Music Appreciation: The History of Rock Chapters 5,6,7,8,9

Chapter 5- Bill Haley and the Comets- Northern Band Rock and Roll Style Started as a teenager, later became a DJ, morphed into a performer and finally found success with his band, The Saddlemen. Based on the western swing tradition. Covered Rocket 88 and Rock the Joint. Combined elements of country and western, Dixieland Jazz, and rhythm and blues into what the called “cowboy jive.”

Chapter 5- Bill Haley and the Comets- Northern Band Rock and Roll Style Biggest hit was Rock Around the Clock which was recorded in April 1954. Not successful at first, but after it was released as the title song in The Blackboard Jungle, it was re-released and became the first rock and roll song to reach number one on the Billboard sales chart. Besides The Blackboard Jungle, Rock Around the Clock was also used in the movie American Graffiti and as the opening song to the first season of Happy Days.

Listening Assignment 1 Compare the versions of Shake, Rattle and Roll as recorded by Joe Turner and Bill Haley and the Comets.

Chapter 6- New Orleans Rock and Roll The typical New Orleans rock and roll band was essentially the same as the rhythm and blues band. The entire band worked to produce a barrelhouse rhythm that underlies the style. There is a special emphasis on vocal expression as either exceptionally joyful or incredibly depressed.

Important people of New Orleans Rock and Roll- Fats Domino Antoine “Fats” Domino- a piano player that is based in the boogie woogie piano style that has a thicker texture than boogie woogie because of his tendency to play full chords with both hands. His sound was different from others because of his warm, French Creole accent, two-handed boogie woogie style, well-written song arrangments, a tenor sax solo about 2/3 through the song and the sax was designed to match his voice.

Fats Domino- continued. Fats was a cross-over success with blacks and whites due to his non-threatening manner and song choice. First hit was Fat Man, then Ain’t It a Shame, My Blue Heaven, and Blueberry Hill.

Important people of New Orleans Rock and Roll- Little Richard Born in Macon, Georgia, he came from a family deeply involved in the southern black Gospel tradition. His major influence was from black Gospel music, infused with rhythm and blues. Little Richard was popular for singing Tutti Frutti, Long Tall Sally, and Good Golly, Miss Molly

Little Richard, continued. Leaving the business: Little Richard left show business in 1957 after a near-accident in a plane. After a failed marriage and a failed career as a minister, he returned to rock and roll in the late 1960’s but never regained the fame he had in 1957. Some contend that Little Richard had a greater influence on Rock and Roll than Fats Domino because of the artists who covered his songs (Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and Buddy Holly) and because of his wild stage antics.

Listening assignment 2 Ain’t It A Shame by Fats Domino

Chapter 7- Memphis Country Rock (Rockabilly) In its simplest definition, Memphis country rock is a Southern white version of the 12-bar blues. It was a combination of rock and roll and country and western. Combined elements of rhythm and blues and rock and roll, with a strong emphasis on the backbeat and the traits from country and western including instrumentation, strict rhythms, nasal singing style and the Southern accent.

Differences… Memphis Country Rock: Treble tone quality Principally a country swing band Nasal vocal styles Generally fast tempos A strict approach to the beat Differs from New Orleans Rock and Roll because NO R&R is more bass-dominated.

Sun Records- owned by Sam Philips This studio became the place where Memphis country rock and roll was primarily developed. Some of the big names that got their start there were: Elvis Presley Carl Perkins Jerry Lee Lewis Johnny Cash

Carl Perkins Born to a Tennessee sharecropper family in 1932. A guitar player, Carl was heavily influenced by the singing of another sharecropper, the guitarists he heard on Grand Ole Opry and others. He developed his own style that became the epitome of rockabilly guitar. Most famous for writing Blue Suede Shoes (1956)

Jerry Lee Lewis Born in Ferriday, Louisiana. Influenced by the piano blues he heard as a youngster behind a black honky tonk, Haney’s Big House. Main instrument was piano and his style can be found in the boogie woogie tradition of the Southwest and New Orleans. It can be referred to as a “pumpin’ piano” style- a combination of black boogie woogie and white honky tonk mixed with improvisational technique. By 1958, the public learned that he had recently married his 13 year old second cousin, Myra Brown. He had also neglected to divorce his first wife before marrying his second wife. This added fuel to fire of the decadence of rock and roll. His top two songs were Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On and Great Balls of Fire.

Eddie Cochran Never made it big in the US, but he was a major attraction in England and influenced the Beatles, the Who, and the Kinks. Born in Minnesota, raised in California Recorded Summertime Blues in 1958- his biggest hit. What was so unique about him was that he was heavily involved in arranging his own music and in the production of his recordings. Died in an automobile crash in 1960 and many feal he would’ve had a large impact on recording technology and would have been a major influence in the direction of rock music.

