Jet Harris, 1939-2011
The British bass guitarist Terence “Jet” Harris died of cancer on Friday at the age of 71. I had never heard his name before, I don’t think (and what an awesome name it is!) Though I’d heard and enjoyed some of his music — and, even more so, a lot of music that was made out of other recordings and samplings of music that he recorded first. And his life, I’ve learned over the past couple days, was a story of both great victory and sadness.
Harris, who was super good-looking, earned his nickname with his speed on the sprinter’s track at his North London high school. But he became famous a few years later, as the ’50s turned into the ’60s, playing bass in the Shadows, the back-up band for England’s biggest pre-Beatles rock star, Cliff Richard. Richard’s name I knew well, but mostly from the ’80s BBC sitcom The Young Ones. Because Rik, the hilariously annoying character played by the show’s creator Rik Mayal, was obsessed with him to the point of reciting poetic odes.
The Young Ones was about my favorite thing in the world in 1986, when MTV broadcast it stateside. But again, Rik was not a sympathetic character, so I never went out and bought any Cliff Richard records. In fact, I didn’t even know back then that song that played during The Young Ones’ opening credits was a cover of a Cliff Richard and the Shadows song — the title song from a 1961 movie in which Richard had starred.
But it’s another song that Jet Harris played on that has had the most profound historical impact. In June 1960 the Shadows, with Cliff Richard playing minor percussion, recorded an instrumental track written by composer Jerry Lordon. “Apache,” it was called.
“Apache” has been recorded by many other artists over the years: Jorgen Ingmann, the Ventures. Most importantly, in 1973, by Michael Viner’s Incredible Bongo Band.
The Incredible Bongo Band version is so important because it became a favorite of DJ Kool Herc, who would spin it at the original hip-hop parties in the mid-70s Bronx. Herc has called “Apache” “the national anthem of hip-hop.” In 1981, the early rap group the Sugarhill Gang sampled the record and used it in a new song, also called “Apache,” that Native Americans would be forgiven for not liking.
This led to many, many further samplings by rap artists, from the Beastie Boys to Missy Elliott to Sir Mix-a-Lot.
To Nas, who used just a snippet to great effect on his 2003 hit, “Made You Look.”
Jet Harris’s time with the Shadows was short. Believing that his wife had had an affair with Cliff Richard, he left the band in 1962 to pursue a solo career — one that was very successful at the outset. He scored hits with a cover of the title theme from Otto Preminger’s 1955 film, The Man With the Golden Arm, and, joined by former Shadows drummer Tony Meehan, similarly twangy, atmospheric instrumental numbers like “Besame Mucho” and “Diamonds” and “Applejack.” His career came to an early end, though, effectively, in late 1963, after he sustained head injuries in a car accident. As the Telegraph reports,
Not long afterwards Harris stormed out of a television studio where he and Meehan were appearing on Ready, Steady, Go, went home and smashed all his guitars. He turned to drink, his career foundered, and after Applejack he made only three further singles, including Theme For A Fallen Idol (1975). A solo comeback in 1966 failed, and for 30 years he was prey to alcoholism. When his money ran out he took a series of temporary jobs — bus conductor, hospital porter, cockle-picker, bricklayer — to make ends meet.
Sad. But it’s nice to think that in 1964, even as the Beatles were upending the British music scene, and relegating the musical styles and stars that came before them to nostalgia bins and sitcom jokes, Jet Harris won a New Musical Express readers poll award, and he and his band the Innocents rocked the house at the attendant celebratory concert.