Saturday 4 January 2014

Phil Everly - January 19, 1939 - January 3, 2014

Influence

I am a peripheral fan of The Everly Brothers which I don't use as a term to diminish in any way their musical significance, but rather as an honest reflection. Their phenomenal impact on the direction of popular music in the late 50s was too early to engage me, though their radio popularity of the time will have provided a key soundtrack to my early childhood. Yet I know and like so much of their music, although what I have and would very occasionally listen to is collected and 'hits' instead of a detailed and personally significant discography. What is without question is that Phil and brother Don's vocal harmonising did and continues to have a massive impact on the music I love from the late 60s/early 70s and ever since, thinking in particular of Country rock vocal harmony and, naturally, the West Coast sound. And I shouldn't ignore early rock'n'roll and crucially the Beatles, say from 1962/63 where I can probably trace my first genuine engagements in tight vocal harmony - that sounds much more clinical than intended: it was an intuitive, aural experience for an 8 year old, as today unless writing about it!

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