0:00

Hey, it's Alan and I just wanted to

0:02

let you know that you can now listen

0:04

to the ongoing history of new music early

0:06

and ad-free on Amazon Music included with Prime.

0:30

We would not be sitting here talking about rock

0:32

music if it weren't for people of African descent.

0:43

If you start in the presence and

0:45

begin to trace things backward to important

0:48

innovations and accomplishments, nine times

0:50

out of ten you will end up

0:52

exploring something from Black culture. And

0:55

we can go way, way back, right

0:57

to 1619 when the first

0:59

slave ship arrived in North America at the

1:01

British colony of Virginia carrying about

1:03

20 captives. Over the

1:05

centuries that followed, the people of Africa, consisting

1:07

of many different communities and nations and tribes

1:09

and cultures, were brought to

1:11

the West by force, creating wounds that have

1:14

yet to heal. But

1:16

more than just bodies made

1:18

the trip across the Atlantic.

1:20

These were human beings with

1:22

identities, history, traditions, and music.

1:26

And these songs and rhythms helped

1:28

sustain them through those awful, brutal

1:30

times. There were

1:32

work songs, protest songs, satirical

1:34

songs, songs meant to be sung in

1:36

the fields and streets, songs that were

1:39

games in themselves. Some had

1:41

regular rhythms while others contained syncopated

1:43

beats from traditional dance. Over

1:46

the centuries, the music evolved and mutated

1:48

and spread. Spirituals

1:50

in gospel, blues in boogie woogie,

1:52

ragtime in jazz, rhythm in blues

1:55

in bebop, and in the early

1:58

1950s, this music with its rich head. history

2:00

and traditions was incorporated with

2:02

country, Western, hillbilly, R&B, and a few

2:04

other ingredients to become what we now

2:07

call rock and roll. Along

2:09

the way, there were many

2:12

musical artists and landmark contributions

2:14

by black artists that changed

2:17

everything. Without them, what

2:19

we call rock today and so much of

2:21

its culture would simply not exist.

2:25

These people and their accomplishments need

2:27

to be recognized, commemorated, and celebrated.

2:30

This is an episode on Rock Firsts by

2:33

Black Artists. This

2:35

is the Ongoing History of New Music. Living

2:56

Color from 1988 and cult of personality.

2:58

More black guys from New York City

3:01

who brought together metal, funk, punk, hip-hop,

3:03

jazz, and alt-rock into one fresh package,

3:06

mating it with straight commentary on politics and

3:08

race. The resulting funk

3:10

metal laid the groundwork for many groups of

3:12

the 1990s, ranging from Rage

3:14

Against the Machine to 311 to Primus

3:16

to even Korn. And if

3:18

we start pulling the threads and

3:21

moving into the past from Living

3:23

Color, you'll soon see what I mean. Hello

3:26

again, I'm Alan Cross, and this show

3:28

was prepared specifically for Black History Month.

3:31

What I want to do is acknowledge some

3:33

rock and roll firsts by black artists.

3:36

Without them, today's music may not exist as we

3:38

know it. For example, did

3:40

you know that the first recording

3:43

star, the first person to have a

3:45

hit record was a

3:47

black man? His name was

3:49

George W. Johnson. He was a former

3:52

slave, freed around 1853, who

3:54

sang on the streets of New York City, starting sometime in

3:56

the 1870s. In

3:58

the spring of 1890, He

4:00

was recruited by a man named Charles

4:02

Marshall and began to make recordings for

4:05

the Metropolitan and New Jersey Phonograph companies.

4:08

These recordings were for use in

4:10

brand new coin-operated phonographs that

4:12

used Thomas Edison's wax cylinders.

4:16

But these cylinders were pretty much impossible

4:18

to reproduce, and that meant that every

4:20

cylinder was a master recording. So in

4:23

other words, every single

4:25

cylinder had to be

4:27

recorded individually. Edison

4:29

had a strong voice, so he could be captured

4:31

by up to five recorders at a time. Once

4:34

he was done with the song, the technicians would

4:36

reload the machines with new blank cylinders, and

4:38

he'd sing the song again. And sometimes he

4:40

would repeat this 50 times. What

4:45

was interesting is that his record label marketed

4:47

him as a black man, something

4:49

that just wasn't done when

4:51

slavery was still fresh in the minds of

4:53

many and segregation was strong. Edison's

4:56

most popular track was The Laughing Song, which

4:58

was recorded in 1890. By

5:02

1894, The Laughing Song

5:04

was the best-selling song ever.

