Speaking of Mississippi John Hurt, let's not forget that Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen" was pretty much "Richland Woman" with updated cultural references. When it comes down to it, a lot early rock'n'roll was uptempo blues; "Matchbox", "Long Tall, Sally", 'Blue Suede Shoes" and the like were basically older songs, with bass lines, chords, solos and floating verses that had been used and reused for fifty years or so in boogie-woogie, jump, blues, etc, with a few references changed.