanted to learn both parts. | 0:48:47 | 0:48:48 | |
There are aspects of the song that... | 0:48:48 | 0:48:51 | |
You know, that middle part in the song, the bridge, | 0:48:51 | 0:48:54 | |
it takes you to another place. It's a little more confident. | 0:48:54 | 0:48:57 | |
But then you're right back into that struggle of feeling like, | 0:48:57 | 0:49:03 | |
you know... | 0:49:03 | 0:49:04 | |
you're Cathy's Clown. You're the guy that got left. | 0:49:04 | 0:49:07 | |
# When you see me shed a tear | 0:49:07 | 0:49:11 | |
# And you know that it's sincere | 0:49:11 | 0:49:14 | |
# Don't you think it's kinda sad | 0:49:14 | 0:49:17 | |
# That you're treatin' me so bad | 0:49:17 | 0:49:19 | |
# Or don't you even care? | 0:49:19 | 0:49:23 | |
# Don't want your love any more... # | 0:49:23 | 0:49:31 | |
Paul and I were a brand-new rock and roll group. | 0:49:31 | 0:49:34 | |
Practising, practising, and we used the Everlys as our models. | 0:49:35 | 0:49:39 | |
And we started writing songs that were like Don and Phil. | 0:49:39 | 0:49:43 | |
Phil got his chance to shine when he wrote When Will I Be Loved. | 0:49:43 | 0:49:46 | |
And I think that's one of the most soulful records they ever did. | 0:49:46 | 0:49:49 | |
There's just a feel to that record that doesn't quit. | 0:49:49 | 0:49:52 | |
# I've been made blue | 0:49:52 | 0:49:56 | |
# I've been lied to | 0:49:56 | 0:50:00 | |
# When will I be loved? # | 0:50:00 | 0:50:07 | |
I loved the fact that When Will I Be Loved | 0:50:07 | 0:50:10 | |
was issued by Cadence Records | 0:50:10 | 0:50:13 | |
when Cathy's Clown had charted on Warner Bros. | 0:50:13 | 0:50:17 | |
So it was like, "Wait a minute. | 0:50:17 | 0:50:18 | |
"You've left us but we've still got these." | 0:50:18 | 0:50:21 | |
And it turns out When Will I Be Loved | 0:50:21 | 0:50:23 | |
was a major song. | 0:50:23 | 0:50:24 | |
# It happens every time | 0:50:24 | 0:50:28 | |
# I've been cheated | 0:50:28 | 0:50:32 | |
# Been mistreated | 0:50:32 | 0:50:36 | |
# When will I be loved? | 0:50:36 | 0:50:43 | |
# When will I be loved? # | 0:50:44 | 0:50:50 | |
The Everly Brothers hit a real watershed in '59 | 0:50:52 | 0:50:55 | |
when they were signed by Warner Bros. | 0:50:55 | 0:50:58 | |
Million-dollar deal. It seemed amazing. | 0:50:58 | 0:51:02 | |
But actually, it turned out to be a real poisoned chalice. | 0:51:02 | 0:51:06 | |
The Everly Brothers' early manager | 0:51:06 | 0:51:09 | |
and their publisher, Wesley Rose, | 0:51:09 | 0:51:12 | |
was also my family's publisher. | 0:51:12 | 0:51:15 | |
Don and I, somewhere in like '61, broke with Wesley Rose. | 0:51:15 | 0:51:20 | |
And Wesley Rose had been managing us | 0:51:20 | 0:51:25 | |
and we didn't want him to manage us any more. | 0:51:25 | 0:51:27 | |
When that happened, Wesley Rose would not license any more | 0:51:27 | 0:51:32 | |
Boudleaux and Felice Bryant songs for us. | 0:51:32 | 0:51:35 | |
So we couldn't get any more songs. | 0:51:35 | 0:51:37 | |
And that was a terrible thing to have happen. It really was. | 0:51:37 | 0:51:41 | |
That's not our fault, not the Bryants' fault, | 0:51:41 | 0:51:44 | |
that was Wesley's fault. | 0:51:44 | 0:51:46 | |
Acuff-Rose happened to represent not only Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, | 0:51:46 | 0:51:51 | |
which meant the Everly Brothers were cut off from their songs, | 0:51:51 | 0:51:55 | |
but the Everly Brothers. | 0:51:55 | 0:51:56 | |
So that meant they couldn't even record their own songs. | 0:51:56 | 0:51:59 | |
I mean, it was silly of me to have a deal with a publishing | 0:51:59 | 0:52:04 | |
company where they wouldn't release unless they published it. | 0:52:04 | 0:52:07 | |
It was silly. It's death for an artist. | 0:52:07 | 0:52:10 | |
There's no court of appeals. | 0:52:10 | 0:52:12 | |
You know, I mean, obviously the Bryants want | 0:52:12 | 0:52:14 | |
