COVID-19: The Roots of Rock and Roll

From Worldometer, I have adjusted this table to show how new deaths best determine the phase of COVID-19:

DAY     China   Italy   USA   Spain   Germany   S. Korea  WORLD

May   1         0    269   1897      281          113               1        5624
          2         0    474    1691     276            76               2        5215
          3         0    174    1154     164            54               0        3481
          4         0    195    1324     164          127               2        4096
          5         0    236    2350     185              ?               2        5787
          6         0    369    2528     244          282               1        6811

          7         0    274    2129     213          117               1        5589
          8         0    243    1687     229          118               0        5550
          9         0    194    1422     179            39               0        4248
        10         0    165      750     143            20               0        3510
        11         0    179    1008     123            92               0        3403
        12         0    172    1630     176            77               2        5328
        13         0    195    1772     184          123               1        5314
        14         0    262    1715     217            67               1        5317
        15         0    242    1595     138            73               0        5072

Summary:

• New deaths were generally down yesterday.
• Brazil has become a hotspot, with 15,305 new cases and 824 new deaths.  The USA still leads the world with 26,692 and 1595.  
• However, if you add the new deaths yesterday of Spain, Russia, the UK, Italy, France, Germany Turkey, Iran, India, Peru, China, Canada and Belgium, that grand total is still less than that of the USA.  These are the countries ranking #2-#15 in total cases.
• President Donald Trump keeps bragging that we are by far the most testing country in the world.  He avoids mentioning that we are behind these countries in tests/million people:  USA = 33,532
• Iceland =  164,883
• UAE = 158,068
• Bahrain = 131.434
• Luxembourg = 96,034
• Lithuania = 79,308
• Denmark = 63,715
• Portugal = 58,828
• Israel = 56,255
• Belgium = 55,711
• Kuwait = 55,370
• Spain = 52,783
• Qatar = 51,545
• Estonia = 51,339
• Italy = 47,553
• Russia = 43,953
• Switzerland = 38,659
• Ireland = 38,371
• Germany = 37,585
• New Zealand = 45,002
• Norway = 39,947
• Austria = 39,039
• Australia = 38,639
• UK = 34,685
• Belarus = 34,044

• Yup,  we are right up there with Belarus.  There are several other places with a lot more tests, but they're kind of small, like Faeroe Islands with 179,750 tests/person (and they have zero deaths), Gibraltar (also no deaths) with 146,652 and Falkland Islands (zero deaths) with 115,984.

Little Richard once said:  The Blues had an illegitimate baby and we named it rock 'n roll.  That was between 1949 and 1954 when disc Jockey Alan Freed popularized the phrase, which was black slang for having sex.

No one person started rock 'n' roll. It was a black and white alloy of Fats Domino, Lloyd Price, Ike Turner, Hank Williams, Joe Turner, Louis Jordan, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly - and Elvis Presley.

Certainly Black gospel was influential.  Remember Hound Dog by Elvis?  Well, that was made popular by Big Mama Thornton in 1953.  Shake Rattle and Roll by Bill Haley and the Comets?  It was a cover of the same by Big Joe Turner.

Reported The Guardian:  The most widely held belief is that the first rock'n'roll single was 1951's Rocket 88, written by Ike Turner, sung by Jackie Brenston (the saxophone player from Turner's backing band The Kings of Rhythm--who unfortunately became an alcoholic and faded away), and recorded by Sam Phillips, who later went on to found Sun records and discover Elvis Presley.

Note that the only female above is Big Momma Thornton.  In the Twenties, African American soldiers returned from World War I to a Harlem Renaissance leading to Rhythm and Blues.  Mary Lou Williams became a popular pianist and on came Ethel Waters, Mamie Smith, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne and Ella Fitzgerald.

But you need to trace back further to the South and slavery, which brought African tribal percussion, rhythmic syncopation and spiritual sounds.  This was the root of Rock 'n Roll.

I grew up in those days when only the White cover of Black songs became popular throughout the nation.  Of course segregation and just population numbers were responsible.  For example, in 1954 the Crew Cuts came out with Sh-Boom, but the Chords were first.  Bill Halley/Comets recorded Rock Around the Clock that year, exploding into society in the 1955 film, Blackboard Jungle.  Remember Klinger from MASH, Jamie Farr?  He was a detective in this flick.

The inimitable Chuck Berry's Maybellene came in 1955.  By then he had already been convicted of robbery and been to jail, and in 1959 of the Mann Act, and again jailed.  

He hit the charts 28 times, and of all the songs, his only #1 was My Ding-a-Ling.  He was said to be a pedophile.  He died at the age of 90 in 2017, and received the same string of accolades accorded to Little Richard, who passed away this past week at the age of 87.

