What is Rock 'n Roll???

Subject: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 09:44 AM

On another thread someone made the comment that folks like The Coasters and and Lloyd Price weren't rock 'n rollers which kinda got me thinking, "What is rock n' roll?"...

I know that Muddy Waters defined it as the a child of the blues when he wrote the song "The Blues Had a Baby and they Called it Rock 'n Roll"...

Then who was it that sang, "it's all rock 'n roll to me"???

No matter...

So, what is rock 'n roll???

B~

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Ron Davies
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 10:11 AM

Hey Bobert, this looks like another black hole of time.   We'll never get agreement on this. But to coin a phrase, it's all just semantics to me.

However, on the burning issue of who sang "It's All Rock...." :    Billy Joel

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 10:15 AM

I thought it was Billy Joel...

B~

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 10:26 AM

I'll define Rock and Roll wnen someone defines 'Folk'

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: number 6
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 10:42 AM

Google it ... check out Wikipedia

biLL

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Trevor Thomas
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 10:47 AM

Perhaps there are people on Rock 'n' Roll message boards who fiercely debate whether it can only be Rock 'n' Roll if it meets the 1954 definition set down by the International Council of Rock 'n' Roll and listed in the Official Penguin Book of Rock 'n' Roll songs?.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Ron Davies
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 10:51 AM

I think the Council's definition of 1947 is actually far more reliable.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Wesley S
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 10:57 AM

Isn't it just like porn? We can't describe it but we know it when we see it.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: GUEST,Mike Rogers
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 11:05 AM

Extract from Talking Dust Bowl Blues (W Guthrie), verse 2:

And I started, rockin' an' a-rolling'
Over the mountains, out towards the old Peach Bowl.

So not only did Woody write the unofficial US national anthem (so much better than the official one), but he invented rock 'n' roll.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: number 6
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 12:23 PM

You ask ... what is Rock 'n Roll ??

well

all I can say is you can forget about Laura

for this ... is ROCK 'N ROLL !!

biLL

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 12:41 PM

It cannot be defined by words it is experienced in some strange way between the heart, the groin and the nervous system

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: GUEST,Spleen Cringe
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 12:55 PM

Not Billy fecking Joel, for starters...

So what is rock 'n' roll? This!. Turn it up!

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 02:56 PM

The trouble is that many of these bands were included under the Rock'n'Roll banner but had been going since before the term gained popularity. I mean, Fats Domino was recording in the 1940's, even Count Basie was included on Alan Freed Rock parties.

Rock'n'Roll was never a musical form, it was a marketing tag.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Ron Davies
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 03:02 PM

(Sob) I'll never forget about Laura.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 03:13 PM

A chorus in sea chanties!

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: GUEST,DDT
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 05:01 PM

Rock and roll was a new way of saying "rhythm & blues" because a lot of white kids couldn't buy R&B records because their parents didn't want this jigaboo music in the house. So Freed just redubbed R&B under a new moniker.

The term itself is rather older than Freed's Moondog show. Hell, Betty Grable was already known as "The First Lady of Rock and Roll" and the Boswell Sisters did a song called "Rock and Roll" back in the thirties. Wild Bill Moore already had a big hit called "We're Gonna Rock, We're Gonna Roll" in the post-war forties.

To me, the first real rock and roll was Elvis or whoever was the first to record blues combined with hillbilly because that was something new--rockabilly. Doo-wop was a type of R&B that blacks sang that descended from what they sang in church. Whites picked up on it. Gene Vincent was the first that I know of to really combine rockabilly with doo-wop. So it evolved quickly through the 50s and culminated with Eddie Cochran's "Somethin' Else" that was a totally new style. It wasn't rockabilly but had a hard-driving beat. His girlfriend, Sharon Sheely ("Poor Little Fool"), arranged it that way because she got the idea from listening to Little Richard. The drummer for Richard was Earl Palmer (who also played on nearly all the Fats Domino records including his earliest in 1949). Palmer played the beat for Eddie who realized what Sheely was aiming for. Eddie overdubbed himself on bass guitar and guitar with Earl on drums and that's how the song got made. It prefigured hard rock just a few years down the road.

