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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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