I was just gonna post, looks like I rate Fats higher than all y'all. Maybe not "the best" in this poll, but the one I have listened to the most.
― A Perfect Ratio of Choogle to Jam (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 16:39 (ten years ago) link
everybody's seen this righthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeZHB3ozglQ
― PLATYPUS OF DOOM (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 16:43 (ten years ago) link
and thishttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMZjAOoX6nw
This is really hard! I think I'll go with Carl Perkins just because I read his bio and I think I know the most about him as a person and also I love his music, esp the really bouncy stuff. I love all these dudes though. I was really into the 50s when I was a kid. it's the best music for dancing if you like bouncing around.
cuz i was born and raised in a… a butcher shophttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqk2sPcF5r8&feature=kp
― Mayor Manuel (La Lechera), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 16:44 (ten years ago) link
This is really tough. Not just because yesterday I had "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On" stuck in my head. It's cool that even after all this time, if you go back and listen to the original rock n roll records, they are rawer and rock harder than 90% of everything that has come since.
― ▴▲ ▴TH3CR()$BY$H()W▴▲ ▴ (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 16:49 (ten years ago) link
Torn between Bo Diddley & Little Richard. I love all these guys though.
― smhphony orchestra (crüt), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 16:49 (ten years ago) link
goddamn Dixie Fried is great
― brio, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 16:50 (ten years ago) link
That '55 Diddley clip is so amazing.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 16:52 (ten years ago) link
i thought no one would vote perkins, so i did, but then i saw la lechera's post and i'm glad to know someone else did too!
― marcos, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 16:56 (ten years ago) link
looks like a diddley/holly/berry battle so far
― brio, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 16:58 (ten years ago) link
1:17https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMBB5xLUpO4
― PLATYPUS OF DOOM (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 17:02 (ten years ago) link
It doesn't appear to be on youtube, but the joint interview with Berry, Diddley and Richard on the DVD of Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll is completely fascinating.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 17:09 (ten years ago) link
Just curious, but why no Everly Brothers? Too country?
― DavidLeeRoth, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 17:09 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ6h0kyqSRk&list=PLCCB856712819EEDD
― ▴▲ ▴TH3CR()$BY$H()W▴▲ ▴ (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 17:10 (ten years ago) link
My own personal pantheon would include Berry, Diddley, and Holly. (Also the Everlys.) Most of the rest have at least one song I completely love (e.g., "The Girl Can't Help It," "Lewis Boogie"), but overall, not nearly as many as the first three.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 17:11 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcXnoZxvyDs
― smhphony orchestra (crüt), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 17:12 (ten years ago) link
no real logic to leaving out the everlys, they just didn't spring to mind. all the rest are solo acts maybe?
― brio, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 17:13 (ten years ago) link
For just one, I'll vote for Chuck. I wouldn't have included Orbison either. He had some good songs in the '50s, but the work he's famous for comes later. I would have included Johnny Cash, though I realize the lines between rock & roll/country and rock & roll/R&B (you could say Clyde McPhatter was as important as almost anyone on that list) are blurry.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 17:15 (ten years ago) link
Woo! Thanks, crüt!
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 17:18 (ten years ago) link
saw both Chuck and Carl live in the '80s, goin w/ Chuck. Would loved to have seen Richard and JLL in their prime.
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 17:21 (ten years ago) link
Ah, now that I watch that clip, I was thinking of the unedited interview which runs about 15 minutes or so. It's apparently only on the 4-DVD set (which is out of print).
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 17:26 (ten years ago) link
I don't know, I thought about Cash but it seems like Johnny was pretty identifiably country (and self-identified as such) pretty early on - there's something really different rhythm and guitar-wise between most of his stuff and even someone as similar as Carl Perkins, seems to me anyway.
then again...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBLgtKVwptA
― brio, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 17:27 (ten years ago) link
love most of these guys (i've barely heard any gene vincent, need to rectify that), but it's gotta be little richard. even if his 'great' period only lasted a couple years, he made probably the most joyous, life-affirming music i've ever heard. every time one of his songs comes up on my ipod i inevitably end up having to listen to 5 or 6 more.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 17:31 (ten years ago) link
This documentary about Gene Vincent's 1969 British tour is heartbreaking and brilliant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSDSand-6IY(Though some of my love for it is as artefact of weird old shabby England)
― woof, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 17:32 (ten years ago) link
Bill Haley!
