GLST 490 – Days 9-10
Blues,
Rhythm and
Blues, and
Rock 'n Roll
References to voodoo (hoodoo) in blues lyrics: Mojo, mojo hand, John da Conqueroo,
black cat, black cat bone, goofer dust, jinx, hotfoot powder, conjure bags, nation dust…
Source: Google Images
Housekeeping Items
 Be sure to check out
the events at
International
Development Week
this week (see flyer).
 I’m passing around the
folder with a new
article: apparently,
heavy metal (Metallica)
and industrial music
(Skinny Puppy) have
been used to torture
prisoners at
Guatanamo Bay.
date
name
genre
Feb. 4
Wayne
Contemporary Korean
Max
Post-rock?
Mar. 4
Rochelle
Folk (early Dylan era?)
Mar. 6
Linda
Celtic
Mar. 11
Doug; Steve
Metal; TBA
Mar, 13
Kate; Tomson
TBA; house
Mar. 18
Sam
country
Mar. 20
Kim
TBA
Feb. 6
Feb. 11
Feb. 13
Feb. 18
Feb. 20
Who’s missing besides Vanessa and Gillian?
Blues/ Rhythm and Blues
 You have already heard quite a bit about the origins of the
blues through the reading and “Cadillac Records.” The
urban blues that we associate with Chess Records featured
artists who had migrated from the rural south where they
worked on white-owned plantations as agricultural
workers. The sounds we associate with the blues can also
be found in West Africa (places like Mali, as opposed to the
Congo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9ks3VV2qNc)
and major musicians there have also been influenced by
American blues. For Ali Farka Touré, it was John Lee
Hooker. For his son, Jimi Hendrix.
 A major outlet were the juke joints where people got
together and partied on the weekends and drank a lot
(legal or illegal booze). They were usually entertained by
one or two musicians – often singing guitar players like the
legendary Robert Johnson.
Blues/ Rhythm and Blues
 Legend has it that Johnson sold his soul to
the devil at a rural crossroads at midnight in
order to earn his prodigious abilities on the
guitar.
 He didn't live past 27. He was said to have
been poisoned by the jealous husband of a
woman he was carrying on with, by means
of a strychnine-laced bottle of whiskey.
 He influenced generations of blues
musicians, and Cream (Eric Clapton) and
the Rolling Stones played popular covers of
his songs (“Crossroads” and “Love in Vain,”
respectively). Here are two clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd60nI
4sa9A and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdwVVI
4B3oY.
Blues/ Rhythm and Blues
 Country blues musicians wrote about the issues of daily
life – cruel bosses, lust for (and mistreatment by)
women, drinking, working on chain gangs, relationships
gone sour, and the like.
 Most such musicians were men, though in the cities
there were a few big female stars such as Bessie Smith
and Memphis Minnie.
 Many of the Chicago blues musicians, who had migrated
from the Deep South – particularly, the Mississippi
Delta area – had been trained or influenced by artists
like Johnson, Son House, and Charley Patton, but when
they came to Chicago they 'plugged in.'
 As blacks became urbanized, they turned their backs on
the sounds of the country blues:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5RwNit_HUw.
Blues/ Rhythm and Blues
 There were two main waves of black migration – during
World War I, when there was an increased demand for
factory labour and the boll weevil was at its worst peak, and
during World War II, when the war cut off the supply of
European immigrant labour. There was also a strong desire
to escape the racism in the South, and in 1927 there was a
massive flood of the Mississippi River.
Their vehicle was the
Illinois Central Railway.
Source: http://www.lib.niu.edu/1996/iht329633cm.html
Blues/ Rhythm and Blues
 Not only were people moving from South to North, they
were moving from the country to the city, even within the
south – for instance, to Memphis.
 A main attraction for black migrants was the prospect of
getting an industrial job at relatively high pay. John Lee
Hooker was a floor-sweeper at a Dodge plant in Detroit
when he cut his first vinyl.
