[78-L] Roots of Rock n Roll (was: Back Beat Boogie)

[David Lennick]

 From wikishmikipea:

A back beat, or backbeat, is a syncopated accentuation on the "off" beat. In a 
simple 4/4 rhythm these are beats 2 and 4.[10] Emphasized back beat, a feature 
of some African styles, defined rhythm and blues recordings in the late 1940s 
and so became one of the defining characteristics of rock and roll and much 
contemporary popular music.

An early record with an emphasised back beat throughout was "Good Rockin' 
Tonight" by Wynonie Harris in 1948.[citation needed] However drummer Earl 
Palmer claimed the honour for "The Fat Man" by Fats Domino in 1949, which he 
played on, saying he adopted it from the final "shout" or "out" chorus common 
in Dixieland jazz. However urban contemporary gospel was stressing the back 
beat much earlier with hand-clapping and tambourines. There is a hand-clapping 
back beat on "Roll 'Em Pete" by Pete Johnson and Big Joe Turner, recorded in 
1938. A distinctive back beat can be heard on "Back Beat Boogie" by Harry James 
And His Orchestra, recorded in late 1939.[11] Other early recorded examples 
include the final verse of "Grand Slam" by Benny Goodman in 1942 and some 
sections of The Glenn Miller Orchestra's "(I've Got A Girl In) Kalamazoo", 
while tapes of Charlie Christian jamming at Minton's Playhouse around the same 
time have a sustained snare-drum back-beat on the hottest choruses.
Delayed backbeat (last eighth note in each measure) as in funk music[12] About 
this sound play (help·info)

In the mid 1940s "hillbilly" musicians the Delmore Brothers were turning out 
boogie tunes with a hard driving back beat, such as the #2 hit "Freight Train 
Boogie" in 1946, as well as in other boogie songs they recorded.[13] Similarly 
Fred Maddox’s trademark back beat, a slapping bass style, helped drive a rhythm 
that came to be known as rockabilly, one of the early forms of rock and 
roll.[14] Maddox had used this style as early as 1937.[15]

In today's popular music the snare drum is typically used to play the backbeat 
pattern.[5] Early funk music often delayed one of the backbeats so as, "to give 
a 'kick' to the [overall] beat".[12]

Some songs, such as The Beatles' "Please Please Me" and "I Want to Hold Your 
Hand", The Knack's "Good Girls Don't" and Blondie's "Hanging on the Telephone", 
employ a double backbeat pattern.[16] In a double backbeat, one of the off 
beats is played as two eighth notes rather than one quarter note.[16]

dl

On 10/1/2011 12:01 PM, agp wrote:
> Admittedly, I don't know much about this sort of stuff, and the topic
> is very much open to, no doubt, loud and argumentative, debate, but
> -- what floored me about Back Beat Boogie by Harry James was a sound
> that was so very much like 50s rock'n'roll, that anyone could pick it
> out,if not mistake it for a 50s recording.
>
> Am I correct in saying that the back beat is what is makes it so?
>
> What other early 40s, 1930s, and before (is that possible?) tracks
> have that direct to rock'n'roll sound.
>
> Although thought of by some, Rock and Roll by the Boswell Sisters
> merley uses the term. Rock me by Sister Rosetta Tharpe seems to be
> there. Caldonia by Louis Jordan is there..
>
> Just wonder what others qualify
>
> T
>
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