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By the 1950’s, American Music had been on a fascinating journey. Rolling out of the Appalachian Mountains and into southern cities; drifting out of the cotton plantations of the south, winding its way up from New Orleans, along the Mississippi Delta, carried along many musical creeks, tributaries, and rivers, rolling its way along mysterious trails past the crossroads, and chugging its way across railroad lines. American Music had evolved, and grown, and changed, just like the culture that produced it. We’ve seen the rise of jazz in its different forms, and heard the echoes of slavery in the blues – as it evolved from the country blues of Robert Johnson and Huddie Ledbedder to the electric blues of Muddy Waters and BB King – and the evolution of Country music as it grew out of English, Scottish, and Welsh ballads into the slick, urbanized sound of Nashville or the honky tonks and juke joints - the urban sounds of Hank Williams.
In the few decades that led up to the mid-1950’s, there were just a few more cobblestones that needed to be laid into the roadbed that ended with the birth of rock music. Among these were Western Swing and Rockabilly.
The rock and roll attitude – rebellion, sexuality, and freedom – is a rockabilly hand-me-down sweatshirt from rock’s big brother. However, the true rockers that came later were true, dyed in the wool non-conformists and rebels. There’s a world of difference between someone like, say, Jim Morrison, and Kung-Fu Elvis. Morrison’s disgust for authority was the real thing. Elvis, on the other hand, had his picture taken at the White House next to Richard "Tricky Dick" Nixon. Compare that to many, very public apologies that aging rockabilly artists made later for their antics in younger years.
Good Golly, Miss Molly…. Welcome to the latest edition of American Song; episode 13. Hail Hail Rock and Roll!
IN THIS EPISODE
Tex Williams
Moon Mullican
Arthur Smith's Hot Quintet
Tennessee Ernie Ford
The Maddox Bros. and Rose
Elvis Presley
Jerry Lee Lewis
Buddy Holly
John Lennon
Paul McCartney
Ringo Starr
Jackie Brentson
Roy Brown
Big Mama Thornton
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Chuck Berry
Fat's Domino
Little Richard
Eddie Cochran
the Teen Queens
Bobby Freeman
Wanda Jackson
Pat Boone
Allen Freed
The Platters
The Dominoes
Thomas Hardin/ Moondog
The Who
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This episode is dedicated to the memory of Rolling Stones drummer, Charlie Watts,. Charlie passed away while I was preparing this episode. In a career that spanned more than sixty years, he left us all a massive library of songs and memories that we all will treasure forever. Thanks for everything, Charlie. It was only Rock and Roll, but I liked it!
Episode Description
It was a new day in America. The middle class was big and growing. Businesses were flush with cash it had come by, which meant people were working and saving and getting ahead. Those returning war-heroes had gotten to work making money, and making babies and America was a young country, too. So this young, expressive, exuberant, happy music was ideal for a nation that was feeling the same way. The fact that this new, young music became THE music of the day represented a sea change in what America was all about.
Even more, Rhythm’n Blues set the stage for the next big arrival – rock and roll….. like the great R&B singer, Ruth Brown said, “when the white kids started dancing to it, R&B turned into Rock and Roll.” Hold that thought for a future episode!
Welcome to American Song, Episode 12: R&B Was Born on the Great American Music River.
Tracks
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Today’s episode is all about the first of the two 20th century waves in the folk music movement and how that movement rallied people behind some big themes to help them fight for social justice.
As a people, Americans are inclined towards optimism and a belief that if things aren’t working, they can be fixed. How improvement is defined, which issues get the focus, and how those improvements are managed comes down to party philosophy. Practically speaking, America has been a two-party system with a number of other minor parties that represent the people that don’t line up with everyone else. On the ‘left’, we’ve had three parties, progressives, socialists and communists.
Woody Guthrie, and a number of ‘folkie’ musicians like Pete Seeger, Josh White, Burl Ives and others, did something that hadn’t been done before in American music; they used it as a weapon against the things they thought were wrong in the world. For instance, Woody Guthrie’s guitar had the words “This machine kills fascists” on it.
