Inventors of Rock'n'Roll

Subject: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: GUEST,Leadbelly
Date: 08 Apr 14 - 04:45 PM

Hi there,

It's an old and unsolved question who "invented" this kind of music.

But tonigth, when I was listening to "After hours boogie" by Pee Wee Crayton, I became convinced that he was one of several inventors.

It's an instrumental with sax and all what is needed.Recorded in '47.

Any other suggestions concerning "inventors"?

Could not find a corresponding thread.

Subject: RE: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: Midchuck
Date: 08 Apr 14 - 04:50 PM

The NAME came from Allen Freed, the NYC disk jock.

The music came from the first Black bluesman who could get hold of an electric guitar, I guess.

Subject: RE: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: The Sandman
Date: 08 Apr 14 - 05:28 PM

It was marketed by The Promoters of Bill Haley and The Comets after they played Rock around the Clock in a film called The Blackboard Jungle, Rock and Roll was a commercialised genre which used 12 bar blues.

Subject: RE: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: Janie
Date: 08 Apr 14 - 07:36 PM

A lot of evolution and musicians. Ike Turner & Jackie Brenston are good candidates. Jackie Brenston played sax and sang on this recording. It was attributed to to a non-existent band that was actually the band Ike was the very young frontman for.

Rocket 88 1951.

Have a terrific limited edition print (10 prints of the not quite finished painting) of Pee Wee Crayton hanging in my living room, done by our Bobert, btw.

Subject: RE: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: Will Fly
Date: 09 Apr 14 - 07:29 AM

The roots of rock'n roll are complicated and varied. Ike Turner's "Rocket 88" is often cited - as in the post above - but it's one of many of its style. If you listen to the output of Syd Nathan's King Records which started up in 1943, there's a whole load of booting stuff there. Louis Jordan and Big Joe Turner and countless others all contributed.

Alan Freed may have used the term in his shows, but it was used earlier in song lyrics well before he "coined" it.

Subject: RE: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Apr 14 - 07:42 AM

Some good research into the terms beginnings at

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/10/where-the-term-rock-and-roll-came-from/

Subject: RE: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: Bert
Date: 09 Apr 14 - 10:37 AM

Rock around the Clock is pretty much a rip off of Move it on Over by Hank Williams.

Subject: RE: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: Lighter
Date: 09 Apr 14 - 10:53 AM

A PBS program once credited Robert "Hellhound on my Trail" Johnson credited as the "inventor," though I much doubt he used the term "rock 'n roll."

Subject: RE: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: The Sandman
Date: 09 Apr 14 - 01:00 PM

INVENTORS OF ROCK AND ROLL? not originators or where it derived from, surely this brings us back to the commercial aspect, who marketed it? and who sold it to the public? and who performed the number one hit,that was used to coin the term RockandRoll, the answer imo is BillHaley and the comets, never mind if he ripped someone else off, his promoters used the term Rock and Roll to commercialise the music is there any evidence to suggest the term was wide spread before Bill Haley?.I mean wide spread Bill Haley & His Comets
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the rock and roll band. For their self titled album, see Bill Haley and His Comets (1960 album).
Bill Haley & His Comets
BillHaley.JPG
Bill Haley & His Comets, c. 1955. Left To Right : Joey D'Ambrosio, Dick Richards in the back row, Bill Haley
Background information
Also known as         Bill Haley and the Saddlemen, The Kingsmen, The Lifeguards, B.H. Sees Combo
Origin         Chester, Pennsylvania
Genres         Rock and roll, country, rockabilly
Years active         1949–1952 as Saddlemen; 1952–1981 as Bill Haley & His Comets; 1981–present as The Comets, Bill Haley's Comets
Labels         Atlantic, Keystone Records, Cowboy, Holiday, Essex, Decca, Warner Bros. Records, Orfeón, Dimsa, Newtown, Guest Star, Logo, APT, Gone, United Artists, Roulette, Sonet, Buddah, Antic
Associated acts         The Jodimars
Members         Joey Ambrose
Dick Richards
David Byrd
Jackson Haney
Al Rappa
Lenny Longo (separate groups called Bill Haley's Comets)
Past members         Bill Haley
Johnny Grande
Billy Williamson
Rudy Pompilli
Al Rex
Franny Beecher
Marshall Lytle
Ralph Jones
Nick Nastos
John "Bam-Bam" Lane
and more than 100 others

Bill Haley & His Comets was an American rock and roll band that was founded in 1952 and continued until Haley's death in 1981. The band, also known by the names Bill Haley and The Comets and Bill Haley's Comets (and variations thereof), was the earliest group of white musicians to bring rock and roll to the attention of white America and the rest of the world. From late 1954 to late 1956, the group placed nine singles in the Top 20, one of those a number one and three more in the Top Ten.[1]

Bandleader Bill Haley had previously been a country music performer; after recording a country and western-styled version of "Rocket 88", a rhythm and blues song, he changed musical direction to a new sound which came to be called rock and roll.

