Psychozoic Hymnal 7 - 40's Not
I suppose some people would like me to extend into the now‐thirty years after, but I’m not the person—stick to the plan. As extension, here is why not…
40’s
Louis Jordan
J.C. remarked, don’t know if the thought was his but I heard there, that the small‐group music of the WWII years came about because the big bands of the era, both Show and Jazz, became uneconomical. There are ways to go, chamber music and cocky soloing are two. Louis Jordan formed his group to exploit the possibility of more flexible timing. He came from a big‐band background and The Timpany Five used hi‐tech items like double basses and, later, electric guitar riffs to make polished pop. Moreover, he knew about blues as bounce from when jazz was closer, so gathered tracks from others while he wrote some of his own. He knew Country, and would even try on Latin styles. Writers like to credit him, but fun makes him hard to place. Nuts. Others leaned on the drums more, but nobody else had a compact group original intended as such, and it’s only the essence of drum‐into‐song that keeps this from Rock and Roll.
Muddy Waters
’fess up, ever seen Muddy Waters near rock… nope. There were early covers, but only one for real. So what makes for the claims, and plants him as J.C. roots? The bands. Muddy’s name fronted them, but they were bands, and mostly drummed. Which was an essential difference to the folk/sessioneering of other Chicago blues. The band sound was whittled to something close to Mississippi roadhouse, sometimes guitar over drums, difference being the electricity and the harmonica/vocal wails. Not rock, as it’s grinding open riff but refined and, as the man said, hard and you got to work at it. Opened the possibilities of a frill‐free band‐compact, with band variation and electric guitar drive before anyone else, and knowingly also. Excepting sonic attack, unlikely this was the influence claimed but it was creative groundwork, with the sociology worth considering.
Hank Williams
When country got urban (only roots is ‘country’ about Honky Tonk), it needed a new lineup of instruments. Guitars, sometimes electric, a fiddle, and later a steel guitar and string‐bass to play the accents that matter. There was a place for genius songs inside this, then here was Hank. These songs came from precision, listen to how ‘Moanin’ the Blues’ is uptempo, but the complaint ‘Cold, Cold Heart’ is slow. Hank had a way with words too, which encouraged other artists to ford the river. But the noise here is to compare to earlier, as the group The Drifting Cowboys emphasise the backbeat and use rithm to arrange the music. They were bold to drop the piano, thumb‐tacks or not, which helped. The Drifting Cowboys do not roll nor rave, play for purpose other than Rock and Roll. But, a few Christgau remarks aside, they get shovelled into a graveyard nostalgia about ‘country’. They rocked much as any ‘rhythm and blues’. As is, will stand forever, but steps further…