Godfrey Kerr

Godfrey Kerr (born September 10, 1942 in Dublin ) is an Irish-American radio presenter who made outstanding contributions to Chicano rock from Los Angeles in the 1960s .

Godfrey Kerr enjoyed traditional American pop as sung by Theresa Brewer and Guy Mitchell while growing up in Ireland . After emigrating to Culver City , California with his family in 1954 , he expanded his musical taste to include rhythm and blues . As a temporary worker in a record store, he also began to be interested in jazz . After high school, Kerr started working full-time in the music business: he managed several smaller record labels, opened a mail order business for oldie records and organized dance and show events as a promoter and MC . For this he regularly booked leading bands of Chicano Rock between 1964 and 1968, including Thee Midniters , who had a home game in the event halls of the Barrio , East Side of Los Angeles. In addition, there were also interpreters of R&B such as Johnny Guitar Watson or Brenda Holloway .

But Kerr was best known as a radio host and DJ under his first name Godfrey. Since 1964 he has often represented Dick “Huggyboy” Hugg on the broadcasters KRLA and KALI, the most important DJ for Chicano Rock alongside Art Laboe , thus inheriting the particularly loyal audience of the Mexican population of the metropolis. Godfrey soon moved to KTYM, where he hosted a weekday show playing Chicano rock and R&B ballads.

In the mid-1960s, the simple sound of garage rock and surf rock were popular in California . Godfrey therefore tried his hand at being a musician knowing his limited singing talent. He released a single with Thee Midniters on Whittier Records , entitled Down Whittier Blvd. sang a central cruising stretch of the Barrios and which is a successor to the song Whittier Blvd. from the Midniters. His second single, The Trip, was a cover piece by Kim Fowley , which was an unambiguous homage to the use of LSD and was therefore rewritten as a summer hit after public protest by the defused version Let's Take a Trip . Both versions were released on John Marascalco's small label Cee-Jam Records . Marascalco also granted Godfrey co-author credits for his own pieces like Something Like Mr. C by the Young Lions or named him as supervisor on Frankie Olvera's version of Huggie's Bunnies in the hope that Godfrey would thereby promote the tracks more on the radio.

Godfrey also released four compilation LPs, on which he put together obscure performers and their songs and presented them in the Godfrey Presents ... series.

Godfrey stayed with KTYM until 1968, when the solid core of the Chicano movement at that time began to disintegrate, thus dwindling his audience and the number of visitors to his dance events. After a brief return to radio in the 1970s, Kerr started working in record distribution.

Discography

Singles as an interpreter:

• 1965 - The Trip / Come On, Come On , Cee-Jam 3 (with the Challengers )
• 1965 - The Trip / Let's Take a Trip , Cee-Jam 3 (with the Challengers )
• 1965 - Down Whittier Blvd. / Down Whittier Blvd. (Instrumental) , Whittier 505 (with Thee Midniters )

Albums as editor:

• 1965 - Godfrey Presents 18 R&B Flashbacks , Flashback 601
• 1965 - Godfrey Presents 18 R&B Flashbacks Vol. 2 , Flashback 602
• 1965 - Godfrey Presents 16 Successful Sounds , Flashback 603
• 1965 - Godfrey Presents 20 Blast-backs , Blastback 401

literature

• David Reyes, Tom Waldman: Land of a Thousand Dances. Chicano Rock 'n' Roll from Southern California . 1st edition. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque 1998, ISBN 0-8263-1883-5 , 5. Radio Waves and DJs: Art and Huggy Rock the Eastside, pp. 45-54 (American English).

Web links

• Recording of the Godfrey Show on KTYM on March 31, 1966, documented by Internet Archive