Wednesday, August 19, 2009

"Rock and roll would have never happened without him."



Known as 'The Boss of the Blues'




3 comments:

mister anchovy said...

It would be very interesting to gather up a list of individuals whose music was key to that curious transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll. In some cases, it wasn't the music that changed so much as the market that was exposed to it. I read that when Ike Turner and his band recorded Rocket 88, he thought they were playing rhythm and blues, yet plenty of writers have cited that as the so-called first rock and roll song (rightly or wrongly).

In Memphis, Sam Phillips had been recording distorted rocking guitars for years before he even contemplated recording white hillbilly acts and laying out that sound we call rockabilly.

I think our list would have to also include some western swing performers and the guys recording those country boogie tunes like Shotgun Boogie and so on as well.

And then there was Bo Diddley. I did a post once on my other blog of a bunch of "rock" tunes recorded over several decades that all feature that shave and a hair cut two bits Bo Diddley business.

Stephen A. Bess said...

I was just listening to Big Joe Turner this morning on my way to work. He was one of the artist on Shuggie Otis' cd, In Session: Great Rhythm & Blues. I love the music. Thanks as always.

D.S. Williamson said...

I agree, mister anchovy, the list would be pretty extensive. Since music evolves just about every artist brings something new to the sound. The earlier performers made the biggest changes so I would think that the list should be in major influence to minor order.