Fifties Rock N Rollers POLL

I don't know about Ray Charles, he's like Johnny Cash - related and important to Rock N Roll but outside it

genre boundaries are extremely fluid and subjective things, though.

Latest Bo I heard was 20th Anniversary of Rock 'n' Roll which I bought because Keith Moon is on it. Come to find out Moon only plays tambourine, and it's a pretty boring all-star session.

Tempted to go w Fats bcz The Fat Man is v possibly the first rock song (though Louis Jordan's Saturday Night Fish Fry gives it a run for its money imo)
No, this one from 1928:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wquFkHOhIL4

that song/recording is killer

my dad saw Bo Diddley in the late 50s and swears he ate a cigar onstage...best show he saw in 40 years of concert going

Very hard choice, but went for Bo
some of my faves already posted. Best insults on vinyl here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45ZdKCFFR3I

Chuck Berry's singles discography is voluminous. Distinct classic after distinct classic. There would have to be some major deep cut realization with any of the other artists to make me vote for one of them.

It's probably not in the spirit of the poll, but I voted for Buddy Holly because, more than any of the others, he was a real bridge to the '60s. Had he lived, I suspect his best work was ahead of him.

Hail, hail, it's Chuck for me.

Shouldn't Link Wray be on this poll?

Couldn't really vote - lots of love for all in the list, including Eddie Cochran and Fats Domino who haven't been talked about on here that much.

Kinda love seeing so many of these guys' clips on youtube. I have spent the odd hour or two every now and then just flicking through those performances on decayed B&W.

I think the poll choices are right- the likes of Link Wray, Wanda Jackson or Johnny Burnette didn't really have a big profile in the 50s, not like these guys. Elvis was an order of magnitude bigger culturally, though maybe not artistically. Vocal groups like Everly Brothers or Coasters didn't have the songwriting chops. Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, Ike Turner feel like guys who recorded great rock songs, but were to the side of the genre overall. The guys on this list are the key ones who influenced the rock-era garage bands and beat groups.

Also, everyone in this group seems like they were a weirdo, which is essential. Weirdos who got careers out of it (though maybe not royalties.)

The long tail is very very long for early r 'n' r, and since it wasn't an album genre at that point, one fantastic track could make a performer feel legendary later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxt_7sD9znM&feature=kp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrOqqKO7tBE

Always loved Ray Smith from those Sun rockabilly comps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyTZ2Pkb9cA&feature=kp

That ain't rockabilly, BTW. This is closer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lkh1eBUviKs

Just read Bendy's interesting post above. The choices for the poll are just fine--there's no formula that will generate a precise list. But for what it's worth, I would put Cochran and Vincent to the side of the other seven. I think of them as guys who became legendary largely because of dying young (really young in Cochran's case), because of one (Vincent) or maybe three (Cochran) songs, and primarily in England at that.

Some good posts yesterday and today, especially from Tim and Hideous Lump. Remember coming up being constantly surprised by hearing another cover of another as-yet-unheard Chuck Berry song and it being just as good as the ones I already knew. Will flack again for the documentary The Real Buddy Holly Story. in which Keith Richards talks about what a big inspiration Buddy Holly was because he had a self-contained unit, writing and playing the songs- "he had the whole package" I think is what he said. Also some nice stuff from the Everlys about their friendship with up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSDMRjBjKIg

vincent and cochran should come after ricky nelson imo

I'm torn between Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis....but i think it has to be Jerry Lee for me. Playing the shit out of the piano like that in a time when everyone was picking up guitars, and making the piano sound dangerous and exciting -- and that voice!! still gets me jazzed whenever I listen to it. and i love his country stuff too, its really good. yeah. its the Killer for me.

Gene's lead guitarist, Cliff Gallup, unjustly ignored itt

You will get no argument from me on that.

Although you left out his honorific: "Galloping" or "Gallopin'" Cliff Gallup.

Great thread, love all the love. Recommend watching through the Hail Hail Rock & Roll clip crut posted and into the next chapter - long, poorly-told but wonderful anecdote from Bruce Springsteen.

This is Chuck for me for the sheer size of the 'stone cold classics' pile - not sure anybody else here can sustain a Great Twenty-Eight of perfectly hooky, earwormy songs - although I like everybody here quite a bit. Fats and Jerry are the only ones where I'd be 100% satisfied owning just a cheap shitty 10-track greatest hits.

Bo is maybe cooler than Chuck, but I'm not sure I'd say he's necessarily sonically more ambitious, just closer to lots of later ILM-friendly weirdo music. It's easy to forget that before Chuck Berry, rock and roll guitar didn't have a standard sound yet, and Chuck's songs weren't yet the default sourcebook for meat-and-potatoes bar bands. So I suspect both guys had to sound like equally bizarre, wonderful, where-the-fuck-did-this-come-from kinds of music. TS: Chuck Berry's "Maybelline" vs. Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love" gets into all this a bit I think.

Is the Springsteen story about playing as Chuck's backup but nobody knowing the keys of any of the songs except one guy who was "the historian of the band"?

Yeah! And Chuck showing up minutes before showtime, by himself, just starting into his set and expecting the band to know what's up.

Consistent with this practice I believe he is also in the 0.001% of guitarists who actually enjoy checking their instrument at the airport to let it fly in the hold and then upon arrival watching it arrive on the conveyor belt at the other end to see if it is in one piece.

