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Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, | 0:00:01 | 0:00:04 | |
I take great pleasure, in bringing to you, | 0:00:05 | 0:00:09 | |
one of the greatest, | 0:00:09 | 0:00:12 | |
one of the world's greatest gospel singers... | 0:00:12 | 0:00:15 | |
..and guitar virtuoso... | 0:00:17 | 0:00:20 | |
..the inimitable | 0:00:21 | 0:00:24 | |
Sister Rosetta Tharpe. | 0:00:24 | 0:00:26 | |
In the summer of 1964, in the pouring rain, from a disused railway station outside Manchester, | 0:00:33 | 0:00:40 | |
a 49-year-old African-American woman with an electric guitar appeared on British television. | 0:00:40 | 0:00:46 | |
Viewers had never seen anything quite like it. | 0:00:46 | 0:00:50 | |
With her distinctive style of singing and playing, this remarkable | 0:00:50 | 0:00:53 | |
performer would profoundly influence the course of popular music. | 0:00:53 | 0:00:57 | |
# Didn't it rain, children? | 0:00:59 | 0:01:03 | |
# Rain, oh, yes | 0:01:03 | 0:01:05 | |
# Didn't it just, didn't it? You know it did | 0:01:05 | 0:01:08 | |
# Didn't it? Oh, oh, yes | 0:01:08 | 0:01:12 | |
# How it rained | 0:01:12 | 0:01:13 | |
# I said it rained, children | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
# Rained, oh yes | 0:01:18 | 0:01:21 | |
# Didn't it just, didn't it? You know it did | 0:01:21 | 0:01:23 | |
# Didn't it? Oh, my Lord | 0:01:23 | 0:01:26 | |
# How it rained... # | 0:01:26 | 0:01:28 | |
'She had a guitar that was made of steel' | 0:01:29 | 0:01:31 | |
and it was loud. | 0:01:31 | 0:01:33 | |
She'd get on that one string and start banging on it | 0:01:34 | 0:01:39 | |
and people would go crazy. | 0:01:39 | 0:01:42 | |
She could play a guitar like nobody else...nobody! | 0:01:50 | 0:01:56 | |
Let's do that again! | 0:01:56 | 0:01:58 | |
I think Rosetta was a hugely important figure. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:20 | |
'She was really unique as a guitar player. | 0:02:23 | 0:02:26 | |
'She had a big influence on Chuck Berry | 0:02:26 | 0:02:28 | |
'who was one of the most influential guitar players in the world.' | 0:02:28 | 0:02:32 | |
'She did incredible picking.' | 0:02:38 | 0:02:40 | |
That's what attracted Elvis, was her picking. | 0:02:40 | 0:02:43 | |
He liked her singing too, but he liked that picking first | 0:02:43 | 0:02:47 | |
because it was so different. | 0:02:47 | 0:02:49 | |
# Don't you know this train is a clean train? | 0:02:50 | 0:02:54 | |
# Everybody ridin' in Jesus' name | 0:02:54 | 0:02:56 | |
# Because this train is a clean train... # | 0:02:56 | 0:03:00 | |
She had a major impact on artists like Elvis Presley. | 0:03:00 | 0:03:03 | |
When you see Elvis Presley singing early songs in his career, | 0:03:03 | 0:03:07 | |
I think if you imagine that he's channelling Rosetta Tharpe. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:10 | |
'It's not an image that we're used to thinking about in rock and roll history. | 0:03:10 | 0:03:15 | |
'We don't think about the black woman behind the young white man.' | 0:03:15 | 0:03:19 | |
'All the kids who grew up in the '40s and '50s knew of her as a superstar' | 0:03:19 | 0:03:25 | |
and so I think it's very fair to say | 0:03:25 | 0:03:27 | |
that there's a bit of her snuck up in all of rock and roll. | 0:03:27 | 0:03:32 | |
# This train is a clean train | 0:03:32 | 0:03:36 | |
# This train! # | 0:03:36 | 0:03:38 | |
Hey! | 0:03:38 | 0:03:40 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:03:40 | 0:03:43 | |
Sister Rosetta Tharpe. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:47 | |
INAUDIBLE | 0:03:48 | 0:03:52 | |
Sister Rosetta Tharpe was born close by the mighty Mississippi, | 0:04:15 | 0:04:20 | |
on March 20th 1915, in Cotton Plant, Arkansas. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:24 | |
# Gracious memories | 0:04:28 | 0:04:35 | |
# How, how, how... # | 0:04:40 | 0:04:45 | |
Her parents Katie Bell and Willis Atkins were cotton pickers | 0:04:45 | 0:04:49 | |
# Yeah, yeah, how... # | 0:04:49 | 0:04:52 | |
'We don't know too much about Rosetta's father.' | 0:04:56 | 0:04:59 | |
What we do know about the father is that Willis Atkins could sing. | 0:04:59 | 0:05:02 | |
And so it's possible that some of her gift of singing came from her father. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:06 | |
Her mother was an evangelist for the Church of God in Christ. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:11 | |
Her mother was incredibly passionate about the Church. | 0:05:11 | 0:05:14 | |
Rosetta's mother, Miss Katie Bell we called her, was a very traditional person | 0:05:15 | 0:05:23 | |
and basically she was what we called a "stomp down Christian". | 0:05:23 | 0:05:28 | |
I mean that's one that enjoyed stamping her feet | 0:05:28 | 0:05:32 | |
and patting her hands and celebrating what she believed in. | 0:05:32 | 0:05:36 | |
GOSPEL SINGING | 0:05:36 | 0:05:40 | |
'Well, the reason that Rosetta became such a strong woman was because of her mother. | 0:05:43 | 0:05:50 | |
'Her mother again was the same type of person. She had no fear.' | 0:05:50 | 0:05:54 | |
She would take her guitar, she would take her tambourine. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:58 | |
She would take her chair and sit outside and play | 0:05:58 | 0:06:02 | |
'for people and try to convert them, to get them to go to church.' | 0:06:02 | 0:06:07 | |
GOSPEL MUSIC | 0:06:07 | 0:06:10 | |
In 1921, Katie Bell left Rosetta's father | 0:06:18 | 0:06:22 | |
to become a travelling evangelist for the Church of God in Christ. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:27 | |
Taking the six year-old Rosetta, she left Cotton Plant | 0:06:28 | 0:06:31 | |
and joined the exodus of poor black southerners heading north. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:34 | |
There was work in the great city of Chicago, | 0:06:45 | 0:06:47 | |
and also something even more crucial for the young Rosetta. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:51 | |
