Other Voices

At times it appears that a whole industry exists to perpetuate the myth of origin of the Beatles. Brocken argues that the music history of the Liverpool in which the Beatles grew and then departed is not fully represented. Other Voices presents a history of the disparate and now partially hidden musical strands that contributed to Liverpool's musical countenance. It is also a critique of Beatles-related institutionalized popular music mythology. By addressing such 'scenes' as those involving dance bands, traditional jazz, folk music, country and western, and rhythm and blues, together with a consideration of partially hidden key places and individuals, and Liverpool's first 'real' record label, an assemblage of 'other voices' bears witness to an 'other', seldom discussed, Liverpool.

Michael Brocken is Senior Lecturer in Popular Music Studies in the School of Music at Liverpool Hope University, UK.

General Editor's Preface; Introduction; Chapter 1 Looking back, not through - an overview: 'Beatlesology' and historicism; Chapter 2 Antediluvian images? Popular music and parochial space in inter-war Liverpool; Chapter 3 Jazz, the Cavern, and skiffle; Chapter 4 Oral histories, public and private spaces; the partially-hidden histories of Joe Flannery and Gardner Road, 1961-62; Chapter 5 I like your hat - country music and Liverpool; Chapter 6 Some Other Guys - R&B in Liverpool; Chapter 7 'Mist over the Mersey' - folk scenes on Merseyside; Chapter 8 Cabaret - reality amid the fake; Chapter 9 Taste-makers, reception, word-of-mouth; Epilogue;