• Three years ago Billboard published, A Brief History of Little Richard Grappling with his Sexuality and Religion:  Richard (born Richard Wayne Penniman in Macon, Ga., in 1932, the third of twelve children) often acknowledged his lifestyle as a gay man.  Left home at the age of 13 and was taken in by a white family.  His father was a deacon, sold bootlegged moonshine and was shot dead outside a local bar when his son was 19. Richard was nicknamed "Little" because he was small and skinny. 

• He was also a voyeur and transvestite:  the original lyrics (he wrote this song) of "Tutti Frutti" were about another gay man: "Tutti Frutti, good booty / If it don't fit, don't force it / You can grease it, make it easy."  He finally settled on omnisexual as what he really was.
• From 1956-1959 he had 18 hit songs.  Women threw their panties on to the stage.  
• Said to have in 1956 a 16-year old girlfriend, Audrey Robinson, who went on to become Lee Angel (right).  They went on to have an amicable relationship for 68 years until she passed away

• In 1959 quit entertaining, studied theology, became a traveling evangelist, got married to Ernestine Campbell, adopted a son, recorded gospel music...then returned to tour performing in 1962.  The Beatles and Rolling Stones opened for him in Europe.  But drugs and alcohol almost ruined him.  
• Made another comeback in 1985 and kept entertaining until 2015, when he was 83.
• Was in the first group of inductees in 1986 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• He opened the door to Chuck Berry, who made it the following year.

I'm now into 1984.  Billboard's #1 hits of 1984 in less than three minutes.  Too short?  The 100 most popular from 100 to 1 in eleven minutes.  Click on this to access jukebox oldies, once you figure out how to use it.









I became director of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute.  President Ronald Reagan had decimated the Department of Energy budget, and we were close to extinction with no paid positions.  Director of the Solar Energy Research Center, Hub Hubbard, when we met, looked at this more positively:  we were doing okay and increasing our market share of available funds.  SERI because they were important and HNEI from congressional interference.  Fifteen years later when I retired we had nearly a hundred researchers, staff, and students.

Let me end with some photos sent to me by my most prolific source.  Some of them might not be naturally real, but they're either gorgeous or fascinating:

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Typhoon Vonfong (Also called Ambo) slammed into the Philippines at 93 MPH and is heading for Taiwan:

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THE FIRST PARTY SONGS IN AMERICA

Let's begin Monday with Wooly Booly and  Louie Louie.  Why?  First, it's Monday, but second, these are my picks as the  two first indulgent party songs, ever, with The Charleston.  Mind you, your party song depends on when you went to college, or whatever, but there probably was an original some time in the past that started this all.  We are not talking about tea parties and one-year old birthday celebrations.  Associated with party songs is the voluminous imbibition of ethanol, fun, release of inhibitions and the like.

I scanned through popular American songs of the 1600's into the early 1900's and could not find anything particularly meritorious.  Beer Barrel Polka came from Europe, and in 1927.  How many of you realize that while the lyrics for  our National Anthem was written by Francis Scott Key, the music is an old English drinking song:  The Anacreon Song.  So  how sensible that we show patriotism with a drinking song.  Somehow, though, the Star-Spangled Banner does not quite evoke the right spirits.

One tally had That's Amore, Come Fly With Me and Jailhouse Rock as the best party songs of the 50's.  Those are not party songs, and Elvis, Bill Haley and Chuck Berry just did not have that killer entry.  Goldbass had Glenn Miller's Elmer's Tune as #1 in the 40's.  Huh?  Couldn't find a party list for the 30's, but DigitilDreamDoor had Miller's In the Mood, Kate Smith's God Bless America (the original movie version, with Ronald Reagan--and has now become the 7th inning song of choice) and Judy Garland's Over the Rainbow (America's #1 song) as tops in the 30's.  No great party song there, although In the Mood is worthy, especially this enhanced HD version.  But The Charleston dominated in the 20's and is right up there with the two above.

So to recap:

• The Charleston, named after the city of Charleston, was created in 1923 from the Broadway show Running Wild, and this was the dance craze of the middle twenties, still performed today.  It was all black at the beginning.  Nobody really danced to WB and LL, you just got drunk and passed out, which is what many great parties are about.  Most forget that Prohibition (total ban on alcoholic beverages) began in 1920 and was not repealed until 1933, so there couldn't have been too many wild parties during that decade.  That's Josephine Baker dancing the Charleston in Paris

• Louie Louie was written by Richard Berry in 1955, and I remember the version by Berry and The Pharaohs in my late 50's Stanford parties.  The Kingsmen released the more popular version in 1963, possibly gaining notoriety because the FBI actually conducted an investigation into alleged pornography.  They were an all-white garage band from Portland, Oregon, and began gaining fame in 1962 in their neighborhood through this song.  They took a chance by being provided one take on their recording for $36, where embarrassing mistakes were obvious, and singer Jack Ely (second from left below) was wearing braces, slurring the words into a microphone hanging from the ceiling.  Ely's baffling attempt was one reason the FBI intruded.  Everything went wrong, but that is what some of you still hear on the radio.  They never really got any royalties until they won a lawsuit in 1998 and over time has had 23 different members.  Original Mike Mitchell (second from right) still leads the group, now 54 years old.

