A gift to you for a swingin’ and a-rollin’ 4th in the U.S.A., where hamburgers sizzle on an open grill night and day, a sort-of-thought-through list of my favorite-ist rock n’ roll songs. And yeah, I’m sure there’s plenty of good ones I’m lamentably ignorant of. No links to those better known, and I’ll get to explainin’ the categorization rationale once we’re well into it, okay? Because it’s time to be jumpin’ your blues away…
1.) “Feelin’ Good” Junior Parker 1953
2.) “It’s All Your Fault” Wade Ray w/ Noel Boggs 1953
3.) “Hoy, Hoy” Little Johnny Jones, w/ Elmore James 1953
4.) “Caledonia’s Party” Smiley Lewis 1953
5.) “Saturday Night Fish Fry” Louis Jordan 1949
Look, the whole “who really invented rock n’ roll?” debate is kinda pointless and impossible, but insofar Elvis’s success with “That’s All Right, Mama” in 1954 is what got the rock-a-billy craze really goin’, we have to underline that Louis Jordan is the one whose 41-46’ hits got the more primary jump style off the ground. This was his most iconic song. So why do I start things in 1953? Listen to number one and you’ll know.
6.) “That’s All Right, Mama” Elvis Presley 1954
7.) “Midnight Hour” Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown 1954
8.) “Reconsider Baby” Lowell Fulson 1954
9.) “Movin’ on out Boogie” Lightin’ Hopkins 1954
10.) “Shake that Thing” Wynonie Harris 1954
11.) “I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone” Elvis Presley 1955
12.) “Zodico Stomp” Clifton Chenier 1955
https://youtube.com/watch?v=eYQyTMObHUk%3Frel%3D0%26controls%3D0%26showinfo%3D0
Sure, there’s plenty of great stuff I’m overlookin’ here, but it’s somehow right for 1968 to only get one song. Here’s where the hard-rock really takes off, at its best with folks like Cream, Jimi Hendrix, or Led Zeppelin, but nonetheless for the worse, as explained in No. 12. Also, the impact of drugs upon the music was a real one—the call of this song was one more than a few bands needed to hear.
Two more, and I’m out. The 70s and beyond do represent a decline, but there’s always good things, even in rock n’ roll terms, to find here and there. I’m mainly stopping because it’s tougher work to figger out the 70s era—problems like whether or how you should include funk, the hard-rock rock n’ roll numbers, raise their heads—and because 76 is a good round patriotic number.
75.) “Foggy Notion” The Velvet Underground 1969
76.) “Bad Moon Rising’” Creedence Clearwater Revival 1969
Okay, rock n’ roll patriots, what did I leave out? You don’t have to stick with my semi-arbitrary exclusion of the doo-woppers but inclusion of the soul acts, and I suspect there must be a number of up-tempo country numbers from the era that ought be here. Jus’ remember, no ballads, no jazz-artists (in many cases it isn’t fair to pit people like Jimmy Smith up against our lil’ 3-minute r ‘n r wonders), no hard-rock, no folk-song meditation on the times, keep it focused on the dance-floor, try to exclude all the killer Caribbean/Jamaican/Columbian stuff, and Mr. Berry is the archetype. Whatever brings you the most joy, and if you got to move past my 1953-1969 parameters for that, go ahead.