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Incredible String Band - When You Find out Who You Are

The consequence of this historic dividing line is that, whereas today's teenagers born in the 1970s can recite Beatles and Dylan lyrics from memory, the great original rock 'n roll tunes are only vaguely familiar even to 35 year olds who grew up immediately in the wake of the rock 'n roll explosion. I have a lot of party tapes containing a broad mix of songs from different eras including the fifties that I will presumptuously install in the cassette deck at a gathering or on a long car ride. Invariably, I absorb awkward and disappointed stares and groans when... someone usually insists on fast forwarding past it.

This is too bad, because the music from that time, especially from the epochal years of 1956 and 1957, is truly great music. Sure, it lacks any overriding social or political themes, there are no screaming guitar solos or overdubbed synthesizers, and the recordings are generally poor, and pre stereo. But the energy, vitality, and originality of breakthrough rock 'n roll is unmatched by almost anything that has come along since, and in its context, the ferocity with which this music burst upon the scene was nothing short of amazing. At daybreak, 1955, rock 'n roll was still just a vague notion, an alternative term for Rhythm & Blues, and popular as a genre only among that clandestine cadre of youth who had discovered the R&B radio stations... there were many successful white covers, but this was all very restrained compared to true R&B, about which the majority of the country knew next to nothing. By daybreak, 1956, however, the first beachheads had been established, and as of the middle of that year, a full scale invasion was underway on all fronts. And like the allies at Normandy, the onslaught just kept on coming, with barely time for its teen audience to catch their breath from dancing to one hit before the next, bigger, faster, more enthralling, exploded at their feet.


Incredible String Band - When You Find out Who You Are
  • Release in: 1970
  • Genre: Folk, Rock, British Folk
  • Recording in: 1969

"The band was spotted at a club by Joe Boyd, who was opening a British wing of Elektra Records. They released in 1966, featured mostly original numbers enthusiastically played in American and Celtic folk styles."

See previous Song of the Day

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Location: United States

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