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Home , Blues shouter, Rhythm and blues, Riff, Rocket 88, Rock Around the Clock, Sixty Minute Man

Music 262: Rock , History and Social Analysis, R&B Records – Disc Jockeys

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[Brian Ward]: So now we’re talking about and music and how it came from all these styles that we talked about in Unit 1. I want to start by talking about some of these early innovators. Rhythm and blues music is actually the original name of rock n’ roll. Rock n’ roll, the name of the style of music, didn’t come along until a little bit later in the 1950s. In the 40s we had this music. A lot of the times it was called race music or rhythm and blues music. The reason we have that distinction is because the at that time was segregated. Along with segregation in public society and institutions, we have segregation of different radio stations. We have a white radio station and a black radio station. Back then we have a white and a black record label. A lot of times the white record label would have a subsidiary of their label for what they called race music at the time. Now this is really kind of a mish mash of things. When we look at it backwards, we are trying to put names on it. Really for the purpose of this class, we’ll call it rhythm and blues. Rhythm and blues is made by .

One of the original rhythm and blues innovators is this guy named Joe Turner. Joe Turner was a vocalist from Kansas City. He was known as the boss of the blues. He was a . He would work with big bands from Kansas City that had a real style of and very blues oriented, very groove based. He had this style of singing that was very direct and really exciting. He was one of the original rhythm and blues artists.

Along with him was a guy named . Louis Jordan is another; he’s a player from Kansas City. He’s also a vocalist. He had a great band which was a little bit smaller called the . Louis Jordan had a lot of athletic things that he would do on stage. It was what was called a jump band. The music made you want to jump. It was made for swing dancers, but there’s a really heaving driving beat. It’s not typical jazz. Also they stuck to a lot of blues and rhythm change forms that is not typical of jazz. Also they stuck to a lot of blues and rhythm changes forms. A lot of people think that the name rhythm and blues comes from this style because they played rhythm type and blues type songs.

Another really important rhythm and blues innovator is a guy named T-Bone Walker who played . T-Bone Walker really was very important because he was the first guy to popularize the and rhythm and blues music. When you listen to T-Bone Walker, the way he plays that, you’ll notice it’s quite different and really sounds like rock n’ roll. He uses the guitar in a different way. Before him, people would use the guitar as a rhythm instrument to keep the beat and to play chords. He used the electric and amplification to make the guitar really sing and play blues lines and we hear that in rock n’ roll. It’s been there ever since he started doing that.

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Another important artist is a artist named Muddy Waters. He influenced a lot of musicians, especially British musicians. He was the originator of the Chicago blues sound. He took the blues and he electrified all the instruments, even the harmonica. The harmonica would even be electrified by playing it through a microphone and going through an amplifier, changing the sound. It had a major influence on all the rock bands that came after him, especially the British bands.

So how did rock n’ roll develop out of rhythm and blues? Well it’s kind of the story of our country in a way, socially and politically and it has to do with technology as well. There was at the time a.m. radio. There a lot of stations that had a wide range, 50,000 watt stations. What you could do is be in North Carolina and you could pick up the radio stations from Memphis, Tennessee or Nashville for instance. It’s pretty far away when you could pick it up loud and clear especially on a clear night. These R&B radio stations would be broadcasting and white audiences would be listening, especially youngsters, teenagers. That’s how rock n’ roll really started. Young white teens listened to these R&B stations. They would call in; they couldn’t really tell if the DJs were black and white. It didn’t really matter at that time. These powerful stations were heard all over the United States. So that’s how this rhythm and blues music got out there. So of course this trend was picked up by other DJs. What we end up having is these white DJs mimicking the sound or the speech pattern of black DJs and playing rhythm and blues music because they love this music so much. They would put this music out there. A real good example of this is WLAC in Nashville. There were four white DJs there that played rhythm and blues. They spread it all over the eastern coast and the south. They eventually became known as the 50,000 watt Quartet, these four DJs. That’s a real important development for rock n’ roll. It’s how it got out there. Actually, the first black DJ was a guy known as Nat D. Williams and he was at an all-black station in Memphis, WDIA. It had a big influence on that city and on the surrounding region in developing rhythm and blues and putting it out there on the airwaves.

So how does rhythm and blues transition into rock n’ roll? Well there’s really no time exact thing that happened. Rock n’ roll really is rhythm and blues especially in its early stages. There was really no distinction at all. So what we want to do is look to see which record came out that was the first rock n’ roll record. Nobody really knows or can agree. In fact there’s a whole book on the subject. I’m going to talk about three different records that kind of exemplify where the rhythm and blues transitioned into rock n’ roll. So the first one is this called . If you listen to it, you’re going to hear this woogie kind of bass and a heavy driving backbeat. The song is about a car, a Rocket 88. It was a style of car back then; it was very popular and sporty. This song was made by and . 1951. So the fact that it has this driving beat, this boogie woogie kind of bass line and this song was about a car, the typical rock n’ roll subject especially in the early 50s and 60s kind of points to the fact that it might be the first rock n’ roll record.

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Another style of song that has been around for a long time since the 20s was what they called a double entendre type song. What a double entendre is, is you’re saying one thing, but you’re saying it in a different way. So it especially works well when you’re speaking about a type of vulgar subject like sex for instance. So a good example is, Ma Rainey had this song, a jazz song called Sugar in my Bowl. So she’s talking about sugar in a bowl, but really she’s speaking about something else which has to do with sex. One of the first rhythm and blues songs and this was a big hit actually. This was a song called 60 minute man. It was by Billy Ward and his Dominoes. It was the first double entendre hit in rhythm and blues. It sold a million records and this was a formative R&B group. They got this song out there and this is called . When you listen to it, you will hear this guy bragging about his sexual prowess. He’s doing it in a way where he’s not really spelling it out but you know exactly what he’s talking about. That’s what a double entendre song is. So a rhythm and blues song that has to do with teenage love and sex also kind of crosses over into the rock n’ roll realm.

Another song was this song, it’s very famous, it’s called hound dog. Everybody knows this song from Elvis’s version. “You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog. Cryin’ all the time.” Well originally this song was made by Big Mama Thorton. Big Mama Thorton was a hugely popular rhythm and blues singer. She originally recorded this song. Now when Elvis did it, he made it from a version that he heard from a lounge singer. He didn’t really sing the original words. The song was really about a gigolo and this woman is kicking him out of her house. That’s one of the early rock n’ roll records as well. Most people tend to think of by and the Comets as the first real rock n’ roll song. It was the first rock n’ roll song to go number one on the . It was featured on the soundtrack to the movie and it was the first important white rock n’ roll song that came out there. This song has all the elements of rock n’ roll in it. It has the heavy driving backbeat, the boogie woogie bass line and lyrics about teenagers, and it even has the word “rock” in the title.

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