I Am Not British

Merseyside takes its name from the river Mersey, and it is a county in Northwest England which consists of four boroughs Sefton, Knowsley, St Helens and the Wirral, along with the city of Liverpool they all adjoin the Mersey Estuary.  The word Mersey was an Anglo-Saxon term meaning ‘boundary river’ because the river Mersey once formed the natural boundary for the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia.  Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat is a British popular music genre that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, particularly in and around Liverpool.  Billy J. Kramer was an originator of the Merseybeat sound along with his Manchester-based group the Dakotas.  They were discovered by Brian Epstein during the 1960s and this became the Merseybeat music scene.  As the Beatles rose to fame in 1963, the terms Mersey sound and Merseybeat were applied to bands and singers from Liverpool, the first time in British pop music that a sound and a location were linked together.  These bands dressed alike and had similar haircuts, but each had their own distinctive sound.  John Lennon didn’t think there was such a thing as the Mersey Sound.  The music happened in Liverpool and the sound was named after the nearest river.  Large urban English cities like Liverpool, London, Birmingham and Manchester were at the forefront of the Merseybeat scene, with a number of influential bands emanating from each city.  Not knowing all that much about the Mersey Beat, or Mersey Sound before I came up with the theme for this post, I indicated that a band from Surrey or Liverpool will also work and that is because I am not British.  Clive reminded me that although Surrey has an extensive list of musicians, it doesn’t have its own sound, however Willow chimed in and said that Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Roger Waters, Petula Clark, Peter Gabriel, Paul Weller and Julie Andrews are all from Surrey, so that will give you more choices.

Last week we had All Hook and No Fat where the theme was to find Power Pop songs.  This week the theme is to find songs with a Mersey Beat, or Mersey Sound or you could go with a band from Surrey.  Take some time to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this music challenge, and even better, read as many of them as you can as you will probably find many enjoyable songs and it is quite possibly that you will learn a thing or two.  Share your music with others and post a video, try do some research and let everyone know something about the song that you post.  Tell everyone why you like the song, whether it was a hit, or what you think the song is about.  Show the lyrics, let’s all listen to our favorite songs and explore some new music.  Try to find a song that fits the theme, then write your post and create a pingback, or you can just place your link in the comments section.

Suggestions
• Try to use the prompt words or at least conform to a general theme, as you see it.  If the song you select does not meet the criteria, then please explain why you chose this song.
• It would be good if you could post the lyrics to the song of your choice, as this is helpful for the people that want to follow along with the music.
• Please try to include the songwriter(s) – it’s a good idea to give credit where credit is due. It would also be a good idea to give credit to the singer and the band associated with your song.
• Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be, but please try not to include too many videos as that just makes it take longer to look at all of the other posts.
• Link to the YouTube video, or you can pull it into your post, so others can listen to the song.
• Ping back to this post or place your link in the comments section below.
• Read at least one other person’s blog, so we can all share new and fantastic music and create amazing new blogging friends in the process.
• Feel free to suggest future prompts.
• Have fun and enjoy the music.

This week I will be writing about The Searchers song ‘Needles and Pins’, and next week, I will be writing about the song ‘Horses’ by Patti Smith.  The upcoming prompts will be:
December 25, 2022 – Punk songs
January 1, 2023 – Garage Rock
January 8, 2023 – Paisley Underground
January 15, 2023 – Metal Music