Lesson 5 - Lecture notes 5 PDF

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William Ryan...

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Introduction

Bill Haley

In the early 1950s, many different musical threads came together to create the earliest rock and roll. Blending elements of gospel music, blues, popular song, hillbilly music, and rhythm and blues, artists such as Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, and Fats Domino wrote and recorded some of the earliest crossover hits. Soon, white artists such as Bill Haley and the Comets and Pat Boone began recording cover versions of black artists’ songs, most of which were more commercially successful than their black counterparts. The early 1950s were an exciting time for recording artists, listeners, and record companies. Changes in technology, new and hybrid musical forms, and shifts in music consumption patterns all contributed to a reworking of the American popular music landscape that would forever alter the history of popular music consumption in the United States.

“I am fascinated by the places that music comes from, like fife-and-drum blues from southern Mississippi or Cajun music out of Lafayette, Louisiana, shape-note singing, old harp singing from the mountains - I love that stuff. It's like the beginning of rock and roll: something comes down from the hills, and something comes up from the delta.” -Robbie Robertson

“I had written a tune called 'Shake, Rattle and Roll,' but the white stations refused to play it - they thought it was low-class black music. We thought what we needed was a new name. But a white disc jockey named Alan Freed laid on it, and he thought up the name 'rock n' roll'.” -Jesse Stone

"Bill Haley's cover of "Rock Around The Clock" was the original opening theme song for the TV show Happy Days from 1974 until 1976 when the theme was changed to "Happy Days.""

Songfacts

New Technologies and Means of Consumption

Wurlitzer Jukebox

The magnetic recording process completely changed how music was recorded and distributed. Developed by the Germans to guide their tape radio-controlled V-2 bombs, the magnetic recorder revolutionized the music industry. Recording was no longer confined to gigantic and elaborate studios owned by the major companies in a few big cities. Tolerably decent recordings could now be made anywhere, at any time of the day, by untrained personnel who knew very little about engineering or acoustics. Around the same time, hi-fi 45 RPM (45 revolutions per minute)

technology exploded onto the scene. Peter Goldmark, the head of CBS labs for many years, had invented high fidelity ("hi-fi"), and the 33-1/3 RPM process way in the 1930s. He was designing phonograph equipment to handle the remarkable new product when the war broke out, so everything was therefore put on hold for a few years. After the war, when CBS made its move to 33-1/3 RPMs, RCA countered with a 45 RPM record, and it immediately invented a small, economical 45 RPM playback unit. CBS then caught up by making a three-speed turntable with an adapter for the 45 RPM option. The result of this corporate warfare was a huge jump in pop singles. 45-RPMs were small, less expensive to produce, and less expensive for consumers to purchase. It was in the world of 45 RPM singles (two sides, the favored one called the A side, and the often throwaway gesture called the B side) that rhythm and blues had its first great moment in pop music history. About the same time, several new types of electric keyboard instruments appeared. The Hammond B-3 organ’s basic sound was created by small discs rotating through a magnetic field. That sound was amplified through a slowly rotating Leslie speaker. The player’s right foot controlled the dynamics with a large pedal about the size of an accelerator on a truck. Down near the player’s left foot was an octave pedal board. The Fender Rhodes electric piano also appeared about the same time. Harold Rhodes invented the piano when he needed more instruments for therapeutic music lessons he was giving to wounded military men. He took some spare hydraulic parts from an old B-17 bomber and fashioned a working piano. The first Fender Rhodes electric pianos fit on a hospital tray so the men could practice without getting out of bed. Music listening and consumption was also affected by the radio. The transistor radio, developed by Bell Laboratory in 1947, appeared on the market in the early 1950s. About the same time, the car radio

became an affordable option in the automobile industry, and people began listening to the radio in their cars as well as in their homes. By the late 1940s and early 1950s, many popular talk, drama, and comedy radio programs had moved from radio to television, and radio programmers needed to find new material to fill the airtime. Several innovations in radio programming arose, the most important of which was the development of the Top 40 radio format. Top 40 became the new radio format. The same forty songs would be repeated every 24-hour radio cycle, and the top ten songs would receive more frequent play than the bottom thirty. In addition, Top 40 radio integrated short new spots, contests, promotional gimmicks, and frequent station identification spots by talkative disc jockeys speaking the language of the teenage listening market. Why forty tunes? Because the Wurlitzer jukeboxes, which flooded the industry at the time, contained forty recordings.

