The 1950s

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The 1950s
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Little Richard

• The purest prototype of hard, mainstream rock was
  Little Richard
• Early years
• Specialty Records

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Tutti Frutti

• Chorus twelve-bar blues
• Instrumentation and performers
• Performance style
• Religion

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Chuck Berry

• Early years
• Muddy Waters and Chess Records
• Musical hits

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Maybelline

• Created beat of rock and roll from two blues
  sources
• Backbeat
• Boogie woogie
• Little Richards
• Listen for boogie woogie rhythm in electric
  guitar (normally in pianist)

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Maybelline

• Ida Red
• heavy back beat prominent guitar voice
  honky-tonk transformed
• refrain-frame form
• one chorus conventional blues
• verses are interpolated

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Johnny B. Goode

• solo breaks
• boogie woogie pattern
• double note licks

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Johnny B. Goode

• convergence of early rock style
• backbeat
• eight-beat rhythm
• strong rhythm guitar
• assertive guitar lead

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Great Balls of Fire

• Overtly sexual
• surpassed even Elvis and Little Richard
• 148 of ecstasy

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Great Balls of Fire

• most teen-themed songs impersonal
• often lyrics talk about what will happen
• sliding glissandos

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Thatll be the Day

• Chuck Berrys Maybellene
• Blues chords
• Unusual sequence

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Not Fade Away

• Not dance music
• 3 regular rhythms
• unconventional drumming
• clave rhythm

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Not Fade Away

• accents play against the beat
• backup vocalists
• strong accent
• No bass or rhythm guitar

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Not Fade Away

• No one marks time
• Rhythmic bearing
• Rock and roll can be more than dance music

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