[78-L] World's First Rock & Roll Song Identified

[Steven]

From: Cary Ginell
> This guy Burns (who has the misfortune of sharing a surname with another 
> musical revisionist) has got the gall to say he has "identified" the first 
> rock 'n' roll record as if it were an archeological dig that everyone else 
> missed. Although it's plausible to rate Crudup's "That's All Right (Mama)" 
> as a progenitor of rock 'n' roll, he lost me when he said that one of the 
> criteria was that the song has "the first ever guitar solo break." Without 
> even breathing hard, I'm sure most of us could identify dozens, if not 
> hundreds of guitar breaks that preceded Crudup's (and he basically only 
> had one at that, which he repeated on all of his records). That statement 
> shows Burns' ignorance and points out that he's merely out to grab a 
> headline rather than treat musical history with any kind of seriousness.
>
> When are these pseudo historians going to realize that there is no such 
> thing as THE first rock 'n' roll record? There doesn't have to be one at 
> all. Rock 'n' roll, like most other musical genres, was the result of a 
> process that took time to develop and change. You can't say that the music 
> wasn't rock 'n' roll one day and it was the next.
> The article also spells Sister Rosetta Tharpe's name wrong and says Alan 
> Freed's nickname was "the Moondoogie." That should say enough about this 
> quack's credibility.
>
Remember that the Boswell Sisters recorded "Rock and Roll" (title) in the 
early thirties! Remember also that
the original "rock and roll" was a dance style...NOT a musical genre! The 
first tunes identified as "rock and
roll" (a term apparently created by deejay Allan Freed[sp?]) were fast-paced 
and highly syncopated (to get
a "bounce") "boogie-woogie" songs; IMHO, the style changed in 1957-58 when 
much-less-talented white
drummers lost any "shuffle" syncopation, changing the rhythm to a 
one-two-THREE-four 1/4 rhythm!

The usual citation (probably more accurate?) is the much earlier "Rocket 
88!" I'd go back just over
another decade, and suggest Louis Jordan's hit, "Cal'donia!"

Steven C. Barr