Listening Assignment 3 Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On- Jerry Lee Lewis

Elvis Presley Born in Tupelo, Mississippi to a family commonly known as “poor, white trash” Elvis was heavily influenced by the white Gospel music of his Pentacostalist First Assembly of God church. His family moved to Memphis in 1948, when his dad got a better-paying job. His vocal style is a combination of country and western, rural blues, white Gospel music, black Gospel music and white pop singers (like Dean Martin and Perry Como)

More Elvis Presley… His guitarist was Scotty Moore and he played a significant role in Presley’s early successes. Elvis’ first recording was That’s All Right Mama in 1954. He was managed by Col. Tom Parker and with him, they both became very rich. RCA later bought Elvis’ contract from Philips for $40,000 and Elvis only got $5000 of that. His first recording with RCA was Heartbreak Hotel. While Elvis had to serve in the army, Col. Parker released new tunes sporadically to keep public interest in the music so when he returned from duty, it was as if he had never left.

More Elvis Presley Elvis was also a movie actor and stared in 31 movies. After he returned from military service, Elvis turned to more of the easy listening, crooning style of Dean Martin and Perry Como. As time went on, he became more and more paranoid about his life and turned to prescription drugs. He died in Memphis in August 1977 from a drug overdose.

Listening Assignment 4 Compare Hound Dog- Big Mama Thornton vs. Elvis Presley

Chicago Rock and Roll Style This style developed from the music of the urban blues and rhythm and blues players of the early 1950’s, performers such as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Elmore James and James Cotton. It is very much like urban blues and rhythm and blues of that city except: Rock and Roll is generally faster in tempo R&R has a hard-driving beat (more backbeat that urban blues lacks) More use of even beat subdivision Generally stays more on the beat than in regular blues or R&B performances.

Chicago Rock and Roll The instrument that is the main instrumental solo in Chicago Rock and Roll is the guitar. Typical instrumentation of a Chicago Rock and Roll band is very much like a Chicago R&B Band: electric guitar, piano, bass, drums and a lead vocalist. Backup singers are generally not used and sometimes a horn may be employed, but it’s usually relegated to background riffs. The two most prominent Chicago Rock and Roll performers are Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley.

Chuck Berry Grew up in St. Louis with a Gospel music background. He studied guitar, piano and saxophone while in high school but learned to play guitar in various R&B groups in St. Louis. He recorded Maybelline in 1955 after Muddy Waters introduced him to record producer Leonard Chess. The song describes a race between Berry in his V-8 Ford and Maybellene in her Cadillac Coupe de Ville.

Chuck Berry and teenagers Berry’s lyric style has been referred to as “classic two-and-a-half minute novellas.” They are songs about teenagers and the topics appeal to teenagers: fast cars, dating, and having no other worries outside of finding the perfect date or finding something to do until school lets out. Berry’s songs are more in the folk ballad tradition than in the blues tradition.

Bo Diddley Born in Mississippi and heavily influenced by the Chicago Blues style, the singing of Nat “King” Cole and the jump blues styles of Cab Calloway and Louis Jordan. Bo Diddley’s style has two elements that are synonymous with his name: A heavy use of reverb on his amplifier. The persistent rhythm that is called the hambone rhythm or the Bo Diddley beat.

Chapter 9- Buddy Holly Born in Lubbock, Texas on September 7, 1936 as Charles Hardin Holley. His musical style is a combination of the rock and roll styles cultivated in Chicago by Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley and in Memphis by Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and others. There is a strong country element to his music. Buddy wrote and recorded most of his own material.

More Buddy Holly… Buddy Holly joined with some friends later on to become Buddy Holly and the Crickets. This name was because Buddy admired a song by the R&B group called the Spiders. A band member suggested the name Crickets because he insects made music. Buddy’s only number one single was That’ll Be the Day in 1957. Buddy Holly’s singing style was influenced by Elvis and it included the hiccuping style of singing and a change in vocal tone color in the middle of the song.

Buddy Holly continued… Buddy Holly died on February 3, 1959 outside of Clear Lake, Iowa along with Ritchie Valens, J.P. “Big Bopper” Richardson and the pilot of the plane, after flying into an approaching snow storm. Buddy Holly influenced the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Kinks. Some of the ideas that Buddy Holly initiated were: He recorded his own material almost exclusively. The Crickets was the first rock group to have a lineup consisting of electric lead and rhythm guitars, bass and drums. He was the first singer to double-track his voice and guitar. He popularized the use of the solid body Fender Stratocaster guitar, later the trademark of Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix.

Listening Assignment 5 At the Hop