and roll? Did Big Walter innovate the sound of rock music? Interesting excerpt from a Willie Dixon interview. Talks more about Big Walter and Little Walter. Good Stuff.
I don't know that big Walter set the stage for rock but I wager muddy waters forties to early fifties recordings in their entirety were the most important development followed by chuck berry.
I'd argue that Willie Dixon was likely the most influential driving force of early rock and roll.
The importance can't be understated at how moving from plantation music to race records to mainstream records was to the masses perception of black music. Also the importance of moving past recording a musician outside of the classical realm with accompaniment and eventually a full club band
The question is how influential was Horton to shaping muddy waters club band sound?
Last Edited by Willspear on Mar 20, 2013 7:47 AM
Most music historians consider either Roy Brown's Good Rocking Tonight or Jackie Brenston's Rockett 88 as the first rock and roll tune and they're all horn oriented jump blues bands. BW was not the first guy to amplify harp and neither was Little Walter, and amplified harp was around since the mid 40's, but until LW got recorded with Muddy, it hadn't been on record. The amps harp players used were also their PA. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
I would bet that amplified harp was around before the mid 40's. Perhaps not in popular music or on a regular basis... I bet Marconi used to play long hours into the night testing out his newly created PA systems, HAHA!
I could care less who, what, when, where recorded/played amplified harp. Or who, what, when, where, how rock and roll evolved. Or what the historians believe. Most history is "theory" in one way or another.
Anyway, I just think that this was a good listen and interesting what Willie had to say about Big and Little Walter. I also thought his "opinion" on electrified blues harp and it's (or not) influence on R&R was interesting.
Last Edited by shbamac on Mar 20, 2013 9:38 AM
Well - a little far fetched that the harp begat everything.
I would put my money on Louis Jordan and t-Bone Walker and the jump sax players of that era. Mix in Chuck Berry, Ike Turner, Sam Phillips, Wolf and Muddy and we got something going And don't forget New Orleans ( Fats and Earl Palmer)
Last Edited by Goldbrick on Mar 20, 2013 9:44 AM
Yeah Adam said he found those pics of Sonny Boy with a bullet mic. I mean at gigs harp players used mics in clubs like sonny boy 1. And I bet when the band was cookin and gettin loud the harp player that couldnt get any louder acoustically would grab the mic. I tend to do that a lot with the old Pa systems. I bet right when JT-30s were comin out they were being used. These guys were clever and very resourceful so I'd bet money all those cats had that tone back then. Man what Id give to be around back then. Anyone got a time machine
Hillbilly boogie from the late 40s and even bluegrass at the time all were pointing in the direction of Rock&roll. Some folks maintain that Big Joe Turner with Count Basie in 1935 made the first rock records.
It's absurd to attribute the birth of rock to any individual or band, or even any one prior style of music. It was the direction in which American popular music was moving for several decades prior to the crystallization, naming, and commercial exploitation of rock&roll starting in the early 1950s. ---------- Winslow
