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B - Rock & Roll

Rock & Roll Defined

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Rock & Roll Defined

Rock & Roll music vs. Rock music

First, I’d like to define rock & roll as I use the term. Rock & roll to me, is different from “rock music”. To me rock & roll is specific to a time period starting roughly in the late 1940s, growing throughout the early fifties and peaking in the years 1955 to 1959, a “Golden Age of Rock & Roll” if you will, and then peaking again 1962-64 and then slowly giving way to the newer sounds of the mid-sixties.

There is a specific sound that the rock & roll period has exclusive to the 50s and early 60s. This period has a certain sound because of a combination of the vintage recording technology of the period, the way the band was recorded (using few and simple mike arrangements and baffles), the easy quick song structure (usually under three minutes)  and the upbeat tempos.

Rock & Roll lasted, starting roughly in 1949, lasting a good 15 to 20 years if you count the “doo-wop” (Vocal R&B) wing of rock & roll, which later peaked in 1961 to 1963 before morphing into “soul”. The resurgence of rock & roll brought out by the British Invasion in 1964 both helped and hurt the existence of good “old time” rock & roll. Then in 1965 true “old time” rock & roll gave way to the many new forms of “rock music” (like folk rock, garage rock and blues rock, etc.)

Rock music, as I know it, is a new genre coming out of rock & roll starting around 1965. A further distinction between rock music starting in the mid-sixties and rock & roll music of the late fifties is that the music is much happier and peppier, you can’t help but be happy or at least distracted by the catchiness of the sound. In most cases, it is hard to maintain sadness with a 50’s style rock & roll song,

 

The Term: Rock & Roll

The term, rock & roll, or rocking and rolling originally was a euphemism which meant engaging in sex. Or it could have also meant the movement of the members of a gospel church when it is in full swing, rocking and rolling from side to side or a dance movement during an upbeat R&B tune, whatever makes you comfortable, right?

The term turns up in a lot of other musical genres like R&B, gospel, blues and swing jazz going back to the 20’s. The term rock & roll turns up as a song title for the Boswell Sisters in 1937, and a Sister Rosetta Tharpe song called “Rock Me”,  and also “The Rock & Roll Inn”. Rock & roll was also the name of a music venue in New Jersey,  in Cleveland radio disc jockey Alan Freed coined the phrase “Rock & Roll” to describe a backbeat type music popular in the black community called rhythm & blues (R&B) music.

It is generally accepted that rock & roll had its “roots” in rhythm and blues or what was called “race music” (before Billboard Magazine started a category called “R&B” in 1948). However, rock and roll is really a big mix of music encompassing rhythm & blues (R&B) which contains “Rural blues” (Delta & Mississippi blues); “Urban blues” (Chicago & Electric blues); “Jump blues” (a la Louis Jordan);  Doo Wop or Vocal R&B;  “Gospel music” (specially Urban Contemporary Gospel and Southern Gospel) all mixed up and garnished with Rockabilly or elements of “hillbilly” folk music;  “Country & Western” (C&W) music; “Boogie Woogie” jazz and “Swing” Jazz, all rolled up in to one.

 

 

The Rock & Roll Band

Rock & roll was primarily made up of a band consisting of, but not limited to: a well coordinated vocal group or sometimes just an outrageous solo lead vocalist; a tinkling boogie-woogie and blues styled piano, sometimes as a lead instrument sometimes a rhythm instrument; a swinging  upright bass; an electric guitar, blues styled as a lead guitar or sometimes as a rhythm guitar;  a drummer,  using a definite backbeat rhythm accentuated by the snare drum; and the spicing on the cake one blaring tenor or alto saxophone usually as the lead instrument or with other horn instruments (trumpet, cornet, trombone, saxes) and rhythm instruments (conga, tambourine, maracas).

 

 The First Rock & Roll song

It is very hard to discern what was the first rock & roll record, this issue is subject to fierce debate and arguments with no real generally accepted specific one song (except maybe Rocket 88). There are many candidates such as but not limited to:

  • Arthur Crudup “That’s Alright Mama” – 1946
  • Roy Brown “Good Rocking Tonight” – 1947
  • Wild Bill Moore “We’re Gonna Rock, We’re Gonna Roll” -December 1947
  • Muddy Waters “I Can’t Be Satisfied” 1948
  • Amos Milburn “Chicken Shack Boogie” – 1948
  • Stick McGhee and His Buddies “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee” – 1949
  • Wild Bill Moore “Rock and Roll” – 1949
  • Goree Carter’s “Rock Awhile” -April 1949
  • Jimmy Preston’s “Rock the Joint” – July 1949
  • Fats Domino’s – “The Fat Man” – January 1950
  • The Dominoes “Sixty Minute Man” – December 1950
  • Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (which were really Ike Turner and The Kings of Rhythm) “Rocket 88” (which has a bit of consensus) -April 1951
  • Fats Domino “Goin Home” – 1952
  • Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thorton “Hound Dog” – 1952
  • The Crows “Gee” – 1953
  • Bill Haley and His Comets “Crazy Man Crazy” – 1953
  • Ray Charles “Mess Around” – 1953
  • Big Joe Turner – “Shake, Rattle & Roll” – 1954
  • The Chords “Sh-Boom” – 1954
  • Bill Haley & the Comets “Rock Around the Clock” -1954
1 - Doo-Wop

Doo-Wop 1

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Doo-Wop

Doo-Wop began in the late 40s, influenced by vocal groups like the Ink Spots, the Mills Brothers and the Delta Rhythm Cats, to name a few. Although these influences are not true doo-wop, these vocal groups were very popular in the late 30s and early 40s and had a major influence on a new generation of vocal groups that were beginning to sprout up throughout the cities and urban centers of post WWII America.

