FROM RAGTIME TO ROCK
by Fraser Loveman
"From Ragtime To Rock" is a unique music source book which examines the history of popular recorded music of the last one hundred years. The text has been divided into thirty nine chapters, each concerned with a specific music form, trend or era. Since many of the vital music forms associated with the 20th century are rooted in earlier periods, some as far back as the 1500's, each progression and transformation has been meticulously researched and documented.
Many such books feature long, flowery descriptive passages, often vague when it comes to the facts. "From Ragtime To Rock" is an easy to read, fact filled source book sans filler with an emphasis on exact dates and locales.
Each chapter features historical data and descriptions of the various styles or periods in standard text structure followed by a listing of subject related artist profiles presented in a fast fact format, allowing the reader easy accessibility.
Each of the more than 1500 artist profiles includes style descriptions, accomplishments, essential facts and trivia augmented with a selected discography accompanied by appropriate dates and peak chart positions where available. When accompanied by a chart position, the dates listed indicate the moment the recording was first charted, otherwise they are recording session dates.
At the end of each chapter, a series of numbers appears listed under bibliography. Each indicates a subject related reference source listed in the bibliography section.
The main objective is to present a comprehensive overview as seen from several perspectives touching on styles, performers, locales, dates, writers, producers and the many colourful fads and trends promoted by modern music.
Music is an addiction.......at least for me. I suppose that is why I decided to write this book. I simply could not understand why so many people were incredibly limited in their choice of music. After all, there is good and bad in every music genre. I must admit that in the distant past, I did gravitate somewhat toward one or two specific music styles until I came to realize how dependent one style is on another and how music influences music.
I purchased my very first record in 1953 and my overwhelming passion for vinyl continues to this day. At the present, my record collection has managed to dwarf my living space, yet continues to grow as if possessing a life of its own. I was always eager to buy new discs and new music books. Ah, the books - with the information and the dates! The dates were of great significance to me. I desperately needed to know when a piece was written, recorded and exactly when, how and why it became popular. My fondest memories involve getting my grubby little hands on the latest copy of Billboard Magazine for the chart information.
Yet another desire was to understand where certain sounds originated and how they evolved. Some of that hunger for data occurred when I discovered "cover artists." These were the remakes of recordings made by black artists by the more marketable white pop stars. I often went to great lengths to obtain the originals which were generally far superior to the covers.
I came from a family which was totally enamoured of the entertainment world. Some of my relatives had actually been involved at one time or another in show business. I particularly loved my parents' Saturday night parties where certain guests would entertain. While all of my cousins and the children of friends would fall asleep, I would stay awake enthralled as each adult would take their turn performing. I listened and learned. I heard wondrous names like Jolson, Holiday, Piaf and Crosby and greedily tucked each scrap of information into my memory bank for future reference. There was one particular aunt and uncle, Nan and Jimmy Toal who were a great influence. They were remarkable vocalists with impeccable taste in songs. Another aunt, Elsie Fraser impressed me with her passion for classic blues. Then there was Violet Thompson, a family friend who was so full of life and music. She taught me all about vaudeville and the music of the Jazz Age. All of those crazy marvelous people triggered my unquenchable thirst for musical knowledge.
Of course, the next logical step was to get into showbiz myself. During the 1960's, I sang with a Canadian recording group called The British Modbeats. Other bands followed including the notorious Village S.T.O.P. which became one of the most popular psychedelic rock acts on the east coast of the United States. I also performed in several major stage shows and also worked as a session vocalist. I am particularly proud of the numerous songs I have composed with my good friend, bassist/vocalist Joe Colonna and the recent studio collaborations with arranger Michael Peets.
Through it all.........the bad and the good, music has been my one constant.........my one great joy!
Fraser Loveman
No century has produced as many varied popular music forms as the 20th century. The material covered in this book is so vast in scope, and because of restrictions of space and time, it has been essential to adhere to simplification.