• Wooly Booly (note the two girls just standing like palm trees) was released by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs in 1965 and named Billboard's #1 song that year.  These Pharaohs were not the same as the group with Richard Berry.  Wooly Booly was the name of Sam's cat.  There is a Tex-Mex flavor from the beginning, and, as in Louie Louie, the lyrics are hard to understand, resulting in radio station bans across the country, which only insured for their lifetime popularity.  All three original takes went well.  'Li'l Red Riding Hood was another top hit for the group.  Best as I can tell, they're still touring.

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THE 1950'S ARE DISAPPEARING

 I today received this video clip of the 1950's.  This is Sunday, click on that and reminisce a bit.  Of course, you need to be really old to appreciate those days.

I don't remember much of my years from zero to 9.  I am what I am today because of my experiences from 10 to 19. That's a period from 1950-1959.  Those days are disappearing.  Really.

To begin, on my cable system there are 50 Music Choice channels.  Starts with 800 Hawaiian.  Then from 801, too too much noise of today, with three even for toddlers.  Then 826 has music from 2000 to the present, followed by 90's, 80's, 70's, solid gold (essentially 95% 60's), into four country stations, a mix of stuff through jazz and swing (meaning 1940's) and classical into #850.  There is nothing from 1950-59.  Of course zero from 1939 backwards, but most of those people are long gone anyway or can't hear too well.

Was that just accidental?  Nope.  As  you know, I now have Echo with Alexa.  I ask her to play all kinds of music.  60's?  Sure, a whole Prime channel for those.  50's?  Initially, she got confused, and asked me to purchase the full Prime package first.  

However, today, I tried again, and something has changed:

• I asked her, please play music from the year 1950, and she did Beethoven's Fifth.  Hmmm.
• Then what about 1951, and some country song came on.
• 1952?  She played Elvis.  Needs some work here, for he was 18 in 1953 when he released My Happiness.
• 1949?  Came on songs of that year.
• So Amazon is actually expanding their offerings, for free.

For those still alive, there was the Spanish Flu and intolerance of the '20's, while the '30's were economically difficult, for the Great Depression was still ongoing, and the '40's had World War II, so were even more terrible.   But our Greatest Generation was created.  All settting the stage for the wonderful '50's.

1950 began with the Korean War, saw the start of the early Vietnam War, suffered through nuclear testing, and saw the U.S. appearing to drop behind the Soviet Union in the Cold War, especially in space.  There was the Suez Crisis, Cuban Revolution and the Mau Mau in Kenya.  However, African de-colonization began to occur, the European Common Market formed, the U.S. ended our occupation of Japan, the Nationalists escaped to Taiwan, Alaska and Hawaii became states, success of the Marshall Plan (Berlin), inflation only ranged from 1-3%, the transistor was developed, television took over, photovoltaic cells were invented, the double-helix was discovered, polio was cured, first nuclear power plant opened in the Soviet Union, NASA was organized, and here were the top ten films (half are foreign and half came from 1957):

1. 
   Seven Samurai (1954), Rotten Tomatoes 100 reviewers / 97 audiences
2. Rear Window (1954), RT 99/95
3. Paths of Glory (1957), RT 95/95
4. Ikiru (1956), RT 98/97
5. 12 Angry Men (1957), RT 100/97
6. Witness for the Prosecution (1957), RT 100/95
7. Wild Strawberries (1957), RT 95/94
8. The 400 Blows (1959), RT 100/94
9. Sunset Boulevard (1950), RT 99/95
10. The Cranes are Flying (1957), RT 96/94

From Wikipedia, the music of those days:

Popular music in the early 1950s was essentially a continuation of the crooner sound of the previous decade, with less emphasis on the jazz-influenced big band style and more emphasis on a conservative, operatic, symphonic style of music. Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Frankie Laine, Patti Page, Judy Garland, Johnnie Ray, Kay Starr, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Dean Martin, Georgia Gibbs, Eddie Fisher, Teresa Brewer, Dinah Shore, Kitty Kallen, Joni James, Peggy Lee, Julie London, Toni Arden, June Valli, Doris Day, Arthur Godfrey, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Guy Mitchell, Nat King Cole, and vocal groups like the Mills Brothers, The Ink Spots, The Four Lads, The Four Aces, The Chordettes, The Fontane Sisters, The Hilltoppers and the Ames Brothers. Jo Stafford's "You Belong To Me" was the #1 song of 1952on the Billboard Top 100 chart.