5:07

It reached number one on the brand new music charts

5:09

of the day. In fact, he

5:11

was the first black performer to bake those charts.

5:14

And as the result of his recordings, he became

5:16

a major vaudeville star. It

5:18

is said that The Laughing Song sold

5:21

up to 50,000 copies,

5:23

which might not be entirely true because

5:25

to manufacture a cylinder in those numbers,

5:28

Johnson would have had to perform the song 12, 15,000

5:30

times in the studio. And

5:34

at 50 performances a day, if he could do that, he

5:37

would have taken a total of 300 days

5:39

of singing that one song

5:42

to fulfill all the orders. And

5:45

he also had to record several other songs. Whatever

5:48

the actual numbers, George W. Johnson

5:51

was the world's first and biggest pop

5:53

star in the late 1890s. But

5:57

like so many careers, Johnson's popularity

5:59

faded. and he ended up working as

6:01

an office doorman. He died in 1914 at the age

6:03

of 67 and was buried in

6:06

an unmarked grave in Queens, New York. Here

6:09

is George W. Johnson and

6:12

what is arguably the first ever

6:14

hit record. George

6:16

W. Johnson and the Laughing

6:19

Song. I wonder which of

6:21

the 12 or

6:23

15,000 performances that

6:36

was. All I can tell you is that

6:38

it was a later recording from 1897. So for the years he

6:41

recorded the song a lot. The

6:44

first two decades of the 20th century was

6:46

all about the birth and development of jazz,

6:48

a genre created by black musicians in New

6:51

Orleans. Adjacent to that

6:53

was the blues, another African American invention

6:55

that came from the South. These were

6:57

simple songs telling of hard lives, hard

6:59

luck, real life, and sometimes the difficult

7:01

relationships between men and women. This

7:04

music has become known as folk blues

7:06

or rural blues and began to

7:08

spread across the deep South following the American Civil

7:11

War. The structure of

7:13

these songs with their three line stances can

7:15

trace back to the field songs in the

7:17

Mississippi Delta. They are also the foundations

7:19

for everything from rock and R&B to funk

7:21

and hip-hop. Through the 1910s and

7:23

into the 1920s, many

7:26

black musicians found themselves being recorded

7:28

by white owned record labels. Those

7:31

recordings, now on 10-inch 78 RPM

7:33

records, were popular with everyone. Trixie

7:36

Smith, a blues singer originally from Atlanta,

7:38

did some work for a label called

7:40

Black Swan, which was based in Harlem.

7:43

In September 1922, she recorded a

7:45

song called My Man Rocks Me

7:47

With One Steady Roll. Now,

7:50

originally rocking and rolling

7:52

meant the movement of a ship

7:54

on rough seas. On

7:56

April 24, 1881, a white group called Morton's

8:00

minstrels, performed a song

8:02

in Victoria, BC called Rock and

8:05

Roll. That seems to be the

8:07

first time Rock and Roll was sung in public. At

8:10

the same time, Rocking and Rolling described

8:12

how animated things could become in black

8:15

churches when they were singing gospel. And

8:18

after that, and as sometimes happens, we

8:20

went from the sacred to the profane.

8:24

Rocking and Rolling went from a

8:26

joyous spiritual experience at Church on

8:28

a Sunday morning to a

8:30

euphemism for sex. And

8:32

this is where Trixie Smith's song comes in. This

8:35

is the first secular use of the

8:37

words Rock and Roll in a song

8:40

where it has a bunch of different meanings.

8:43

Others followed, like Rock That Thing by

8:45

Lil' Johnson, Rock Me Mama by Ike

8:47

Robinson, Rock and Roll by the Boswell

8:49

Sisters. But who was the first

8:52

to use the phrase on record? Trixie

8:54

Smith, 1922. In

9:15

1951, just as a new wave of

9:17

music was starting to appear, Alan Freed,

9:20

a white radio DJ who started his

9:22

career in Cleveland, made his

9:24

name by playing what were then called race

9:26

records. These were songs by black artists. And

9:29

at the time, this was forbidden fruit for a

9:31

lot of young, white teenagers.