Although several members of the Comets became famous, Bill Haley remained the star. With his spit curl and the band's matching plaid dinner jackets and energetic stage behavior, many fans consider them to be as revolutionary in their time as The Beatles or The Rolling Stones were a decade later.

Following Haley's death, no fewer than six different groups have existed under the Comets name, all claiming (with varying degrees of authority) to be the official continuation of Haley's group. As of early 2008, three such groups were still performing in the United States and internationally.

Subject: RE: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 09 Apr 14 - 01:17 PM

I rather like the idea of World War 2 Boffins in white lab coats,
pencils behind their ears, cradling Defence Ministry issued clip boards, inventing "Rock 'n' Roll".......

That's the top secret weapon the Allies deployed to defeat Nazi Germany and Japan.

Subject: RE: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: Janie
Date: 09 Apr 14 - 11:04 PM

Hi GSS. Titles have their purposes and their limits. Note the quotes in the actual op. No question that anyone likely to post, or the OP thinks there is a line in the sand or that r&r was suddenly invented. I am not going to have much to offer here, but will definitely look forward to following and listening to music I know will be good that eventually evolved, and eventually got labeled rock & roll. Thanks in advance, all y'all!

Subject: RE: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: GUEST,Whistle blower
Date: 10 Apr 14 - 12:45 AM

Leaked movie footage of post WW2 Classified USA 'Area 51' testing of advanced experimental Military Rock 'n' Roll technology:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_C93yxkLNA

America lays claim to inventing Rock 'n' Roll and warns Soviets to "stay off of our blue suede shoes".

Subject: RE: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Apr 14 - 01:03 AM

Janie, check out the track lists of this prime series of compilation CDs
starting from the later half of the 1940s..


http://www.bear-family.com/en/bear-family-serien/blowing-the-fuse/

Subject: RE: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: GUEST,Malcolm Storey
Date: 10 Apr 14 - 12:15 PM

Gulgong is a small town in New South Wales wset of the great dividing range.

At one time it had a small annual enjoyable folk festival until the organisers ran out of steam.

Johnny Handle and Chris Hendry appeared at the last one - but that's a subject for another thread!

The town has associations with bush poet Banjo Patterson and a Henry Lawson museum. It also has a fascinating museum tracing the agricultural history of outback Australia. Contained within that museum is a collection of every form of recorded music and the wherewithal to play it.

One of the attractions is the opportunity to request the playing of any of their fairly substantial collection of 78rpm records. On one visit there I saw a title which I knew had been a hit for Elvis Presley and so asked if I might hear it, performed by a singer I had never heard of.

The arrangement was the one adopted by Elvis - the 78 was recorded in 1928.

So - you pays your money and you takes your choice.

Subject: RE: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: Stringsinger
Date: 10 Apr 14 - 12:20 PM

Easy answer, African-American musicians making what was called in those days "race records" and eventually Rhythm and Blues, blues you could dance to.

Rock and Roll was Sam Phillip's attempt to sell R and B to white audiences using white performers, hence, Sun Records. Black people have been playing and dancing this music years before it became popular to whites.

Subject: RE: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 10 Apr 14 - 02:10 PM

Well, it's impossible to say what was the first rock'n'roll recording because it's impossible to clearly define what rock'n'roll is!

Subject: RE: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: GUEST,Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 11 Apr 14 - 10:45 AM

As a boy Hank Williams learned a great deal from a black street busker known as Tee Tot. He adapted a lot of this style into songs that he wrote. Hank was certainly not an inventor but his adaptations shook up the charts and broke ice for ones who followed.

Subject: RE: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: The Sandman
Date: 11 Apr 14 - 12:28 PM

most people can clearly diferentiate between blues and rock and roll, and between chicago bluesand rock and roll, would it be fair to say it was a white mans derivation of it or a derivation that was aimed to sell to white audiences, which is what bill haley did.

Subject: RE: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: pdq
Date: 11 Apr 14 - 02:12 PM

We already credit Black folks with inventing Ragtime, traditional Jazz, Blues, Swing, Jump Blues, Bepop, Progressive Jazz, Soul, Gospel, Rhythm'n'Blues, Hard Bop, Cool Jazz, Fusion, Third Stream, Jazz-funk, Rap and Jazz Rap.

Can we just accept that Rock'n'Roll was a attempt by White kids to have some fum and to declare themslves free from their parents music, which they did not feel was very exiting? It has elements of many forms of Popular music, but it has its own feel. And no, it is not R&B. We already have R&B. Enjoy some Louis Jordan.

Subject: RE: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: Janie
Date: 11 Apr 14 - 04:38 PM

Thanks Guest!

Subject: RE: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Apr 14 - 08:56 PM

You can make lightning, but ya can't invent it.

Subject: RE: Inventors of Rock'n'Roll
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Apr 14 - 09:01 PM

But then again . . .