Eddie's nephew, Bobby Cochran, was inspired by his uncle to take up guitar and wound up playing for Steppenwolf and the Flying Burrito Brothers (he's not the co-author of "Somethin' Else", that Bobby Cochran was Eddie's older brother).

So rock and roll was a term that hung on an ever-evolving music so that 10 years after that, the music was unrecognizable and changed again in another 10 years.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: pdq
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 05:18 PM

Bobert...

Where did someone say the Lloyd Price isn't Rock 'n' Roll?

I have heard people who claim this his 1952 original "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" is the first real RR song. He also wrote it.

There is no real clear line between the two cetegories, but it was eventually given its own outlet on Top 40 format of AM radio stations aiming at the youth market.

Pop stations continued with folks like Sinatra, Patty Page, Nancy Wilson and other more establishment acts.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 05:21 PM

I think of rock n roll as soft rock, as opposed to the metallic hard driving sound of rock itself.

Tunes like 'Raunchy' and songs like most of Elvis's hits to me will always be rock n roll.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 05:28 PM

Rock n Roll is a form of parasitical, semi-organised noise which has largely replaced music.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: GUEST,DDT
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 06:40 PM

Bob Wills rockin' and rollin'

The sound isn't that great here. I first heard this when I bought the Country Music Hall of Fame Series CD many moons ago. I think it's from '57 or so.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Joe_F
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 07:56 PM

Yelling & banging, for sale to children who are too lazy to throw their own tantrums.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Beer
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 10:29 PM

What is "R & R"
It's great musice, just like Folk, Jazz,Blues, Hip Hop, Opera and all other forms.
Adrien

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: bobad
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 10:47 PM

From Wikipedia:

"Rocket 88" (originally written as Rocket "88") is a rhythm and blues song that was first recorded at Sam Phillips' recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee, on 3 March or 5 March 1951 (accounts differ). The recording was credited to Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, who were actually Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm. It has been claimed by Phillips and some music critics to be the "first rock and roll song".

Rocket "88"

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: GUEST,DDT
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 11:34 PM

Rocket 88 was taken from pianist Pete Johnson's Rocket 88 Boogie or some such title. Pete was partners with the Boss of the Blues, Big Joe Turner. In 1938, they recorded a boogie-woogie blues on Vocalion called Roll Em Pete which many consider to be the earliest rock and roll song. In fact, they recut it in the 50s and re-released it because it fit so well with other rock and roll records. Joe and Pete made some of the greatest rock and roll EVER including:

Shake, Rattle and Roll
Boogie-Woogie Country Girl
Bump Miss Susie
The Chicken and the Hawk
Piney Brown's Blues
Crawdad Hole
Flip, Flop and Fly
TV Mama
Oke-She-Moke-She-Pop
Sweet Sixteen
Well All Right
Chains of Love
Little Bitty Gal's Blues
Cherry Red
Miss Brown Blues
Tell Me Pretty Baby
Sally Zu-zazz
I Got a Gal for Every Day of the Week

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Ron Davies
Date: 06 Feb 13 - 12:19 AM

"Yelling and banging...."    I love it.   Joe, you are hereby crowned the current #1 resident curmudgeon.   I trust none of the other contenders will object--there are some other good entries, but yours sets an extremely high standard I don't think the others have quite met.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 06 Feb 13 - 03:57 AM

I cannot believe so many people can write so knowledgeably, with out mention of, to quote myself above:

"It cannot be defined by words it is experienced in some strange way between the heart, the groin and the nervous system "

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Feb 13 - 07:32 AM

The phrase "rock 'n roll" has been around since at least the 1860s, as documented in traditional sea shanties such as "One More Day":

Oh, rock 'n roll me over, one more day!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Mr Red
Date: 06 Feb 13 - 07:35 AM

Rock 'n Rol?

