The Rock n Roll Years 1956-1989 Who Remembers it?

The Rock 'n' Roll Years - I loved this series. I recorded all 30+ programmes and watch them over and over again. This has done wonders for my general knowledge and has made me a whiz at quizzes. I now love 50s and 60s music - something I never appreciated before. The simple format was so effective - who neeRAB z list celebrities giving scripted analysis? Nobody.
 
I'm afraid to say that you won't ever see a DVD release- the costs of licensing all the tracks used would make it impossible- and thats even if they could get permission. Clearing a track for broadcast and for releaese on DVD are totally different issues- infact the BBC have a blanket agreement with the music industry allowing them to use just about anything. This costs a lot of money but gives them great freedom to use commercial music, but it only covers broadcasts, not DVD releases. (Which are handled by the BBCs commercial wing and need seperate payments to actors etc.)

(The music clearence issue is one of the reasons the fantastic 'Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain' won't ever get a DVD release- at least not in any full form- and why 'Top Gear' is so heavily edited when released.)

It was great to see the 1968 edition but it did look very dated- particuarly the video effects and also the fact that a lot of the footage used in black and white is available in colour- as it was seen in the Storyville shown later and other programmes about the events of that year.

If you enjoyed the show, watch the Storyville on 1968- its on the iplayer or its repeated tonight at 11:45pm on BBC Four. Its like a more longer version of the show that goes into a lot more depth about the amazing events of that year, lots of great music too.
 
As far as i ever knew, Rockn'Roll only started in it's native US in 1954,and only arrived in Europe in '55. Bill Haley got to nr. 1 with Rock around the Clock in the seond week of October '55, the week after I arrived in the world, so i remember nothing of the RnR era.
 
As an avid RNRY fan, the 1975 episode had an excellent, haunting instrumental as the musical backdrop to the footage of the fall of Saigon and South Vietnam - but I have no idea of the song and artist - does anyone know or where I can find out?

Thanks
 
A popular misconception, but wrong!

Rock Around The Clock was the first commercially successful Rock 'n 'Roll record, but the music had already been going for years before that.

The Cleveland Disc Jockey, Alan Freed, first used the term Rock 'n' Roll (an old Black American euphemism for sex) to describe the type music he was playing (essentially Doo-wop and Rhythm 'n' Blues) in 1951.

But way before Freed, some of the recordings that the likes of Louis Jordan and Fats Domino were making in the forties, or even some of those by Big Joe Turner in the thirties, could be said to be Rock 'n' Roll.
 
Strange that someone should start this thread as I was clearing out some old VHS tapes the other and came across the entire serise of "The Rock'n'Roll Years"! I'm now going to put them onto DVD.

It's a pity don't repeat the series on BBC Four!
 
Thanks for that - will check it out. It is something that has been puzzling me since I first watched it in 1987...

I have seen RITY - or at least parts of it - on youtube and it is very interesting - the RNRY with an Irish slant. I also found the 1975 episode very moving with the appearance of Fran O'Toole.

There was someone on youtube who posted most RNRY episodes about 2 yrs ago but they were removed (by BBC I presume) :mad: I have pretty much most episodes from 1956-1972 and 1981-89 (just the 70s missing really - wish I had these) but they are on very old VHS tapes and the quality is very ropey...
 
New series of reeling in the years was on tonight at 7.30 on rte one. 2000. Bit of an uneventful year really. Brilliant though all the same, BBC Get the finger out and update the rock n roll years
 
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