Brush Cutters Part One
The genre opened doors to talk about relatable
emotions, not only that of innocent relationships of love and heartbreak, but provide a culture and genre more open to the
sexual side. It became a universal language speaking into everyday
topics in an upbeat fashion; discussing cars to rebellion. The 12-bar
structure created a dynamic of thought accompanied by troubling riffs
and bass pounding sounds vibrating through ones very own chest cavities.
All with that idea of, *"One for the money, Two for the show, Three to
get a ready..." For the rock and roll revolution brought forth a
culture of not only music but fashion, language, and a lifestyle of
greased hair (and hands) with an attitude that originated in the United
States but quickly swept the entire world. *Carl Perkin's "Blue Suede Shoes"
When we hear the term "rock and roll" we often think of skinny legged musicians, the stereotyped long haired, dressed in women's clothing, lifestyle of fast lane living with fast women, stage kicking, radicals, thrilling guitar riffs, and shrilling vocals. Laying the foundation of this mania were women.
I like to think women's role in the start of rock and roll as those who clear the brush, creating the footpath and men came along with cement, just to polish it off. My goal for this post and the articles to follow, is to create a series delving into the world of rock and roll, but polish it in a frame bordered with longer lashes. I hope to cover singers from the thirties/forties all the way to the eighties, not for any particular reason or to exclude anyone- knowing that women have still been cutting the brush before and after this timeline.
So keep your feet tapping, your ears open, and your eyes scrolling, because coming at you now is Part One of Brush Cutters; The Women of Rock and Roll.
Marion Keisker
"The sessions would go on and on"- Marion Keisker
When Sam had the idea to take his small recording gig and make it bigger, she stood by his side from blowing the first piece of dust when arriving upon the grounds of what soon would be the world renowned Sun Studios.
Sun Studios began turning out records with a partnership with Modern and Chess Records, recording the iconic sounds of Howlin' Wolf, Ike Turner, and B.B King. However, the company hadn't peeked and gained it's iconic fame until that fateful day when a young man with a lip curl, came into the studio to beat the early summer sweat to record a song as an additional birthday gift to his mother (more on her, Gladys, in a later post).
Back to Elvis and Marion - It was only natural to be greeted by the secretary when walking into any business, why should a recording studio be any different. Perched at her desk was Marion Keisker at Memphis Recording Company. Marion record two demo acetate of "My Happiness" and "When Your Heartaches Begin" with Elvis on vocals, his first recordings.
The story doesn't start here, maybe it does. Maybe it's just a preface of what would come of Elvis career.
Presley returned to the studio again in January 1954 to record another demo, enticing Sam Phillips who is in at this time. It wasn't until the summer of that year when Marion Keisker suggested to Sam to call that side-burned young man, Elvis Presley to sing a song Sam had been thinking about recording. The recording was rocky at first, unsatisfying until Presley and the band broke into "That's All Right", and it was sunny days from then on.
"She was the one who made it all possible. Without her I would not even be here."- Elvis Presley, Jaycees Ten Outstanding Young Men of America Awards 1970Keisker's days of recording set as she left Sun Studios and bid farewell to Sam Phillips in 1957 when she joined the U.S Air force, commissioned as a captain. She served until 1969 when she became an active member, in fact president of the, Memphis chapter of the National Organization for Women. She passed away at age 72 on 29 December, 1989.
Sources;
- “Marion Keisker.” Sunrecordcompany, www.sunrecordcompany.com/Marion_Keisker.html.
Big Mama Thornton
The Following Video is "Sassy Mama" by Big Mama Thornton. Some Smartphones prohibit seeing the video, so a link is provided here.
Now you can't be a little bit intimidated, a little bit intrigued, and a little bit lustful when your sensors pick up a six-foot, African American women, dressed head to toe in men's clothing, bouncing around on stage, ringing into the mic, trembling the harmonica, banging on the drums, while gutting out blues bars so loud that she refuses to turn up the microphone on some accounts. If you can tell me you're not a little bit, what I like to say, filled with cautious curiosity, then maybe I should be writing an article about you.