The migrants brought the blues from the Mississippi Delta and jazz from New Orleans. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:56 | |
Rosetta is often seen as a country singer, but that's a fallacy. | 0:06:59 | 0:07:04 | |
Her major development occurred very early. She moved to Chicago when she was six. | 0:07:04 | 0:07:09 | |
She, and mother Bell, joined Robert's Temple Church of God in Christ, | 0:07:11 | 0:07:16 | |
and the Chicago Sanctified Church | 0:07:16 | 0:07:18 | |
was bubbling with musicians and new songs. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:22 | |
And so she was exposed to something that was new. It wasn't rural. | 0:07:22 | 0:07:27 | |
It was an urban kind of religious singing. | 0:07:27 | 0:07:29 | |
It was at that church that she first really started performing. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:35 | |
She was the main attraction. | 0:07:35 | 0:07:37 | |
There's a great story that she was put on the piano when she was six years old on the top of a piano, | 0:07:37 | 0:07:42 | |
holding a guitar, being put there, so she could be seen | 0:07:42 | 0:07:45 | |
by the congregation and playing, and singing and charming everyone with her talent and her precociousness. | 0:07:45 | 0:07:51 | |
# There's something within me... # | 0:07:54 | 0:07:57 | |
She told me that when she was a girl, not even ten, | 0:07:59 | 0:08:04 | |
she was immediately seen as an all-purpose musician. | 0:08:04 | 0:08:06 | |
She'd go to a revival and she'd play her guitar | 0:08:06 | 0:08:11 | |
and if the people would get happy afterwards and shout, | 0:08:11 | 0:08:16 | |
she'd drop the guitar and run to the piano and | 0:08:16 | 0:08:18 | |
accompany them with her piano chords, | 0:08:18 | 0:08:21 | |
and then she might get up and cut a couple of dance steps herself. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:24 | |
She was a phenomenal show-woman. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:27 | |
# On life's battlefield | 0:08:27 | 0:08:30 | |
# When without pleading My poor heart did yield | 0:08:30 | 0:08:36 | |
# All I can say Praise God | 0:08:36 | 0:08:38 | |
# There's something within... # | 0:08:38 | 0:08:41 | |
All through her teens, Rosetta was taken by her mother from | 0:08:48 | 0:08:51 | |
city to city, to perform in churches, tabernacles, and revival meetings, | 0:08:51 | 0:08:57 | |
winning the hearts of thousands with her demure looks, angelic voice and unique guitar style. | 0:08:57 | 0:09:04 | |
# Have you that something? That burning desire... # | 0:09:04 | 0:09:08 | |
She soon became a nation-wide celebrity within the church. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:12 | |
And this Philadelphia church is one of the first she performed in, | 0:09:15 | 0:09:19 | |
back in the 1930s. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:20 | |
GOSPEL SINGING | 0:09:21 | 0:09:25 | |
Those who heard the young Rosetta were inspired for life. | 0:09:30 | 0:09:36 | |
When I saw Rosetta I was about ten years old. | 0:09:36 | 0:09:41 | |
Oh, she had the most beautiful voice and the way she could speak to you. | 0:09:41 | 0:09:47 | |
It made you feel different. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:50 | |
You knew something was going on, | 0:09:50 | 0:09:52 | |
even if you didn't really understand what it was. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:55 | |
And that's the way it was for me because I was a child. | 0:09:55 | 0:09:58 | |
GOSPEL SINGING | 0:09:58 | 0:10:01 | |
'Many of the hymns were the expression of suffering,' | 0:10:03 | 0:10:08 | |
and wanting to survive, many of them. | 0:10:08 | 0:10:13 | |
And when she came and they saw the expression of her, | 0:10:13 | 0:10:18 | |
the freedom that she expressed in her singing and dancing, | 0:10:18 | 0:10:22 | |
it woke up the congregation. It focused them on something that was on the inside, | 0:10:22 | 0:10:27 | |
that they never gave expression to. | 0:10:27 | 0:10:30 | |
Rosetta would start looking up. | 0:10:32 | 0:10:35 | |
She didn't look at anybody. | 0:10:35 | 0:10:37 | |
She looked up as if she saw God. | 0:10:37 | 0:10:40 | |
It was as if God was in her and she was communing with him, rather than with a human being. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:47 | |
In 1934, when Rosetta was just 19, her mother married her off to a preacher, The Reverend Tommy Tharpe. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:58 | |
For the next four years, she and Tommy worked for the Church of God in Christ. | 0:10:58 | 0:11:05 | |
Her job was to draw the crowds while he preached from the pulpit. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:09 | |
But, in spite of her mother's good intentions, the marriage wasn't working out. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:14 | |
# Look up | 0:11:17 | 0:11:18 | |
# Look up | 0:11:20 | 0:11:22 | |
# And see your maker | 0:11:24 | 0:11:30 | |
# Before Gabriel... # | 0:11:30 | 0:11:33 | |
'I met Sister Rosetta in the summer of 1937.' | 0:11:34 | 0:11:40 | |
She seemed a little bit glad that she was married, | 0:11:40 | 0:11:44 | |
but she didn't seem to be very happy, | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
and that's the reason I took to her, because I wanted to | 0:11:47 | 0:11:52 | |
just make her happy, make her feel as special as she really was. | 0:11:52 | 0:11:57 | |
But I had no idea that she and Tommy wouldn't make it. | 0:11:57 | 0:12:01 | |
'He was a tyrant.' | 0:12:02 | 0:12:05 | |
From what my parents used to say, | 0:12:05 | 0:12:08 | |
he seemed to come out of the real, real sub-old school | 0:12:08 | 0:12:15 | |
and believed in the almost caveman-like attitude towards women. | 0:12:15 | 0:12:21 | |
I found that he really wanted her, | 0:12:21 | 0:12:25 | |
because he figured they could use her to make money to help him make a living, and that's the truth. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:31 | |
