This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And legends is what you're gonna get today, definitely, as I'm going to try to give an answer to the question what made the difference between Rhythm & Blues and Rock 'n Roll. Now you will find out that that is an easy question to ask but so difficult to answer and there's no such thing as a final answer. Great music again, but also some more blabbering than you're used from me, I'm afraid. First, lets go to the first recorded secular song that has the words 'rock' and 'roll' in the title. We're going back all the way to 1922 when Trixie Smith recorded the blues song My Daddy Rocks Me (with one steady roll). In these days recordings were done completely mechanically and the sound was extremely poor ans also - I don't have that 1922 record. This is a re-recording of the same song from 1938. Here is Trixie Smith.
01 - Trixie Smith - My Daddy Rocks Me (with one steady roll)
Trixie Smith with a 1938 re-recording of her 1922 blues My Daddy Rocks Me with one steady roll. Now the terms rock and roll originate from 18th century sailing terms, they were meant to describe the movements of a ship in the waves. Somewhere in the twenties the words had become African-American slang for either sex or partying and of course the blues of Trixie Smith had a high sexual content. The musical term was coined much later, and all kinds of sources credit different people for using the term. So let's go to the first time Billboard Magazine used the term, in 1945. We find that in a description on Louis Jordan's record Caldonia which they described as "the right rhythmic rock and roll music".
Jordan was able to achieve one thing that was essential in the development from Rhythm 'n Blues to Rock 'n Roll, and that is to sell R&B records for a white audience, or as they call that, to cross over to the pop charts. So let's play that Caldonia. Here is Louis Jordan.
02 - Louis Jordan - Caldonia
Louis Jordan with Caldonia. As I said it's complex to point out where Rhythm 'n Blues became Rock 'n Roll, but one thing was essential, that is, that it should have the potential to become popular with a white audience. I will tell more about that later. First, let's go to what became the greatest Rhythm 'n Blues hit of all times, as it charted #1 for 18 weeks on the R&B list, and it hit number 13 on the pop charts. Back in 1945, that was a phenomenon. I've played this classic before on this program but it's essential in a show with this subject. Here is Joe Liggins with The Honeydripper.
03 - Joe Liggins & His Honeydrippers - The Honeydripper pt. 1 + 2
Joe Liggins with that fantastic double-sider The Honeydripper from 1945.
The history of the transition of Rhythm & Blues to rock 'n roll is not complete without a few words on the history of the way African Americans were kept apart from society. Eiter by law or by custom, the US government policy was to keep black and white people apart. And as always, it were the teenagers to rebel against it. The famous saxophonist Big Jay McNeely saw his permit to play in the Los Angeles area revoked when his frantic performances were attended by both white and black teenagers. The white kids were supposed to be dance in the front of the room, the blacks in the back and they'd tied a rope in between. You can imagine what happened to that rope in a packed dancing crowd. The role of white teenagers and the fact that the American society was widely segregated, are key ingredients in the development of rock 'n roll. But first, let's hear Big Jay McNeely and one of the frantic movers that these kids were dancing on. Here Flying Home.
04 - Big Jay McNeely - Flying Home
05 - Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup - That's All Right
Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup was that with That's All Right. We know that song of course, it was Elvis who made it famous. Covering Rhythm 'n Blues hits by white artists is another piece of the puzzle of the birth of Rock 'n Roll. Now the recording industry consisted of five major labels: Columbia, RCA, Decca, Capitol and Mercury. They had a national distribution system and they were the main labels for white artists. The independent record companies, varying in size from mom-and-pop labels to mid-size enterprises, they were much weaker in distributing records nationwhide, but they were leading in Rhythm 'n Blues. It must be said that all major labels played a modest role in R&B while the indies also did pop and country, but in general as a black artist you had to get your recording contract from the independents. Now lots of R&B songs were covered by white artists and while the original versions remained obscurities. The artists with the cover versions had the advance of a big company with a good distribution network behind them. Many famous hits from artists like Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Pat Boone and Bill Haley were covers from comparatively unknown R&B songs, and in the best case the original songwriters earned some money for the copyrights - Arthur Crudup didn't and many others suffered the same fate.
Let's get some more original R&B that was to be covered by Rock 'n Roll Artists. Here is Big Joe Turner with Shake Rattle & Roll.
06 - Joe Turner & His Blues Kings - Shake Rattle and Roll
07 - Jimmy Preston - Rock the Joint
And that was Jimmy Preston with Rock the Joint, another song that is often mentioned as the first rock 'n roll record. Both Shake Rattle and Roll and Rock the Joint were covered by Bill Haley and his Comets. In a previous episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman I already pointed out how the lyrics of Shake Rattle and Roll were cleared of any sexual hins before Haley recorded it, to make the record acceptable for white, middle class buyers - or their parents.
Of course, disc jockeys played a major role in making Rhythm 'n Blues popular to the general public. Alan Freed was one of them, and many believe he was the first to coin the term Rock 'n Roll. He also organised a five-act show of R&B artists in the Cleveland arena that ended in a chaos before it had hardly begun, mainly because it attracted twice as many visitors as the arena could hold. It was the first one aimed at a racially mixed audience and often marked as the first Rock 'n Roll concert, though its roster featured R&B artists.