Earlier in this article I mention that Elvis longest running #1 hit was "Hound Dog". The song was written by songwriting and record producing duo, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stroller for Big Mama Thornton, an Ariton, Alabama native. Before she was known as "Big Mama", a nickname given to her by the Apollo Theater manager, Frank Schiffman, she was just Willie Mae- a daughter of a preacher and a choir singer, not to mention one of six children. Although, Thornton reportedly didn't sing much in church, she had drew a heavy influence from these sermons. Whether this was in the message, the music, the energy, or getting to look around and learn on the different instruments with her brother, "Harp" Thornton, the admiration for music, and especially for preaching, was drawn.There's a few stories on how Big Mama got her start. One of which, at the age fourteen, the same year that her mother passed away, Willie Mae had been discovered by Sammy Green, a promoter for Atlanta Music. In the words of Thornton in an interview, a very laughed filled interview, with Chris Strachwitz, this is how Big Mama started,
"T: Well, I left when I was fourteen.Little later on in this particular interview, Thornton explains that she started touring mainly in the south before World War II began and ended roughly while touring in Texas, when war news broke. These shows were typically filled with chorus girls, comedians, dancers, singers, from theaters to small stages. During this time she became known as "The New Bessie Smith".
S: Oh You left there when you were fourteen?
T: Yeah:
S: Did you leave with your folks or just take off on your own?
T: No, I left with the show.
S:Oh, Yeah? What was that? What was the name of it?
T: The Sammy Green's Hot Harlem Review. Out of Atlanta, Georgia
S: Is that right? How did they find you? Did they hear you singing someplace?
T: Well, I did an audition on this show when they were playing a little theater there in the hometown."
But let's talk how rock and roll was influenced and shaped. This is an article about women of rock and roll, unfortunately not biographies of each of them. So here we fast forward, to 1951, where we meet Big Mama Thornton. At this point in time Big Mama had previously signed a record deal with Peacock Records, was now performing with the Otis Show, opening for the Apollo theater with "Little" Esther Phillips and Mel Walker. It was 1953, the year that made Big Mama Thornton a hit when she recorded "Hound Dog". The song was recorded a year prior, in 1952, and climbed the charts, topping the R&B chart at number one as an A-side, accompanied with the lesser success, but still known B-Side "They Call Me Big Mama", an original by Thornton. According to the Encyclopedia of Alabama, $500 was the only profit Big Mama saw of the 2 million copies sold.
"In contrast, Elvis Presley's 1956 version, heavily refined for mainstream audiences, brought him both fame and considerable financial reward. This is perhaps the most notorious example of the inequity that often existed when a black original was covered by a white artist." - Willie Mae "Big Mama", Thornton, Encyclopedia Of Alabama
 |
| Photo from Morrison Hotel Gallery, 1969 |
The Following is The Rolling Stones cover of Muddy Waters "Look What You've Done" via Youtube. Link.
Big Mama Thornton recorded one of her most famous, original songs "Ball and Chain" in the late sixties. The song would become wildly successful during the Summer of Love at Monterey in 1968, but not with Big Mama's voice, instead it was the raw, thrilling screams of Janis Joplin. "Ball and Chain" is, according to The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, one of the Top 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.
Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton passed away 25 July, 1984, after suffering from a Heart attack and prolonged liver issues, after a heavy habit of drinking. It was always in question of her sexuality, of whether or not Big Mama was a lesbian, for her appearance and the lack of seeing her paired with man throughout her career, but there is no evidence on that, it was just another hard structure, and wall to add on the rock to the roll of this story. She left behind material working with musicians from the great Muddy Waters, to John Lee Hooker, hell, the woman gave Elvis his hit!
Sources:
“Big Mama Thornton.” Rock-And-Roll Woman: The 50 Fiercest Female Rockers, by Meredith Ochs, Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 2018, pp. 6–9.
Sliptrail. “Big Mama Thornton - Sassy Mama.” YouTube, YouTube, 12 Apr. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRFglw9GJ64.