― DavidLeeRoth, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 17:45 (ten years ago) link
Twenty years ago, I was listening to all these guys non-stop, and would have had a hard time choosing. But now Bo is clearly the visionary- I play his records and watch his clips the most. Just the totality of his sound, the way it blurs lyrics and chords and amplification and beats into a single rhythmic thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwBcuU7ii64
― Yarl Kastremski (bendy), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 17:46 (ten years ago) link
Bill Haley's later years area really depressing story
― PLATYPUS OF DOOM (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 17:46 (ten years ago) link
bo does seem to have the most avant garde approach to sonics, and he's the easiest to hear in stuff like vu and stooges
― brio, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 17:50 (ten years ago) link
Holly for his songwriting vs. Diddley for his inventiveness vs. Vincent for his demeanour vs. Berry for his guitar (and again, songwriting). But the others are all great in their way too. Tough to pick only one.
Yeah, I was thinking Bill Haley should be here too. So much more to him than just "Rock Around the Clock" and "Shake, Rattle, and Roll"
― Lee626, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 17:51 (ten years ago) link
Sitting in a restaurant humming Rock Around the Track hoping someone will recognize him. Sad stuff. Actually a great performer and musician gets overlooked by rock n' rollers because he still has a little bit of the big band era vibe about him. That and he wasn't the best looking of rockers.
― DavidLeeRoth, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 17:52 (ten years ago) link
Clock*
seriously? other than 13 Women he seems super corny. maybe i haven't heard the right stuff.
― brio, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 17:53 (ten years ago) link
bo does seem to have the most avant garde approach to sonics
Definitely--I think all drone traces back to him.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 18:00 (ten years ago) link
xpost sorry - that sounded harsh re haley - I honestly haven't heard anything except two or three songs, i'll check him out
― brio, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 18:00 (ten years ago) link
Buddy Holly.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 18:03 (ten years ago) link
I have more of an appreciation for sound than songs/singing, plus I do like a bit of novelty/weirdness, and Bo scratches those itches more than the others. What brio said, basically.
Don't think Elvis would've gotten more than a vote or two. He was the first one I was exposed to, naturally, and would've gotten my vote when I was 6-10 years old.
― Sir Lord Baltimora (Myonga Vön Bontee), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 18:05 (ten years ago) link
bendy where is that "Guitar Rebop" track from
― PLATYPUS OF DOOM (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 18:13 (ten years ago) link
It's Henry Flynt
http://www.discogs.com/Henry-Flynt-New-American-Ethnic-Music-Volume-3-Hillbilly-Tape-Music/release/1047232
― Yarl Kastremski (bendy), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 18:17 (ten years ago) link
― brio, Wednesday, April 30, 2014 12:50 PM (28 minutes ago) Bookmark
otm
― Mayor Manuel (La Lechera), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 18:20 (ten years ago) link
Elvis was great in the '50s. Just in a different place and context, not largely of his doing.
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 18:22 (ten years ago) link
He was great in the 50s, tremendous in the 70s. His voice had grown immeasurably in range and depth of feeling, and the TBC Band could not be fucked with. I love the Sun records, but much of his 70s work (particularly the live stuff) is among his (anyone's) best.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 18:25 (ten years ago) link
Elvis is kind of the least interesting formally to me, like he just seems like a conventional old-mold "crooner" type who managed to get grafted onto and ride the crest of rock n roll. He's still endlessly fascinating ("That's the Way it Was" is one of my all-time favorite musical performance docs) but I've never gotten the sense that he, personally, was musically on the level of any of these other dudes.
― PLATYPUS OF DOOM (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 18:26 (ten years ago) link
he def acknowledged his Dean Martin idolatry, which is OK with me
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 18:27 (ten years ago) link
a long time ago i dated a guy who used to do elvis covers in his cover band (he played guitar) and the first time i saw them play it made me melt, like i just wanted to die when they played because it sounded so good. i had never heard those songs live before. he was an awful boyfriend but i will admit that he really knew how to rip it up 50s style.