I hate to say that, but that's the way it turned out to be. | 0:12:31 | 0:12:36 | |
She was just a meal ticket. | 0:12:36 | 0:12:39 | |
She was a performer | 0:12:39 | 0:12:41 | |
and he used her to bring people to his churches and he would put her up to sing. | 0:12:41 | 0:12:48 | |
And after a few years, she had enough and she said "You know what? | 0:12:48 | 0:12:53 | |
"I'm going to leave all of it!" | 0:12:53 | 0:12:55 | |
And she made that big jump. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:57 | |
Let down by the first of several men in her life, Rosetta left her husband | 0:13:01 | 0:13:06 | |
and took her mother to New York, to forge a new life for herself. | 0:13:06 | 0:13:10 | |
'My husband and I, we separated a little later too.' | 0:13:12 | 0:13:16 | |
So she said "Well, Sister, why don't you come to New York and stay with | 0:13:16 | 0:13:21 | |
me and Mama for a little while until you decide what you want to do". | 0:13:21 | 0:13:24 | |
So I did, I went there. | 0:13:24 | 0:13:27 | |
'We would sit up all night long | 0:13:29 | 0:13:32 | |
'and sing and she'd pick the guitar softly' | 0:13:32 | 0:13:35 | |
and we'd both sit up there and cry. | 0:13:35 | 0:13:37 | |
We'd cry because we didn't know where we were going from there. | 0:13:38 | 0:13:44 | |
In a city full of nightclubs, Rosetta's talent was soon noticed. | 0:13:50 | 0:13:55 | |
She was offered a spot at the prestigious Cotton Club, singing to an up-market white audience. | 0:13:55 | 0:14:02 | |
But the songs she was given by the men in charge made no mention of God - just pleasing her man. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:08 | |
# Four or five times | 0:14:08 | 0:14:11 | |
# Four or five times | 0:14:11 | 0:14:13 | |
# It's my delight doing things right | 0:14:13 | 0:14:15 | |
# Four or five times | 0:14:16 | 0:14:17 | |
# Now, baby I'll sigh | 0:14:17 | 0:14:18 | |
# And maybe I'll cry | 0:14:18 | 0:14:20 | |
# But if I'll die I'm gonna try to make | 0:14:20 | 0:14:23 | |
# Four or five times | 0:14:23 | 0:14:25 | |
-# I said four or five times -Four or five times | 0:14:25 | 0:14:26 | |
-# Four or five times -Four or five times | 0:14:26 | 0:14:28 | |
# Now he's my king he makes me sing | 0:14:28 | 0:14:31 | |
-# Four or five times -Yes indeed | 0:14:31 | 0:14:33 | |
-# I confess -I confess | 0:14:33 | 0:14:34 | |
-# He is the best -He is the best | 0:14:34 | 0:14:36 | |
# That's the test Four or five times... # | 0:14:36 | 0:14:39 | |
'It was like a bomb had dropped on gospel music when she flipped.' | 0:14:44 | 0:14:48 | |
It was like "What? I can't believe it. That's Sister Rosetta Tharpe. | 0:14:48 | 0:14:55 | |
"She's not supposed to be singing that kind of music!" | 0:14:55 | 0:14:57 | |
'Oh, she was criticised and ostracised.' | 0:15:02 | 0:15:06 | |
I mean the church people thought she'd gone way off. | 0:15:06 | 0:15:12 | |
# Four or five times | 0:15:13 | 0:15:15 | |
# Oh, four or five times | 0:15:15 | 0:15:16 | |
# It's my desire To set the world on fire | 0:15:16 | 0:15:18 | |
-# Four or five times -I hear you talkin', sister | 0:15:18 | 0:15:20 | |
-# Maybe I'm wrong -Maybe you're wrong | 0:15:20 | 0:15:22 | |
-# Then, maybe I'm right -Maybe I'm right | 0:15:22 | 0:15:24 | |
# But right or wrong I'm gonna swing this song | 0:15:24 | 0:15:26 | |
# Four or five... # | 0:15:26 | 0:15:27 | |
'Actually, it was hurtful to a lot of people, | 0:15:33 | 0:15:38 | |
'because they felt as though they'd lost something.' | 0:15:38 | 0:15:42 | |
They had something and it was great, but now it's gone. | 0:15:42 | 0:15:46 | |
They viewed it almost like a death. | 0:15:46 | 0:15:49 | |
You know, "Rosetta is gone. | 0:15:49 | 0:15:52 | |
"She went over. She's like in another world." | 0:15:52 | 0:15:54 | |
# Maybe I'll sigh Maybe I'll cry... # | 0:15:54 | 0:15:58 | |
But having discovered that she loved God AND nightclubs, Rosetta decided | 0:15:59 | 0:16:04 | |
to sing gospel in church and join the secular world of show business. | 0:16:04 | 0:16:08 | |
No longer the good little girl from church, she was happy to defy convention. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:12 | |
# One, two, three, four Four or five times! # | 0:16:15 | 0:16:21 | |
The offers poured in. | 0:16:24 | 0:16:26 | |
She was wanted by all the big bands of the day. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:29 | |
She decided to go with the band leader Lucky Millinder and manager Moe Gale. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:34 | |
In October 1938, she signed a contract with Decca Records | 0:16:34 | 0:16:39 | |
which was keen to capitalise | 0:16:39 | 0:16:41 | |
on the novelty of a gospel singer with a racy new style. | 0:16:41 | 0:16:45 | |
This wasn't the path that her devoted mother Katie Bell had chosen, | 0:16:45 | 0:16:50 | |
but she stuck by her daughter. | 0:16:50 | 0:16:52 | |
# Now won't you hear me singin'? | 0:16:52 | 0:16:56 | |
# Hear the words that I'm saying... # | 0:16:56 | 0:17:01 | |
Her first hit was a song called Rock Me | 0:17:01 | 0:17:05 | |
and the lyric is, "Jesus hear me praying". | 0:17:05 | 0:17:08 | |
She sang "Won't you hear me praying". | 0:17:10 | 0:17:12 | |
So when she came to the chorus when she sang, "rock me", and growled "rock", | 0:17:12 | 0:17:19 | |
it sounded, to many people, like an invitation - and not to the altar. | 0:17:19 | 0:17:26 | |
# In the bosom | 0:17:26 | 0:17:30 | |
# Till the storms of life is over Rock me in the cradle | 0:17:30 | 0:17:35 | |
# Of our love... # | 0:17:35 | 0:17:38 | |
Recording the song in that particular way marked her as someone | 0:17:40 | 0:17:45 | |
having the nerve to re-interpret a spiritual song for a secular audience. | 0:17:45 | 0:17:52 | |
I think there was also a piece of her that was just rebellious. | 0:17:52 | 0:17:56 | |
-# I want a tall skinny papa -Yeah! | 0:17:56 | 0:17:58 | |
-# I wanna tall skinny papa -Yeah... # | 0:17:58 | 0:18:01 | |
She does some very risque material with Lucky Millinder, | 0:18:03 | 0:18:07 | |