R., Anthony. “The Rolling Stones - Look What You´Ve Done 1964.” YouTube, YouTube, 20 Aug. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tgEDzIbbsk.
Strachwitz, Chris. “Big Mama Thornton Interview.” Arhoolie Foundation, 25 July 1984.
“Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton.” Encyclopedia of Alabama, 27 Mar. 2015, www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-157
The Following Video (Blogger does not format video for all smartphones, so link will be provided) is "That's All" recorded by Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Joan of Arc had reportedly had been visited by three saints telling her she needed to defend Charles VII and liberate France from the English during the Hundreds War. These Saints came to her as spirit guides making sure this was Joan's destiny, her calling form God. Well, little four- year old Rosetta Nubin in cotton picking, rural Arkansas, got the same calling. Well, maybe not so much in the spirits and saint's visiting her style, but the calling from a higher power and a holy influence that lead her down a path of what would become the rock and roll epidemic.
"Say, man, there's a woman that can sing some rock and roll. I mean she's singing religious music, but she's singing rock and roll. She's shakin', man... She jumps it!"- Jerry Lee Lewis
In doing research on Sister Rosetta Tharpe many names have come up to claim to be her birth. Biography.com and Merideth Orchs book Women of Rock and Roll 50 Fiercest Women of Rock and Roll favors Rosetta Nubin. PBS.org uses both Rosie Etta Atkins as well as Rosabell Atkins, and later in their timeline, refer to her birth name as "Rosie Etta Bell Nuben". No matter what her name was at birth, she had left the legacy as Sister Rosetta Tharpe. For the purposes of this segment of the article, she will be referred to as Rosetta in her childhood years and "Sister Rosetta Tharpe" or just "Tharpe" in her later career.
Her name is in question, but her father is even more of a mystery as he was not in the picture growing up. Rosetta had leaned and learned from her choir singing mother, Katie Bell; a mandolin player and preacher at the Church of God in Christ (COGIC). It was this church, founded by Charles Mason in 1894, whom encouraged music creativity and expression heavily, that the four year old Rosetta had a guitar in her grip. By 1921, at the age of six, that little girl was playing and singing in church.
Rosetta made her debut at Fortieth Street Church of God in Christ in Chicago and from there on would play alongside her mother at the Maxwell Street market in Chicago, and a plethora of churches and tabernacles throughout the south. She was creating a luminary name for herself, not only as an electrifying musician, but she was black and she was a woman! In 1934, Rosetta married preacher Thomas J. Tharpe giving her that last name we all know her as today. The couple became a wildly known and beloved entertainment act at the Miami Temple COGIC.
It was this electrifying and open ended lyrics, that songs like "Rock Me" provided that turned gospel music into the mainstream realm but also shied the eyes of the church away from Rosetta Tharpe. Tharpe continued to play these songs and plug in for more gospel tracks dispute any dispute or disapproval.
"It's Sister Rosetta Tharpe for the rock-and roll spiritual singing." - Maurie Orodenker, music critic, 1942Tharpe would go on to perform at Carnegie Hall, play with the Jordanaires, an all-white male group whom would later back Elvis Presley. She played with her band the Rosettes, the Dixie Hummingbirds and would later find a partnership in and out of music with Marie Knight, whom she recorded the popular "Up Above My Head" and "Didn't It Rain" with.
By the late 50s,rock and roll had spread like wildfire and Sister Rosetta Tharpe was glanced over more and more as young, white, males took over the scene, it was then she took over Europe joining Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and others.
Her career boomed and steadily thrived in Europe, where she continued to play until she passed away on 9 October, 1973 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania after suffering her second stroke in three years. Sister Rosetta Tharpe is recognized today as the "Godmother of Rock and Roll". She is often referred to as a clear favorite and influence amongst many, including Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Meatloaf, and many more. I Mean, who do you think influenced that famous Chuck Berry duck walk, scoot he did across stage? Little Richard praises her, you can hear her influences heavily residing in his music as well as Aretha Franklin's. However, it was Sister Rosetta Tharpe who gave Little Richard his first public performance outside of church in 1947, which is something to thank on behalf of all music listeners.