― Mayor Manuel (La Lechera), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 18:36 (ten years ago) link
he was an awful boyfriend but i will admit that he really knew how to rip it up 50s style.
probably true of all the poll options
― brio, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 18:48 (ten years ago) link
Kinda hard not to be "cold" and "unfeeling" when you're dead, though.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 18:57 (ten years ago) link
Little Richard by about a million
― idontknowanythingabouttechnlolgeez (waterface), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 18:59 (ten years ago) link
Johnny Burnette is my favorite missing from this list. I've got the excellent Bear Family "Rocks" compilation for each but Bo (they haven't done one yet) and I'm going with Little Richard, whose 50s work is just so singular and far out that he must've scared every white bigot in the country.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 19:01 (ten years ago) link
motorik:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jmNe77vces
― smhphony orchestra (crüt), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 19:01 (ten years ago) link
yeah I feel a bit like songwriting and sonics are being privileged a bit over the sheer presence and wildness of Little Richard and Jerry Lee. They kind of embody rock n roll in a way the others don't to me. Just the sense of abandon, showmanship, and freakiness in those two dudes has to count for something. I voted Bo , but now in terms of just pure rock n roll power I'm not sure if he ever deliver anything as explosive as Tutti Frutti or Breathless.
― brio, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 19:07 (ten years ago) link
Great results, hard to argue with for the most part. Jerry Lee remains the all-time rock n roll underdog, I guess. Also a little surprised Bo didn't do better given all the praise in this thread - but Chuck definitely deserves the crown.
― brio, Thursday, 15 May 2014 14:43 (ten years ago) link
Of course, Jerry Lee is the guy who recorded both "Born To Lose" and "Born To Be A Loser" so results fit with his own mythology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9-eEqACkh4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4ynVJPu_dI
― brio, Thursday, 15 May 2014 14:47 (ten years ago) link
and "You Win Again"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6JPzGIVB7M
― brio, Thursday, 15 May 2014 14:49 (ten years ago) link
I feel like Cochran getting shut out is mostly due to the demographics of poll voters - he was big shit in England but nobody at home gave a fuck about him, was always my impression.
And yeah, that Loud, Fast & Out of Control box is great. So is the sequel, Rockin' Bones.
― Humorist (horse) (誤訳侮辱), Thursday, 15 May 2014 14:54 (ten years ago) link
JLL definitely underrepresented in these poll results -- Gene Vincent ain't that hot, y'all.
― smhphony orchestra (crüt), Thursday, 15 May 2014 14:59 (ten years ago) link
i voted for chuck berry but i feel bad for jerry lee now
― dollar rave club (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 15 May 2014 15:05 (ten years ago) link
I think it's actually kind of great. Jerry Lee's whole schtick is about sneering contempt at the world for not recognizing him as the one true king. Nice to see it justified.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6BUHsHRRYk
― brio, Thursday, 15 May 2014 15:13 (ten years ago) link
Great thread, which I wish I'd seen sooner. Lots of great one-shots on various Sun collections; check Ike Turner in the 50s (incl. on Sun); ditto Cash, with all his Sun tracks released as a series of albums a few years back (on his MySpace and maybe Spotify too, come to think of it): he's already assimilating rock & roll into his own thang, as is Charlie Rich. Link Wray, on the other hand, is rock & roll.
― dow, Thursday, 15 May 2014 15:57 (ten years ago) link
xpost Rockin Bones not really a sequel, just focuses on mostly obscure rockabilly cuts. Still great, though!
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 15 May 2014 15:59 (ten years ago) link
Wanda Jackson's Complete Capitol Singles has all the lemon-squeezers and weepers too (the latter label-mandated, albeit insincere-sounding apologies for the former, Ah suspect).
― dow, Thursday, 15 May 2014 16:00 (ten years ago) link
the xpost Everys were and are p crucial. The harmonies linking great country brother tradition/innovation to Beatles, Byrds, etc., and also, their singles producer Chet Atkins bragged about slipping Diddlyesque guitar(in)to the Pat Boone fans, with who knows whut-all results.
