there's your name next to mine on that old cherry tree
it seems just like old times
I hear you whisper I love you
I feel the touch of your warm tender hand
pretending you're still here by my side my dear
makes it seem just like old times
all the family is gathered round
Lord, all my friends are here today
and the choir is singing our favourite song
it seems just like old times
oh it seems just like old times
sing a sad song
another Spooner Oldham classic, this time with Papa Don Schroeder
recorded by James and Bobby Purify
available on Shake a Tail Feather! The Best of . . .
As a historian I am often asked: "What was the first rock n roll record?"
Indeed this is a question that has been argued over for decades by historians, musicologists and even civilians. Why, there's even a Wikipedia page that tries to answer the question (but only leads to muddy waters). The answer is simple but before we get there we just need to mention a couple of pretenders to the throne.
One commonly proposed contender is Rocket 88. It's a valid suggestion. The record has fuzzed up guitars, a dirty saxophone and lyrics about riding around in my Rocket 88.
Credited to singer Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, it was recorded at Sam Phillips' Memphis Studio in March 1951. The band was Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm, with sax player Brenston taking the vocal lead, Ike playing piano and Willie Kizart on guitar.
Rocket 88, Jackie Brenston and Delta Cat, 1951
That would drag the birth of rock n roll to 1951. Or maybe earlier as the song was based on Jimmy Liggins' Cadillac Boogie (1947) and Pete Johnson's Rocket 88 Boogie from 1949. It sounds like rock n roll. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it's a duck, right? Maybe. But Chuck Berry did a duck walk and he was a Chuck, not a duck.
One person that thought Rocket 88 was rock n roll was Sam Phillips - and, well, his opinion counts. But one vote against comes from Ike Turner who said:
They say "Rocket 88" was the first rock'n'roll song, but the truth of the matter is, I don't think that "Rocket 88" is rock'n'roll. I think that "Rocket 88" is R&B, but I think "Rocket 88" is the cause of rock and roll existing.
In the 1950s black music was heading towards rock and roll: the blues had got rhythm, jazz had got modern (though sometimes it got played too darn fast and changed the beauty of the melody until it sounded just like a symphony) but there was something missing.
Hank Williams' Move It On Over (1947) would fit right in to any rock n roll band's repertoire. Any rock n roll band. Or any country, swing, country swing, Western swing, country & western, hillbilly, rockabilly or skiffle band. But it's not rock n roll.
Move it on over, Hank Williams, 1947
Truth is, there can be no rock n roll without Elvis. Rocket 88 and Move It On Over and a host of others, are preparing the way, John the Baptist style, for the arrival of Elvis.
guard of honour, Hamble River wedding party, 2012
Imagine some kind of wedding guard of honour, two lines of people holding flags or banners. The flags of the first two have the words Folk and Blues, the next pair Country and R&B, behind them Jazz and Sinatra, then Gospel and Church music, in the background Doowop and Barbershop. The flags go on further than the eye can see, with ever more esoteric coming-togethers. And walking down the aisle, bringing all the flags together is Elvis, gathering them, simultaneously tying them and shredding them.
Everyone knows the story of Elvis: how 60 years ago, on July 5th 1954, a small spacecraft crash landed just outside Memphis and Elvis, Scotty and Bill climbed out. They found their way to Sam Phillips studio where they thought they could use his recording equipment to record a message to be played on the radio and sent back to the stars from whence they came. The message was recorded, it was played on the radio and the shot was eventually heard around the world. And that message became known as The First Rock n Roll Song. That's alright.
Our Paris Correspondent was lurking around a subway recently, an underpass under the A10 at Villabon sur Yvette, when she saw a man with a can who turned out to be Bab2 of P19 Crew hard at work. Which is a bit like walking into a studio in Florence in 1504 and watching Leonardo setting up his easel.
BAB2, P19, Villabon sur Yvette, 2014
BAB2, P19, Villabon sur Yvette, 2014
Moebius, BAB2, P19, Villabon sur Yvette, 2014
Part of the piece is this Moebius tag. I'm guessing that Bab2 has drawn inpiration from Jean Giraud who, as Moebius, "created a wide range of science fiction and fantasy comics in a highly imaginative and surreal, almost abstract style" (to quote copy and paste from Wikipedia).
BAB2, P19, Villabon sur Yvette, 2014
Bab2 is one of the collective known as P19, along with Pener, Akse, Pest, Dume, Tcho. Spyr, Skred, Dover and Make B. They have a Facebook page which is worth checking out. There's going to be more from the underpass so stick around.
Still on the Bonnie Seymour kick here's a couple of links showing hoardings in Portsmouth and a subway in Southampton. The hoardings have been there a couple of years, around a building which was probably a jewel in the crown in its day. The subway pieces are here today, gone tomorrow.
Shepard Fairey/Obama style koruption of Bonnie Seymour by Korupt, Southampton
Bless you, Bonnie Seymour has been seen in these parts before, definitely one of my favourite bits of street art. So much so that I hijacked the name for a short lived graffiti blog.
www.bonnieseymour.blogspot.co.uk happened in June this year while theCornPoppy took a rest. I thought about reposting each of its 23 posts here, one day at a time, but thought better of it. Instead I'll drop a series of links.
The first is this from M-one, the first of a batch from the 2014 Portsmouth Street Games Festival. This took place in Portsmouth Guildhall Square in early June and included a subway train that disappeared under paint courtesy of Snub23 and Morf.
Snub23
Morf
Fidget and Monk on Tour were also at Portsmouth and were featured here and here. These are works in progress - go visit the links to see the finished pieces.
Fidget
Monk on Tour
The graffiti part of the festival was organised by My Dog Sighs who deserves a post to himself. In fact one of the reasons that TheCornPoppy returned after its break was that there was some unfinished business - including a promised piece about My Dog Sighs and the Golden Years thread that stalled in 1972, just as I was getting into it. There's also some amazing graffiti on its way from Our Paris Correspondent, Mme Akriche. So, lots to look forward to.
Next couple of posts will bring you up to date with Bonnie Seymour. Then some of the other stuff. Here's a teaser for My Dog Sighs:
I hope that I don't fall in love with you Cause falling in love just makes me blue the music plays and you display your heart for me to see I had a beer and now I hear you calling out for me And I hope that I don't fall in love with you
UK tv channels, newspapers and magazines are falling over themselves to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War, the War to End all Wars, World War I.
Here's my two cents. A couple of quotes, one from a German poet, the other from a British poet.
I am lying here amid murder and assaults,
in a blue sea of rockets,
in the wind's sighing,
beneath turbulent night skies,
in green waters full of snails and red worms,
waiting death, putrid and swollen,
amid the dying screams of horses,
amid the dying screams of men,
I heard them,
calling out of the dark,
hanging in the wire,
thus do birds sing who are ready to die,
lonely, pining away,
in the spring of their lives.
He lay groaning about twenty yards beyond the front trench.
Several attempts were made to rescue him.
He had been very badly hit.
Three men got killed in these attempts;
two officers and two men, wounded.
In the end his own orderly managed to crawl out to him.
Samson waved him back, saying
he was too riddled through and not worth rescuing;
he sent his apologies to the company
for making such a noise.
You can try and figure out which is which. If it matters.
The quotes are from Robert Graves and Anton Schnak. My point was supposed to be that there was no difference which side of the line you were on. Having wiki'd Schnak I find his later support for Hitler somewhat sullies the point but history is like that. Sometimes people don't learn the lessons of the past.
For Rennie from Daddie before I go + fight the Almonds 15/10/14
from a family Bible pictured (l-r) Ted, Daddie, Renee and (front) Lucy Sleep
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