most notably a song called Tall Skinny Papa, | 0:18:07 | 0:18:09 | |
which was a big hit for Millinder's band. | 0:18:09 | 0:18:11 | |
She was the lead singer on that and she sings "I want a tall skinny papa". | 0:18:11 | 0:18:15 | |
There's no way off misinterpreting "I want a tall skinny papa" | 0:18:15 | 0:18:18 | |
for anything to do with spirituality. | 0:18:18 | 0:18:22 | |
-# Tall, tall skinny papa -I want a tall skinny papa | 0:18:22 | 0:18:28 | |
# That's all I'll ever need... # | 0:18:28 | 0:18:29 | |
The next thing I heard was this recording out of Rosetta with the Tall Skinny Papa. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:36 | |
So I said "It can't be Rosetta!" So I went and bought the record. | 0:18:37 | 0:18:41 | |
And after I listened to it I said, "Oh, my goodness, Sister is out there singing that stuff". | 0:18:41 | 0:18:46 | |
So, when I saw her, I said, "Sister, I heard you tell Lucky Millinder | 0:18:46 | 0:18:51 | |
"that you weren't going to sing that stuff". | 0:18:51 | 0:18:54 | |
She said "When I saw that contract he had a clause in there, that I had to sing whatever he gave me, | 0:18:54 | 0:19:02 | |
"and I didn't know it. I have a seven year contract with him and I had to do it." | 0:19:02 | 0:19:08 | |
It's unclear how much agency | 0:19:08 | 0:19:13 | |
she had in making a recording like Tall Skinny Papa. | 0:19:13 | 0:19:17 | |
She was under contractual obligations to Lucky Millinder. | 0:19:17 | 0:19:22 | |
She was a young woman without a lot of experience in show business. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:27 | |
She may not have been comfortable with that material. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:30 | |
Nevertheless, it's on record and was a big hit. | 0:19:30 | 0:19:33 | |
# Look down, look down That lonesome road | 0:19:38 | 0:19:41 | |
# Before you travel on | 0:19:41 | 0:19:45 | |
# Look up, oh, look up... # | 0:19:45 | 0:19:47 | |
Following the controversy of Tall Skinny Papa, | 0:19:47 | 0:19:51 | |
Rosetta resolved to stick with the songs she knew best - | 0:19:51 | 0:19:55 | |
gospel songs, while giving them her unique, up-beat interpretation. | 0:19:55 | 0:19:59 | |
# Reaching down that lonesome road | 0:19:59 | 0:20:03 | |
# Look down that lonesome road | 0:20:03 | 0:20:08 | |
# Before you travel on... # | 0:20:08 | 0:20:11 | |
She had hit the big time. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:12 | |
Her loyal followers | 0:20:14 | 0:20:16 | |
back in the church got over the shock | 0:20:16 | 0:20:17 | |
and stayed with her, while she gained new fans | 0:20:17 | 0:20:19 | |
who just loved her music. | 0:20:19 | 0:20:21 | |
It was not an easy trick to pull off, but somehow she did it. | 0:20:23 | 0:20:27 | |
She could go there, and come back anytime she wanted to because people loved her. | 0:20:32 | 0:20:38 | |
And they loved her, no matter what she sang. They loved her. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:42 | |
# Look down that lonesome road | 0:20:42 | 0:20:47 | |
# Before you travel on. # | 0:20:47 | 0:20:54 | |
By the age of 25, | 0:21:02 | 0:21:03 | |
Rosetta was rated among the finest popular musicians of the day. | 0:21:03 | 0:21:08 | |
Here she is jamming with Duke Ellington at the piano | 0:21:08 | 0:21:12 | |
and Cab Calloway on the right. | 0:21:12 | 0:21:15 | |
# I can't sit down Because I just got to heaven | 0:21:15 | 0:21:17 | |
# And I can't sit down... # | 0:21:17 | 0:21:19 | |
In less than five years she had established herself | 0:21:20 | 0:21:23 | |
in a tough, male dominated industry... | 0:21:23 | 0:21:26 | |
singing the songs she chose to sing, in her own distinctive way. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:30 | |
# Who's that yonder Dressed in white...? # | 0:21:30 | 0:21:34 | |
She was rich, she was famous and she was loved by her fans. | 0:21:34 | 0:21:39 | |
She was gospel's first superstar. | 0:21:39 | 0:21:43 | |
She used to sing this song called The Fishes And Three Loaves Of Bread, | 0:21:43 | 0:21:48 | |
and, anywhere you went in the south, | 0:21:48 | 0:21:51 | |
it was on the radio. That was a big hit. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:54 | |
Throughout the 40s, she spent much of her time on the road, | 0:21:58 | 0:22:00 | |
playing to packed houses, | 0:22:00 | 0:22:03 | |
accompanied by different gospel quartets. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:06 | |
GOSPEL SINGING | 0:22:06 | 0:22:10 | |
# Some day they'll see the Lord passing along... # | 0:22:12 | 0:22:15 | |
The Dixie Hummingbirds started with Sister Rosetta in the 40s. | 0:22:20 | 0:22:23 | |
They never made records together but they toured. | 0:22:23 | 0:22:27 | |
Sister Rosetta was always the headliner, because it was her show | 0:22:27 | 0:22:31 | |
and she had the choice of who she wanted to go out with her. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:35 | |
'And for many years she chose the Dixie Hummingbirds. | 0:22:35 | 0:22:38 | |
'It was a very good mix. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:41 | |
'People enjoyed the styles, because her style was kind of firey with the guitar and the Hummingbirds would | 0:22:41 | 0:22:47 | |
'come out and they would jump down in the audience | 0:22:47 | 0:22:51 | |
'and start singing and really relating to the people. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:54 | |
'So it was a good mix and promoters loved it, because it always filled houses.' | 0:22:54 | 0:22:59 | |
Sometimes we'd do things we'd never done, just playing around with it | 0:23:00 | 0:23:04 | |
until we said "That sounds good. Let's try that again". | 0:23:04 | 0:23:09 | |
And that's the way we created a lot of stuff. | 0:23:09 | 0:23:12 | |
# I'm holding up the Bloodstained banner for my Lord | 0:23:12 | 0:23:18 | |
In a highly segregated society, | 0:23:18 | 0:23:20 | |
black and white musicians performing together was taboo. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:24 | |
