Vintage rock and roll discussion thread.

Inspired by a the celeberity death thread I thought it'd be more fitting to post a thread about vintage "Oldie" rock n roll.
So where we you the day elvis joinned the army, or you heard about Jerry Lee Lewis marrying his thirteen year old cousin, or the day the day the beattles invaded america. Or how so many stars worked for sun records. Or Ed "Kookie" Roberts, Bobby Rydel etc.
Oh btw I used to hate vintage rock- partly because my parents forced it on me - but mostly do to the sound quality of wls am radio station. Trust me once you hear "oldies" music on cd rather than vinyl you'll get a new appreciation for these artist.
So inconclusion have and enjoy the flash back. And as a great man once said "It's gotta be rock and roll music - if you want to dance with me."

Or Fabian.

Or Pat Boone.

Whether you like them (or know them) or not, they helped define what is known today as rock and roll. They were (and it pains me to say it in the case of Mr.Boone) as much a part of rock and roll as anyone.

And for the young folks out there, rock and roll is not a catch-all term - it is a musical genre all its own.

Chuck Berry is. Little Richard is. Jerry Lee Lewis is.

The Sex Pistols most definitely are not.

"boppin' at the high school hop..."

Jan and Dean, dead man's curve still gives me chills. And lets not forget Bo Didley and the Hand Jive -that song still cooks. And for a song with a beat ahead of it's time try listen to Buddy Holly's fade away. I think we need to sit back and give a huge thank you to Bill Haley and the comets. Ah the music that started it all. Without synthesizers and electrical doo dads to boot.

do you have yahoo music if you do a search for an albulm called the million dollar session by Jerry Lee Lewis december 1956. Basically its a jam session with the killer and elvis presley who both worked for sun at the time . The funny part is that they start making fun out of boone durering one track.

jam session (December, 1956) that ensued when Elvis dropped in to the Sun studio during a Carl Perkins session. Jerry Lee joined in and Johnny Cash was there for photos taken by a newspaper photographer, though his voice hasn't yet surfaced on any of the released tapes. It's a great listen, even if Johnny Cash is vocally MIA and it's really only a trio.

Elvis dominates the proceedings, probably both because he was ELVIS and because, as he says in the tape, once he got going with jam sessions he had to be crowbarred out of it. Jerry Lee also gets in a few solo bits and Carl and his band provide vocals and backing music. Lots of gospel singing. And some decidely non-sacred bits (like Elvis altering the lyrics of "Rip It Up" to "well, it's Saturday night and I just got laid"). Some of the songs that Elvis toys with in this jam showed up in his next RCA recording session a month later, and one ("Peace In The Valley") was first previewed on the Ed Sullivan show.

The Pat Boone bit was Elvis singing "Don't Forbid Me," a song that was offered to him but that Pat Boone recorded first. Can't recall the details, but I sure wish Elvis had recorded the song in a regular session, because the sample he gives is very tasty. Pat Boone, I beleive, got his start after a win on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, a show that Elvis and his two sidemen auditioned for at the same time (in New York, 1955) and were rejected by...the Arthur Godfrey people undoubtedly had no idea what the hell Elvis Presley was.

The released portions of the Million Dollar jam are also notable for Elvis going on about how a singer he saw with a group in Vegas that April had nailed "Don't Be Cruel" so much better than he had in the original recording, adding that he wish he'd recorded it like that. When he did his last Sullivan appearance, on January 6, 1957, Elvis added to his version of "Don't Be Cruel" some of the vocal tricks that he described in the jam session. Elvis didn't know the name of the singer at the time -- it was Jackie Wilson, one of several people later dubbed 'the Black Elvis,' who would in the '60s become friends with and form a mutual admiration society with Elvis.

http://www.premiere-search.com/in_a_metal_mood_no_more_mr_nice_guy.html

This is not exactly classic PB, I am no fan of such but this is fun.
I have had 2 copies stolen from me and seek a third. I recommend PB's version of Ozzie's "Crazy Train" and Metallica's "Enter Sandman"

past me...meaning, i wasn't even alive when these groups/singers where peddling their wares....I did listen to a lot of Herman Hermits, Jerry Lee Lewis, Marty Robbins and the Richeous Brothers...predomiatley my fathers music influence...i choose his music cause my mom's music was: Marie Osmond, Donny Osmond, Bee Gee's, Sheena Easton...yuck...i don't think i need to explain why i chose my dads music...:)

and al the stuff before sounded so different to my ear that I dismissed it all...

And then... I discoverd a whole mess of 45's in the church "youth" room and started to dig the stuff...

Remember how void the pop scene was between Elvis hitting the Army and the Beatles arriving...

Good music, but nothing really special... Kind of like Britney Spears equals Annette Funichello...(sp)

Oh and for the record Mama Cass didn't die while eatting a hot dog - just fyi.

I'm 48 and remember most of the 60's and early 70's...

After that... Well....

Mostly a period of individual artists (Fabian, Bobby Rydell, Shelley Fabares, Leslie Gore in '63, etc.), but not a period considered to be one of rock and roll's best.

After that, The Beach Boys showed up.

No, I don't remember which rock critic invented that term.

Dion was a cut above the others. The Girl Groups were hot. There were the Coasters & the Drifters. And some fine R&B!