It is incredibly difficult to define "pop music" since it involves imposing strict boundaries on categories encompassing a myriad of styles. However, there are two basic kinds of music - studied and tribal. Most popular music usually falls somewhere in the middle. It is generally the fusion of European studied music and several other so-called primitive forms including the predominant ingredient - tribal rhythms.
Classical music is popular, especially in the upper echelons of society, yet it is definitely not pop music. Pop or popular music as we know it is the prevalent music of the masses. It is thoroughly accessible. It allows an audience the opportunity to become more involved with a performance rather than viewing it appreciatively from a concert seat.
Although popular music is enjoyed and created all over the world, it is America that has taken pop music and raised it to a high art form. The world is undeniably enamoured of American pop culture.
Widespread acceptance of modern popular music is the direct result of the power of the media. Whether it is perceived that music fans are brainwashed with high rotation radio or video playlists, or that the public makes the hits, it must be obvious that in order for a particular piece to succeed commercially, it must possess incredible across the board appeal. However, acceptance inevitably breeds simplification. The more commercial a form of music becomes, the more simplistic it becomes.
Music is a product of our environment. It influences and is in turn influenced by the events of our everyday life. It mirrors our dreams, fears, fantasies, loves, frustrations and every other human experience imaginable.
It is important to realize that all music forms, bad or good depending on one's opinion, exert their influence on other music. To ignore one specific type of music is to repudiate its relevance and effect on other music forms. Those who exhibit musical bigotry invariably display their own particular limitations.
Recordings are pieces of history and should be treated as such. They are audio inspirations for the videos stored in our memory banks. They are instrumental in pinpointing a specific time, place or event in our lives. Popular music is a nostalgia merchant.
Although more than one hundred years of music is represented in this book, one must understand that the surface has only been scratched. Hopefully, the reader will be inspired to seek out and appreciate a wide range of music. "From Ragtime To Rock" is only the beginning.
- Mae Wilson - my sister and friend
- Lynda Johnson
- Bob Wilson
- Colin and Barbara Fraser
- Morag Fraser
- Elsie and Tommy Fraser
- Irene and Daniel Howe
- Ralph and Charlene Goy
- Michael Peets
- Larry Nicholson
- Betty Nicholson
- Valene Mater
- Ralene Chartrand
- Glenda and Rob Jeffrey
- Carolyn Helstrom
- Mary Hurley
- Marie Howe
- Kim McEachern
- Patti Welch
- Ken Robbins
- Alicia S. Merritt
- Joan Warbis
- Barry Grant
SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The most indispensable reference works available were the Billboard charting series of books compiled by Joel Whitburn - Record Research Inc. P.O. Box 200, Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, USA, 53051. No music buff should be without the entire collection.
The following article was written by John Mars, a Canadian visual artist/musician/composer.
My dear friend, the former lead singer of The British Modbeats and The Village S.T.O.P. has passed away. Fraser Loveman was truly one of a kind and God, whoever she is, discarded the mold when he was created. What he did as an extremely flamboyant performer in the 60’s and 70’s took some real courage. First of all, in 1965, he must have had the longest hair of any man in the province of Ontario, Canada. In those days, propogating such a look meant that when you walked down the street you were completely opening yourself up to derision from the general public. Nothing could faze Fraser. The hippie scene was just starting in Toronto’s Yorkville Village, but for a guy coming out of St. Catharines, the get-ups that he wore onstage were truly outrageous and involved a vision that was often ahead of any of his contemporaries at that time.
Besides an inordinate amount of time spent studying 45rpm records and rehearsing his singing via those records, Fraser had to spend a fair bit of time sewing these one-of-a-kind, self-invented fashions. As a self-taught artist in more ways than one, thousands of aural and visual influences were dissected and lovingly absorbed by the time he was 20 and becoming a known performer. Curtains that had been decommissioned by some of the British Modbeats' mothers were turned into giant bell bottomed trousers and vests for himself and his bandmates. Pre-Janis Joplin, perhaps influenced by British pop songstress Sandie Shaw, Fraser/Modbeats began a habit of performing in bare feet. At their mid 60’s gigs at Ontario teen dances at fairgrounds, community halls and hockey arenas, their unexpected visual appearance and garage band sound caused a furor that delighted the youngsters and worried the older folks. Fraser’s well-rounded vocal sound took some of the edge off the raw vibe of the group. It was a highly original, exciting mix. Fraser’s affable dad managed his son’s new fangled singing group, The British Modbeats who, at one point, travelled all the way to New York City to perform with dad in tow to supervise the tour.