9:35

At the same time, though, there was no denying the power

9:37

and the energy of this music. Freed was

9:39

pretty plugged into the culture and knew the

9:41

phrase Rock and Roll and

9:43

started referring to the records he played

9:46

with that term. Now, Freed

9:48

never admitted to the coded sexual

9:51

connotations of the term, but

9:53

he must have known. Instead, he gave

9:55

this definition. Rock and Roll is

9:57

really swing music with a modern name. Yeah,

10:00

The levees and plantations took in folk

10:02

songs and features blues in rhythm, which

10:04

is technically correct. But. Never

10:06

forget the power of sex when it comes

10:08

to teenagers. About. This

10:10

who performed the first

10:13

ever electric guitar solo.

10:16

It appears to be a black man from

10:18

Oklahoma named Charlie Christian. He was

10:20

an excellent guitarist, but Sonics be used for

10:22

more than just cords and rhythm. And

10:25

Nineteen Thirty one, he started soloing during

10:27

jam sessions with fellow musicians. And Ninety

10:29

Thirty six, he acquired a new fangled

10:31

electric guitar. And. Enjoined Benny Goodman,

10:34

Big Ben, and Nineteen Thirty Nine. it

10:36

was with that group the Charlie was

10:38

allowed to improvise solo, in other words,

10:41

during performances. Until he died

10:43

of tuberculosis on March third, Nineteen, Forty one

10:45

at the age of twenty five. Charlie.

10:48

To the new Amplify guitar Out of

10:50

the Shadows and is now recognized as

10:52

the person. To create the foundations

10:54

of the lead guitarist As we know it,

10:57

So. By every measure you want to

11:00

use. Charlie Christian was the world's first

11:02

guitar hero. Sport. About

11:04

the first electric guitar solo recordings.

11:07

That. Came from another Bachmann named George

11:09

Burns. On. March First, Nineteen

11:11

Thirty Eight P recorded two with blues

11:13

guitarist Big Bill Bruins a. Here's

11:16

one of them. a low down, dirty shame. Barnes.

11:18

Was just sixteen years old when he

11:20

played. The soul. One

11:44

guy who almost certainly played big deal.

11:47

he with George and. Was Jack

11:49

L. Cooper. He was a black former

11:51

boxer in semi pro baseball player. he

11:54

got a job at w b s

11:56

c in chicago as the host of

11:58

the all negro our a show

12:00

first broadcast on November 3, 1929.

12:03

This was a variety show featuring

12:05

music and comedy bits, but as

12:07

the show became more popular, the show was extended.

12:10

By mid-1936, Cooper was on the air nine

12:13

and a half hours a week, and although we can't

12:15

be entirely sure, it is

12:17

possible that Cooper was the first

12:19

to play records as part of

12:21

his show. He brought

12:24

in his phonograph and collection of

12:26

jazz and gospel records, which Cooper

12:28

played on the air, and this

12:30

would make Cooper the first ever

12:32

professional radio DJ. So, another

12:34

black first. And as

12:36

years went on, black radio programs increased in number

12:38

and became more and more popular. And

12:41

then something happened up north that changed the

12:43

course of music. As the

12:46

1940s came to a close, there was a

12:48

new mixing of styles, much of it propagated

12:50

by changes to radio broadcasting. For

12:53

many years, local radio stations carried network

12:55

programming from big cities like New York,

12:57

Chicago, Nashville, and Los Angeles, supplied

13:00

by networks like NBC, CBS, and

13:02

Mutual. These companies had all made their bones

13:04

on radio. But in the

13:06

late 40s and early 50s, there was a new shiny thing,

13:09

television. The networks began

13:11

to pivot away from cross-country radio

13:13

program to cross-country TV program. As

13:17

their attention to radio faded, the

13:20

number of programs, the amount of investment they

13:22

made in these programs declined.