Maybe the fourth or fifth gig I ever paid to see was Chuck Berry. The local pick up band played for a while, then out comes Chuck duck walking. Plays Johnny B. Good, Maybelline, a few others, on guitar. Waves at us and leaves the stage after twenty minutes, tops. Probably 17 minutes. Everyone clapped and chanted for him to come out, but after 10 minutes of that, it turned into a chant of "What the fuck Chuck". I think he was long gone by then.

Crazy great on guitar, that should have read.

xpost lol

I got to see Jerry Lee Lewis in 2007...he could hardly walk, and even just sitting at the piano looked like it was causing him considerable pain. I wasn't really sure what we were going to get when he came out but man, even while his whole body was betraying him & he had to sit practically rigid he played the shit out of every song, just the ultimate showman. I'm really glad I got to see him.

Yeah! And Chuck showing up minutes before showtime, by himself, just starting into his set and expecting the band to know what's up.

I read an interview with Chuck where he said that his only instructions (or words of any kind) to his pick-up bands are, "When I put my foot down, start; when I put it down again, stop."

All of them were great and while I think Bo Diddley had more attitude, you got to go with Chuck Berry. The guy had just a huge catalog with songs and when paired with his guitar playing you pretty much have the foundation for nearly every rock band that followed. It's possible that Berry's bust and the odd turns and peculiarities of his attitude towards music might somewhat obscure what he did in a few short years, but the guy laid our the rock band DNA. Just his influence on the Stones and then the Stones shadow alone is pretty huge.

Bo Diddley definitely had the attitude, hell "Who Do You Love" might have invented metal and punk right there, but he doesn't have that body of songs like Chuck Berry. Bo and Link Wray never lost the attitude and made cool ass music whether the world bought it or not all the way home.

Buddy Holly was also a singer/songwriter on an electric guitar, but he didn't have the blues in the same way.

I think Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis were much more dynamic performers but the sax/piano sound really didn't make it out of the 50s as "the" sound of rock and roll.

The other guys are great, but they just don't have quite the same profile.

Little Richard by a shriek over Chuck Berry.

Also love Bo Diddley, but I will play Little Richard more than the rest combined.

I love Chuck, but he sure had his share of throwaways too - and his biggest hit was maybe the worst goofy novelty song of all time.

Way upthread but btw I think this is unfair and maybe not accurate - highest chart peak yeah but surely some of the early ones were bigger hits in terms of sustained chart/jukebox presence? Dunno if I'd rate My Ding-a-Ling that low in the canon of goofy novelty songs anyway, and if you bring that in it's also fair to consider his 60s singles, several of which are substantial additions to the rock library (No Particular Place To Go, Nadine, You Never Can Tell...).

Would there ever have been Roxy Music, glam rock, or New Wave without Little Richard?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Hard to call how ILX will go on this one - much solid championing of the first five and some of the underdogs here.

It's between Bo and Fats for me. Will probably vote Fats just because he seems way underrated in this thread.

Bo will probably take it by a nose.

Went Buddy over Chuck, but man , Chuck Berry ...

the good thing is there really is no wrong answer here

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Should have voted for Eddie instead of Carl.

One of the earlier guys to do multitracking, always nice to the session men, at least according to Earl Palmer, wrote and performed some great, clever tunes, novelty or otherwise, mainly in that comedic 50s put-upon teenager vein.

I'm quite comfortable with my winning vote. Really, ladies bathroom cameras be damned, he's truly the end-all-be-all of ROCK AND ROLL. I just changed from Celtic Frost 'To Mega Therion' to Great 28 with nary a blink. I've got a few buds that went through that whole 80s State Fair Circuit-Know-The-Hits-Watch-Chuck-Get-His-Wad-of-Cash-And-Goddamnit-Watch-Him-On-The-Changes-On-'My-Ding-A-Ling'-bullshit, dammit if those weren't great ROCK AND ROLL shows. Shit, every major label at the time screwed him, and yet he is paragon of USA ROCK. I had the most surreal day in St. Louis once when I caught a late night Tivoli showing of David Lynch's 'Lost Highway,' and then walked to his club to see him perform & chat & get an autograph, and then take a train to an unrequited love in a downtown hotel. Those memories of seeing him give smoking performances still certainly balance out the recent New Years show in Chicago where I'm pretty sure he had a minor stroke on stage. (Yes I know he hasn't been too hot live for many years, but let a rockist have his fun).

No qualms with the win, place and show, just a wee bit disappointed about the shutout. Maybe it's because his name was misspelled? Anyway, time for a new screenname.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyU5bsfRdpE

Surprised JLL is so low, and maybe that Gene Vincent is that high, otherwise everything more or less what I expected. Lot of votes, heartening--I've been saying for the past couple of years that '50s rock and roll is slowly vanishing from (excuse me here) the discourse, and that I'm guilty myself.

Come to my house Clemenza, where it pretty much IS the discourse. Even tonight, when I'm listening to The Blasters and Ten Years After. They both owe a ton to all these dudes. We all do.

i'm not sure the blasters owe a ton to '50s rock and rollers so much as they *are* '50s rock and rollers for all intents and purposes.

and of course friend-of-the-blasters billy zoom played for a short time with our #5 vote-getter, gene vincent.