However, Rosetta was happy to defy convention. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:29 | |
'She was more or less a pioneer in asking us to perform with her.' | 0:23:29 | 0:23:33 | |
She called us her "Four little white babies" | 0:23:33 | 0:23:36 | |
and I thought it was so cute that she referred to us in that way. | 0:23:36 | 0:23:41 | |
That was something I'll never forget. | 0:23:41 | 0:23:44 | |
And we just loved to sing with her because when she started snapping | 0:23:44 | 0:23:47 | |
her finger, man, and started singing on a tune you couldn't help but sing. | 0:23:47 | 0:23:51 | |
# I'm going up to heaven | 0:23:51 | 0:23:52 | |
# Oh, Lord, to get my reward Ooooh | 0:23:53 | 0:23:56 | |
# Well, I'm working on the building... # | 0:23:56 | 0:23:58 | |
'I know the first time we worked with her, they booked us' | 0:23:58 | 0:24:02 | |
and we went to the stage door and some man came to the door | 0:24:02 | 0:24:07 | |
and one of us said, "We're The Jordanaires", and he said | 0:24:07 | 0:24:13 | |
"You're The Jordanaires?! | 0:24:13 | 0:24:15 | |
"Well, this is going to be a surprise to our audience!" | 0:24:15 | 0:24:19 | |
Sister Rosetta didn't tell them that we were white. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:23 | |
She booked us, but she didn't tell them we were white. | 0:24:25 | 0:24:28 | |
And when we first went out on stage, they didn't really know how to take us. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:34 | |
Then we started singing Working On The Building. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:37 | |
'From then on in, we were in.' | 0:24:37 | 0:24:38 | |
# I'm going up to heaven To get my reward | 0:24:39 | 0:24:41 | |
# My reward! # | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
# Listen everybody to the precious words | 0:24:47 | 0:24:49 | |
# I'm gonna do some chirpin' And I ain't no bird! # | 0:24:49 | 0:24:53 | |
Throughout World War II, America's segregated black soldiers | 0:24:55 | 0:24:59 | |
not only adored Rosetta, but could claim her as one of their own. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:05 | |
Now we want you all cats to brush up your fur and be seated while we dish | 0:25:05 | 0:25:09 | |
out a "diddle-a-ding-di-ow-dowtie!" | 0:25:09 | 0:25:11 | |
And here's a girl who's gonna do the chirping for you - Sister Rosetta Tharpe! | 0:25:11 | 0:25:15 | |
Sister Tharpe, say hello to Joel way, way out there. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:25 | |
Hello, Joel, way, way out there. | 0:25:25 | 0:25:28 | |
-What are you going to sing, Sister? -Down By The Riverside. | 0:25:28 | 0:25:31 | |
No films of Rosetta performing traditional gospel songs | 0:25:39 | 0:25:42 | |
during the '40s exist today, | 0:25:42 | 0:25:44 | |
but this 60s television recording captures the powerful stage presence | 0:25:44 | 0:25:49 | |
and unique guitar style that she'd developed back in her hay-day. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:54 | |
-# Down by the riverside -To study war no more... #' | 0:25:54 | 0:26:00 | |
Everything she'd learned from her mother, everything she'd learned | 0:26:00 | 0:26:04 | |
growing up in the Sanctified Church had stayed with her. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:08 | |
'She was mesmerising!' | 0:26:08 | 0:26:10 | |
-# To study -War no more | 0:26:15 | 0:26:18 | |
# Yeah... # | 0:26:18 | 0:26:20 | |
My sister and I thought she was the greatest. | 0:26:20 | 0:26:23 | |
We'd never met a popular singer, only gospel singers. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:25 | |
When we saw Rosetta Tharpe playing the guitar and singing | 0:26:25 | 0:26:29 | |
we thought that was the greatest thing we'd ever seen in our lives. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
-# Well, well, well -Study war no more | 0:26:32 | 0:26:34 | |
# No, no, no, no, no Study war no more... # | 0:26:34 | 0:26:38 | |
'The audiences that Sister Rosetta performed in front of were average people. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:45 | |
'They were people who worked, people trying to better themselves,' | 0:26:45 | 0:26:51 | |
and this music was their inspiration. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:55 | |
So when it came to a show that brought in people like Rosetta Tharpe, | 0:26:55 | 0:27:00 | |
there were lines three or four times around the block. | 0:27:00 | 0:27:05 | |
Just to call her name, people would go crazy. | 0:27:09 | 0:27:14 | |
The people just really loved her. | 0:27:15 | 0:27:17 | |
All she had to do was walk out on stage and they knew they were going to get a good performance. | 0:27:17 | 0:27:21 | |
'Before she left there, the public was part of her | 0:27:23 | 0:27:27 | |
'and she was part of the public, and it was like family.' | 0:27:27 | 0:27:31 | |
Rosetta had a one on one with everybody. | 0:27:37 | 0:27:40 | |
There could be 800, 900, 1,000 people, | 0:27:40 | 0:27:44 | |
but she had a one on one with you | 0:27:44 | 0:27:47 | |
because she could make that music and make that guitar talk just like | 0:27:47 | 0:27:53 | |
you were there with her, like you helped to write the song. | 0:27:53 | 0:27:55 | |
# I'm gonna meet All of my brethren | 0:27:57 | 0:27:59 | |
# Down by the riverside | 0:27:59 | 0:28:02 | |
-# Don't you know? -Down by the riverside | 0:28:02 | 0:28:04 | |
# Down by the riverside | 0:28:04 | 0:28:07 | |
# I'm gonna meet all of my brethren | 0:28:07 | 0:28:09 | |
-# Down by the riverside -# Yeah Yeah | 0:28:09 | 0:28:15 | |
# I ain't gonna study Thank God not gonna study | 0:28:15 | 0:28:19 | |
# Don't you know I'll not study | 0:28:19 | 0:28:22 | |
# Study war no more | 0:28:22 | 0:28:24 | |
# Hey Well, well | 0:28:24 | 0:28:29 | |
# No, no, no, no Study war no more. # | 0:28:29 | 0:28:36 | |
The biggest hit in Rosetta's entire career was Strange Things Happening Every Day, | 0:28:47 | 0:28:52 | |
a song that reflected some of the stark contradictions of the times. | 0:28:52 | 0:28:57 | |