“If you want to release your aggression, get up and dance. That's what rock and roll is all about.” -Chuck Berry

“I had written a tune called 'Shake, Rattle and Roll,' but the white stations refused to play it - they thought it was low-class black music. We thought what we needed was a new name. But a white disc jockey named Alan Freed laid on it, and he thought up the name 'rock n' roll'.” -Jesse Stone

"Ray Charles was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1981, and was one of the first inductees to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986." axs

Alan Freed

Alan Freed

With the rise of radio and top 40 radio, the disc jockey emerged as one of popular music’s most important promoters. The most important disc jockey of the era, and indeed, one of the most important figures in the promotion of early rock and roll music, was Alan Freed. Trained in trombone and music theory, Freed was quite successful with his early evening classical music program. As he saw the musical and commercial appeal of African American popular music, he began promoting this new music to his listeners. Freed obtained permission from the station owner to follow his classical program with a program of rhythm and blues music. Aware that the term "rhythm and blues" would likely drive away his white audience, Freed picked up the phrase rock and roll from a rhythm and blues recording and began using "rock and roll" instead of "rhythm and blues" to describe the African American popular music that he was playing. It is still not known whether or not Freed knew that the term "rock and roll" was used as a slang term in the African American community as a euphemism for sex. Regardless, "rock and roll" is typically used to describe rhythm and blues music from the 1950s that was geared to an audience of teenaged radio listeners, black or white. Freed was an exciting personality to hear on the radio. He would often shout "Yeah, yeah, yeah!" and "Go, man, go!" into the microphone while he pounded on a telephone book in rhythm to the music. As his theme song, he chose a King Records release by Todd Rhodes called "Blues for Moondog," and he therefore called his show The Moon Dog Rock and Roll House Party . He even began to call himself "Moon Dog." Shortly later, a blind New York street musician named Moon Dog sued the station, and after a $5000 settlement, the name of the show was changed to Alan Freed’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Party. Freed used his celebrity to promote black musicians despite the

racism that was still rampant in American society. He sponsored concerts which featured Charles Brown, the Orioles, the Moonglows, the Dominoes, and many other rhythm and blues acts. In March of 1953, he sold eighteen thousand tickets for an auditorium that had only nine thousand seats. When eighteen thousand screaming teenagers appeared, he had to cancel the show, and police vans hauled away the rioting youngsters to cool them off in jail for a few hours. In 1954, at age 33, Freed went to WINS in New York, and was soon making nearly a millions dollars a year—not only playing, but selling records over the air, along with dozens of other teenage commodities made by his sponsors. He became a spokesman for the new teenage subculture, and soon he appeared in three movies, Don’t Knock the Rock, Rock, Rock, Rock, and Rock Around the Clock.

Chuck Berry

Freed used many different tactics to promote recordings on-air, and not all of them were exactly legal or even ethical. He accepted bribes from record companies to play their recordings. He struck deals with singers and songwriters in exchange for top spots on his programs. For example, in return for being listed as co-author on Chuck Berry’s "Maybellene ♫," Freed promoted the record on his Cleveland radio show, and it rose to number 1 in the rhythm and blues charts and number 5 in the pop charts. Freed eventually was summoned before Congress and indicted for accepting bribes from

record companies to push their recordings, which we will discuss in greater detail in later lessons. Regardless of the tactics he used to promote this new popular music, Freed was one of the driving forces behind the popularity of this new rock and roll music.