They taught a nation to sing powerful songs about hope – Woody Guthrie did that – and when you do, you may sow the seeds of change in future generations, like the way Guthrie stood as Bob Dylan’s musical mentor. But music is just the drum beat that the rest of us have to march to. If we don’t like how things are going, we’re still Americans. We can still change it. We need to act on it. Ghandi said “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
When we do, we’ll see that just like things improved in working conditions, and minimum wage laws, and many other ways, the world can become a better place. Our country belongs to the people, not the tiny fraction on top. And this is a country that promises equality, but that equality is something we have to continuously protect
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America’s music, at least through 1955, was jazz. In this episode, we’ll take a deep dive into the predominant forms jazz took on from 1930 through the 1950’s and into the 1960’s, including swing, bebop, hard bop and cool jazz. In many ways during these years, Jazz gave voice to the difficult tensions and struggles confronting Americans in those years, and which tested our belief in our own convictions. Welcome to American Song, episode ten; Jazz In Defense of Equality and Justice For All
Through its history, Jazz has played a very important social role in America and abroad. It is the voice of democracy and freedom. It represents our continuing desire for social justice and equality in America and has supported that role abroad. In this episode, we see how jazz evolved through Swing to Bebop and how members of the same group who have been most historically oppressed have risen – both in the music world and out of it – to be the ones to defend the country, and inspire the effort needed to face our own demons. Because they did, America has begun to live up to its promises of equality and justice for all. I am certain that America’s music will continue to inspire us, encourage us, and unite us. Just as it always has.
In This Episode:
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Imagine a people, passing through the crucible of slavery, for hundreds of years, until the first people in your new lineage are often lost in time – because slaves have no more families or histories any more than cattle or sheep do – and coming out the other side, proud, shining, and triumphant. Imagine using that experience to lay the foundations of music that became the soundtrack within the lives of billions of people around the world. In the wake of so much devastation, the sounds of faith, love, dignity and freedom were heard and shared until they echoed the world over. Many times, they were there to drown out more modern pains, and were used to inspire other people to face new adversities. It started with African Spirituals, and those Spirituals gradually became Gospel Music.
This is a music that has given people a sense of holy urgency and righteousness all over the world. The Christians that created this music believed with everything they had in them that it was ‘the holy spirit’ that gave them the authority. This was not performance. This was leadership.
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Included in this episode:
· Excerpt from Amistad
· Excerpt from Fountain Hughes interview; WPA and John Lomax
· Work Holler
· West Indies Slave Chant - Roger Gibbs (Earliest Recorded Slave Chant from 1775)
· Roll Jordan Roll - From 12 Years a Slave
· Title Unknown - The Singing and Praying Band
· Title Unknown - The McIntosh County Shouters
· Rock My Soul - The Spirit Chorale of Los Ang
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During the first half of the 1900’s, Country music grew from a small group of naïve country musicians who shared their love of the old songs and the old ways with a country that was coming of age. As even now, the players that created the music Americans loved came from colorful backgrounds, and gave all they had to the music. Along the way, some of them gave too much – guys like Hank Williams who died so young and lived such a hard life – come to mind. The stories they told and created and shared left deep impressions in the hearts of the country – almost like the wagon wheel ruts you can still see in some places out along the prairie. At the same time, they forged a trail for newer sounds, first Honky Tonk, then Nashville that cleared a path for what was soon coming behind them – like Rockabilly and Rock and Roll. By the early 1950’s, you began to hear the first chords ringing out.
Tracks and Interviews In This Episode
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The Blues deals with very personal types of pain. But it doesn’t wallow in self-pity. The blues is about overcoming – like Martin Luther King Jr. used in his marches – “We Shall Overcome”. Great blues is all about a catharsis – a purging – of the things that hurt us so that we can go on living better lives! Nothing captures the Christian sense of death and redemption like the blues; When you think of the blues, you think about misfortune, betrayal and regret. You lose your job, you get the blues. Your mate falls out of love with you, you get the blues. Your dog dies, you get the blues.
Appallingly, America seems to be back at 'the crossroads' again in 2021. At the time that I'm publishing this, Georgia has just instituted voter suppression laws again, and there are bills in 43 of our states to follow suit. I hope this episode of American Song serves as a reminder about the horrors we've already been through as a nation, and a strong statement that we MUST NEVER go there again. I pray that the 'better angels' (to use a phrase from Abraham Lincoln) of our natures and our nation gain control. I hope that this entire podcast series is a reminder of how great our nation is and has been, and that we realize that it is BECAUSE and not despite of our diversity that we have been so.