Freed was not the first one to play R&B on a "white" radio station. These credits go to Hunter Hancock of the Los Angeles station KFVD in the mid-forties, much earlier than Freed.
Up next Will Bradley's orchestra with Beat Me Daddy Eight To The Bar, from 1940. The title was a reference to that new boogie beat that had 8 beats to the bar instead of the four in the jazz. The drummer of the band, "Eight Beat Mack" Ray McKinley earned his nickname to the novelty of that new beat, that also was characteristic for the uptempo rhythm & blues and the rock 'n roll.
08 - Will Bradley Orchestra - Beat me daddy eight to the bar
09 - Hank Ballard & The Midnighters - Work With Me Annie
Hank Ballard and his Midnighters with Work with me Annie, another R&B hit that is considered influential in the development of Rock 'n Roll. Hank Ballard's style had typical elements of gospel in it. Many R&B artists had started their singing in church and it's easy to understand that this influenced the style. Just the same, when white artists started to cover R&B songs or wrote their own songs in the same idiom, it's understandable that some country & western influences mixed in. Some see that as a major step towards Rock 'n Roll, but many songs undisputedly classified as Rock 'n Roll don't have these influences. The mix of Rock 'n Roll and country later got its own label, rockabilly. That word consist of Rock, of course, and Hillbilly, the common word for what later was called Country & Western.
Let's go further with two great Rhythm 'n Blues songs that often have been mentioned as the first rock 'n roll record. First the great Fats Domino with his first hit, The Fat man, recorded for Imperial records in December, 1949. The song, that was inspired on the New Orleans classic Junker Blues, hit number 2 on the Rhythm & Blues charts. After that, Jackie Brenston's Rocket 88, but first Fats Domino.
10 - Fats Domino - The Fat Man
11 - Jackie Brenston - Rocket 88
That was Rocket 88 by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats. Well in fact a band with the name of the Delta Cats never existed, it was Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm that accompany Brenston. The song was recorded in March, 1951 in Sam Phillips' studio in Memphis, TN, and it's one of the earliest recordings to include distortion on the guitar work. The story goes that this wasn't done on purpose but because the amplifier was damaged either from water or a fall. The song is about the latest Oldsmobile model and for that also a prototype of the many car songs in rock 'n roll.
Now this version also has a saxophone in it, but in rock 'n roll its role became less prominent. Actually, with the demise of the big bands, we've seen many wind instruments disappear. We'd already lost the clarinet, the trombone and the trumpet in the forties. And now, many of the white bands didn't include a saxophone anymore. Instead it was the guitar that became the signature instrument. That wasn't just the case though with rock 'n roll, we saw it also in the blues, and I think it rather is a change happening at the same time as that it's a major influence.
Let's continue with another song that's a contender for being the first rock 'n roll song. Good Rocking tonight was recorded by in 1947 and was succesfully covered by Wynonie Harris and Elvis Presley. Here's the original from Roy Brown.
12 - Roy Brown - Good Rockin' Tonight
Maybe it's time to come to some kind of conclusion. First point that I wanna make is, that it's not possible to mark a beginning point, or a starting record. It's rather that all kind of factors changed the music industry and suddenly the whole nation was talking about Rock 'n Roll. Among all theories and definitions, I want to come up with mine. And I think the major factor was not a change in style, like mixing in Country and Western influences, or the growing importance of the guitar. No, I think Rock 'n Roll is primarily a sociological phenomenon. Rhythm & Blues was made by black artists, marketed at a relatively low level and aimed at adult African Americans. Rock 'n Roll was made by white artists, marketed nationally and agressively, and aimed at white teenagers. Rhythm & Blues were hot but it was still underground music. Rock 'n Roll was sweeping the nation. I think it's the whitening and the commercializing of the music that changed it. I know that is a highly racial approach. But that's just how fifties American society was.
Much of the music that I played came from a list of songs that have somewhere been nominated as the first rock 'n roll record. You can find it as a chapter of the wikipedia article on the origins of Rock 'n Roll. Now I think, given my definition, that none of the songs I played would qualify for that. So let's finish this episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman with a song that I do classify as Rock 'n Roll, for it was made by white artist aimed at a white audience. Here is Bill Haley with Crazy Man Crazy, from 1953. And something tells me, immediately, that this is Rock 'n Roll.
Bill Haley - Crazy Man Crazy
And it's the Rock 'n Roll of Bill Haley that marks the end this episode. Now I know I told some controversial things and I know that there are people out there who will disagree with what I said. So if you want to discuss or praise my opinion, or if you want to let me know whether or not you liked the program, just drop a line at rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. I'm also on the web, just do a google search on Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. For now, byebye, and have a great day. No - have a rocking day. See you next time, when I will do some more music and some less talking, after all I know you came for the music and not for the blabla, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman.