[78-L] Rock & Roll rising (was: Escott, was Arnold Covey)

Joe Scott joenscott at mail.com
Mon Mar 17 12:24:01 PDT 2014


I missed this one at the time. Big Crawford was born in the 1890s and there was nothing unusual about him being interested in slapping and the like (independently of anyone consciously trying to create a rock-and-rollish sound) because that caught on pretty big around the 1910s. Bill Johnson born in the 1870s and Goldkette's Steve Brown born in 1890 did it too.

Crudup's "Where Did You Stay Last Night" with Knowling and Junior Parker's "Love My Baby" sound so much like what we usually call "rockabilly" that it raises the question of how much "hillbilly" music had actually influenced either of those bands. Perhaps very little.

Joseph Scott

----- Original Message -----
From: eugene hayhoe
Sent: 03/07/14 03:39 PM
To: 78-L Mail List
Subject: Re: [78-L] Rock & Roll rising (was: Escott, was Arnold Covey)

I think bassists Ransom Knowling and Big Crawford get way too little credit for their influence in the development of the sound of 'rockabilly.' Not that either invented 'slappin' the bass' of course... -------------------------------------------- On Fri, 3/7/14, gdkimball at cox.net <gdkimball at cox.net> wrote: Subject: Re: [78-L] Rock & Roll rising (was: Escott, was Arnold Covey) To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com> Date: Friday, March 7, 2014, 3:58 PM ---- Malcolm Rockwell <malcolm at 78data.com> wrote: > Could it be possible that the dynamism between city and country, black > and white, standard and non-standard, etc., musical forms is why Rock & > Roll developed? That's far more likely, in my estimation. > Malcolm > > ******* This. Most creation stories of musical styles fixate on a specific recording or session or artist. It makes for good storytelling but the result is almost always wrongheaded. Musical styles, like all aspects of culture, develop out of an accretion of countless human interactions, many of which didn't even leave an historical record. We are talking about processes that not only involve the artists and the music but the audience as well. When Rock and Roll became a defined genre in the minds of listeners is just as important as stylistic considerations in my book. By the way, I'd be interested in your stylistic definition of Rock and Roll, Joe. Given that the development of Rock and Roll was obviously a process of both music and market, it suprises me that the subtitle of Escott's book is so controversial. "Sun Records and the Birth of Rock and Roll." So what? It's not "Sun Records Created Rock and Roll." Yeah, it's a bit silly given the content of the book, which covers a wide range of musical styles and artists who recorded at Sun. But are we really suprised that the title of a book might involve a touch of marketing hyperbole? Gregg _______________________________________________ 78-L mailing list 78-L at klickitat.78online.com http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l _______________________________________________ 78-L mailing list 78-L at klickitat.78online.com http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l


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