The Following Video is Sister Rosetta Tharpe singing "Didn't It Rain" from the 1964 American Folk Blues Festival in Manchester, England.
Sources:
- LosGrollos. “Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Didn't It Rain.” YouTube, YouTube, 10 Nov. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnAQATKRBN0.
Birnbaum, Larry. Before Elvis: the Prehistory of Rock 'n' Roll. Md., 2013.
Diaz-Hurtado, Jessica. “Forebears: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Godmother Of Rock 'N' Roll.” NPR, NPR, 24 Aug. 2017, www.npr.org/2017/08/24/544226085/forebears-sister-rosetta-tharpe-the-godmother-of-rock-n-roll.
The following video is Wanda Jackson, "Thunder On The Mountain".
If you're romantically involved with Elvis Presley, and Bob Dylan has a nickname for you, I believe you rightfully have earned a spot on my list of Women of Rock and Roll. The next trailblazer I'm going to talk about is still touring the country today and she's doing it in the same style, with rockabilly roots and with a flare and southern charm.
Wanda Jackson was born 20 October, 1937 in Maud, Oklahoma who had nothing better to do than to become a female singer; which is what she reportedly told her father, musician Tom Jackson, she wanted to be when she was still in single digits- maybe even still counting her age on a single hand. By the age of six, the same age that Sister Rosetta Tharpe started playing publicly in churches, Jackson had received her first guitar.Jackson's music career picked up fast. Before she graduated high school she had already been discovered by music entertainer in his own rights, Hank Thompson. In 1954, she was asked to join Thompson and his band where she sang "You Can't Have My Love" on their Capitol Record label. When Jackson asked Ken Nelsons, producer at Capitol Record, if he'd be interested in signing her, he replied with;
"Girls, don't sell records"It was shortly after that, that Jackson had found herself with a pen signing her name to a contract with Decca. She would later sign with Capitol in 1956.
By the end of high school, she had already had a half hour radio show and was setting out on tour. It was on tour that she became close with another young artist making a scene in the music world, Elvis Presley. The two began seeing each other, driving around in a pink Cadillac, and encouraging each other to hone in on their talents - it was Elvis who encouraged her to sing in a more Rockabilly fashion, crowning her as "Queen of Rockabilly".
"We were boyfriend and girlfriend.... [H]e thought I should start doing this new music because he was just starting to really get big. I said, 'I don't think I can do that because I'm just a country singer. He said, 'Well, I am too basically, but I think ... it's going to be the next really big music.' Well, how right he was.... It was through his encouragement that I got into rock 'n' roll music and daddy agreed with him thoroughly." - Wanda Jackson, Brutarian QuartelyThe Following is Wanda Jackson "Funnel of Love"
With help from Captiol's Ken Nelsons, she recorded numerous rockabilly hits like, "Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad!", " Mean, Mean Man", "Fujiyama Mama" and "Honey Bop". While recording these she had requested time and again for Nelson to make her records sound more like Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, but without the Vincent vibe, it was Jackson's humor and raw vocals that would make her career successful. In 1960, she finally had a Top 40 with "Let's Have A Party", a song earlier recorded by Elvis Presley. The Party Timers became Wanda Jackson's band and the group were headliners.
Success came in waves with singles hitting charts, then tsunami with "Right or Wrong" placing in charts at number 9 and "In the Middle of Heartache" which sat number 6, followed by a storm that Noah's Arc might not of been able to survive as Capitol released album after album of Jackson. From Rockin' with Wanda, There's A Party Goin' On, Right or Wrong, Wonderful Wanda, and Two Sides of Wanda - the album which gave Wanda Jackson a Grammy nomination for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1964.
 |
| From WBUR News |
Sources:
James, Gary. “Gary Jame's Interview with Wanda Jackson.” Classic Bands, www.classicbands.com/WandaJacksonInterview.html. “Wanda Jackson Biography.” Musician Guide, 2004, www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608003648/Wanda-Jackson.html.
