Skiffle

Origins in the United States

The origins of skiffle are obscure but generally thought to lie in African-American musical culture in the early 20th century. Skiffle is often said to have developed from New Orleans jazz, but this claim has been disputed. Improvised jug bands playing blues and jazz were common across the American South in the early decades of the 20th century. They used instruments such as the washboard, jugs, washtub bass, cigar-box fiddle, musical saw and comb-and-paper kazoos, as well as more conventional instruments, such as acoustic guitar and banjo.

The origin of the English word skiffle is unknown. However, in the dialect of the west of England to make a skiffle, meaning to make a mess of any business, is attested from 1873. In early 20th century America the term skiffle was one of many slang phrases for a rent party, a social event with a small charge designed to pay rent on a house. It was first recorded in Chicago in the 1920s and may have been brought there as part of the African-American migration to northern industrial cities.

The first use of the term on record was in 1925 in the name of Jimmy O'Bryant and his Chicago Skifflers. Most often it was used to describe country blues music records, which included the compositions "Hometown Skiffle" (1929) and "Skiffle Blues" (1946) by Dan Burley & his Skiffle Boys. It was used by Ma Rainey (1886–1939) to describe her repertoire to rural audiences. The term skiffle disappeared from American music in the 1940s.

Revival in the United Kingdom

Skiffle was a relatively obscure genre, and it might have been largely forgotten if not for its revival in the United Kingdom in the 1950s and the success of its main proponent, Lonnie Donegan. British skiffle grew out of the developing post-war British jazz scene, which saw a move away from swing music and towards trad jazz. Among these bands were Bill Bailey Skiffle Group and Ken Colyer's Jazzmen, a band formed by Chris Barber. Lonnie Donegan played banjo for the Jazzmen, and also performed skiffle music during intervals. He would sing and play guitar with accompaniment of two other members, usually on washboard and tea-chest bass. They played a variety of American folk and blues songs, particularly those derived from the recordings of Lead Belly, in a lively style that emulated American jug bands. These were listed on posters as "skiffle" breaks, a name suggested by Ken Colyer's brother Bill after recalling the Dan Burley Skiffle Group. Soon the breaks were as popular as traditional jazz. After disagreements in 1954, Colyer left to form a new outfit, and the band became Chris Barber's Jazz Band.

The first British recordings of skiffle were carried out by Colyer's new band in 1954, but it was the release by Decca of two skiffle tracks by Barber's Jazz Band under the name of the "Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group" that transformed the fortunes of skiffle in late 1955. Donegan's fast-tempo version of Lead Belly's "Rock Island Line" was a major hit in 1956, featuring a washboard (but not a tea-chest bass), with "John Henry" on the B-side. It spent eight months in the Top 20, peaking at No. 6 (and No. 8 in the U.S.). It was the first debut record to go gold in Britain, selling over a million copies worldwide.

The Acoustic Music organization makes this comment about Donegan's "Rock Island Line". "It flew up the English charts. Donegan had synthesized American Southern Blues with simple acoustic instruments: acoustic guitar, washtub bass and washboard rhythm. The new style was called 'Skiffle' .... and referred to music from people with little money for instruments. The new style captivated an entire generation of post-war youth in England." After splitting from Barber, Donegan went on to make a series of popular records as "Lonnie Donegan's Skiffle Group", with successes including "Cumberland Gap" (1957), "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour" (1958) and "My Old Man's a Dustman" (1960).

It was the success of Donegan's "Rock Island Line" and the lack of a need for expensive instruments or high levels of musicianship that set off the British skiffle craze. A few bands enjoyed chart success in the skiffle craze, including the Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group ("Freight Train"), Johnny Duncan and the Bluegrass Boys, and the Vipers, but the main impact of skiffle was as a grassroots amateur movement, particularly popular among working class men, who could cheaply buy, improvise, or build their own instruments and who have been seen as reacting against the drab austerity of post-war Britain. The craze probably reached its height with the broadcasting of the BBC TV programme Six-Five Special from 1957. It was the first British youth music programme, using a skiffle song as its title music and showcasing many skiffle acts. By the end of 1958, the boom was over as enthusiasts either abandoned music for more stable employment or moved into some of the forms of music that it had first suggested, including folk, blues and rock and roll. As a result, it has been seen as a critical stepping stone to the second folk revival, blues boom and the British Invasion of the US popular music scene.

