Posted on 06/26/2010 5:26:01 PM PDT by sussex
Am I the only person on this planet who can watch these clips and recapture those ecstatic moments of feeling I was in a whole new dimension, away from parents, teachers, bosses and that smug, suffocating, pompous world of received opinion?
Rock n’Roll came exploding out of nowhere (or so it seemed to a gangly British 15 year old going through all those frighteningly mysterious upheavals of adolescence in the 1950s).
(Excerpt) Read more at theagedp.com ...
like , I’m hip , daddio, it was coolsville!
The Aged P but that’s why we have Depends...
As a double 6, Seasoned Citizen, who remembers that era vividly, I still play the oldies regularly as I reminisce with buds about that Golden Era.
Ah, the 50's! That wonderful innocent decade that fell between the disastrous WWII decade of the 40's and the yet to come, chaotic and nascent, drug cultured, anti-war, hippie movement of the 60's and for many of us, our never to be forgotten tour of duty, in Nam.
Our "rides" were called "irons" cuz that is what they were made out of and they were (beginning in the mid-50's) Hot and stayed that way for the next 15 years as we cruised looking for chicks ala American Graffiti and trying to line up our next drag on public streets.
Our biggest thrill (for guys that is)--when not trying to find a National Geographic Mag to spy on some nubile African girl's naked breast--was trying to cop a feel--usually over a sweater/blouse and padded bra--on a date without getting your faced slapped. lol
I can still remember (around 12 or 13) my first "spin the bottle" game at some girls house party and my first kiss (which I don't remember). Ah, those were the days!
Sorry to bore y'all with this ol timers trip down memory lane!
Was that when “hep” was changed to “hip”?
Very good.
Oh the memories, thanks.
I don’t know about England, but in Texas we were listening to R&B radio and going to R&B reviews to see Berry, Frogman Henry, Little Richard, Big Mama Thornton, Ruth Brown, Bo Diddley, and a whole host of trios and quartets.
You might be interested to know that Presley absorbed that same sound in Memphis and “Hound Dog” was a remake of Big Mama’s original of four years before.
The move into the crossover market by the R&B performers was, however, due to the emergence of Rock& Roll which took the R&B beat and added a little southern Country sound. The white boys popularized the sound and gave the R&B folks a whole new white audience outside of the south.
I was there too. And still have a lot of those R&B 45s I collected later.
More memories...Sixteen Candles, In the Still of The Night, Earth Angel, Desiree, Those Oldies but Goodies (remind me of you). Bring back those days and music!
Oh, Sussex! How precious!
I, too, came of age in the 1950s. What a glorious decade that was. I will never forget the day that I saw Bill Haley and the Comets on TV and was introduced to what was called rock’n roll. This was quickly followed by seeing Little Richard and other R&B stars such as Fats Domino and Chuck Berry, who quickly blended into the genre of rock’n roll.
Part of my teen-age years were spent in Miami, where I had my first date at 16 with a real live girl. We went to see Elvis in “Jailhouse Rock.” Darn, I have (temporarily) forgotten her name! Senior moment.
Lots of other memories but this has gotten too long as it is.
In retrospect, the 50s were such an age of innocence. Too bad the 60s came along and ruined it.
For those just a bit younger than you, at least the early 60's (through '66 or so, maybe longer) were just as magical.
Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart; plenty of others I'm sure you'll recall.
Not meant to intrude on this thread though, which is all about the 50's, afterall!
I remember this music very well too. I was 15 in 1955 and I saw both Bill Haley and Elvis in Houston during the mid 50’s. I still love this old rock & roll.
Yes, the sixties ended the age or R&R innocence by injecting politics and social commentary into the music. We went from hotrods and broken hearts to drugs and revolution, seemingly overnight.
Some of the most influential American groups that emerged in the mid-sixties had folk music backgrounds - The Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and the Fish, and of course Joan Baez and Bob Dylan were pure folk musicians. They worshipped The Weavers, Pete Seeger, and Woodie Gurthrie, who were all committed communists. No more adolescent dreaming and crying for these new spokespersons!
The anti-war protests and the music fed off of each other, and the British Blues Invasion came along for the ride. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones capitalized shamelessly on popular sentiment, without an ounce of polical committment on their part. Same with the Doors.
Still, the music was far more sophisticated, with modern production methods. I love both eras.
And I came of age with The Beatles and the Stones. And, it was just as sweet.
RIGHT ON!! What a wonderful time, the best of best of music, girls who were girls, boys, boys, fun times at the ‘dance’, chaperons and all.
THANKS!!!!
As was I.
Thank you for your comments on my little posting.
Yes, Cbolt, I do vividly remember Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart.
As regards the 60s, I did have reference to the anti-war, anti-very thing aspects of the music but I also acknowledge that the early 60s music was outstanding. I was working as a DJ on a Talladega radio station in 1963 and I just loved the music.
Uh, that should be “anti-everything.” Sorry.
Oh, I should have added that I really loved the Stones, too. Still do.
“Texas Radio & the Big Beat”, by the DOORS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zayq41CZhc&feature=related
A 70’s tune but in honor to the original rock and roll and blues.
From an internet search:
“Texas Radio” refers to high power Mexican radio stations that blasted into Texas in the 1950s. Not restricted by American regulations these stations, whose call letters started with X, could have up to 150,000 watts. Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek both heard Wolfman Jack on one.
This is a spoken word piece of Jim Morrison’s poetry accompanied by John Densmore’s synthesized drums. Morrison wrote the lyrics years before this was recorded.
The verse, “Comes out of the Virginia swamps cool and slow with plenty of precision with a back beat narrow and hard to master” is most likely a reference to Morrison’s first real experience with the music scene. From 1958 to 1960 Morrison lived in Alexandria, Virginia and frequented the Juke Joints (blues clubs) on Route 1 just north of Fort Belvoir where Black Blues musicians would play on Friday and Saturday nights. That area where the Juke Joints used to be is right on the eastern edge of a swamp.
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