# Oh we hear church people sing | 0:28:57 | 0:29:00 | |
# They are in this holy way | 0:29:00 | 0:29:03 | |
# There are strange things happening every day... # | 0:29:03 | 0:29:08 | |
It was recorded at the end of the war, when prosperity and | 0:29:08 | 0:29:11 | |
freedom were being proclaimed as the right of all Americans. | 0:29:11 | 0:29:17 | |
The song expressed some of the sad ironies she was experiencing on the road. | 0:29:17 | 0:29:22 | |
She was a star, but she was also black. | 0:29:22 | 0:29:26 | |
-# Every day -Every day | 0:29:26 | 0:29:28 | |
# There are strange things... # | 0:29:28 | 0:29:32 | |
Sister Rosetta had a bus. She was the first person that | 0:29:32 | 0:29:35 | |
ever had a bus with her name on the side of it that I knew. | 0:29:35 | 0:29:38 | |
The back section was beds to sleep in, | 0:29:38 | 0:29:42 | |
and that was something that I thought was very unusual. | 0:29:42 | 0:29:47 | |
We couldn't stay in some hotels. | 0:29:50 | 0:29:52 | |
We had to sleep on the bus so the bus was really a good idea. | 0:29:52 | 0:29:58 | |
Being on the road with Sister Rosetta was very exciting | 0:30:01 | 0:30:06 | |
because sometimes we met opposition | 0:30:06 | 0:30:12 | |
and sometimes we met gladness. | 0:30:12 | 0:30:16 | |
Food and hotels, restaurants, all of this, they were all the same. | 0:30:23 | 0:30:28 | |
Water fountains, bathrooms, | 0:30:28 | 0:30:31 | |
everything was segregated. | 0:30:31 | 0:30:33 | |
They had to, as my father used to say, make do. | 0:30:33 | 0:30:37 | |
# Jesus is the holy light Turning darkness into light... # | 0:30:39 | 0:30:44 | |
We would go in and eat and we knew that she didn't have food on the bus. | 0:30:44 | 0:30:49 | |
Maybe she had crackers or cheese or | 0:30:49 | 0:30:52 | |
peanut butter, something like that, | 0:30:52 | 0:30:55 | |
but we would take what we ordered, we would get her the same thing | 0:30:55 | 0:31:02 | |
and take it to her. | 0:31:02 | 0:31:04 | |
-# Oh, every day -Every day | 0:31:04 | 0:31:08 | |
# Yes, every day... # | 0:31:08 | 0:31:09 | |
Sometimes we found someone that took a chance | 0:31:09 | 0:31:13 | |
and say, "Come around to the back door," | 0:31:13 | 0:31:16 | |
and they would serve us, | 0:31:16 | 0:31:20 | |
but we had to bring it back to the bus still. We couldn't eat it there. | 0:31:20 | 0:31:26 | |
-# Up above my head -Up above my head | 0:31:32 | 0:31:35 | |
-# I hear music in the air -I hear music in the air | 0:31:35 | 0:31:38 | |
# Now, up above my head... # | 0:31:38 | 0:31:41 | |
By the age of 30, Rosetta had survived two brief | 0:31:41 | 0:31:44 | |
and unhappy marriages, and had had numerous affairs with men and women. | 0:31:44 | 0:31:49 | |
The only constant person in her life was still her mother, Katie Bell. | 0:31:49 | 0:31:55 | |
However, in the spring of 1946 | 0:31:55 | 0:31:58 | |
she encountered a young singer called Marie Knight. | 0:31:58 | 0:32:01 | |
She was so impressed by her, she suggested they team up. | 0:32:01 | 0:32:05 | |
Together they recorded a hugely popular version | 0:32:05 | 0:32:09 | |
of the gospel classic Up Above My Head. | 0:32:09 | 0:32:11 | |
BOTH: # I really do believe Yes, I really do believe | 0:32:14 | 0:32:17 | |
# There's a heaven somewhere Heaven somewhere... # | 0:32:17 | 0:32:20 | |
One of the things that made Marie and Rosetta so special as performers | 0:32:20 | 0:32:24 | |
was that they were two women who could go on the road | 0:32:24 | 0:32:27 | |
without any accompaniment but themselves. | 0:32:27 | 0:32:31 | |
Marie was a piano player and percussion player. | 0:32:31 | 0:32:34 | |
Rosetta performed on the piano as well as the guitar, | 0:32:34 | 0:32:38 | |
and so the two of them together had their entire band with them. | 0:32:38 | 0:32:41 | |
-# Up above my head -Up above my head | 0:32:43 | 0:32:46 | |
-# I hear music in the air -I hear music in the air | 0:32:46 | 0:32:49 | |
-# Up above my head -Up above my head | 0:32:49 | 0:32:52 | |
-# I hear music in the air -I hear trouble in the air | 0:32:52 | 0:32:55 | |
-# Up above my head -He-he-head | 0:32:55 | 0:32:58 | |
-# I hear music in the air -Whoa-oh-oh oh-oh-oh-oh-oh | 0:32:58 | 0:33:01 | |
BOTH: # And I really do believe Yes, I really believe | 0:33:01 | 0:33:04 | |
# There's a heaven somewhere... # | 0:33:04 | 0:33:06 | |
Marie Knight and Sister Rosetta Tharpe were a perfect pair. | 0:33:06 | 0:33:10 | |
The music was so wonderful that they generated together, | 0:33:10 | 0:33:16 | |
they were so unified on the stage. | 0:33:16 | 0:33:19 | |
Together they could rock the house. | 0:33:19 | 0:33:21 | |
Back then, two women on the road together | 0:33:21 | 0:33:24 | |
without any men to accompany them was not only novel but pretty risky. | 0:33:24 | 0:33:29 | |
But it was a risk that Rosetta was prepared to take. | 0:33:29 | 0:33:32 | |
They were lovers, at least according to | 0:33:34 | 0:33:37 | |
many, many of their friends at the time. | 0:33:37 | 0:33:41 | |
Within certain circles they could probably be | 0:33:41 | 0:33:43 | |
a little bit open about it, but within the wider world | 0:33:43 | 0:33:46 | |
that would have ruined careers, it would have ruined reputations. | 0:33:46 | 0:33:50 | |
I think it was an open secret in the entertainment worlds | 0:33:50 | 0:33:53 | |
in which they moved. | 0:33:53 | 0:33:54 | |
In 1950, while Rosetta and Marie were performing in California, | 0:33:57 | 0:34:02 | |
Marie's mother and two small children were killed in a fire. | 0:34:02 | 0:34:06 | |
Traumatised by the loss, Marie drifted away, | 0:34:06 | 0:34:09 | |
leaving Rosetta to carry on alone. | 0:34:09 | 0:34:12 | |
Their dream of independence together was over. | 0:34:12 | 0:34:16 | |
MUSIC: Wagner's Bridal Chorus | 0:34:21 | 0:34:26 | |
Less than a year after breaking up with Marie, | 0:34:26 | 0:34:29 | |
Rosetta took the most outrageous decision of her life | 0:34:29 | 0:34:32 | |
when two concert promoters came up with an audacious publicity stunt. | 0:34:32 | 0:34:37 | |