the Everly Brothers to record their songs. | 0:52:14 | 0:52:16 | |
The Everly Brothers want those songs. | 0:52:16 | 0:52:18 | |
But the company says no. And that's the end of it. | 0:52:18 | 0:52:22 | |
You know, it's rough stuff. | 0:52:22 | 0:52:24 | |
What an unbearable situation. | 0:52:24 | 0:52:27 | |
And when we learn that in future we want to go back in time | 0:52:27 | 0:52:32 | |
to 1962 and say, "Oh, my God. Now I know why you have recorded | 0:52:32 | 0:52:36 | |
"Crying In The Rain by Carol King and Howard Greenfield. | 0:52:36 | 0:52:40 | |
"Cos you can't record your own songs. | 0:52:40 | 0:52:42 | |
"And you can't record Boudleaux and Felice Bryant songs." | 0:52:42 | 0:52:45 | |
In 1962, the Everly Brothers had this massive hit. | 0:52:45 | 0:52:48 | |
It wasn't their own song. | 0:52:48 | 0:52:50 | |
It was Carol King's song, Crying In The Rain. | 0:52:50 | 0:52:53 | |
But it went into the top ten. | 0:52:53 | 0:52:55 | |
And it was actually their last big American top ten hit. | 0:52:55 | 0:52:59 | |
Great for them, but they couldn't really enjoy it. | 0:52:59 | 0:53:03 | |
Or even capitalise on that success because, at that point, | 0:53:03 | 0:53:06 | |
they were in the Marines. | 0:53:06 | 0:53:07 | |
# I'll never let you see | 0:53:09 | 0:53:13 | |
# The way my broken heart is hurting me | 0:53:13 | 0:53:17 | |
# I've got my pride and I know how to hide | 0:53:17 | 0:53:22 | |
# All my sorrow and pain | 0:53:22 | 0:53:25 | |
# I'll do my crying in the rain... # | 0:53:25 | 0:53:30 | |
And then The Beatles happened | 0:53:30 | 0:53:32 | |
and even though The Beatles are directly | 0:53:32 | 0:53:35 | |
influenced by the Everly Brothers, | 0:53:35 | 0:53:37 | |
no-one wants to know anybody who existed before breakfast, | 0:53:37 | 0:53:41 | |
because now it's The Beatles and the British Invasion. | 0:53:41 | 0:53:43 | |
So, suddenly the Everly Brothers, who had actually influenced | 0:53:43 | 0:53:47 | |
The Beatles, start to look really old-fashioned, an old hat. | 0:53:47 | 0:53:50 | |
They ran into the brick wall with The Stones and The Beatles. | 0:53:50 | 0:53:55 | |
Because it happened to be 1963 and the world was suddenly changing. | 0:53:55 | 0:54:00 | |
And suddenly, they were old-fashioned for some reason. | 0:54:00 | 0:54:03 | |
Where there was no reason really, in musical terms, to think so. | 0:54:03 | 0:54:07 | |
Everybody was grabbing what was relevant from the Everly Brothers. | 0:54:07 | 0:54:12 | |
The Beatles taking the harmonies and that part of it. | 0:54:12 | 0:54:15 | |
I mean, From Me To You, Please Please Me, | 0:54:15 | 0:54:18 | |
everything is based on Everly Brothers' harmony. | 0:54:18 | 0:54:20 | |
Paul McCartney said that John was Don and he was Phil. | 0:54:20 | 0:54:25 | |
Allan Clarke and Graham singing their two-part, | 0:54:25 | 0:54:28 | |
call it The Hollies, but they were doing Everlys. | 0:54:28 | 0:54:31 | |
If you talk to The Stones, if you talk to The Beatles, | 0:54:31 | 0:54:33 | |
you talk to everybody, | 0:54:33 | 0:54:34 | |
if you talk to everyone that was in the British Invasion, | 0:54:34 | 0:54:37 | |
Herman's Hermits, everybody you wanted to know | 0:54:37 | 0:54:39 | |
loved the Everly Brothers. And tried to do that. | 0:54:39 | 0:54:41 | |
The great British Invasion didn't come at a very good | 0:54:41 | 0:54:45 | |
time for the Everlys. | 0:54:45 | 0:54:47 | |
I remember going to see the Everly Brothers in '63 | 0:54:47 | 0:54:49 | |
and the opening act was The Rolling Stones. | 0:54:49 | 0:54:52 | |
It was an Everly Brothers' tour, | 0:54:52 | 0:54:55 | |
so I got to watch those guys every night. | 0:54:55 | 0:54:59 | |
I remember watching Mick Jagger onstage and I said, | 0:54:59 | 0:55:03 | |
"That's different, man. That was different." | 0:55:03 | 0:55:06 | |
And I told him. I said, "You guys can make it in the States." | 0:55:06 | 0:55:09 | |
