River Mersey

A river named the sound of Liverpool, then named a bestselling poetry book.

The Mersey runs through Liverpool, and journalists covering the city's beat groups reached for the river rather than the city, also coining Merseybeat. The label was borrowed in 1967 for an anthology of Liverpool poets that sold in numbers almost unheard of for poetry.

The genre borrowed its name from a local newspaper before the newspaper's name meant a genre.

Bill Harry founded the Liverpool music paper Mersey Beat in July 1961, punning on the river that runs through the city and on musical beat. When Liverpool groups reached the national charts in 1963, the press transferred the word to the sound. Sailors returning to the port are often credited with bringing American records into the city ahead of the rest of Britain.