Their plan was to stage Rosetta's third wedding | 0:34:37 | 0:34:39 | |
in Washington's huge Griffith Stadium. | 0:34:39 | 0:34:44 | |
They would sell tickets to her fans and the recording rights to Decca. | 0:34:44 | 0:34:49 | |
Rosetta agreed to go along with the plan, | 0:34:49 | 0:34:52 | |
but there was just one problem - she had no-one in mind to marry. | 0:34:52 | 0:34:57 | |
But just weeks before the big day, she found Russell Morrison, | 0:34:57 | 0:35:01 | |
a minor player in the music industry | 0:35:01 | 0:35:04 | |
who offered to be both her third husband and her manager. | 0:35:04 | 0:35:08 | |
Tell the truth, I was surprised when she said she was getting married... | 0:35:08 | 0:35:14 | |
..and Russell was going to be the groom. | 0:35:15 | 0:35:18 | |
So she records her wedding ceremony | 0:35:20 | 0:35:25 | |
and the concert that follows it in 1951. | 0:35:25 | 0:35:28 | |
25,000 people come out | 0:35:28 | 0:35:30 | |
and pay admission prices to attend her wedding. | 0:35:30 | 0:35:33 | |
They bring wedding gifts for her, they bring crystal, | 0:35:33 | 0:35:36 | |
they bring dishes for her. | 0:35:36 | 0:35:40 | |
Someone even buys her a television set. | 0:35:40 | 0:35:42 | |
It's a total show-biz move, and at the same time, | 0:35:42 | 0:35:46 | |
it's a wedding ceremony conducted by a minister, a real wedding ceremony. | 0:35:46 | 0:35:52 | |
Rosetta was standing on the pitcher's mound | 0:36:01 | 0:36:04 | |
and they had everybody around her, | 0:36:04 | 0:36:06 | |
and all of the matrons of honour and all these people who were | 0:36:06 | 0:36:09 | |
probably who were probably folks that the promoters got together. | 0:36:09 | 0:36:12 | |
But they were all there, and it was just a wonderful, wonderful show. | 0:36:12 | 0:36:18 | |
-ORIGINAL RECORDING: -I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome you | 0:36:18 | 0:36:22 | |
to Griffith Stadium where you are about to be guests | 0:36:22 | 0:36:25 | |
at the wedding of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, | 0:36:25 | 0:36:27 | |
at which there will be a great spiritual concert | 0:36:27 | 0:36:30 | |
followed by fireworks. | 0:36:30 | 0:36:31 | |
And it was nice to see that a lot of her friends had stuck with her | 0:36:31 | 0:36:34 | |
and were part of the wedding party. | 0:36:34 | 0:36:36 | |
Lucky Millinder was there, Marie Knight is there | 0:36:36 | 0:36:39 | |
and The Rosettes are there. | 0:36:39 | 0:36:41 | |
That stadium was packed. | 0:36:44 | 0:36:47 | |
It was packed. | 0:36:49 | 0:36:52 | |
I don't see how they could get anybody else in. | 0:36:52 | 0:36:55 | |
It was like a circus. | 0:36:55 | 0:36:58 | |
-ORIGINAL RECORDING: -Rosetta, will you have this man to be thy wedded husband? | 0:37:03 | 0:37:07 | |
To live together after God's ordinance | 0:37:07 | 0:37:09 | |
in the holy state of matrimony? | 0:37:09 | 0:37:11 | |
It resonated throughout the entire country. | 0:37:12 | 0:37:16 | |
It was in newspapers, people talked about it. | 0:37:16 | 0:37:20 | |
My parents were so excited about it. | 0:37:20 | 0:37:22 | |
For a month in my house before that wedding was just crazy. | 0:37:22 | 0:37:26 | |
Take him by his right hand, Rosetta. | 0:37:29 | 0:37:31 | |
Hold it. | 0:37:31 | 0:37:33 | |
-I, Rosetta... -I, Rosetta... | 0:37:34 | 0:37:37 | |
-Take thee, Russell... -Take thee, Russell... | 0:37:37 | 0:37:40 | |
It was like she was Cinderella, you know, | 0:37:40 | 0:37:46 | |
and Russell was Prince Charming. | 0:37:46 | 0:37:49 | |
It was a storybook thing. | 0:37:49 | 0:37:51 | |
..that they are man and wife. | 0:37:51 | 0:37:55 | |
Kiss the bride. | 0:37:55 | 0:37:57 | |
Man and wife. | 0:37:57 | 0:37:59 | |
I didn't go to Sister's wedding to Russell. | 0:38:04 | 0:38:07 | |
I just figured it was another something | 0:38:07 | 0:38:10 | |
that she had gotten herself into. | 0:38:10 | 0:38:13 | |
After meeting Russell, I figured he just wanted easy living. | 0:38:13 | 0:38:19 | |
I said to myself, "Oh, my goodness, she is doing it again." | 0:38:19 | 0:38:25 | |
-# Don't you know, he's so -So high you can't get over him | 0:38:26 | 0:38:29 | |
-# So low -So low you can't get under him | 0:38:29 | 0:38:32 | |
-# So high -So high you can't get... # | 0:38:32 | 0:38:34 | |
Sadly, the misgivings shared by Rosetta's friends | 0:38:34 | 0:38:37 | |
proved all too accurate. | 0:38:37 | 0:38:38 | |
While the wedding did boost her record sales briefly, | 0:38:38 | 0:38:42 | |
Russell the manager was out of his depth. | 0:38:42 | 0:38:44 | |
Russell just, like a cool breeze, just came right in, | 0:38:48 | 0:38:54 | |
took over. | 0:38:54 | 0:38:56 | |
He wasn't really a manager. | 0:38:58 | 0:39:00 | |
He THOUGHT he was a manager. | 0:39:00 | 0:39:02 | |
Of course, so many times when they think they are, | 0:39:02 | 0:39:05 | |
they aren't, and that's bad. | 0:39:05 | 0:39:08 | |
It was very clear that he was living off her talent | 0:39:08 | 0:39:13 | |
and it was very clear that he was two-timing her. | 0:39:13 | 0:39:16 | |
Many people, especially people close to her like Marie Knight, | 0:39:17 | 0:39:23 | |
were furious with him. | 0:39:23 | 0:39:25 | |
In spite of all the criticism, | 0:39:27 | 0:39:29 | |
Rosetta remained married to Russell for the next 22 years. | 0:39:29 | 0:39:33 | |
Meanwhile, back in the Mississippi Delta of Rosetta's childhood, | 0:39:38 | 0:39:43 | |
young white musicians were just beginning to discover | 0:39:43 | 0:39:46 | |
the raw energy and complex rhythms of African American gospel. | 0:39:46 | 0:39:50 | |
There was a hip thing happening in Memphis at that time. | 0:39:50 | 0:39:53 | |
There was a little church, | 0:39:53 | 0:39:56 | |
and it was a cool thing to do on Sunday nights only, | 0:39:56 | 0:39:59 | |
you would go there, | 0:39:59 | 0:40:01 | |
and there would be Elvis and some of the other guys from the area. | 0:40:01 | 0:40:04 | |
It was unusual, because back in those days | 0:40:04 | 0:40:07 | |
white people had to sit in the back. | 0:40:07 | 0:40:10 | |