13:25

That meant that many hundreds of radio stations

13:27

were suddenly left without any content to come

13:29

from the big city, so they had to

13:31

improvise. The changes had to come fast and

13:34

they had to be cheap. A

13:36

popular thing to do was to reclaim

13:38

the period after 7 p.m. at night

13:40

and create some local programming with local

13:42

people. And the easiest and

13:45

cheapest things to do was to

13:47

hire a guy to play records. This

13:49

is a major shift that few people seem

13:52

to remember. The focus

13:54

of radio moved away from soap operas,

13:56

dramas, variety shows, and comedy programs to

13:58

just playing the popular music. popular music

14:00

of the day. People, especially

14:02

younger ones, got into the habit

14:04

of turning the radio on to listen to

14:07

hours of straight music. Some

14:09

of them even had this new thing called a

14:11

transistor radio, which for the first time allowed young

14:13

people to take their music with them away from

14:15

the prying ears of parents. And

14:18

this coincided with the rise of a new form of

14:20

popular music that was a stew of R&B, blues,

14:23

country, western hillbilly, and a few other things.

14:26

That mixing was aided by these radio

14:28

stations playing a hodgepodge of material in

14:31

the evening. And by

14:33

1951, something new was happening. It was the

14:35

birth of rock and roll. Now,

14:37

you can't just drop a pin and say that rock

14:39

and roll started with this song. This is the first

14:41

rock and roll record. You can't do that. Its

14:45

birth happened gradually, as

14:47

all of this disparate, popular sounds of

14:49

the day mixed and matched and evolved

14:51

and mutated. But there

14:53

are some landmark recordings. Some

14:56

will point to a 1947 song by Roy

14:58

Brown, a black blues singer from Louisiana, who

15:00

had a hit with a song called Good

15:02

Rockin' Tonight. That

15:06

same song

15:08

was released

15:11

by Winone

15:13

Harris, another

15:15

black performer.

15:23

According to two performers and a few more songs

15:25

with rock in the title or lyrics, the

15:28

notion of rockin' as a musical

15:30

thing moved deeper into the public

15:32

consciousness. Same thing with Rock

15:34

the Joint by Jimmy Preston and

15:36

Drinkin' Wine Spodeo D. That was by Stick McGee,

15:38

both of them from 1949. But

15:41

if you want to be bold and commit to a

15:43

single song as the first true rock and roll record,

15:45

again, really tough to do, but we're going to do

15:48

it anyway, we can maybe

15:50

go out on a limb and nominate

15:52

a track by Jackie Brinston and his

15:54

Delta Cats, released sometime in

15:56

late March, 1951. black

16:00

man with the sax player in Ike Turner's

16:02

band. Of course, yes, that's the same Ike

16:04

Turner that would later marry and abuse Tina.

16:07

On March 2, 1951,

16:10

all the Delta Cats packed up an old station

16:12

wagon in front of the Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale,

16:14

Mississippi, where they'd been rehearsing and were ready to

16:16

make a record. With everybody crammed

16:19

into the car and the musical instruments in the back,

16:21

they started on the 75-mile drive north

16:24

to Sun Studios in Memphis along Highway

16:26

61. There

16:29

along the way, the car had a

16:31

flat and everybody had to pull over,

16:33

get out, unload all the gear, find

16:35

the spare, and change the tire. However,

16:38

the story is that someone was

16:40

careless and dropped bass player Willie

16:43

Kitsart's amp. No problem,

16:45

just dust it off, fix the tire, and

16:47

get to Memphis. When

16:49

they got to the studio, Kitsart realized that

16:51

when his bass amp hit the ground back

16:53

on the side of the highway, the

16:56

speaker cone had come jarred loose. It

16:58

now gave off a buzz and a vibration

17:00

instead of a clean, cool sound. They

17:03

tried to fix that by jamming some newspaper around the

17:05

gaps, but that only made the vibrations and the buzz

17:07

worse. But then producer Sam

17:09

Phillips, a white guy, said, hold

17:11

on, sounds kind of cool. Let's

17:14

use it as is. So they did. And

17:17

in the process, they may have created the

17:19

first rock and roll record. Now

17:22

let's listen to this. The vocals are up front, power is

17:24

supplied by the piano and a couple of saxophones. The

17:27

drums are a good time backbeat, but

17:30

Kitsart's bass was distorted.