Folk music was either Kingston Trio stuff or really obscure. Then the Beatles hit & Dylan went electric. For every folky purist who was offended, about a dozen began combing the pawn shops for electric guitars.

The girl groups remind me of all the girlie singers out today...

Dion was cool, but pop music was pretty much schlock...

They were not quite an "oldies act" until later. The Drifters did "Save the last dance for me" & "This magic moment" in 1960, "Up on the roof" in 1963 & "Under the Boardwalk" in 1964.

The Girl Groups influenced on many of the "girlie singers" of today.

And we did get to hear some good R&B down here in Texas.

There was lots of schlock put out by White Guys--is that your definition of "Pop Music"? No musical era was schlock-free.

sure, most eras have talented musicians...

But that seems like a black hole when compared to the spurt of creativity in the early and mid fifties and then what happen from 63-68...

Also, regional bands were a lot bigger back then... So if you had a lot of good music down south, we might not ever hear it up here in Ohio....

But most musical historians see the "bobby sox' period of 59-63 as being the "transition" from rock and roll to The British Invasion. Sadly, much of the good music was overshadowed by "pop personality' music like Fabian et al.

I mean, "She Can't Find Her Keys" hit the top 20 in '62.

"an autograph of Fabian she can find with ease,
but I'm standing here waiting for a good night kiss and she can't find her keys"

Oh, and The Coasters charted (not big, mind you) with my favorite Coasters tune of all time (Run, Red, Run) in 1960.

So there's that. :)

Back when he was a teen idol. The late 50's were the poodle shirt era--I had one.

I agree that the 59-63 period was not stellar. But dreck could be found even in "cooler" periods. Oldies stations still play Lou Christie's "Lightnin' Strikes"--which will suck eternally.

but I have seen so many disc jockey folks from that era (even Joel Whitburn) refer to it as such that I guess I call it that as well.

From a true perspective though, you're right.

The bigger question, though, is does "Lightnin" Strikes" suck worse than "Two Faces Have I?"

However, Gary US Bonds may have beaten his suckitude with "Woman"!

Hell, I'm still trying to figure out how Bobby Goldsboro actually recorded one listenable song, that being "Little Things."

Did he have an off day??

That was the day of the girl groups, and the Ronettes were the Queens of that Hop. The Beach Boys emerged in about '62, and Jan & Dean about the same time. All pretty good stuff - I learned it on oldies stations back in the 1970's as it was just a bit before my time. That was also when the folk revival began cresting, IIRC: Joan Baez, early Dylan, Peter, Paul & Mary, etal. I seem to recall some pretty good R&B from that era too.

It wasn't until my sister got a stereo in '75 or '76 that I heard my first FM station. All we had was a very old radio in the kitchen, that was, of course, AM only. And my sister and I would listen to WLS while doing the dishes.

But, anyway, I have no memory of any of the things you are talking about, as I am too young.

All I remember is that my socially conservative parents were constantly harping about those idiot hippies and their noise. Our house was country and western and Lawrence Welk only for a long time... except for our bits of rock and roll while doing dishes.

My dad forced us to listen to country. And not the good stuff but the really bad country like roy clark, and barbra mandrell.

My dad was laughing at me the other day because I want to see the movie I walk the line. I tried to tell him that it's not the genere but it's the artist I listen too. The argument went completely over his head. I mean just because I like Kanye West doesn't mean I have to like Eminm.

includes Hank Snow, Patsy Cline.

It's real good stuff....

Go to Radioio.com and get on their country station...

I was wondering . I got heavily into folk and blue grass.

But it is anything from the Byrds to Steve Earle....

Nanci Griffith, Skeeter Jennings, Slaid Cleeves.... Eliza Gylkison... Lucinda Williams... Kasey Chambers... Tift Merrit... Dwight Yokum....

It's a matter of commercial labeling. Americana includes folk, bluegrass, country & rock. Mostly by artists who don't fit neatly into categories.

Steve Earle, for example, is an acoustic-singer-songwriter who can burn your ears off when he rocks. He's also done stone honky-tonk & folk rock. Del McCoury's bluegrass band backed him for a while.

The Americana Music Association was founded to get airplay for these people. It's based in Nashville but is not part of the Nashville Establishment. Here's their latest playlist:

http://americanaradio.org/ama/displaychart_beforetracks.asp?mode=lw&dtkey=

Like The Spinners,The Ojays,The Four Tops,Main Ingredient,Stevie Wonder especially.I liked rock back then but mostly the Beatles and Yes.didnt get into the harder stuff until high school.

army. I was in Bogalousa., LA that day spending the weekend with my Aunt and Uncle. My best memory of Jerry Lee LEwis is seeing the sign tha says "Home of Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley" every time I drove through Ferriday, LA.

But I love vintage Rock n Roll and the boogie woogie that gave rise to it. IMO Vintage rock goes back to Big Joe Turner, Louis Jordan, T-Bone Walker and the other jump blues pioneers.

Who was the first Rock n Roll musician? I venture to say that it is not a white boy from Memphis.

I was born in sixty nine and I could only guess what type of hub bub it caused when he married his cousin. Does anyone here have first hand knowledge of the buzz it caused?