Anjelo's Production Workshop 1

What I've known

Joe Cocker is a singer who was known very well for his gritty voice and spasmodic movements. Although he was someone who was mostly a cover singer, he was well-renowned for the way he was able to turn other people's songs into his style. A super popular example of this was his version of 'You Are So Beautiful' by Dennis Wilson. Not only that, he was able to express a lot of soul no matter what song he sang which baffled the audiences numerous times. With his rough vocals which many thought was only suitable for rock and roll, he has managed to adapt to other genres like blues and rhythm, church music and even soul music. His death occurred on the 22nd of December, 2014. I always thought that his movements were because he was someone who had spasms and I also thought he had a bit of speech problems too because of his singing style. Not to mention I would often always find videos of him playing solo as his name was often up in the lights and he was taking the stage solo.

What I've Discovered

Joe Cocker was heavily influenced by Ray Charles and Chuck Berry who were known for their style in rhythm and blues. This could be an explanation of why Joe Cocker was able to express emotions so well in his singing. What I found most interesting though was that Lonnie Donegan was also included in one of his influences. The reason why this fact stood out to me was because Lonnie Donegan was the one that influenced John Lennon and Paul McCartney from The Beatles to pursue music in the first place. Whats even more surprising was that Joe Cocker turned out to be quite a fan of The Beatles as he most noticeably covered 2 songs by them. Although it was not stated whether or not Elvis Presley was an influence of his, Joe Cocker was known for having the 'Rock and Roll' attitude and around the time that Lonnie Donegan blew up, Elvis Presley was taking the U.S by storm. Additionally, he used to be in multiple bands before eventually pursuing a solo career back in his youth. He formed bands called , The Cavaliers, Vance Arnold and the Avengers, Joe Cocker's Blues Band, and lastly The Grease Band. I think this fact is pretty important because it shows that he was able to amass experience from being on the stage and also learn how to perform in a band. This proved to be useful to him as in the later part of his career, he managed to create another band called ' Mad Dogs and Englishmen' which consisted more than 20 musicians. This meant that it would require someone with a lot of experience to manage the band and also lead them which Joe Cocker was able to do. Not only that, despite being away from music for 2 years in a later part of his career, he was able to tour with a group still with Chris Stainton. Now moving on as to how Joe Cocker gained the popularity that propelled him into the music industry. Joe Cocker was mostly a cover singer and did his own renditions of other songs. But one rendition which no one thought would be so well-received turned out to be widely accepted by many people and even preferred over the original composition. That groundbreaking rendition was a song by 'The Beatles" called "With a Little Help From My Friends'. Joe Cocker first performed this at the Woodrow Festival where it boomed in popularity and was even used in a TV show called 'The Wonder Years'. Usually covers are not so well-received since most people would prefer the originals, but Joe Cocker has managed to pull through, not to mention that it was even praised by Paul McCartney himself. An article has said that Joe Cocker's success could be because he displayed a trait which was present in Frank Sinatra or Areta Franklin where they were never afraid to tackle well-known material. Joe Cocker was able to time and time again continue cover well-known songs without any signs of stopping. Cocker would go on to interpret tunes by Randy Newman and Traffic as if they were R&B classics. Furthermore, another fact which I did not know about was concerning his movement on stage. I always thought that he had a condition but it turns out that it was actually him getting excited and displaying emotion through his body and also he was trying to 'play' along with the band with an air guitar.

Conclusion

It turns out that there was more to Joe Cocker than just his voice or his weird movement but what stood out the most from him was his ability to portray emotion in whatever song he sang. After researching about him, I've come to find out that he was very active in pursuing performances any change he could and this helped him turn him into the person he had become because of the amount of experience that he had. Not only that, the singing style that Joe Cocker had turned out to be a combination of his influences too. Although Ray Charles turned out to be the main one, he still possessed some traits that could be found in his other influences. Also, Joe Cocker possessed the right traits that helped turned him into a musician like not being afraid of what other people would say. So in a way you could say that influences are very important in determining an up-and-coming musician because Joe Cocker himself did covers of varying genres which resulted in popularity. Also looking at the mind map right now, it baffles me as to how large one's influences can be and how much so many things can linked all at once. I think if I were to draw a mind map based on myself, it wouldn't compare to that of many great musicians at all. In conclusion, influences are a very important aspect in our lives as musicians because it unknowingly affects how we act or perform whether it was for the best or the worse.

Links: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jan/31/joe-cocker-took-black-acid-once

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Cocker

http://articles.latimes.com/2002/nov/05/local/me-donegan5

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/dec/22/joe-cocker-unlikely-influence-on-hip-hop

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-joe-cocker-appreciation-20141223-story.html

https://www.biography.com/people/joe-cocker

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-singers-of-all-time-19691231/joe-cocker-20101202