Rock n’ Roll is the most important f**king thing in the world. It’s saved my life more times than I can count. It can be rough and raw; it can be polished and refined. The beast that is Rock exists just as much in the crude, crass and clumsy, as it does in the virtuosic, composed and transcendent. It can speak of matters of the deepest importance, love, loss, social change, war and peace, and it can drunkenly slur Louie Louie at the top of its lungs. Rock ‘n’ Roll is the lifeblood of modern popular culture and we’d all be a lot better off if every now and then we shut the hell up and just rocked out to some great music. Because of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s paramount importance in the world (and in the life of this rambling writer), I have taken it upon myself to gather all the eloquence and tenacity I can muster and try, though feebly and incompletely at best, to chronicle the history of this, the greatest accomplishment of modern man: Rock n’ Roll, though series of articles on various points and aspects of Rock history.
Vol. 1:
Meeting At The Crossroads: Proto-Rock ‘n’ Roll
Upon an inky midnight more than eighty years ago, a lone troubadour wandered the highway outside of Clarksdale, Mississippi. Barely more than a boy, this journeyman musician walked carrying his guitar; he had an appointment to keep. Amidst the fields of cotton and glow of fireflies in that delta land, the young man arrived at the crossroads and he met his connection. A dark, imposing figure was waiting for him. The young man felt a shiver of fear and delight as he handed his guitar to the horrid figure of a man who was awaiting him. Ol’ Scratch took the instrument from the man and tuned it up. The Devil played a few notes; those notes howled with all the ferocity of hell. He handed the guitar back to the man. The deal was done, he had sold his soul to the devil to learn the blues and in the process, something new, something wild was born. The origins of the untamed bastard-child of blues that is Rock n’ Roll are murky at best but there is definitely something of that black Mississippi night flowing through the the blood of Rock Music.
According to legend, Robert Johnson was that young man who met the Prince of Darkness and sold his soul in exchange for guitar lessons. Johnson was a seminal delta blues musician in the 1930’s. His style was rambling, gritty and wild. His music, among many other blues musicians, such as Son House and Willie Brown, would proliferate throughout the South and through infusion with other regional music form the foundation upon which the temple of Rock n’ Roll would be built. Sadly, Johnson wouldn’t live to see his influence. The devil took his due and Johnson died due to mysterious circumstances at the tender age of twenty seven (Rock ‘n’ Roll has a way of taking its children at twenty seven that will be discussed in future installments of this series.)
A few miles further down the delta road a related but unique musical sensation was beginning to sweep the nation. The New Orleans area spawned jazz in the early part of the twentieth century. By the thirties when Johnson was crying out his blues around the Delta, Jazz was sweeping the nation. The more regional sounds of Dixieland and early New Orleans Jazz pioneered by Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet and others were being transformed as it diffused throughout the nation. In Kansas City in the hands of Count Basie, it became a lively dancehall brand of Swing. Basie and others like Duke Ellington made this once regional music into a national phenomenon that crossed social and racial boundaries. The infectious rhythms of Jazz created an insatiable lust for fun, danceable music. The swing movement would create electric performers like Cab Calloway and further inspire Rock ‘n’ Roll with the upbeat raucous performers like “The King of Jukebox,” Louis Jordan. Jordan’s brand of Swinging Rhythm and Blues had most the components of early Rock ‘n’ Roll: Beating, consistent dance rhythms, catchy hooks and repeatable choruses all designed to make you get up and dance.
The birth of the electric guitar would further tip the scales toward the event horizon that was the Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Musicians started experimenting with electric guitars in the twenties and thirties. Jazz artists like Charlie Christian and Eddie Lang paved the way with new electric sounds. The inventor and musician Les Paul took the already electrified sounds of Jazz musicians like Charlie Christian and infused them with his own unique lively lead guitar style. Les Paul’s style incorporated elements of Western Swing with Jazz and then delivered those sounds with a bright cutting tone that came from his innovative and inventive new solid body electric guitars. The guitar was no longer a minor rhythm player but rather a potent leader playing counterpoint to the vocalist.
But Electric lead guitar wasn’t only championed by Les Paul and Jazz musicians. The blues music of the Delta was also infused with new energy by the electric guitar. This led to Electric Blues greats like, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and the three kings: B.B. King, Albert King and Freddie King. Great blues vocalists like Big Mama Thornton would also come out of this scene. The music of these and other great Blues artists began to light up black radio stations from Chicago all the way down to the Mississippi Delta.
In addition to Jazz and Blues, the southern heartland of American Rock ‘n’ Roll was also awash with Country and Western Music. The Western Swing sounds of artists like Bob Wils and the Texas Playboys or Merle Travis would have delighted the ears and dancing shoes of many of the first Rock ‘n’ roll musicians. Singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Hank Williams and Pop Country Musicians like Tennessee Ernie Ford would also be major influences for those who would create the first Rock music.
The sounds of Jazz, Blues, and Country hummed over radios from Chicago down to the Mississippi Delta. A poor boy from Mississippi driving trucks and a struggling guitarist from Michigan were tuning in. So was a flamboyant keys playing gospel singer in Macon Georgia and host of Louisiana Boys trying their hand at tickling the ivories. The stage was set. Rock ‘n’ Roll was about to be born.
Selected Listening:
