I never heard of it before. I felt much enriched after listening to this fascinating interview.
I love origins stories especially about something as influential a rock’n roll.
Billy Bragg On Skiffle, The Movement That Brought Guitar To British Radio FRESH AIR, Terry Gross, July 19, 2017 http://www.npr.org/2017/07/19/538079082/billy-bragg-on-skiffle-the-movement-that-brought-guitar-to-british-radio It's hard to believe, but before the 1950s, guitars were rarely heard in British music. Billy Bragg says the first guitars to hit the British pop scene came as a part of skiffle, a musical movement inspired by African-American roots musicians. Bragg, who's written a book on skiffle called Roots, Radicals And Rockers, describes the genre as "a bunch of British school boys in the mid-'50s playing Lead Belly's repertoire... on acoustic guitars."England lived under austerity and food rationing, one result was that John Lennon (and all his pals) was 14 before he could hop into a store and buy candy. Did you know that "Rock Island Line" was a revolutionary song?