17:33

That was new. You

17:36

women have heard of the lop and you heard

17:38

the noise. When the mirror goes

17:40

by the rocket 88. One

17:43

in the street, just one way. Everybody

17:46

likes my rocket 88.

17:48

Everybody's riding style, moving

17:50

all along. Lots

17:53

of hallmarks of rock and roll, don't you think? But

17:55

you want to know the main argument for that being touted as the

17:58

first rock and roll record? Because

18:00

Sam Phillips said it was. There

18:03

were dozens, perhaps hundreds of other candidates. But

18:06

because Sam Phillips said so all the time,

18:08

and remember this is the guy who discovered

18:10

Elvis Presley, the legend became

18:12

something of a fact. What

18:14

is end up for discussion is that

18:17

the vast, vast majority of these proto-rock

18:19

and roll songs were from black

18:21

artists. Back with more rock and

18:23

roll first from black artists in just a moment. Even

18:26

through a list of important firsts in the history

18:29

of rock and roll, all from black artists, let's

18:31

review. George W. Johnson, the first person with a

18:33

hit record and the first person to reach number

18:35

one on the earliest music charts. Trixie

18:38

Smith, introducing the concept of rockin' and rollin'

18:40

on record. Charles Christian, the

18:42

first guitar hero. George Barnes,

18:44

the first person to commit an electric guitar solo

18:46

to record. And the busted-up

18:48

amplifier used by Jackie Brinson and his Delta

18:51

Cats. All these people were Americans

18:53

of African descent. Now let's just

18:55

back up a sec. If

18:58

Charlie Christian was the first guitar hero, who

19:00

was the first female guitar hero? A

19:03

lot of people will point to Sister Rosetta

19:06

Tharp, a guitarist who graduated to

19:08

the electric guitar and has been called the

19:10

godmother of rock and roll. Listen,

19:12

if you want to fight about it, take

19:14

it out with Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis,

19:16

Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry. They

19:18

all revered this queer black woman from Cotton

19:21

Plant, Arkansas, and others would

19:23

soon follow. She provided

19:25

an important bridge between gospel blues and a

19:27

loose type of swing music that contributed to

19:29

the development of rock and roll. She

19:32

started playing and writing in the 1930s, and by 1956, she was doing this.

19:36

I hear music in

19:38

the air, I hear music in the

19:40

air, I hear music in the air,

19:42

I hear music in

19:46

the air, I hear music in the air, I hear

19:48

music in the air, I hear music in the air,

19:51

I hear music in the air. Before, Sister

19:53

Rosetta Tharp embarked on a European tour that

19:55

included a stop in Manchester. Her

19:58

performance was so inspiring. that it

20:00

changed the lives of four notable members

20:02

of the audience, Eric

20:04

Clapton, Jeff Beck, and both Keith Richards

20:06

and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones.

20:09

After that, they became disciples.

20:13

I mentioned that sister Rosetta was queer, but

20:15

that was something that she kept quiet. But

20:18

then we have little Richard, and

20:20

you can make an argument that he

20:23

was Rock's first openly gay rock star.

20:26

Now there was no question that little Richard

20:28

was gay or the very least bisexual with

20:30

leaning towards being gay. He

20:32

played up his effeminate mannerisms, wore makeup, worked

20:35

in the rough trade for a while, and

20:37

was once arrested for spying on men in

20:39

public toilets. He even proclaimed

20:41

Elvis may have been the king of rock

20:43

and roll, but I am the queen. Man,

20:46

you know, black, gay, and

20:48

performing through the U S South in the

20:50

1950s. How much guts did that take? But

20:54

little Richard was always at war

20:56

with his sexuality, sometimes exalting in

20:58

it, sometimes descending into self-loathing. But

21:01

in terms of his effect and influence, that

21:03

was something else. His flamboyance, his

21:06

energy, and his music reverberated through

21:08

all of rock and roll. He

21:11

had a massive effect on everyone from the Beatles

21:13

to James Brown, to David Bowie, and even Lemmy

21:15

of Motorhead. And I'll throw this one in. Little

21:18

Richard was the first black artist to

21:20

cross over. He appealed to

21:22

all races, breaking the color barrier. A

21:25

little Richard show attracted both black

21:27

and white people, which helped change

21:30

culture. Here's one of

21:32

his best known songs. And if you want some

21:34

not so subtle hints about his sexuality, when this

21:36

song was written and released, search

21:38

for the original uncensored

21:40

lyrics of Tutti Frutti.

21:44

You might be surprised. From

22:02

Little Richard, we're going to move to Chuck Berry, the

22:05

man named the father of rock and roll. If

22:07

anyone can be credited with being the first to take rhythm

22:09

and blues and rocking it up, it's got to be him.

22:12

More than any other person, he made

22:15

rock into a separate and distinct thing,

22:18

riffing through two and three chord songs

22:20

on his electric guitar with style and

22:22

showmanship. So much of

22:24

the standard rock and roll style, the

22:27

foundation from which everything was built on came

22:30

from Chuck Berry. He had the

22:32

swagger, he had the attitude, his lyrics were

22:34

aimed squarely at young people and the trouble

22:36

that they often found themselves in. He

22:38

was big into guitar solos. And

22:40

although his career began in the era

22:43

before giant amplifiers and distortion pedals, there

22:45

was a roughness and a rawness that

22:48

presaged everything that was to come almost

22:50

a decade later. So that's

22:52

one first for Chuck Berry. But

22:55

here's another one that is going

22:57

to last literally for infinity. In

23:00

1977, Voyager 1 and

23:03

Voyager 2 were launched on a grand

23:05

tour of our solar system. In

23:08

1989, both spacecraft passed the orbits of

23:10

Pluto and Neptune on their way to

23:12

interstellar space. When I last

23:14

checked, Voyager 1 was more than 15 billion

23:17

miles from Earth. Voyager

23:19

2 was almost 13 billion miles from home,

23:22

racing away nearly 40,000 miles an hour.

23:26

The people who built Voyager were

23:28

optimistic. What if

23:30

in the far distant future, these

23:33

probes were found by

23:35

an advanced alien species? Shouldn't

23:38

there be some kind of introduction, some

23:40

kind of greeting on board? Well

23:43

there is. This is

23:45

the Voyager Golden Disk. It's

23:47

a phonograph record made of gold, one of the toughest

23:49

elements in the universe. It

23:51

contains pictures and coordinates and drawings. But

23:54

it also contains sounds of Earth, spoken

23:57

word recordings and a lot of music.

24:00

There is exactly one rock and

24:02

roll song on the Voyager Golden Disk.

24:05

And if an alien civilization ever finds

24:07

one of our Voyager probes, their

24:10

introduction, their first exposure to rock

24:12

will come from above. If you see

24:15

that, the animals are newer. If you

24:17

see that, the animals are newer.

24:20

The animals are newer. The animals

24:22

are newer. The animals are newer.

24:25

The animals are newer. The

24:28

animals are newer. The animals are

24:31

newer. Let's

24:33

move on to Jimi Hendrix. He provided

24:35

rock with a lot of firsts when it came to

24:37

the sounds an electric guitar could make. But

24:40

I want to focus on one particular thing. Jimi

24:42

Hendrix was the first, or at least one of

24:44

the very, very, very first, to incorporate a new

24:47

effects pedal into a sound. If

24:49

Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones popularized the

24:51

distortion pedal by using it on I Can't

24:53

Get No Satisfaction in 1965, Jimi

24:56

was right there when the Wawa pedal came in

24:59

in 1967. This

25:02

particular effect had been reproduced mechanically

25:04

by brass players as far back as the 1920s.

25:08

Now, depending on who's telling

25:10

the story, it was either Eric Clapton, who used

25:12

the Wawa pedal on record for the first time

25:14

with the song Tales of Brave Ulysses, or

25:17

it was Jimi Hendrix with

25:19

the B-side burning the midnight lamp. Both

25:22

came out within days of each other in the spring of 1967.

25:26

It is said that Jimi bought his,

25:28

a unit made by Vox, the company

25:30

who supplied amplifiers to the Beatles and

25:32

accidentally discovered the technology from Manny's music

25:34

on West 48th Street in New York

25:36

earlier that year. Another story.

