NAME'S BILLIE JOE, BUT YOU CAN CALL ME IAN
Five American Bands that Wanted to be British
by Peter Gorman
1. Big Star - Perhaps the best of the British wanna-be bands, Big Star made a trio of albums
that owed much to British 60s pop, mostly Beatles from `64-`65. What made Big Star's choice of
influences unusual was that British pop was no longer in vogue when this group made its records
in the early 70s (which hurt their sales), and these guys were more than simply Americans, they
were Memphis-Americans. Memphis is Elvis, Sun Records, the blues, the Mississippi River: Can you
get more American than that? They were great, though, and Alex Chilton could teach the Gallagher
brothers a thing or two about finding something new in old sounds.
2. The Pretenders - Granted that three-quarters of this band actually was British, but leader
Chrissie Hynde was from Akron, Ohio, and she had a severe case of Anglophilia. In the early
70s Hynde gave up majestic Akron and moved to London, where she wrote for The New Musical
Express, formed a band, and had a child with Ray Davies, the most British of British rock stars.
None of her projects lasted, though she has fronted various bands for over 20 years and called
each one the Pretenders. The original line-up was by far the best, however, and the most British
sounding, too. She also had a child with Scottish rock star Jim Kerr of Simple Minds, which in
my opinion is taking the Anglophilia thing a bit too far. I mean, one child with a British rock
star wasn't enough?
3. Green Day - When I heard this group for the first time back in 1994 I thought for sure they
were British, a valid assumption since lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong sang with a British
accent. It turned out they were from Berkeley, CA. They look to England circa 1977 for
inspiration, a great time and place from which to do it. But what's with the accent? Blimey.
Just how many British guys are there named Billie Joe anyway? About as many as there are British
gals named Bobbie Sue, I'll bet.
4. Rancid - Clash imitators, and very good at it, too. Too good at it perhaps, and it is said
they bristle at the suggestion that their music is a Clash imitation, but hey, wear battle
fatigues all the time and you'll be mistaken for a soldier now and then. The main American
thing about them is the lead singer's Mohawk haircut. Like Green Day, Rancid hail from the East
Bay, which may indicate that some S.F. Bay Area bands believe they must go beyond the sound of
their home city in order to avoid sounding like the Jefferson Airplane/Starship or Journey. In
which case, we're grateful the likes of these guys made the trip.
5. Guided by Voices - Robert Pollard and his drinking buddies call Dayton, Ohio home but, like
Ohio resident Chrissie Hynde before them, they look to England to find their sound. They've
remained in Ohio, though, and recorded most of their songs in a basement (believe me, you can
tell), with Pollard doing an even better British accent vocal (meaning more affected) than Green
Day's Armstrong. Besides the terrible production on their records, GBV chose some of the wrong
heroes, such as the late 60s/early 70s British progressive rock ("progressive" being defined as
heavily influenced by 19th century classical music). Fortunately almost all of their songs are
short. Their Brit-pop song sound-alikes topple their Brit-prog ones, but so would everyone
else's. Cheers, Robert. Too bad there are no Wimpy's in Dayton to make you really feel at home.
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