 The early Chicago blues – there was also a thriving Texas
blues scene – was relatively raw, even eerie. Jimi Hendrix
said, when he heard Muddy Waters at the age of 6, that it
scared him “half to death.” But the music has a certain
quality that has continued to fascinate musicians and
listeners alike.
 Its most popular male stars were, as you saw in the movie,
Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf.
Blues/ Rhythm and Blues
 Chess Records (Cadillac in the film) was the principal vehicle
for the recording and distribution of urban blues – though
there others such as Vee Jay. Leonard Chess, and his brother
Phil, were Polish Jewish immigrants who that saw that there
was a real demand among the black population for records by
black artists. As blacks' incomes grew, their ability to spend
money on records and going to clubs also increased (Chess
also owned South Side clubs). But the brothers didn't overly
exploit their artists, but treated them as part of an extended
family. [Similar role to Ahmet and Esuhi Ertegun in jazz.]
 In addition to the blues, the Chess brothers also put out jazz,
rhythm and blues, gospel, and early rock records. Originally,
record companies referred to rhythm and blues as “race
music,” but they renamed them when they discovered that
the music had a broader appeal.
Blues/ Rhythm and Blues
 Such music included jump blues, boogie woogie, novelty
records, and early forms of rock n' roll (though not yet
dubbed as such).
 Jump blues had emerged out of the Kansas City sound of
Count Basie, and was eminently danceable at a time when
some jazz was becoming quite cerebral. It can be
described as a sort of synthesis of swing and the blues.
 Some of the early practitioners of jump blues included
Louis Prima, Louis Jordan, Wynonie Harris, Big Jay
McNeely, Big Joe Williams, and many others.
 The leap from jump blues and r & b to rock – I will play
you some samples – was a small one, and some consider
the first rock song to be 1951's “Rocket 88” by Jackie
Brenston and the Delta Cats:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzYRKJvQqpU&feat
ure=kp.
Blues/ Rhythm and Blues
 It’s interesting that another song that people
credit as being the first rock n’ roll song –
“Maybelline” by Chuck Berry – was also released
by Chess:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75RiHJGfyU
E.
 But long before either of these songs, there were
jump blues artists who were essentially doing rock
n’ roll. I’ll play you a couple of samples. First,
original recordings, then a brief clip of a Louis
Jordan video made 20 years after the song was
originally recorded (circa 1947):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzEcv7igTM4
Rock n' Roll
 Sam Phillips, who learned recording techniques by
correspondence course, built his own studio in
Memphis, and began to record black and white artists
for the youth market. He was a big fan of rhythm and
blues. As owner of Sun Records, he said that if he “could
find a white man who had the Negro sound and the
Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars.” He found him
in Elvis. If we have time, we’ll watch a bit about Sun.
 Like Elvis, most the white rockabilly and rock n' rollers
from the south grew up in very poor working class or
farming families – were so-called “white trash.”
 They all gravitated to Sun Records in Memphis, which
was also home to the black cultural hearth: Beale Street.
 Elvis had big hits doing covers of Big Mama Thornton
(“You Ain’t Nothing But a Hound Dog”), and Arthur
“Big Boy” Crudup (“That’s All Right, Mama”).
Rock n' Roll
 Most early rockers – including Elvis, Carl Perkins, Bill Haley,
and Jerry Lee Lewis – were influenced both by country
(particularly bluegrass and Western swing) and rhythm &
blues, and this blend came to be known as rockabilly or rock n'
roll.
 Even black artists worked in the rockabilly genre. One of the
first rock songs ever, “Maybellene” by Chuck Berry (1955),
struck the Chess brothers as an anomaly. To them, it sounded
like a back guy playing country music. And I will play you an
example of a really good black rockabilly tune.
 The emergence of rock reflected: the growing popularity of
black music amongst white youth, and the pioneering role of
small regional studios/ record companies.
 As the major companies realized they were missing out, they
quickly got artists like Pat Boone to release very watered-down
covers of rock and r & b songs by black artists.