― dow, Thursday, 15 May 2014 16:05 (ten years ago) link
I wish C Grisso wouldve posted about Fats. I feel bad for how I kinda mounted a throwaway defense. Feels like without Fats and Lloyd Price, there's no Little Richard...
― otterface (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 15 May 2014 19:11 (ten years ago) link
Correction: the xpost Wanda Jackson collection I was thinking of is actually The Best of The Capitol Classic Singles, on Omnivore/Universal, 2013. The ballads make it uneven, but they get better, and the rockabilly tracks are even more startling by contrast.
― dow, Friday, 16 May 2014 15:28 (ten years ago) link
Holy smokes, how have I never heard Jimmy Wages until today? This is amazing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGcs8Q_AOA4
― wild-eyed, high-volume bursts of pious indignation (Dan Peterson), Monday, 16 June 2014 17:47 (nine years ago) link
woah - first time hearing this for me too, thanks!
― Brio2, Monday, 16 June 2014 18:59 (nine years ago) link
He got talked up a bit and this song was posted in a different 1950s thread, but I hadn't seen it. I listened to this three times in a row today, along with everything else I could find by him. There isn't much, the few songs he recorded for Sun were never released.
― wild-eyed, high-volume bursts of pious indignation (Dan Peterson), Monday, 16 June 2014 21:35 (nine years ago) link
We don't really have a better thread for the ridiculously obscure 50s rock I love, so I'm gonna just post this here. Gotta love both the name Chewing Ray and the title "Little Boogie Ding Dong." (This seems like a rewrite of "Giddy Up A Ding Dong" by someone who's maybe not a native English speaker?) I can't figure out most of the words, or the country of origin (and is that an accordion in the background?), but this just swings like nuts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjb5IUtRekQ
― wild-eyed, high-volume bursts of pious indignation (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 18 June 2014 17:58 (nine years ago) link
I'm not going to poll this, since it would only get a handful of votes. I'm currently reading Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock and Roll and came across this:
In 1958 Alan Freed started his first "Big Beat" Tour headlined by Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Frankie Lymon, but it crashed head-on with Irvin Feld's Biggest Show of Stars for 1958, starring Sam Cooke, The Everly Brothers, Clyde McPhatter and Jackie Wilson... Another tour featuring The Midnighters, the 5 Royales, Bo Diddley, Etta James and Little Willie John, threw in the towel after a week.
Three amazing line-ups; given a time machine, which would you see? (fwiw Domino was tired of eighty day tours by that time and declined the Big Beat tour, although it bears the name of one of his songs.)
― Dick Clownload (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 8 October 2014 18:15 (nine years ago) link
ahem
― Do Not POLL At Any Price (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 8 October 2014 18:23 (nine years ago) link
haha so otm.
― Dick Clownload (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 8 October 2014 18:32 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, this went over about as well as I thought it would. I was mostly just marvelling at that third bill, which I don't imagine was planned for predominantly white venues, but man... Hank Ballard, prime period Bo and Etta, Lowman Pauling!
― Dick Clownload (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 9 October 2014 17:11 (nine years ago) link
Oh, this is easier than you might think it would be. Seeing Sam Cooke sing live would be it for me. What else would be left to do? What could top that?
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 9 October 2014 17:23 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, I'd pick the Sam Cooke tour. Not only would Sam be gone in a few years, but also Clyde and Jackie.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 9 October 2014 17:27 (nine years ago) link
Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Frankie Lymon
never heard of frankie, but the rest of that line up would easily seal if for me.
of for the chance to see the killer in his prime years ..
― mark e, Thursday, 9 October 2014 17:36 (nine years ago) link
Only one of these is a the godfather
― samovars are trying to steep (wins), Sunday, 19 March 2017 12:03 (seven years ago) link
Surprised to find that Fats Domino is younger than Chuck Berry, always thought he was much older.
― Dan Worsley, Monday, 20 March 2017 08:46 (seven years ago) link