It is LOUD

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 06 Feb 13 - 07:42 AM

It's ok Mr Red I think we are trying to commune with the musically deaf here

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Mr Happy
Date: 06 Feb 13 - 08:26 AM

A quote from above I believe is the reason for the labelling/ categorisation of all music


Rock'n'Roll was never a musical form, it was a marketing tag

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 06 Feb 13 - 09:13 AM

You can say what you like about marketing tags and the history of music, but when Little Richard, Chuck Berry and the others did what they did as major creators of R & R they were speaking in some strange way to the heart, the groin and the nervous system.

Know this of R & R or know nothing

Best wishes

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Mooh
Date: 06 Feb 13 - 12:22 PM

Evolution.

Rocket 88 ain't Chuck Berry, The Stones, Zeppelin, Springsteen, Rush, RHCP...maybe they're all the same or maybe they're not, but they're all R'n'R to my mind. It doesn't have to be one thing so much as many things, a catchall of style. The limits set only by the listeners evolving tastes. Any way I can imagine it, R'n'R overlaps with several other styles, including the ones that gave it birth, the ones it spawned, and the ones it gets combined with by well-intentioned musicians.

Were we all done discussing what is folk?

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Joe_F
Date: 06 Feb 13 - 05:07 PM

Ron Davies: I am delighted to have my curmudgeoneity recognized.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Stringsinger
Date: 06 Feb 13 - 05:57 PM

Rock and roll is a euphenism, just like jass (jazz) for sexual activity as in my baby rocks me all night long. It's an attempt on the part of white music business people to market rhythm and blues to white people getting it out of the "race" record trap.

That's what Sam Phillips tried to do with Sunn Records and Presley.

It's roots are in rhythm and blues and the dancing that goes with it. The style of playing even goes back to Illinois Jacquet in the famous Norman Granz "Jazz Concerts At The Philharmonic" when tenor sax players became honkers (one note honkers) and they went through gyrations onstage and the audience went wild.

Big Jay McNeeley was a forerunner of the honking sax lying on the floor undulating while playing.

The blues played in clubs for black people in South Side Chicago featured a high-powered screaming style that was accompanied by dancing featuring artists like
Albino Red and Muddy Waters on electric guitar.

Much of it has roots in the African-American Gospel tradition. "Motown" was a secular gospel style.

Rock and Roll is just an offshoot of the African-American tradition of dance music that goes back to early jazz.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: erosconpollo
Date: 07 Feb 13 - 09:38 AM

Morgan Wright defined the difference between Rock and other forms of R and B as being in the underlying rhythm: "While being eight to the bar, there is a slight lag between the bars. The pause between the bars builds up tension---the first beat of the new bar is held back, whereupon the 2nd beat of each bar is slammed with extra force, thus making it rock."

This makes Rock and Roll edgier than the bouncy sound of something like Fats Domino's Jump Blues style, which come down hard on the 'one.'

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Will Fly
Date: 07 Feb 13 - 10:09 AM

If you have to ask, you don't deserve to know.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 07 Feb 13 - 10:12 AM

rock 'n' roll was for kids. It was friendly. It had a good beat, and the chords were easy. Things that were supposed to rhyme actually did rhyme, and the lyrics made sense. (Common sense might not be involved, however. Witness Laura.)

The two greatest rock 'n' rolls songs ever were "Let's go to the Hop" and "Barbara Ann."

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: meself
Date: 07 Feb 13 - 10:17 AM

"the first beat of the new bar is held back, whereupon the 2nd beat of each bar is slammed with extra force, thus making it rock."

Not sure I buy that - can you give an example of a song or two in which that is apparent?

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Ron Davies
Date: 07 Feb 13 - 10:58 AM

Don't forget :"Rock and Roll Will Never Die".


I was delighted beyond measure a few years ago to hear all the lyrics--finally.

My favorite bit by far:


Rock and roll is here to stay
It will never die
It was meant to be that way
Though I don't know why


And that is in fact what they sing.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: PHJim
Date: 07 Feb 13 - 02:17 PM

I think of folks like Elvis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino... folks of that era,the fifties, when I think of Rock'N'Roll. By the time The Velvet Underground, Led Zep, Metallica and the like came along, it was no longer called Rock'N'Roll, but just Rock.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 07 Feb 13 - 04:34 PM

Mr Red said about rock'n'roll:

"It is LOUD!"

