Good Rockin' Tonight

All right. Been a few days, but here we are. Lots of modern music news but right now,I am stuck in a time warp and couldn't be happier. So, the first truly rocking r&b hit was today's song, "Good Rockin' Tonight" originally written and recorded by Roy Brown in 1947. Later that year Wynonie Harris recorded a version that was off the hook! you decide which one you really like better, it's a hard choice. What you have in this song is Roy Brown being the first popular blues singer to really emphasize his gospel roots. Later, Elvis recorded a great version of this too. There was no one moment of course, or one song, or even one style that was born in the early, mid-fifties but, (like Robert Palmer has said)it was a bunch of rocking music from across the U.S. that got put under one name, plus the technology of amplification and last, the marketing and realization that there was money to be made in packaging this previously non-commercial (meaning not for all races) music to all races. To my mind, this is give or take, 1955. Is it a coincidence that the civil rights movement is considered to have begun around this time too?

In this first version, you can hear the heavy jazz influence in the trumpet. The saxophone plays what later becomes the guitar's territory. The vocals are pretty smooth and are, honestly the most dated sounding thing (aside from the lyrics) on the song to my mind. Pretty fun tune though
This one is the best of the three to my mind. The gospel soul claps, the hopping, pulsing rhythm section, and the better recording quality all combined with the much hipper, powerful vocals of Wynonie. Dig how he changes the part from the first one to the good old call and response move, "Hoy Hoy Hoy Hoy"!, on the fadeout.

This is my runnerup for best of the three. Elvis definitely had something special. Although the rest of the band is really tight and has a really good sound, I feel like they definitely don't swing and bounce like the previous versions.

And if you are a fan of cheesy, tv miniseries' about rock n roll legends than here you go...:)




More to come soon. Including the battle for the "first" proper Rock N Roll song. Tune in next time!

Alberto

The Hustle is On

Pianos were naturally loud if you beat on it hard enough. But guitars had a limit to their natural loudness and it was hard to get heard above most other instruments. So, the next thing about Rock N Roll was being able to crank up the volume on the guitar. Before Amps were widely and (relatively) cheaply available, aside from a few exceptions (such as Eddie Lang or Lonnie Johnson notably), the guitar was relegated to forming part of the rhythm section. Two guys that were in on the whole amping up of your guitar sound early on were T. Bone Walker and Charlie Christian. Today we will get a healthy anti-oxidizing dose of T-Bone Walker. T-Bone was the first to record electric blues. He got into amplification because of Charlie Christian. He was the original link between rural blues and contemporary blues. He was a nasty guitarist who was smooth as a babies bottom but still had some dirty to 'em, some grit. He came out of the Dallas blues scene that was such a fountain of inspiration for blues music. Enjoy!


T-Bone Walker - "The Hustle Is On"




He was mostly known for slow, burnin' blues numbers. Take a look and a listen.



Peace

Okay, Rock and Roll, you soothe my soul

Here is my promised first installment of seminal rock and roll tunes. The first tune I am going to post is one that actually came out way before the official rock and roll era started. It is a boogie woogie. Boogie Woogie is a bass line originally,early on a piano playing style, something that started way back who knows when but probably the early, early 1900's. Rent parties were parties people had in order to raise money for their rent, and the term was used then. Boogie Woogie eventually became a fad and lasted till the formal birth of rock n roll in the early 50's. It influenced jump blues and therefore made a major contribution to rock n roll. The first boogie woogie hit was a song by Pinetop Smith called Pinetop's Boogie Woogie, which was a hit in 1928. (This mp3 is actually from a live Muddy Waters album with Pinetop Perkins playing the piano. The original version is below in a kind of cool You Tube video).



Pinetop's Boogie Woogie



Peace