[78-L] Rock & Roll rising

[Joe Scott]

"There have been zillions of discussions on the distinction between
Rhythm & Blues and Rock 'n Roll; or the lack of that; on what should
be considered the first rock 'n roll record; and more.

There is no doubt anywhere that rock 'n roll developed from rhythm &
blues - even those who claim that the country & western influences
are essential still recognize the rhythm & blues as the originating
style."

If C&W influence were "essential" to rock and roll then Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally" would not be rock and roll, and if C&W influence were essential to rock and roll then rhythm and blues and C&W would both be "the" originating styles. But it's rockabilly that must have both of those ingredients, not rock and roll."Country music, or by then 'hillbilly' has its roots in the blues too."Among many other things. The "hillbilly boogie" sound of the late '40s and early '50s was, once "hillbilly" musicians became aware of the "Rock The Joint" sound too, one of the influences on '50s rockabilly. "Most discussions are about where in the development of the style, it should be labeled rock 'n roll. I think there are two developments that made rock 'n roll: - stylistic: the emerge of the back beat, the 'rock and roll fad' in Rhythm & Blues from the late forties, gospelish delivery getting in fashion, the growing emphasis on the guitar over the horns"I don't think emphasis on guitar has anything to do with what was perceived as rock and roll in the '50s (or is perceived as rock and roll by me). Suppose during the last half-century you're turning around the channels on the TV and you come across Fats Domino or Jerry Lee Lewis playing fast over a snare on 2 and 4. Do you check whether there's a guitarist present before you perceive it as rock and roll?"- cultural: segregation, crossover, 'teenagification' and commercialization. From a predominant black style played by and aimed at mature African-Americans"It was aimed mostly at young African-Americans."to music played by young white artists" If Kay Starr records "Oh Babe" in 1950 I listen to how it sounds to evaluate whether it's rock and roll in style. If her friend Dinah Washington had made the same recording, it would be rock and roll in style. If either of them had been as old as Big Joe Turner, it would be rock and roll in style. The biographical info on the performer isn't what makes the recording sound the way it sounds."aimed at the white teenage audience mass marketed with greater budget by the greater record labels (together with the indies)."The covers of rock and roll by major labels began in 1949 -- black artists covering other black artists -- with recordings like "Rock The Joint" by Chris Powell on Columbia. Some rock and roll non-covers were also made by major labels in 1949, such as "Hole In The Wall" by Albennie Jones with Sam Price And His Rockin' Rhythm on Decca. Milt Gabler cowrote that song, which is the earliest significant participation of a white person in the rock and roll style that I know of."Stylistically, rock 'n roll-like elements are to be found in Rhythm & Blues since the thirties, e.g. Roll 'em Pete by Pete Johnson and Joe Turner."Blues with backbeat represented a tiny proportion of all blues going way back, e.g. IIRC the first recording Sid Catlett ever played on, he used a backbeat through most of it, but if we listen to enough recordings from about 1940-1944 we can't claim that there's recorded evidence of a _continuous_ tradition going on before 1946 or 1947."There are also examples of gospel/blues crossover and gospelish delivery of blues to be found at least from the thirties."Crossover between gospel and blues is a larger topic than rock-and-roll-like music because e.g. "Denomination Blues" by Washington Phillips is such a crossover but has nothing directly to do with rock and roll."They became mainstream in R&B from the late forties. From this viewpoint, Rock 'n Roll started somewhere around 1948. (Note that 1948 was the recording ban of the AFM. Much material released in '48 was recorded in one month, December 1947. I wonder how much this has contributed to the fad). The generation gap and the crossover aspect are cultural aspects that say less of the music itself. They both happened in the mid-fifties."Well, the photos of white girls crying at the sight of Jay McNeely in Los Angeles as if he were Frank Sinatra (except Frank was 12 years older than Jay, but you know what I mean) were taken in 1951."Personally I tend to favour the racial/generation approach over the stylistical, that's much harder to pinpoint."Prefer it as accomplishing what?"Or as I said in one of my radio shows: Rock 'n Roll swept the nation when the white kids"When did zydeco sweep the nation? (Never.) What does that have to do with understanding zydeco?"started playing their version of the Rhythm & Blues and the record labels saw the big money in it. The raunchy subjects of the blues were changed into naive love songs"To some extent, e.g. Chuck Berry consciously emphasized songs about school and such, but there were plenty of raunchy lyrics in the mid- and late '50s and plenty of less raunchy lyrics back around 1949-1951. ", the sax was thrown in the junkyard"Sax was still popular in the late '50s."and teenagers bought the records."And did in 1949, most of them black teenagers. [...]All significant developments in popular music since the start of the 20th century, have been started in African-American culture and crossed over to the white audience after they'd become hot and mainstream in 'race music' - whether it were early jazz styles, swing or rock 'n roll."Which substyles of American popular music are "significant" is a matter of personal taste, but show tunes, for instance, are important to me (and were important to e.g. Billie Holiday, who I think we could say crossed numbers associated with Fred Astaire over to the black audience after they'd become hot). The roots of swing partly have to do with a lot of white musicians dropping brass bass and banjo around the late '20s, which relates to the fact that e.g. Eddie Lang's "Freeze An' Melt," recorded in May '29, sounds as much like later Chick Webb as it does.Joseph Scott