[78-L] FW: Look at this! Another 'rock historian' telling us about the 1930s

[fnarf at comcast.net]

This guy, Elijah Wald, has written a book, from which this article is exerpted, entitled "How The Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll", which is excellent. Don't let the title fool you; The Beatles don't show up until almost the final chapter. The bulk of the book is about, among other things, the parallel careers of Louis Armstrong and Paul Whiteman, both "Kings", and how one is today revered while the other is mostly forgotten or at least ignored -- but in many ways was the most important, certainly at the time. I think it's a great book; it leads on from Richard Sudhalter's work on white jazz, among other things.

And in what other popular book are you going to read extensively about Lawrence Welk and Guy Lombardo? The book is an important corrective to the reigning rock orthodoxy, which of course has the history of music beginning with Elvis, aside from a few assorted Delta blues guitarists. He actually talks at length about POPULAR music, and why it was popular, and why egghead critics (starting long before Rolling Stone Magazine, creating a jazz orthodoxy) dismissed it so.

Jolson gets a good reading here too. I think the folks on this list would really enjoy it.



----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Biel" <mbiel at mbiel.com>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Friday, August 21, 2009 11:40:54 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: [78-L] FW: Look at this! Another 'rock historian' telling us about	the 1930s

David Weiner wrote:
> It's fun to count all the incorrect statements he makes!
> Dave W.
> http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/eeca345e-8de1-11de-93df-00144feabdc0.html 
>   

Actually I think the article is pretty good.  He does make some 
generalizations such as forgetting that there were big name singers such 
as Al Jolson who were attached to certain songs, and that these name 
performers did extensive touring and broadcasts -- it wasn't just the 
"covers" on Your Hit Parade.  But his experience of asking his 
grandfather who had sung those old songs exactly matches mine when I saw 
a Mr. Wizard show where he mentioned the old song "Barney Google" which 
I had not yet heard of, but my mother said she remembered it.  I asked 
her who sang it (so that maybe I could find a record of it) and she 
didn't remember.  Now WE might say Jones and Hare, but remember, it was 
Georgie Price on the Victor, and that happened to be the first record of 
it that I found.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
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