@ghosthouse, Yes! Harmony singing is almost unheard of in the vast majority of contemporary music, but it goes back much further than that. Listening again recently to mid-period Beatles (I heard them so much as a teenager, I rarely ache to hear their music), I was struck by just how good they got at 3-part harmonies, which I now prefer to even Brian Wilsons more complex and sophisticated harmony writing. When the big break occurred in Rock music in the late 60’s (between its Blues and Country elements), Led Zeppelin won the fight; Blues became the dominant influence in Rock music, and Blues does not generally incorporate harmony singing.
Zeppelins 3-musician, 1 singer band format became THE standard for Rock music, and it has really stood the test of time. None of the big Rock bands since (The Stones, Aerosmith, Rush, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Van Halen---VH’s phony "harmonies" don’t count) have featured harmony singing. The Band followed Ten Years After on the stage at Woodstock, and Levon Helm later said they felt as if they would come off sounding like choir boys after the brutal assault on Blues by TYA. Levon therefore started The Bands set by saying to the crowd "Hope ya’ll like Country music". The Band weren’t a Country band, but sure had Country influences. In the southern United States, Country and Blues were like first cousins (maybe even brother and sister), not that much separation. But by the time of Woodstock, ANY Country influence put you apart from Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, The Who and all the other English bands.
As I have been aware of The Skeletons/Symptoms/Morells since the late 70’s, and own all their LP’s and CD’s, I had never bothered to watch a video of theirs on You Tube. Ghosthouse, your mention of watching one inspired me to do so, and coming at them from the perspective of someone such as yourself, I must say I can certainly understand why a person would be underwhelmed by them at first blush. They sound small; a regional, local bar band, and nothing more. They were obviously never going to become a national act, never going to fill stadiums. Neither were NRBQ, yet when David Sanborn introduced them on his TV show, he called them the best Rock ’n’ Roll band in the world.
I realize and accept that a lot of Audiogoners don’t find Rockabilly to their liking; it DOES sound an awful lot like Hillbilly/Hard Country---very rural, primitive, lacking in big production values and glamor. It also sounds old, the music of a past time, and perhaps a little corny. But in the right hands (not those of The Stray Cats, even if Dave Edmunds did produce them!) it’s fantastic! NRBQ did it really well, as has T Bone Burnett and other superior Americana-type artists. The Yardbirds (when Jeff Beck---a huge fan of Rockabilly, as is Dave Edmunds pal Robert Plant---was in the band) did a great version of Tiny Bradshaws "Train Kept a Rollin", but the Rockabilly original by The Johnny Burnette Trio is even better. Incendiary!