“I had written a tune called 'Shake, Rattle and Roll,' but the white stations refused to play it - they thought it was low-class black music. We thought what we needed was a new name. But a white disc jockey named Alan Freed laid on it, and he thought up the name 'rock n' roll'.” -Jesse Stone

“I am fascinated by the places that music comes from, like fife-and-drum blues from southern Mississippi or Cajun music out of Lafayette, Louisiana, shape-note singing, old harp singing from the mountains - I love that stuff. It's like the beginning of rock and roll: something comes down from the hills, and something comes up from the delta.” -Robbie Robertson

"Bill Haley's cover of "Rock Around The Clock" was the original opening theme song for the TV show Happy Days from 1974 until 1976 when the theme was changed to "Happy Days."" Songfacts

Ray Charles and the Gospel Side of Rock and Roll

Ray Charles

One of the first artists to move freely between gospel music and rhythm and blues and achieve commercial success was Ray Charles. Ray Charles lost his sight at age seven to a rare form of

childhood glaucoma. He studied music in Florida at the St. Augustine School for the Blind, and he learned to read and write music in Braille. When his parents died, he left school at age sixteen to make it on his own as a musician. Wrapping the sounds and rhythms of black gospel music around traditional secular lyrics made Ray Charles one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century. He used jazz-style horn riffs in many of his arrangements. He was among the first musicians to use the Fender Rhodes electric piano. He joined a hillbilly band for a short time and learned how to yodel. He formed a female backup group called the Raelets, and they served as the model for later girl groups such as the Supremes. Everything he did was charged with electrical energy and emotional intensity. Charles had a strong and unmistakable style of his own—a raspy, passionate, gospel-soaked, oratorical delivery that turned every song into an emotional event. In 1952, Charles signed with Atlantic and began recording songs that freely blended gospel with rhythm and blues. Although some listeners were shocked at Charles’s combination of sacred and secular genres into this new style of gospel blues, he saw no reason to separate the two styles of music. In his autobiography, he wrote, "I’d been singing spirituals since I was three, and I’d been hearing the blues for just as long. So, what could be more natural than to combine them?" Charles’s combinations often took the form of adapting the melodies and lyrics of gospel songs into electrifying rhythm and blues numbers. He converted "Talkin’ ‘bout Jesus" to "Talkin’ ‘bout You ♫" and "I Got a Savior" to "I Got a Woman ♫." "This Little Light of Mine" became "This Little Girl of Mine ♫." In "I Got a Woman" (1954), Charles adapted the lyrics of the gospel song "I Got a Savior" and borrowed the melody and harmonic progressions from the Southern Tones’ gospel recording "Must Be Jesus ♫." Charles turned up the volume on his gospel sources, adding electric instruments, secular lyrics, and a high-energy

performing style. Charles has sometimes been called the greatest gospel singer alive, but he actually never recorded a straightforward gospel song. This hybridity of gospel and rhythm and blues is nowhere more apparent than in "What’d I Say ♫" from 1959, complete with moaning that treads the line between religious ecstasy and sexual delight. The frenzied music that builds to a fever pitch would be right at home in a religious service, and the groaned call and response passages between Charles and his backup singers are just as suited to a rhythm and blues recording as they are in a gospel song.

“I am fascinated by the places that music comes from, like fife-and-drum blues from southern Mississippi or Cajun music out of Lafayette, Louisiana, shape-note singing, old harp singing from the mountains - I love that stuff. It's like the beginning of rock and roll: something comes down from the hills, and something comes up from the delta.” -Robbie Robertson

“I had written a tune called 'Shake, Rattle and Roll,' but the white stations refused to play it - they thought it was low-class black music. We thought what we needed was a

new name. But a white disc jockey named Alan Freed laid on it, and he thought up the name 'rock n' roll'.” -Jesse Stone

"Before music, Chuck Berry worked as a carpenter, a freelance photographer, auto plant janitor, and hairdresser." U.S. News