Radio stations don't play their songs anymore.  Save for PBS, TV ignores them. Then from mid-decade:

Rock-n-roll emerged in the mid-1950s with Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Gene Vincent, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Little Richard, James Brown, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly, Bobby Darin, Ritchie Valens, Duane Eddy, Eddie Cochran, Brenda Lee, Bobby Vee, Connie Francis, Johnny Mathis, Neil Sedaka, Pat Boone and Ricky Nelson being notable exponents. In the mid-1950s, Elvis Presley became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll with a series of network television appearances and chart-topping records. Chuck Berry, with "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958), refined and developed the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive, focusing on teen life and introducing guitar solos and showmanship that would be a major influence on subsequent rock music.^[12] Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Everly Brothers, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, Johnny Horton, and Marty Robbins were Rockabilly musicians.

You also don't hear them anymore.  Here are the top 65 songs of the 50's, in ten minutes.  Every #1 Billboard #1 hit of the 1950's, in nine minutes.

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THE BEST SUMMER SONGS

After I wrote SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth, next came SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity, topics that intrigued me, but way below my knowledge level.  For example, for the chapter on The Golden Evolution, I started by reading Religion for Dummies.

Similarly, as I approach commenting on the top summer song of 2019, I got to admit that I possibly have never before heard any of the candidates:

•  Old Town Road (Remix), Lil Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus
• I Don’t Care,” Ed Sheeran & Justin Bieber
• If I Can’t Have You, Shawn Mendes
• ME!, Taylor Swift feat. Brendon Urie
• bad guy, Billie Eilish
• Sucker, Jonas Brothers
• Con Calma, Daddy Yankee feat. Snow
• SOS, Avicii feat. Aloe Blacc
• Big Ole Freak, Megan Thee Stallion
• Don’t Call Me Up, Mabel
• Too Much,Carly Rae Jepsen

• Boy With Luv, BTS feat. Halsey

Incidentally, that last contender, by Korean boy band BTS, I reported on them during my Orient tour this past spring, and the number of pings to this blog site jumped by a factor of a hundred.  In case you haven't figured it out by now, "feat." should say featuring,  as Halsey, that gal in red hair, who is an addition to the group.

I can't possibly predict #1 for the summer of 2019, so let me send you to Billboard, for they today released their Top Twenty, with Old Town Road (Remix), Lil Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus, as the best.




So much for the music of today, of which I know nothing.  Conversely, I am quite familiar with yesterday of a long time ago.  Here is a list of the top summer songs from 1900 to 1959, with #1 being particularly memorable, for that was the summer I left Hawaii for the very first time, on my to college.  What I did not know then was that Eddie Cochran was British, and he died only two years later in 1960.  Nothing particularly dramatic.  A road accident on a rock tour.

1.		Summertime Blues – Eddie Cochran, 1958
2.		Take Me Out To The Ball Game – Billy Murray (or many others), 1908
3.		We’re Gonna Rock Around The Clock – Bill Haley & His Comets, 1955
4.		Summertime – Sam Cooke, 1957
5.		Sleepwalk – Santo & Johnny, 1959
6.		Sh-Boom – Crew Cuts, 1954
7.		Heartbreak Hotel – Elvis Presley, 1956
8.		Little Darlin’ – The Diamonds, 1957
9.		School Days – Chuck Berry, 1957
10.		When Irish Eyes Are Smiling – Chauncey Olcott, 1913 (later associated with St. Patrick’s Day)

Click on this to see #11 to #100.  I actually know all 100--honestly, every one--and, #100 is 1909's Shine On, Harvest Moon, by Ada Jones and Billy Murray.  Billy was particularly productive, for he made perhaps 10,000 records and sold 300 million of them, holding that record in his heyday.  I was not born yet, and, yes, that was not the Bill Murray you might know, although he, too, is noted for this 7th evening stretch song that ranks #2 on this list.

Not surprisingly--in that I don't recognize the top two--the all-time best summer songs from Billboard Hot 100, 

1. I'll be Missing You                        Puff Daddy & Faith Evans, 112   1997
2. The Boy is Mine                            Brandy & Monica                        1998
3. Tossing' and Turnin'                    Bobby Lewis                                        1961
4. Blurred Lines                                Robin Thicke, T.I. and Pharrell            2013
5. Every Breath You Take                The Police                                             1983
6. We Belong Together                     Mariah Carey                                        2005
7. I Just Want to Be Your Ev'thing  Andy Gibb                                            1977
8. When Doves Cry                          Prince                                                     1984
9. Do it for You                                 Bryan Adams                                         1991

Click on this for all 100, with #100 being Honky Tonk Woman, The Rolling Stones, 1969. 

About #4, Blurred Lines, Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams lost a suit by the children of Marvin Gaye that they copied their father's Got to Give it Up.  Sounds different enough, but the family received $5 million plus future royalties.

Bring back any summer memories?

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