The Rock Revolution Revealed! Pt. I
HEYYYYYY, ROCKERS!!! Wanna know a libbit ’bout the HISTORY of this thang we call WOCK an’ WOWW (ummm … sorry: I had an Elmer Fudd moment there … ) ROCK and ROLLLL?? Well, fasten yer seat belts, compadres … ’cause we’re gettin’ in the “Way-Back” machine and settin’ the DIAL for the very BEEEE-GINNING!!
Okay … you’re probably wonderin’ why I’ve put a church service here at the start of this post. Welllll, Rockaholics, guess what?? This is where it all started!
Y’see, back in the 1800s, African-American sailors would see their ships swaying with the ocean, from front to back, side to side (gettin’ seasick yet? I am! Let’s move on …). In describing this in letters home, they’d say the ship was “rocking and rolling.”
When they arrived home and settled back into their church-going, they noticed the spirit-filled choirs would also sway back-and-forth and side-to-side. Their music would spotlight shouting, charismatic singers and could make the congregation move.
So, in the sailors’ words, they were … rocking and rolling! And the first mention of “Rock-and-Roll” on a record was on the Little Wonder label back in 1916, with Camp Meetin’ Time.
Now, as early as 1929, in Montana Taylor’s “Detroit Rocks”, the charismatic gospel sound — and its new name — began to make a crossover into the secular music. Then, Buddy Jones, a white Country and Western artist, recorded “Rockin’, Rollin’ Mama”, which completed the identity.
But it took a blues artist named Wynonie Harris to really drop-kick it onto the charts. Y’see, in 1947, singer Roy Brown did a song called “Good Rockin’ Tonight”, that caught a mythical (and comical) Deacon Jones and Elder Brown … well, “rockin’” in a … ummmm … “secular” way with the ladies of the church. Still, the song was a bit draggish … not really uptempo enough to suit most secular listeners. And that’s where Harris stepped in, adding a rock rhythm on the 2nd and 4th beat, and some rollicking hand-clapping.
Meanwhile, a 37-year-old Aaron Thibeaux (”T-Bone”) Walker was already rocking audiences with his lively singing, cool humor (who else would record “I Know Your Wig Has Gone”?) and wild guitar antics onstage (including outrageous splits). Prior to T-Bone, rock-and-roll (still, at the time, considered Rhythm & Blues by white audiences) was largely brass.
It’s been said that, if Wynonie created the rock fuse-box, T-Bone provided the first electricity for it. (His hit, “Stormy Monday”, was later covered by the Allman Brothers). Soon, this electrical current began running through most of the blues shouters (singers who, due to the loudness of rowdy audiences and weak microphones, had to shout their vocals. Though these artists, including Brown, Harris, etc., were some of the first, they certainly weren’t the last — The Beatles had to do the same thing at the Kaiserkeller and Star Club fifteen years later!) and primed us for the 1950’s — and the first volleys of what was to become a revolution!
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