Rhythm and Blues Crosses Over

Chuck Berry

While artists such as Ray Charles were stitching gospel and rhythm and blues together, other rock and roll artists were taking stylistic gestures from early rhythm and blues artists such as Louis Jordan and adding electrified instruments to their music. These artists also borrowed elements from hillbilly music and country and western. One of the most important artists in this style of rhythm and blues was Chuck Berry, whom many historians consider to be the father of rock and roll. Berry’s vocal delivery style was heavily influenced by country and western music. In fact, his delivery resembled that of country artists so much that many listeners were surprised to learn that Berry was black. Berry was already a veteran night club entertainer when he transformed "Ida Red," a country and western tune that had been recorded by several Nashville country artists such as Bob Wills and Roy Acuff, to a giant hit, "Maybellene ♫" (1955). "Maybellene ♫" includes Berry’s basic guitar style, which was and remains one of the most influential styles of playing in the history of recorded music. His introductions, double-note solos, and alternating accompaniment chords defined Berry’s style and influenced guitarists for generations to come. Further, Berry performed his famous "duck walk" during his guitar solos, a gesture which became an iconic part of his performances. Like many of his songs, "Maybellene ♫" borrows its harmonic structure from the 12-bar blues, but the song is in verse-chorus form, not the 12-bar blues form. In his songs, Berry treated topics that were of the utmost concern to the new teen culture in the United States, regardless of whether the listeners were black and white: cars, girl-boy problems, school, music, growing up, and parents. Tracks such as "School Day ♫," "Sweet Little Sixteen ♫," and "Johnny B. Goode ♫" are just a few examples. "Roll Over Beethoven ♫" mocks conservative adult

culture, claiming that the excitement of rhythm and blues would probably cause the composer to roll over in his grave.

Fats Domino

Berry was just one of several artists to achieve crossover success in the 1950s. A crossover refers to a song that holds a prominent place on at least two of the three types of charts: pop, rhythm and blues, and country. The laid-back rhythm and blues pianist Fats Domino achieved crossover success with songs such as "Blueberry Hill ♫" and "Ain’t That a Shame ♫," both of which charted on the rhythm and blues charts and then crossed over to the pop charts. Little Richard, a far more flamboyant performer than either Berry or Domino, crossed over from rhythm and blues to pop with songs such as "Long Tall Sally ♫" and "Good Golly Miss Molly ♫." Artists such as Little Richard and Big Joe Turner recorded songs that were often considered too explicit for pop (white) audiences, which led to the phenomenon of the cover version.

“I had written a tune called 'Shake, Rattle and Roll,' but the white stations refused to play it - they thought it was low-class black music. We thought what we needed was a new name. But a white disc jockey named Alan Freed laid on it, and he thought up the name 'rock n' roll'.” -Jesse Stone

“If you want to release your aggression, get up and dance. That's what rock and roll is all about.” -Chuck Berry

"Bill Haley's cover of "Rock Around The Clock" was the original opening theme song for the TV show Happy Days from 1974 until 1976 when the theme was changed to "Happy Days."" Songfacts

Cover Versions

Big Joe Turner

Teenagers may have loved rhythm and blues lyrics such as "I got a girl named Sue, she knows just what to do" (from Little Richard’s "Tutti Frutti ♫") and "You’re wearin those dresses, the sun comes shinin’ through / I can’t believe my eyes, all of this belongs to you" (from Big Joe Turner’s "Shake, Rattle, and Roll ♫"), but parents, record companies, and radio stations were less than impressed. In response, white artists and record companies began releasing cover versions of black artists’ songs. In general, a cover version refers to a song that is re-recorded by another artist. During the age of early rock and roll, however, these cover versions had a very specific purpose: to modify black artists’ rhythm and blues songs in order to make them more appropriate for white audiences. The sexual references in the original black version were muted, modified, or deleted entirely. The black artists delivered all those sexual innuendoes in jest, with whimsical good humor. Double entendres and playful, metaphoric lyrics were common in rhythm and blues, but white record executives interpreted them as devious, overtly sexual, and thus unfit for white audiences’ consumption. Recordings by the squeaky-clean white singer Pat Boone exemplify the goals of early cover versions. Boone’s covers of "Ain’t That a

Shame ♫" and "Tutti Frutti ♫" were highly sanitized versions of the black rhythm and blues originals, but they achieved far more commercial success than the original songs that Boone was covering, at least during the 1950s.

Bill Haley and the Comets

Another success story among cover artists was Bill Haley. Bill Haley often claimed to have invented rock and roll, but this claim is hardly reputable. Haley was, however, one of the first artists to achieve commercial success with crossover versions of rhythm and blues songs. During his musical career, Haley was first a country yodeler, then disc jockey, then leader of The Four Aces of Western Swing, later called The Saddlemen. They played country and western music. In 1951, Haley did a cover of Jackie Brenston’s blues release, "Rocket 88 ♫," and though the recording sold only a few copies, Haley’s live performances of the tune drove his white teenage dancers wild. In response, he renamed his...