You kind of thought, "Well, this act, The Rolling Stones..." | 0:55:09 | 0:55:13 | |
I mean, I certainly wasn't prescient enough to say, | 0:55:13 | 0:55:16 | |
"These guys are going to be the biggest thing out." | 0:55:16 | 0:55:20 | |
But you could see that there was a different audience emerging. | 0:55:20 | 0:55:26 | |
At the same time, the Evs had to live with | 0:55:26 | 0:55:29 | |
the fact that The Stones were suddenly the flavour of the month. | 0:55:29 | 0:55:32 | |
And they actually stepped down | 0:55:32 | 0:55:35 | |
and gave us the top of the bill at the Albert Hall | 0:55:35 | 0:55:40 | |
after six weeks on the road. | 0:55:40 | 0:55:42 | |
And I think that was an amazing gesture from their part. | 0:55:42 | 0:55:47 | |
I think the reason why they may have faded from the public | 0:55:47 | 0:55:51 | |
appreciation is the fact that times move on. You know? | 0:55:51 | 0:55:55 | |
I mean, there are people that think that Paul McCartney was in Wings. | 0:55:55 | 0:56:00 | |
Their days of selling big numbers were over. | 0:56:00 | 0:56:03 | |
The Everly Brothers didn't lose their talent, | 0:56:03 | 0:56:06 | |
but they lost that sense of being part of the zeitgeist. | 0:56:06 | 0:56:11 | |
They continued to perform, but the atmosphere between them | 0:56:11 | 0:56:15 | |
was very strained. | 0:56:15 | 0:56:17 | |
To the point where 1973, infamous live performance. | 0:56:17 | 0:56:22 | |
They're playing a gig in California | 0:56:22 | 0:56:25 | |
and they had this really acrimonious split right there onstage. | 0:56:25 | 0:56:30 | |
And didn't speak to each other for ten years. | 0:56:30 | 0:56:33 | |
Then they reformed in 1983 for this amazing comeback concert | 0:56:33 | 0:56:38 | |
at the Royal Albert Hall. | 0:56:38 | 0:56:40 | |
# And so I beg you | 0:56:40 | 0:56:44 | |
# Let it be me. # | 0:56:45 | 0:56:49 | |
They were battling brothers, but they were brothers nonetheless. | 0:56:50 | 0:56:54 | |
And when they sang together, you know, you can | 0:56:54 | 0:56:57 | |
really feel that connection in their sound. | 0:56:57 | 0:57:00 | |
They brought together so many different | 0:57:00 | 0:57:02 | |
forms of contemporary music | 0:57:02 | 0:57:04 | |
and projected it totally genuinely through what they were. | 0:57:04 | 0:57:09 | |
Which was two young kids making their way. | 0:57:09 | 0:57:12 | |
I think pop music would have been quite different | 0:57:12 | 0:57:15 | |
if it hadn't been for the Everly Brothers. | 0:57:15 | 0:57:18 | |
That simplicity when it comes to songwriting and simple, | 0:57:18 | 0:57:21 | |
strong melodies. | 0:57:21 | 0:57:22 | |
I don't think you can listen to that music | 0:57:22 | 0:57:25 | |
or look at those guys singing so close in harmony like that | 0:57:25 | 0:57:29 | |
and not smile. | 0:57:29 | 0:57:30 | |
Their legacy is that their music will last forever. | 0:57:30 | 0:57:34 | |
It's indefinable. And that, I guess, | 0:57:34 | 0:57:37 | |
is the beauty of it, is that you can't put your finger on it. | 0:57:37 | 0:57:42 | |
But, boy, look at those boys sing, man. You know? | 0:57:42 | 0:57:45 | |
It's an interesting question for Artie Garfunkel, | 0:57:45 | 0:57:48 | |
who is not Paul Simon's brother, there is no DNA there, | 0:57:48 | 0:57:51 | |
but damned if we didn't try to make it seems like there was. | 0:57:51 | 0:57:55 | |
We were brothers when we were in junior high school. | 0:57:55 | 0:57:58 | |
We were each other's main friends. | 0:57:58 | 0:58:00 | |
We smoked our first cigarettes together. | 0:58:00 | 0:58:03 | |
We were trying to be in each other's family. | 0:58:03 | 0:58:08 | |
But we didn't quite get to where Don and Phil did. | 0:58:08 | 0:58:14 | |
# So never leave me lonely | 0:58:15 | 0:58:20 | |
# Tell me you'll love me only | 0:58:20 | 0:58:25 | |
# And that you'll always | 0:58:26 | 0:58:31 | |
# Let it be me. # | 0:58:34 | 0:58:41 |