Fifties Rock N Rollers POLL

ie. he's a genius

But yeah it's a shame he never learned calculus and theoretical physics and ended up designing rockets for the military industrial complex. You know, genius stuff.

is that some kind of jokey reference to Skunk Baxter

Baxter Stockman

But yeah it's a shame he never learned calculus and theoretical physics and ended up designing rockets for the military industrial complex. You know, genius stuff.
― ▴▲ ▴TH3CR()$BY$H()W▴▲ ▴ (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, May 1, 2014 11:51 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://pixel.nymag.com/content/dam/daily/vulture/2013/08/23/23-thomas-pynchon.jpg

oops, sorry about the size (thomas pynchon)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8de10hR6Xho

Sorry for continuing to derail this.

Thought it was Ray Charles who was known as The Genius.

lol at Pynchon photo.

Genius is pain
-Bob MarleyKurt VonnegutDr. Winston O'Boogie

Hard to believe we made it this deep into a 50's rock convo without a Link Wray mention. I'm really only familiar with "Rumble", but he's got to have his fans around these parts.

― DavidLeeRoth, Thursday, May 1, 2014 11:34 AM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Was just listening to Link's version of "Ain't That Lovin' You Babe" and thinking hey, he should be in this thread!

I mean, ffs, in the midst of all the hysteria and pearl-clutching over "juvenile delinquency," he managed to get an instrumental song of his banned.

Did he do the vocals on "Ain't That Lovin' You Babe"?

Did you think I was disparaging Wray because I thought you were misusing the term "genius"?

Saw Link Wray live in 1997 and it was completely awesome. Meanwhile, "Let's go, cats!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqk2sPcF5r8

Hidden Charms is the Link vocal face-melter for me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBAl52LTiAE&feature=kp

xpost WilliamC, no not at all. I just think we have two different definitions for the word.

But yeah it's a shame he never learned calculus and theoretical physics and ended up designing rockets for the military industrial complex. You know, genius stuff.
― ▴▲ ▴TH3CR()$BY$H()W▴▲ ▴ (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, May 1, 2014 11:51 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Thought it was Ray Charles who was known as The Genius.
lol at Pynchon photo.
― Bee Traven Thousand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, May 1, 2014

LOL at the B. Traven screen name...
(Pynchon worked for Boeing before his writing career took off)

Speaking of which, surely Ray Charles is the massive omission here...?

(Also: Johnnie Ray)

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/articles/arts/culturebox/2014/04/140501_CBOX_LRonHubbard.jpg.CROP.original-original.jpg

L Ron Hubbard

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

Another omission, seriously. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttMt9SHRwsM
If you don't believe me, ask John Fogerty or Greil Marcus.

where's Hasil Adkins

Sorry I dont mean to belabor the whole "...but who got left OUT???" angle. I've v recently been getting into a lot of this stuff, and it is absolutely great.

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)

Listening to "Fujiyama Mama" by Wanda Jackson right now. I hate to keep tossing names into the thread especially when they aren't more important than the poll choices, but there's so many great early rockers.

0:45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7Q-CGSPaso

Woah.

Nobody cuts the Killer.

I dunno who the high school marching band in that clip is but lol

i don't know enough about post-50s bo, but is JLL the only one here who might actually have done most of his best stuff after the 50s? sun era's great of course but his later country stuff is incredible.

yeah I dig JLL's country shit, he does a beautiful version of I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

bo did really good stuff all through the sixties, pretty different but gives Jerry lee a run for his money post-50's.
1970 Bo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ki6Fj4I6cc

yeah Bo's peak is probably between '58-'65 or so. and I love those ridiculous 70s funk albums he did but they're kind of a different beast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdy_nZ7abZE

are there any recordings earlier than "Lucille" that have straight eighths played on the hi-hat + snare on the 2 and 4? it seems like the first example of something that has become Rock Drumming 101

always thought black gladiator wass kind of the cut-off for pure gold, but I haven't heard a ton of later stuff

also also also no one's mentioned Johnny Otis in the also-ran/excluded pile :( way underrated

as the proprietor of https://twitter.com/BoDiddleyBeat, i feel obligated to vote for bo.

plus, as mentioned more than once above, he is jesus.

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