It has been estimated that in the late 1950s, there were 30,000–50,000 skiffle groups in Britain. Sales of guitars grew rapidly, and other musicians were able to perform on improvised bass and percussion in venues such as church halls and cafes and in the flourishing coffee bars of Soho, London, like the 2i's Coffee Bar, the Cat's Whisker and nightspots like Coconut Grove and Churchill's, without having to aspire to musical perfection or virtuosity. Most notably, the Beatles developed from John Lennon's 1957 skiffle group the Quarrymen; Paul McCartney was added after a few months and George Harrison joined in 1958. Similarly, the Bee Gees developed from Barry Gibb's skiffle group The Rattlesnakes.

In a 2010 radio interview, Tony Sheridan recalls his encounter with skiffle: "I always felt a bit out of place anyway. So when the puberty thing started, Lonnie Donegan came along, I think it was the end of '55, early '56. Rock Island Line. All I heard was the beginning [of the song]... It sort of turned a switch in me. I'm sure John Lennon on the other side of the country, in Liverpool, I'm sure he felt something very, very similar... the first time he heard Donegan. It was usually Donegan with us, you know, before Elvis."

During summer 1970, the skiffle-like song "In the Summertime" by British band Mungo Jerry reached the top of the charts in several countries around the world. In 2017, performer Billy Bragg's book Roots, Radicals and Rockers, a history of the skiffle movement, was published. Bragg has compared the development of skiffle in Britain in the 1950s to punk rock in the 1970s, noting that skiffle was a revolt by young people against the culture of their parents, and allowed them to create their own style of music without expensive equipment or great musical virtuosity.

Notes

References

1. M. Brocken, ''The British folk revival, 1944–2002'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003), pp. 69–80.
2. L. R. Broer and J. D. Walther, ''Dancing Fools and Weary Blues: the Great Escape of the Twenties'' (Popular Press, 1990), p. 149.
3. J. R. Brown., ''A Concise History of Jazz'' (Mel Bay Publications, 2004), p. 142.
4. ''A Glossary of Provincial Words & Phrases in Use in Somersetshire'' (Longmans, London: 1873), 33.
5. J. Simpson and E. Weiner, eds, ''The Oxford English Dictionary'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2nd edn., 1989), cf. "skiffle".
6. J. Minton, ''78 Blues: Folksongs and Phonographs in the American South'' (University Press of Mississippi, 2008), pp. 119–20.
7. "Timeline of Musical Styles & Guitar History".
8. "RIDIN' THE FREIGHT TRAIN WITH CHAS McDEVITT (Archived copy)".
9. J. P. Ward, ''Britain and the American South: From Colonialism to Rock and Roll'' (University Press of Mississippi, 2009), pp. 192–6.
10. R. D. Cohen, ''Folk Music: the Basics'' (CRC Press, 2006), p. 98.
11. J. Roberts, ''The Beatles'' (Lerner Publications, 2001), p. 13.
12. Talevski, Nick. (1998). "The Unofficial Encyclopedia of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame". Bloomsbury Academic.
13. (29 February 2016). "RTÉ Documentary on One - Are You Tony Sheridan? - The story of a self-confessed 'Irish Vagabond', with Martin Duffy, 2010-07-17".
14. [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/28/roots-radicals-and-rockers-by-billy-bragg-review-skiffle Richard Williams, "Roots, Radicals and Rockers by Billy Bragg review – the skiffle moment and how it changed music", ''The Guardian'', 28 June 2017]. Retrieved 20 April 2018
15. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/14m685MfWqvtz9LNr4W9BVp/skiffle-the-musical-revolution-that-time-forgot "Skiffle: The musical revolution that time forgot", ''BBC Arts'', 25 February 2018]. Retrieved 20 April 2018