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Post by Old Badger on Feb 8, 2020 22:50:34 GMT -5
This is a Rhythm and Blues recording from 1955, with brothers Arthur Prysock doing the vocal and Red Prysock on sax, doing "Woke Up This Morning" (not to be confused with the opening theme to "The Sopranos"). R&B was "black" music, so to make it acceptable to white audiences Cleveland DJ Alan Freed called it Rock and Roll. And this is what it sounded like:
Here's Red with "Rock and Roll", also from 1955:
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Post by Old Badger on Feb 18, 2020 18:10:00 GMT -5
There's no definitive "first" Rock-n-Roll recording, but the basics of the style, particularly the danceable backbeat, already were there in Big Joe Turner's "Roll 'Em Pete" (referencing Pete Johnson, pianist on the recording) as far back as 1939:
Fifteen years later, in 1954, Turner record "Shake, Rattle, and Roll", one of the first recognized Rock-n-Roll hits:
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Post by Old Badger on Feb 18, 2020 18:35:05 GMT -5
A number of 1940s recordings can make a legitimate claim as the first real Rock-n-Roll song, starting with gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe's "Strange Things Happening Every Day":
Or 1946's "That's All Right" by bluesman Arthur Crudup (covered by Elvis in 1954):
Another contender: Fats Domino's "The Fat Man" from 1949:
From the same year, Goree Carter's "Rock Awhile":
And Jimmy Preston's "Rock the Joint"::
In these records you can see the way Rock-n-Roll pulled together elements of blues, jazz, gospel, boogie-woogie, and R&B to create a new musical form. Later country elements would be added by Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins and others. But it's clear that by the end of the 1940s something recognizable as Rock-n-Roll had emerged, even if the name and the cross-over appeal to the mass white audience was five years away.
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Post by Old Badger on Feb 18, 2020 18:55:19 GMT -5
Rock-n-Roll finally emerged as its own genre in the 1950s. Continuing the line of development back to 1939, the early years of the decade brought together musicians and the genius impresario Sam Phillips, the man behind Sun Records, giving us in 1951 the combination of Jackie Brentson and Ike Turner (yes, Tina's ex) with the hit "Rocket 88" (referring to a popular model of Oldsmobile):
Finally, in 1954 came the breakthrough to white audiences with Bill Haley and His Comets' recording of the genre's anthem, "Rock Around the Clock":
The record actually didn't take off until 1955, the year the Rock-n-Roll Era really began. And what a flowering! Chuck Berry gave us a kind of second anthem, "Maybelline":
Bo Diddley's self-titled hit added an Afro-Cuban beat to the basic Rock-n-Roll form:
And at the very end of the year Carl Perkins added Rockabilly with "Blue Suede Shoes" (no, Elvis did not introduce this one):
Lucky for me, I was there for the musical revolution. Rock-n-Roll effectively died in 1959, and not just because of a plane crash the killed Buddy Holly and Richie Valens. Many of the rockers went off into other musical areas, but most important the big record companies took control and "civilized" this once-radical music. Later variations claim membership in the broader "Rock" tradition, but are not Rock-n-Roll. The music took 15 years to reach a national audience, and only five more to get run over. But, what a twenty years!
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