the birth of rock and roll (part 4)

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Part 4 of the 5 part series

Updated 03/13/2021
Created 11/16/2003
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theres basie broadcasting live in kansas city with
lester young and herschel evans wowing the crowds
and establishing the tradition of dueling tenors…
and where big joe turner the singing bartender is
shouting out his version of bellowing blues
and pete johnson gives us boogie woogie piano
and bug-eyed louis jordon whips them to a frenzy
with his wild dancing and red hot rhythms
transforming swing into something called jump
the foundation now laid for rhythm and blues.

then suddenly here comes world war two
and sinatra explodes onto the scene in the forties
slurring dreamily into the hearts of teenage girls
and unleashing a torrent of adolescent sexuality
that parents prefer not to deal with it but then
columbus day 1944 paramount theater new york
shows oversold and violence erupts outside
the earliest sign of teenage music mass hysteria
and for the first time ever adolescents rebel and
riot en masse and they can no longer be ignored.

american boys fighting overseas interviewed
and we find they prefer roy acuff and his
crude southern sentiment over refined crooning
folk artists like ernest tubb and tex ritter
“smoke smoke smoke (that cigarette)”
“don’t fence me in” and bob wills gives us
“san antonio rose” and then woody guthrie
makes it big with his “oklahoma hills”
folk blending with blues melding into the
jazz country swing simmer stew oh baby yeah.

wynonie harris and bull moose jackson introduce
a new meaning of blue with stripped down raw
“lovin’ machine” and “big ten inch (record)”
and at the samba club out in los angeles
joe liggins on piano and his honeydrippers
cut “the honeydripper” on april 20, 1945
shuffling instrumental rhythm and sexy sax
a million record seller to black and white both
and some people say that was it but really
it was the birth of rhythm and blues.

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