Well, loud compared to what!

Elvis, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee back in the 50s wouldn't really have been that loud.
Indeed, any local pub rock band today would be a lot louder than 50s rock'n'roll.

"Loud" didn't really happen until Hendrix, Clapton and friends started using stacks of Marshall amps.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 07 Feb 13 - 05:41 PM

I agree. We used to dance to this music in the grade-school cafeteria. No way did the teachers let it get too loud.

When I was kid, I didn't even like rock and roll. Not till Freddie and the Doo-wops came along did I appreciate the fun to be had from rock 'n' roll. What's the difference? Better singing, better musicianship and a sense of humor.

Here they are doing 'Runaround Sue'.


Freddy

Sad to say, Freddy (an ex-marine and a Republican) died unexpectedly. We miss him.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Ron Davies
Date: 07 Feb 13 - 06:10 PM

Absolutely, Leenia.   Doo-wop, in particular, is just great fun.   And you don't even really need a band--just some people who know how the parts went so you can have independent voices.   --not just everybody singing lead.

Here in the DC area (perhaps over some opposition) we have declared doo-wop to be folk (is it rock?   who cares?) such that there are regular doo-wop sings listed in the FSGW newsletter.   A few weeks ago we had a sing at my house.   I said we could get a limit of 25 into the room but they kept coming--we had over 30 and the room was about to explode. Sang about 2 1/2 hours, then the hard-core sang another 1 1/2 hours. The vast majority was a cappella (we had one guitar) and quite a few of us had a big bunch of songs memorized (there were some packets) -just have to drag it out of your brain again.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: GUEST,DDT
Date: 07 Feb 13 - 08:51 PM

Nolan Strong & the Diablos forever.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Beer
Date: 07 Feb 13 - 08:55 PM

Well said PHJim.
Ad.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Bobert
Date: 07 Feb 13 - 09:26 PM

Yo, Ron Davies...

Do you remember a smallish albino African American who played rock 'n roll in DC in the early 60s... I think his first name was "Pinky"...

I saw him at the Hayloft back then....

B~

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 07 Feb 13 - 11:56 PM

Hello, Ron. Thanks for the description of a great party. That sure sounds like fun.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Charley Noble
Date: 08 Feb 13 - 07:51 AM

As a geology student in the 1960s, I and my friends discussed the origin of "rock an' roll" in exhaustive fashion. We concluded that it could be traced back to the glacial period when massive ice sheets expanded and retreated over North America, remolding the landscape, leaving their signature marks as kettles and kanes, and glacial moraines.

Cheerily,
Charley "Hard Rock" Noble

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Ron Davies
Date: 08 Feb 13 - 08:40 AM

Hi Leeneia-

Yes, it sure was.   But anybody can do it. Just get a bunch of friends who like to sing doo-wop--and are strong enough singers to carry independent voices. You actually only need about 3 or 4 such singers--the rest can just join in , or make up parts. We also started with a potluck supper--fuel for the journey.    And we weren't rigid on definition of doo-wop--just sang songs we felt like singing---Chapel of Love, You Belong To My, Only You, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, Charlie Brown, etc. --in addition to doo-wop standards (Earth Angel, Silhouettes, Who Put the Bomp?, Goodnight, Sweetheart) some Everly Brothers (those are really to make up harmonies to), etc.. etc.   (lots of etc).

And you can teach people how some of the lines went--to encourage separate voices.


If you need refreshing on the songs, you can buy the huge majority of them on i-Tunes for 99 cents apiece---or less if there's an album you want.    I just make up my own CD's and listen to them a few times before we have a session.   And I sing them just walking down the street--no i-Pod involved--to see if I have them memorized.

Subject: RE: What is Rock 'n Roll???
From: Ron Davies
Date: 08 Feb 13 - 08:46 AM

Hey Bobert--

"early 60's?"    I was about minus 5 at that point.   (Not really, but I sure wasn't getting into DC.    Sure couldn't drive.)