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    Early rock n roll/R&B

    I was sifting through a stack of CDs that I needed to file today and found The Falcons, I Found a Love (Relic Records). Although there is some overlap with a doo wop thread we had going, I figured I'd start a different thread since some folks differentiate doo wop as acapella only.

    Do folks have recommendations for some early rock n roll/R&B tracks or albums that might be less know?

    Here is the Falcons track:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRJivCb8v-Y

    #2
    Early rock n roll/R&B

    You'll you'll find what you're looking for on The Okeh Rhythm & Blues Story. It's a 2-CD set and there's some good Rockin on it. You'll find gems like That's Right & Rock the Joint by Chris Powell & The Five Blue Flames; Red Hot by The Five Scamps; and many others.

    The set features such characters as Mister Google Eyes, Jumpin Joe Williams, and Maurice King & His Wolverines. Then there's Pearl Traylor singing Three Ball Sam, singing such salacious lyrics like: "Mmm, what a man, I'm gonna give all my busines to three ball sam, the pawn shop man."

    Anyway, this should be up your alley so I highly recommend it.

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      #3
      Early rock n roll/R&B

      OMG, so many, so many...

      Some parameters would help. Do you want to include Rock-a-Billy?

      If so Here's a couple of classics:

      Red Hot – Billy Lee Riley

      One Hand Loose — Charlie Feathers

      and one less known but totally brilliant:

      Red Cadillac and a Black Moustache — Warren Smith

      Girl Groups?

      The Bobettes, who had a massive hit with Mr Lee also recorded this little gem

      Look at the Stars

      And for full on early grunge you can't beat the wonderful (and politically questionable

      Geronimo Rock 'n' Roll — Jerry McLean.

      Also, are original, or alternate, versions of now well known songs acceptable, or are you looking for the obscure on all levels?

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        #4
        Early rock n roll/R&B

        Thanks for sharing. Apologies for the delay coming back to this thread. I definitely like the noisier/raw stuff best.

        Comment


          #5
          Early rock n roll/R&B

          OK, here's a few which might fit the bill:

          Cherokee Dance — Bob "Froggy" Landers

          Red Riding Hood and the Wolf — Bunker Hill

          Slow Down — Larry Williams.
          Much covered, by The Beatles among others, but this is the original, and most cacophonous.

          Betty Lou — Long John Hunter

          Butcher Pete — Roy Brown
          The least said about the lyrics the better.

          All the above are, broadly speaking, 50s R&B transitioning from jump blues

          Have Love Will Travel — Richard Berry and the Pharaohs
          The writer of Louie, Louie. Which is kind of apparent from this doo-wop flavoured follow-up

          Meanwhile from a few years later, and on the paler side of the tracks, there's this little scorcher:

          Wait a Minute — Tim Tam and the Turn Ons
          Which is probably what the Four Seasons would have sounded like if they'd been from Detroit.

          It's probably not exactly what you're looking for, but a perfect example of, what I call surf doo-wop, and lately I've been driving everyone crazy playing it, because it's irresistible.

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            #6
            Early rock n roll/R&B

            Amor de Cosmos wrote:

            and one less known but totally brilliant:

            Red Cadillac and a Black Moustache — Warren Smith
            Great song indeed. Apparently Bob Dylan was a Warren Smith fan.

            Comment


              #7
              Early rock n roll/R&B

              Buddy Jones' Rockin' Rollin' Mama from 1939 is generally regarded as the first rockabilly record.

              It's a hugely fascinating record: it very clearly is a progenitor of rock & roll, predating almost all R&B tracks that are listed as "first rock & roll record" (a senseless label which ignores the promiscuous roots of the genre).

              So Buddy Jones is a good answer to the silly claim that rock & roll was white people stealing black music (though that was unarguably the case with certain songs that received promotion in their cover versions by white folks).

              Rockin' Rollin' Mama clearly is rooted in the traditions of what was then called Old Time Music (the term "country" wasn't used until the late 1940s), but Jones clearly took inspiration from the blues and from black jargon, as rockabilly generally would.

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                #8
                Early rock n roll/R&B

                Gaz's Rockin Blues (classic) album is out as a CD with extra tracks. Gaz is John Mayall's son and he's been DJing this stuff since the early 80s.

                http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B000A8SXNI/ref=pd_aw_sbs_1?pi=SL500_SS115&simLd=1

                The club in Soho is still going, was there just last month.

                Early Johnny Guitar Watson and Link Wray, also well worth checking out.

                Oh, and Vince Taylor, Brand New Cadillac.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Early rock n roll/R&B

                  Good call on Rockin' Rollin' Mama. The opening bars are practically the same as That's Alright Mama, which was a "Big Boy" Arthur Crudup song before it was popularized by Elvis. Whether he wrote the tune and that opening riff himself or got it from somewhere else I don't know. But that's definitely a blues part. This is an interesting recording because it uniquely mixes Hillbilly music, which is basically Irish-Scots with the country blues. These were the musics of poor blacks and whites who, despite segregation, lived in very close proximity with each other so their musical borrowings are broad and go back quite a long way.

                  The people who did the stealing were the music publishing and recording companies as well as composers who cleverly expropriated traditional tunes and airs by copyrighting their own version. The notion of copyright was practically unknown among poor blacks and whites and in order to be commercially recorded and published they had to sign over their rights, which in most cases they weren't even aware they had any rights.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Early rock n roll/R&B

                    Poison Ivy, Gems from the Atco Vaults
                    I Fall To Pieces, Gems from the Brunswick Vaults
                    Summertime Blues Gems from the Parlaphone Vaults
                    All are excellent.

                    I have some good rockabilly and R&B comps. I'll find them and let you know.

                    As for Billy Lee Riley "Red Hot" is wonderful. So is "Flying Saucers Rock and Roll".

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Early rock n roll/R&B

                      Bear Family has reissued some good rockabilly stuff. That Will Flat Git It series has some good tracks that are organized by original label. I'll have to see what I bought and list them later since I went based on a variety of hipster recommendations (like Crypt Records mailorder lists and that sort of thing).

                      This Johnny Burnette track is probably one of my favorite rockabilly songs. Again, I like the raw sounds.

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