{"id":1852,"date":"2008-12-08T10:05:53","date_gmt":"2008-12-08T14:05:53","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-10-20T07:35:59","modified_gmt":"2010-10-20T11:35:59","slug":"jim-ford-godfather-to-pub-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/jim-ford-godfather-to-pub-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim Ford: Godfather to Pub Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love pub rock. There\u2019s no clear definition of the style, but it was a mid-70s British phenomenon, a back-to-basics trend that was never wildly popular, a precursor to punk, and many pub rock musicians carried on into the punk era. Brinsley Schwarz<\/strong> is probably the best-known exponent of the style, which I think of as a mixture of black and white musical genres \u2013 rock, R&B, country, folk, and pop. The conversation between black and white is what rock & roll is all about to me, and pub rock was a peculiarly British take on that conversation.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to write an irregular series about pub rock here, and I want to start with a man who could be called one of the progenitors of the style. He was also a player in what could be called the secret history of rock & roll.<\/p>\n

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Jim Ford<\/strong> is one of those legends that almost no one knows about. If he\u2019s known at all it\u2019s because he wrote the song “Niki Hoeky,” which was recorded most famously by Aretha Franklin<\/strong> on the Lady Soul<\/em> album. Here\u2019s Bobbie Gentry<\/strong> doing “Niki Hoeky” on the Smothers Brothers<\/em> TV show. Note the authentic Cajun mise en scene:<\/p>