25:39

He'd seen Frank Zappa use one and loved it,

25:42

and Zappa gave Jimi his Wawa

25:44

pedal. Oh, and another. Jimi's

25:46

bass player, Noel Redding, was looking for gear in

25:48

London when a music store employee told him to

25:50

bring Jimi by for a listen to this new

25:52

pedal. Whichever of these stories and

25:55

timelines you want to believe, Jimi

25:57

used his Wawa pedal a lot.

26:15

Now let's fast forward to another great guitars of

26:17

African descent. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine.

26:20

He loves his wah. He

26:22

first shows up in this song about 30 seconds in. I

26:40

have a couple of other rock and roll first that can be

26:42

credited to block artists coming up. Hang

26:45

on. This next look at a rock and roll first

26:48

by a block artist is actually a two-fer. We

26:50

begin with Bo Diddley. A man who

26:52

used a particular rhythm so effectively that

26:54

we actually now call it the Bo

26:56

Diddley beat. You'll know

26:59

it in... Bo

27:17

didn't invent that beat. His history goes back at

27:19

least 50 years. And he was

27:21

the one who introduced it to rock and roll. Everyone

27:24

from Iggy Pop to Jet has used that rhythm in their hit

27:26

songs. So we need to put Bo Diddley on

27:28

our list. But we also have to look

27:30

at his band. If

27:32

Sister Rosetta Tharp was the godmother of

27:35

rock and roll, is there

27:37

someone we can call the mother of rock and roll? I'd

27:40

like to suggest Peggy Jones. She

27:43

started working as a guitarist in Bo Diddley's band in

27:45

1957. This

27:47

block woman was recognized as one of

27:50

the first female rock guitarists in a

27:52

famous rock band. She'd

27:54

later be recognized for her experiments with

27:56

guitar synthesizers. And nobody used those in

27:58

R&B music. Here's another

28:00

one. Was the first

28:02

punk band black? There's

28:06

an argument to be made for three brothers from

28:08

Detroit. In February 1964, David,

28:11

Bobby, and Dennis Hackney saw the Beals

28:13

perform on Ed Sullivan. They

28:15

messed about in their bedrooms and performed gigs for

28:17

friends in their garage. By

28:20

1971, they called themselves Rock Fire Funk

28:22

Express. But then their father

28:24

died in a car accident, and that's when

28:26

Rock Fire Funk Express changed their name to

28:29

Death. They started

28:31

making records that, sadly, went largely unnoticed,

28:34

partly because they only came out in runs of

28:36

maybe 500 copies. And

28:38

then in 1977, Death broke up. But

28:42

in 2009, they were rediscovered. Recordings

28:44

from the early 1970s started making them

28:46

round, and damn, these songs sure sounded

28:48

pretty punky. It's hard to

28:50

match up the timelines, but it is possible that

28:53

Death was making music like this before the Ramones

28:55

played their first gig in 1974. Making

29:18

pretty convincing punk rock before there was such

29:21

a thing. So it makes you wonder

29:23

where music might have gone and more people

29:25

known about Death when they were together in the

29:27

early 1970s. Finally,

29:30

while we're on the topic of punk, we

29:32

must acknowledge Tina Bell. In

29:34

the early 1980s, just as the

29:36

sound of grunge was in its very earliest

29:38

stages, Tina was a black

29:40

woman fronting a group called BAMBAM, a group that

29:43

also featured a drummer by the name of Matt

29:45

Cameron, by the way. And yes, that is the

29:47

Matt Cameron of Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. If

29:50

we look at things in context

29:52

of the history of grunge, she was

29:54

the genre's first ever female front

29:57

person. She and her

29:59

husband, Tommy Martin, formed Bambam in 1983. And

30:02

Tina was tough. She had to be because a

30:05

black female punk singer? A

30:07

lot of racial abuse was hurled at her. But

30:09

Bambam also had their fans. Some kid

30:12

named Kurt Cobain once worked as a roadie

30:14

for Bambam. In

30:16

1984, they made their first record. They

30:18

used reciprocal recording, making them the first

30:20

grunge band to make music there. Reciprocal

30:24

would later be used by Nirvana, Allison Chain,

30:26

Soundgarden, the Melbins, Mudhoney, and a ton of

30:28

others. That Bambam EP

30:30

was called Villains, and it was released at

30:32

least a year before other early

30:34

grunge groups started releasing records. And

30:37

for the next few years, Tina and Bambam were

30:39

part of the local Seattle scene, opening shows for

30:42

future stars like Soundgarden. But

30:44

Bambam had a hard time gaining any kind of traction.