Rock n' Roll
 Even more so than in the jazz era,
the rock era of the '50s showcased
the phenomenon of white artists
earning wealth and fame off music
that originated with black artists.
Three exceptions were Chuck Berry,
Little Richard, and Fats Domino.
 Little Richard was an interesting
case in that he pushed the
boundaries of gender by being
bisexual (though not that openly),
by wearing make-up (thus starting
the androgynous trend in rock
music), and dubbing himself the
“King and Queen of Rock n' Roll.”
Source: Google Images.
Rock n' Roll
 It's not that surprising that most of the first wave of rock
artists came from the south. There were radio stations
with powerful signals that were blasting black music onto
white campuses, and white artists used to go check out
the music and 'moves' of their black compatriots.
 The South has always been a big stew pot for the
interaction of different musical styles: r & b, country,
blues, rockabilly, Cajun, gospel, and more.
 Ironically, white DJs in the south began playing black
music on the radio before those in the north. However,
one Cleveland DJ who played a major role in promoting
black artists was Alan Freed, who claimed to have
invented the term 'rock n' roll,' and who was organizing
integrated concerts in the city as early as 1952.
Rock n' Roll
 Mass-produced transistor and car radios put music in the
hands of youth, and the new disposable income of 1950s'
teens meant that they had bigger allowances to spend on
records and the other accoutrements of the youth culture.
Moreover, movies like “The Blackboard Jungle,” “Rock
Around the Clock,” and “Rebel Without A Cause” helped
popularize the music and rebellion of youth to the
consternation of many.
 The appeal of black artists to white teens caused enormous
angst amongst parents and the gatekeepers of society. Frank
Sinatra, for instance, described rock as the music of
“cretinous goons” – “the most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious
form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear.”
 This was also at a time when the civil rights movement was
producing major social upheaval.
Rock n' Roll
 In the '60s, rare copies of blues, soul and first wave rock
records made their way to Britain, often through sailors of the
merchant marine and specialty stores, and influenced a whole
generation of British musicians, who had grown up playing
skiffle – a sort of blend of folk and jazz.
 They had an explosive effect. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones
(named after a Muddy Waters song), the Yardbirds, John
Mayall and his Bluesbreakers (where Clapton got his start), the
original Fleetwood Mac, Cream, Led Zeppelin, Jeff Beck and
others were all hugely influenced by American blues especially.
Rock n' Roll
 Many such musicians seemed to connect with the somewhat
rebellious or resilient spirit of the music.
 While the influence of black blues artists on later generations of
white rock n' rollers in the U.S. was not as profound, it did
occur, as in the case of Bob Dylan, the Doors, and Johnny
Winter. In the U.S., country also had a big influence, as with
the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and the Eagles. The
blues-influenced British rock, however, had a huge influence in
the form of the “British Invasion” and subsequent heavy metal.
 While we don't have time to go into the subsequent evolution of
rock it has mostly become a white genre (there are notable
exceptions, like Living Color and Bad Brains). Moreover, from
time to time, rock has played an important role as a vehicle for
social protest (see “33 and 1/3 Revolutions”). Only country
rivals it for the top form of popular music today, though both
have become quite formulaic.
Rock n' Roll
 Some key elements that accounted for the growth in the
popularity of rock n' roll include:
 rural folk moving to the cities and bringing their musical
traditions with them where they mixed with others;
 more powerful radio stations, transistor and car radios;
 new, small regional studios and record companies;
 the adoption of largely electric instrumentation, especially
the guitar;
 the absorption of major artists (who often started out with
small, regional labels) by the big recording companies;
 the emergence of a relatively affluent post-war teenage
population who had money to spend on records, etc. and
who were looking for vehicles to create their own unique
identity and focus for rebellion.
 Any other factors you can think of?
The Globalization of Rock n' Roll
 Rock has become a global genre, and has evolved many
sub-genres over the last sixty years. What are some of the
most important of these?
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