Rock and Roll Revisited

A Mr. Jonathan Broder of Fort Lee, New Jersey, writes “Dear Tomser. What is all this about country songs coming from Southern fundamentalist churches? Don’t these songs have a lot more in common with the blues and the Black experience in the South? Don’t these come out of how difficult it was in the South when many of these songs were written for anyone who was not a rich, landowning white person?” 

Well Mr. Broder, you bring up a good point. There is a lot in common between the blues and country music, especially in the strong emotions both bring to the table. And, certainly, country music emerges as well from the hardscrabble life that many of the country stars experienced, which was similar in many ways to the difficult lives of so many of the blues singers. 

I have more trouble with seeing the connection with the Black rock pioneers. Of course, so much of rock comes out of the Black gospel tradition, so there should be a correlation. It is ironic that Gladwell singled out Little Richard, whose father worked as a Seventh Day Adventist preacher, as emblematic of rock. He was incredibly influenced by the music being sung in the Black church, and that style of worship as well.  

But the Black rock pioneers seem to have taken their experiences to a different place than the country singers. I am no musicologist, and my knowledge of country music is only about an inch deep (as opposed to my knowledge of rock, which goes down at least two inches), but I can’t imagine traditional country singers producing the upbeat, pounding, exhilarating sounds of Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, or the other great Black innovators. Then again, I can’t imagine any of those singers reproducing the plaintive, wistful melodies of Hank Williams or Merle Haggard. 

I am reminded of that scene in the Buddy Holly biopic where he goes to Nashville to record “That’ll be the Day”, and the record producers try to fit it into the mold of most country songs of the time. He rebels and does it his own way. It is picked up and he goes to New York, where everyone who heard the song assumed that he was a Black artist. I’m not sure that means anything, but it highlights the differences I see.  

That being said, a Mr. Gregg Swentor, also from Fort Lee, New Jersey, writes, “Dear Tomser. What’s this about country music being American and rock being international? What kinda artist is Mark Knopfler? He ain’t even ‘merican, is he?” 

Well Mr. Swentor, I’m glad you asked. Yes, there have been notable performers who have contributed to country music such as Mark Knopfler, Robert Plant and Keith Urban, who are not Americans. However, they are few and far between. In fact, Urban is the only non-American on the Rolling Stone list of 100 Greatest Country Artists. I doubt if we will ever see a time on the Country music charts like we saw with the British invasion between 1964 and 1967 when 36 songs by non-Americans topped the pop Billboard charts.

Plus, since musicians are artists, they draw from various places and styles that make fitting any music into a mold difficult. For country music it seems that this is especially true of the newer country artists like Lyle Lovett, who has clearly been influenced by big band jazz and gospel, or Garth Brooks who does not hide his love of rock. As for rock artists, they have always borrowed freely (some would say stole) from every genre.     

It just goes to show you. It’s always something. If it’s not one thing it’s another. Either you discount the contributions of blues artists, or you ignore exceptions to the rule. Like my friend John Eargle always said, “All generalizations are false”. Good night my little Tomsers. (This post was brought to you courtesy of the F.O.R.R – Friends of Roseanne Roseannadanna).     

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