30:47

They were pretty much ignored, even though a lot of these

30:49

other local bands were blowing up. Tina

30:51

left Bambam in 1990 and moved to England to see

30:53

if she could make anything happen there. Well,

30:56

that didn't work. And after moving

30:58

to the Netherlands, she was deported back to the

31:00

U.S. as part of some kind of immigration crackdown.

31:02

And that was it. Tina quit music.

31:04

She got divorced. She felt one of her times,

31:06

battled depression and alcoholism, and was diagnosed

31:08

with cirrhosis of the liver. Tina

31:11

Bell died in Las Vegas on October 10, 2012, at the age

31:13

of 55. Her

31:16

body remained undiscovered for a couple of weeks. By

31:18

the time her son arrived at her apartment,

31:21

someone had thrown on all her possessions, including

31:23

lyrics, music, diaries, and poems. Tina

31:26

Bell needs to be remembered as someone who

31:28

helped invent Grudge, one of the founders of

31:30

the sound that defined rock in the 1990s.

31:34

She was the godmother of Grudge. And

31:37

this is called Grudge. Like

31:56

I said, way back in the beginning, the history of rock

31:58

and roll is filled with firsts. innovations

32:00

and experiments by artists of African

32:02

descent. It is absolutely 100% impossible

32:07

for our music to sound the way it does today without

32:09

the contributions of the people mentioned on this program.

32:12

And there are plenty of others. We

32:14

can go back to Big Joe Turner and his

32:16

1954 song, Shake, Rattle and Roll, one of the

32:18

template songs for rock and roll during that era.

32:21

There's Nona Hendrix, a former member of La

32:24

Belle and a founding member of Black Rock

32:26

Coalition, a nonprofit that provides help

32:28

for black artists. Holly Styrene,

32:30

one of the original punks and the singer

32:32

for Britain's X-ray Specs. She

32:34

was probably the first black female front person

32:37

for a punk band. There's

32:39

Don Letts. He was a member of Big Audio

32:41

Dynamite with Mick Jones at the Clash. And

32:43

he got involved in the early punk scene as

32:46

a DJ spinning dub and reggae records in clubs,

32:48

introducing that music to pioneers in

32:51

the punk era to new genres. And that was

32:53

a first. Again,

32:55

the contributions of these people need to be

32:57

remembered, commemorated and celebrated. Others without

33:00

them and others like them. Who knows

33:02

where we would be today? There

33:04

are hundreds of ongoing history programs available as podcasts. Just

33:06

go to your favorite download site and grab as many

33:08

as you want. If you need

33:10

a daily shot of music news and information,

33:12

there's my website, www.eternalofmusicalthings.com. It comes with

33:14

a free daily newsletter that goes out to people all over the world.

33:17

I'm pretty much on all the social media

33:20

platforms. Email should go to allanandallancross.ca. And

33:23

if you'd like a little true crime with your

33:25

music, there's my other program, Uncharted, Crime and Mayhem

33:27

in the Music Industry. It's a

33:29

podcast that's available everywhere too. Technical

33:31

Productions by Rob Johnston. We'll talk to you next time.

33:34

I'm Ellen Cross. It's 1986 and

33:37

Michael Morrison needs to get out

33:39

of Newark. He's offered a lifeline, a

33:41

new job, a chance to leave and

33:43

secure his future. But it's not just

33:45

any job. Mike is a cop.

33:48

As a black man in uniform,

33:50

this job will make impression everything

33:53

he knows about justice, community and

33:55

about himself. I'm Sarah

33:57

Jones and this is Black and Blue. the

34:00

badge. Listen on Apple's podcast, Spotify,

34:03

and other music wherever you are.