Track List
Viola Davis - from Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Netflix)
Interview: Leadbelly on the Origin of the Blues
The Burden of the Angel Beast - Bruce Cockburn, from Dart to the Heart
Homeless - Ladysmith Black Mambazo, from Paul Simon's Graceland
Woke Up This Morning, With my Mind on Jesus - Mississippi Fred McDowell
Motherless Child - O.V. Wright
We Shall Overcome - Mahalia Jackson
Strange Fruit - Bessie Smith
Signifying Monkey - Oscar Brown
Cross Roads - Robert Johnson
Dust My Broom - B.B. King
W.C. Handy - St. Louis Blues
John Lee Hooker - Boom Boom
Midnight Special - Leadbelly
See That My Grave is Kept Clean - Blind Lemon Jefferson
Interview: Steven Johnson (grandson of Robert Johnson)
Preaching Blues (Up Jumped the Devil) - Robert Johnson
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - Ma Rainey
This Train - Sister Rosetta Tharpe
You Shook Me - Muddy Waters
Interview: Buddy Guy (with Nick Harcourt and Guitar Center)
Jumpin' at the Woodside - Count Basie and his Orchestra
One O'Clock Jump - Lester Young
Mean Old World - T Bone Walker
Indian Tom Tom - Big Chief Henry's Indian String Band
Sibo Bangoura - Ted Talk from TedX Sydney
Hey Hey - Eric Clapton, Unplugged
For a listing of all sources, please visit our American Song Podcast page on Facebook or download this episode's script, posted on this website.
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By the 1920's, jazz had grown too large for its humble origins in New Orleans and was impacting the musical world, including the greatest classical European musicians and composers, as well as American listeners and fellow jazz musicians.
What came next was an explosion of creativity among the musical who's who of the day.
The world's stage was filled to capacity with Europe's heavy-weights, like Toscanini, Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky and American classicists, like Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, not to mention the greats of the jazz world, like Louis Armstrong, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, and Duke Ellington, just to name a few. All these mind-blowingly awesome artists were active and collaborating among each other. Could this have been the history's greatest musical period?
Find out what happened and how it happened, right here on American Song.
Tracks:
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Welcome to episode five in the American Song podcast.
The early days of jazz were full of exploration, invention, and creativity. It was a time of fluid exchanges in the music world between blacks and whites, even if it was only seldom happening anywhere else.
Jazz rose up from Congo Square in New Orleans, which was a culturally rich gumbo of sounds, rhythms and movement produced by people whose origins were from far away places. Spanish, French, English, African and Native Americans all contributed to this musical feast to create an art that could only have happened here.
In this episode, you'll learn about some of the earliest jazz musicians who made a lasting impact, influencing and shaping the music for many decades to come. You'll also hear and experience some of those great early songs, as well as hear directly from a few of the musicians that made the music possible.
As they say in New Orleans, ""Laissez les bon temps rouler!" Let the good times roll!
Track List
Duke Ellington Remembers
Jelly Roll Morton Rembers
St. James Infirmary - Buddy Bolden
Jelly Roll Morton & His Red Hot Peppers - Dr. Jazz
James P. Bolden - You've Got to Be Modernistic
Archie Shepp Remembers Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet - Strange Fruit
Rockin' Chair - Bix Biederbecke
Louis Armstrong Remembers Bix Biederbecke
St. Louis Blues - the Paul Whiteman Orchestra
Basin Street Blues - Louis Armstrong
When You're Young the Whole World Smiles With You - Louis Armstrong
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A fusion of blues and mountain music, a reminder of better times for many people, and a host of memorable and gifted musicians. In this episode, we'll discover the following musicians and their music:
Jimmie Rogers & Louis Armstrong - Blue Yodel Number Nine
DeFord Bailey - Pan American Blues
Cotton Eyed Joe - Fiddlin' John Carson
Show Intro for the Grand Ol' Opry - November 11, 1939
Jimmie Rogers -
The Carter Family - Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow
(Medley):
Lesley Riddle - Red River Blues
Maybelle Carter Interview from 1975
DeFord Bailey - The Fox Chase
Harry McClintock - The Big Rock Candy Mountain
Eck Robertson - Sally Gooden
Doc Watson - Going Down the Road Feeling Bad
Updates!
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From the publisher's feed
America was meant to be a light on the hill — a place others looked to when they needed to find their own way forward.
If America has ever truly been that light, it…
From colonial taverns to protest marches in the Eastern Bloc, from gospel churches to a ghetto in Soweto, American rhythms helped people band together, speak truth, and refuse to quit. Our songs became the world's songs — not because we exported them, but because people who needed hope reached out and claimed them as their own.
American Song tells the stories of the artists who made the music and the people who were moved by it. One era at a time. One genre, one band, one song at a time. Music that started by campfires, in cotton fields, in churches and juke joints — and moved out into the world to become something larger than any one nation could contain.
This is American Song.