Because of his British roots (his family had moved to Canada in 1953) , Fraser travelled back to Britain in those days of “Swinging London” and besides his already extensive knowledge of the roots of Rock ‘n’ Roll, he was now hip to what was going on in the new music that was then emanating from England. The new, 1960’s English pop stars were influenced by the American 1950’s music that Fraser Loveman already knew so well. Relatives in Scotland sent the latest UK records to him and the record collection that Fraser’s older sister, Mae Loveman had started him on when he was a pre-teen was by then growing out of control.
Since the band did not write songs, Fraser pulled in things that he’d heard from both sides of the big pond . As a result, by the time it was released in 1967, the “Mod Is … The British Modbeats” LP incorporated sounds from the many disparate musicians that Fraser was influenced by at the time. Doris Troy, Cilla Black, Lulu, The Merseys, Manfred Mann, Spencer Davis Group, The Pretty Things, The McCoys, Chris Kenner, Cannibal And The Headhunters, Wilson Pickett had all frequented his personal turntable and the band covered them. About 10,000 of “Mod Is …” were pressed. Today, collectors will pay $750 or more for a mint copy of that British Modbeats album.
While people like Ruth Brown and Howlin’ Wolf had kickstarted the motor that drove Fraser musically and remained lifelong favourites, Fraser always stayed up to date. Following the Mod period, during the Village S.T.O.P. era, psychedelic groups and the San Francisco sound became an influence, and the lone S.T.O.P. 45rpm single from 1969, “North Country” b/w “Vibration”, shows the influence of late 60’s groups like Big Brother And The Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane, Cream and Blue Cheer. Fraser’s warm vocal sound and Paul Marcoux’s soaring lead guitar work remain impressive to this day, even if the recording was made under less than ideal circumstances (“in some guy’s basement in Hamilton”, according to Fraser). A thousand copies were pressed of a record that may someday be worth a thousand dollars in the collectible world. It can currently fetch $500. To me, it is simply a psych masterpiece. It’s a legendary ‘cult’ item of the first degree in terms of Canadian music recordings.
Speaking of rare records, rarely have more been seen than what I saw in Fraser’s collection of 45s. It was much larger than what most radio station libraries had back in the days of Rock ‘n’ Roll radio. His collection was ridiculously large and included multiple copies of many titles that he picked up by junking and sometimes bought for pennies. He wasn’t big on LPs, and had only several thousand, but when I met Fraser in the early 80’s he claimed to have “45 thousand 45s”. More were acquired when his sister Mae passed away while only in her 40’s sometime in the 1980’s and Fraser said that he had then inheirited “another 28 thousand 45s”. I used to go into radio stations to do on-air interviews when I was an active performer and I have scarcely seen more 45s at any radio station. His collection was crazy good fun. The history of pop music, particularily Rock ‘n’ Roll was pretty much all carefully archived there. To sit entranced at Fraser’s apartment on a Friday or Saturday night was much more fun than going out someplace with him for the night. Fraser loved to hold court and expound on the history of the music. Maybe I myself already knew a lot about what he was preaching but his opinions were always fascinating and amusing and his knowledge of records often went well beyond my own. Ask for an obscure song and he had a copy of it (or three)! I shall treasure those times with Fraser, lovingly, forever.
I was just a kid when I first saw Fraser from up close performing with the Village S.T.O.P. He had a great charisma. He came on stage forthrightly with a pleasant manner about him and an utter confidence about him and you knew that something cool and fun was about to happen. I learned a few things about stage presence that night that I carried with me throughout my own little singing career. So, thanks for that, Fraser.
John Mars spring 2018