Welcome to this week’s BROW, which turns out to not only be a triple feature, but also a salute to a very significant man in Beatles history known as Chris Barber. Read on…

One of the main things that inspired John Lennon to form up his band The Quarry Men was the “skiffle-craze”. When UK musician Lonnie Donnegan’s fast-tempoed skiffle account of Lead Belly’s Rock Island Line came out in 1955, John was motivated to get in on the action. When his mother Julia bought him his first guitar in early 1957, he realized that all he still needed to form up his band were his friends, a washboard and tea chest bass.

Rock Island Line was not only a gold record in the U.K., but also a top 10 hit in the U.S. and Lonnie Donnegan (aka “the king of skiffle”) recorded it in 1954 while a member of the Chris Barber Jazz Band. At the time, Chris Barber was an already-established jazz trombonist who was recently responsible for launching Donnegan’s career. So if not for Chris Barber, there would have been no stardom for Lonnie Donnegan, no “skiffle craze” and therefore, no Quarry Men. It’s very arguable that The Beatles, in turn, may have never existed.

So thank you Chris!

Years later, in 1967, The Beatles in a relatively small way returned the favor by giving Chris one of Paul McCartney’s instrumental compositions he had first recorded way back in 1962 called Catswalk.

The audio featured here is a 1962 Beatles rehearsal of the track actually recorded at The Cavern Club in Liverpool. As intended, Chris made a spiced-up jazz arrangement of the song, renamed it Cat Call and released it as a single in the U.K. in October of 1967. It’s interesting to hear the life Chris breathed into this simple little demo, so I’ve included a recording of it here too. Cat Call was also released again in April 1979 on the compilation album The Songs Lennon & McCartney Gave Away.

The Beatles - Catswalk

The Chris Barber Jazz Band - Cat Call (excerpt)
This is part of the orginal 45 version also on the Battersea Rain Dance LP*.

The Chris Barber Jazz Band - Cat Call
This version is from The Songs Lennon & McCartney Gave Away.

* Many thanks to Andreas Wandfluh, Archive and Web Team Member of the Big Chris Barber Band / Chris Barber’s Jazz Band, who has provided this recording to me and allowing me to update this post with more information.

Chris Barber

1979 Compilation LP: The Songs Lennon & McCartney Gave Away, released April 1979, w/Chris Barber pictured in lower right corner

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