The term “Doo-Wop”, it’s said, was coined in 1961 in the black newspaper “The Chicago Daily Defender” well after the genre had broken through and dominated the mainstream pop charts in the mid-to-late-fifties. The term “doo-wop” has been argued by some, to demean the genre, and some have preferred the term “R&B group vocal harmony” rather than the term doo-wop. But R&B group vocal harmony is not specific enough for what the genre represents. Vocal groups like The Inks Spots, the Mills Brothers or later groups like the Beatles, sing in vocal group harmony, yet they don’t use nonsense syllables in their original songs but rather actual words; nor do they incorporate the doo-wop arrangements (such as the independence of the bass, falsetto, lead tenor and other vocals). So, doo-wop should be seen as a sub-category of R&B group vocal harmony. Doo-Wop is a vast and colorful side of music that lasted for at least two decades as popular American mainstream music.

 

Vocal R&B (Doo-Wop): The Pioneers

The roots of it all started with the Ravens, the Orioles, the Robins (later to be re-named the Coasters), the Clovers, and the Dominoes. They set the trends and were the first groups to do what would become for some a very lucrative industry. With mass production and technology the industry would grow to be a multi-million dollar business never seen before in pre-war America. However, there was a great disparity concerning who got the money between the black artists/groups and the white record label owners and business managers (who often cheated the groups out of royalties and touring income).

As far as the music was concerned, there were many stars and super-groups but there were many more “one hit wonders” and/or groups that received regional popularity but never achieved national or syndicated fame. However it is my opinion that these regional groups or “one hit wonders” helped enliven and extend the reach of Doo-Wop. They really have such beautiful songs and harmonies that the lack of longevity is irrelevant – again my opinion.

People tend to remember songs more, rather than the groups or bands that sang them when it comes to “one hit wonders”. These songs give us a sound that is as authentic and original as the day it was recorded; an inspiration for more than one generation that would last a half a century, at least, and would achieve many musical and artistic heights.

Starting in 1948, after the success of the R&B genre-defining performers like Louis Jordan, Big Joe Turner and the veterans Lionel Hampton and Cab Calloway, many new generation vocal groups like the Ravens and the Orioles ushered in a mellow, smoother sound of a harmonizing form of R&B. Doo-wop manifested in the late 40s early 50s with pioneer groups like the Ravens, the Orioles, the Robins, the Larks, the Swallows, the Cardinals (notice the bird theme), the Clovers, the Five Keys and the Dominoes between the years of 1948 to 1951. There were also solo artists and duos that sang in the doo-wop style like Otis Williams (and the Charms), Jesse Belvin and Marvin & Johnny just to name a few.

In 1951, the charts saw a rise in many new black vocal R&B groups, as the genre began to develop. These early groups began to create the structures that would define Doo-Wop and the “rules” and the boundaries that would make Doo-Wop unique and separate from regular band oriented R&B. This early period was a time of great experimentation and discovery. It started essentially with the Ravens and the Orioles as the main progenitors.

Now, it must be said that many of the black vocal R&B groups that were setting up and creating the “Doo-Wop” genre were inspiring a lot of white copy cats or “cover” acts who would continue to creep into the doo-wop and rock & roll “industry”. All throughout the fifties these white acts sometimes usurped the original black groups of fame, chart position and, most of all, money. This was actually a long time practice in the music business in America, particularly with Jazz, since the beginning of the very early decades of 20th century.

Doo-wop started as being counted as rhythm and blues (R&B) early in the 50s but then came into its own in the mid-fifties and took over the charts from the old style of pop music. Doo-Wop dominated the mainstream in the late 50s and early 60s, lasting over 15 years as a new form of pop music. The genre peaked in the years of 1955 to 1958; saw a slight decline in 1959, and then bounced back in a big way in the years of 1961 to 1963 before losing its hold on mainstream pop after 1964. This was mostly due to the then newer genres of soul (spearheaded by Motown), the British Invasion, and the rise of folk rock and blues rock in 1965 as pop music.

The day that “rock & roll” became considered an America cultural sensation (sometime in 1955) was actually the “recognition” of the dominance of black R&B and Doo-Wop music as mainstream pop music. In my opinion R&B was simply re-labeled rock & roll to attract the white audience. The music of R&B and rock & roll are essentially the same music sharing the boogie woogie outline, and was just another blatantly racist infringement on black R&B groups by white music business executives.

The systematic stealing of “race” records or R&B music from black original R&B artists and then marketed with a white face was a common practice. In many instances the versions of the white copy cats were, in my opinion, a more watered down, stiff, plastic coated and artistically inferior product. Listen for yourself in songs like the Crew Cuts version of “Sh-Boom” original recorded by the black group the Chords or the Crew Cuts version of “Earth Angel” which was originally recorded by the Penguins. However Pat Boone takes the cake with a watered down and soulless version of “Ain’t It A Shame”, originally recorded by the master Fats Domino. Again this is my opinion, you decide.

The a features picture above is of the Ravens