An Excellent New Read: "A Brief History Of Why Artists Are No Longer Making A Living..."

@onhwy61, one of the benefits of the decline (imo) of Rock ’n’ Roll music in the early-mid 70’s was that it drove many of my contemporaries and I to follow the bread crumbs of the music’s history back to it’s origins. I heard for the first time Barrett Strong’s version of "Money", which is much "tougher" than The Beatles (with a truly wicked guitar tone)---just one example.

In 1973 I joined a band that played Jump Blues (a mix of urban Blues and Swing), so I got exposed to Big Joe Turner, Joe Houston, Big Jay McNeeley, Louis Jordan, Ruth Brown, Wynonie Harris, Joe Liggins, Tiny Bradshaw, Jackie Brenston (his "Rocket 88", produced by Ike Turner at Sun Studios, is considered by some as the first Rock ’n’ Roll record), and all the rest of the post-war black artists that Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cssh, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, and all the other Rockabillies were listening to on the "Race" music stations.

At the same time, we traced the other main ingredient of R & R---Hillbilly, back to first Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell (The Band does his "Long Black Veil" on Music from Big Pink), Ernest Tubb, Hank Thompson, etc., on back to the Western Swing of Bob Wills and Moon Mullican, and finally to The Carter Family, The Delmore Brothers, The Louvin Brothers, Merle Travis (a fantastic guitarist!), The Maddox Brothers and Rose (their sister), and other lesser knowns. This is the music the southern whites were hearing on The Grand Old Opry and other radio shows.

When Dylan brought The Hawks up to Woodstock in 1966, he gave them a crash course in the pre-Rock ’n’ Roll music of the 20th century, all the stuff listed above and more. They were good students ;-) . We did the same for ourselves, and having heard the sources, it was easy to understand how Rockabilly got invented in that little studio in Memphis. The reason I don’t consider it outright theft of black music (instead of appropriation) is that the Rockabillies added their Hillbilly influences to the Jump Blues, creating a hybrid music---Rockabilly.