Good evening again one and all. Well the Wayback Machine is still being repaired and we're still hanging around here in the 1910's. Fortunately for me there's a great figure I want to talk about today. Do any of you know who this vision of loveliness and musical excellence is?
Well if you don't let me inform you. This ladies and gents is Rosetta Tharpe. Also known as Sister Rosetta Tharpe and if you're a serious fan of modern music in any serious capacity you have her to thank for the music you love. Don't know who she is or what she did? Well then...
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| How many times do I have to tell you that you're gonna learn when you come here before you believe me?! |
See, Sister Rosetta is aptly named because she is in many ways the musical Rosetta stone. This musical prodigy is also known as the Godmother of Rock and Roll and it is her style, techniques and influence that would eventually give rise to rock legends like Chuck Brrry, Elvis Presley and Eric Clapton. Yes folks, Rock is her baby.
Now it can be said that Rock and Roll as a genre has many prominent figures that shaped it but Rosetta is undoubtedly its mother. Born in 1915 to a woman named Katie Bell Nubin who was a preacher in a church known as COGIC (Church of God in Christ). The church was founded by a black preacher who believed in the power of music in religion and also was open to women being preachers. So Rosetta's mother evangelized across the Southern United States and played the mandolin as well as encouraging her daughter to play as well. Both sang and it was clear from early on that Rosetta was to music what Tiger Woods would eventually be to golf because as a kid she was already prodigiously skilled.
Being the daughter of a preacher it's no surprise that Tharpe started off performing Gospel music predominantly with her mother. It was kind of the expected path for a black muscician in that era to begin their musical path in the church and, if they got popular, it would mostly be with the Gospel and religious music crowd. By the time she was 6 she was already regularly performing with her mother and playing guitar in performances that were half gospel concert half sermon. Tharpe was already defying convention and gaining attention both as a prodigy for her playing and for the fact her chosen instrument was the guitar, something that was incredibly rare at the time.
By the time the 40's rolled around Tharpe had decided she didn't just want to sing for the Gospel crowd anymore. She'd signed a deal in 1938 to do songs for a label called Decca and recorded several Gospel hits that catapulted her into national prominence. It would also make her one of the country's first big time Gospel performers as well as commercially successful.
It's around this time we start seeing the beginnings of what would become Rock later in the way she played the guitar. Her style blended numerous elements including blues and traditional folk music that would be the precursors to the specific stylistic elements that later singers would blend fully into Rock and Roll as we know it. This however, wouldn't be possible without her.
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| Now don't ever let me here you forget where your music came from again. Say "Thank you Ms. Tharpe" everytime you hear something rocking on your radio. |
When you look at the time line, you've got to give Ms. Tharpe her due. She started the ball of Rock music rolling and yet Berry and Elvis get so much more attention in our history than she does. It's a damn shame and if you haven't heard her before, you owe it to yourself to search out some of her recordings on Youtube at the very least.
Unfortunately, musically Ms. Tharpe hit some speed bumps as she became more commercially successful. Balancing secular and religious music never seems to be easy, especially during the period when Tharpe lived and she's one of many Gospel singers who was abandoned by their original fans in the religious world when she started experimenting with more secular sounds and ideas. In the 40's when she started incorporating more jazz and collaborating with the pianist Sammy Price things started to fall off for her a bit. She went back to traditional religious music for a time but in the early 50's her only serious secular blues record from the time was a commercial flop because of the religious community's abandonment and criticism.
It seems the audience just wasn't willing to tolerate a woman who defied tradition quite that much and Tharpe was forced to return to the well of Gospel during her career for the last years of her life. She passed away in 1973 having by this point I'm sure, seen the powerful effect of her music on others and the world. I hope that one way or another she ended up proud of her legacy.
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| "She would sing until you cried. And then she would sing until you danced for joy." ~partial inscription on the stone |
Wow! That was a long one. Sorry, I think I rambled a bit. That said, if anyone is worth rambling on it's Ms. Tharpe. I appreciate you all being patient with these. I know these are a little drier than some of the other stuff I've done AND drier than I really intended this space to be. We'll get back to humor in the future. Promise. Please join me tomorrow when I talk about... whoever the heck I want. Peace!
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