It was roped off. We would sit back there | 0:40:10 | 0:40:13 | |
and watch these black spiritual singers sing on Sunday night. | 0:40:13 | 0:40:17 | |
Of course, this was the music that Sister Rosetta had brought out of | 0:40:26 | 0:40:30 | |
the church and into the wider world nearly 20 years earlier. | 0:40:30 | 0:40:33 | |
The thing that gospel spiritual music brought | 0:40:35 | 0:40:38 | |
to popular music was feeling. | 0:40:38 | 0:40:40 | |
Gospel spiritual music put the guts and the feeling | 0:40:40 | 0:40:45 | |
and the real soul into it. | 0:40:45 | 0:40:47 | |
People like Elvis and Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis and | 0:40:47 | 0:40:52 | |
Carl Perkins and those guys, Buddy Holly if you will, | 0:40:52 | 0:40:55 | |
they saw that and they adapted to that, | 0:40:55 | 0:40:58 | |
and that, really, was the essence of rock and roll. | 0:40:58 | 0:41:02 | |
Thinking about it, | 0:41:10 | 0:41:11 | |
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, she had this great feeling, | 0:41:11 | 0:41:15 | |
and that is what Elvis was looking for - feeling - | 0:41:15 | 0:41:18 | |
because that is where it all came from. | 0:41:18 | 0:41:20 | |
She gave a lot people ideas about how to perform. | 0:41:20 | 0:41:24 | |
The way she performed a song, the way she picked a song, | 0:41:24 | 0:41:28 | |
the way she presented it, was an inspiration | 0:41:28 | 0:41:32 | |
to anybody who stood around and watched her, | 0:41:32 | 0:41:34 | |
and they all watched her. | 0:41:34 | 0:41:36 | |
Let's do that again! | 0:41:37 | 0:41:38 | |
She had a major impact on artists like Elvis Presley. | 0:41:57 | 0:41:59 | |
When you see Elvis Presley singing early songs in his career, | 0:41:59 | 0:42:03 | |
I think if you imagine that he is channelling Rosetta Tharpe. | 0:42:03 | 0:42:07 | |
It's not an image that I think we are used to thinking about | 0:42:07 | 0:42:10 | |
in rock and roll history. | 0:42:10 | 0:42:11 | |
We don't think of about the black woman behind the young white man. | 0:42:11 | 0:42:15 | |
At this point, a middle-aged black woman behind a young white man. | 0:42:15 | 0:42:19 | |
All the kids who grew up in the '40s and '50s knew of her as a superstar. | 0:42:20 | 0:42:26 | |
That was the singing that all these fellows had in their ears. | 0:42:26 | 0:42:31 | |
The rhythm they heard, the instrumentation they heard | 0:42:31 | 0:42:34 | |
would have been the sanctified piano and the kind of guitar | 0:42:34 | 0:42:38 | |
that they knew from Rosetta's records. | 0:42:38 | 0:42:41 | |
So, I think it is very fair to say that there's a bit of her | 0:42:41 | 0:42:45 | |
snuck up in all of rock and roll. | 0:42:45 | 0:42:49 | |
# Up above my head | 0:42:49 | 0:42:52 | |
# Music in the air... # | 0:42:52 | 0:42:55 | |
By the late '50s, rock and roll was here to stay. | 0:43:12 | 0:43:15 | |
Its idols were young, white men, | 0:43:15 | 0:43:18 | |
not middle-aged black women. Rosetta, it seemed, | 0:43:18 | 0:43:22 | |
was on her way out, and the bookings were drying up fast. | 0:43:22 | 0:43:26 | |
She and Russell, along with her aging mother, were forced to move | 0:43:26 | 0:43:30 | |
into this small row house in the city of Philadelphia. | 0:43:30 | 0:43:33 | |
The reason Rosetta's career went south, | 0:43:38 | 0:43:40 | |
very simply is that because Rosetta didn't keep up with the times. | 0:43:40 | 0:43:44 | |
Rosetta was still singing, in 1954, '55, | 0:43:44 | 0:43:49 | |
the songs she had recorded in 1938. | 0:43:49 | 0:43:52 | |
In fact, it was remarkable that she kept any career going | 0:43:52 | 0:43:56 | |
when she had really become, essentially, an oldie's act. | 0:43:56 | 0:43:59 | |
Then, in 1957, Rosetta got a call from one of her most devoted fans - | 0:44:03 | 0:44:09 | |
a white musician in Britain. | 0:44:09 | 0:44:11 | |
Chris Barber, the popular Dixieland-style jazz trombonist, | 0:44:16 | 0:44:20 | |
booked her to go on tour with him and his band for a month. | 0:44:20 | 0:44:25 | |
We got our agent to contact her somehow. | 0:44:25 | 0:44:28 | |
We actually paid her to come to Britain. It was so simple. | 0:44:28 | 0:44:32 | |
It was marvellous working with her. She was unbelievably good. | 0:44:32 | 0:44:37 | |
We learnt, as we thought we would, an enormous amount | 0:44:37 | 0:44:40 | |
from even the first day with her, never mind the whole month's tour. | 0:44:40 | 0:44:44 | |
Basically speaking, | 0:45:01 | 0:45:03 | |
her guitar by itself was as loud as my entire band. | 0:45:03 | 0:45:06 | |
It didn't bother anybody. | 0:45:06 | 0:45:08 | |
It was beautiful music. It was loud. Didn't matter. | 0:45:08 | 0:45:11 | |
It was enthralling, totally enthralling. | 0:45:11 | 0:45:13 | |
Everything she did was totally enthralling and totally convincing. | 0:45:13 | 0:45:17 | |
# This train is a clean train, this train | 0:45:17 | 0:45:22 | |
# I said this train is a clean train, yes, this train | 0:45:22 | 0:45:28 | |
# You know this train is a clean train | 0:45:28 | 0:45:31 | |
# Everybody ride it in his name | 0:45:31 | 0:45:34 | |
# This train is a clean train, this train... # | 0:45:34 | 0:45:38 | |
Booked as little more than a supporting novelty act, | 0:45:41 | 0:45:45 | |
Sister Rosetta stole the show. | 0:45:45 | 0:45:47 | |
Until now British audiences had only seen white imitations | 0:45:49 | 0:45:53 | |
of blues and gospel, but here, on stage for the very first time, | 0:45:53 | 0:45:59 | |
was the real thing. | 0:45:59 | 0:46:00 | |
Her new-found popularity quickly caught the attention | 0:46:04 | 0:46:07 | |
of bookers and promoters all across Europe. | 0:46:07 | 0:46:10 | |
Sister Rosetta was a star reborn, discovering new fans. | 0:46:10 | 0:46:15 | |
By the early '60s, her influence was continuing to spread | 0:46:31 | 0:46:35 | |
as yet another generation fell under her spell. | 0:46:35 | 0:46:38 | |
Here is a recording of Bob Dylan speaking about Rosetta on the radio. | 0:46:44 | 0:46:48 | |
Sister Rosetta Tharpe was anything but ordinary and plain. | 0:46:48 | 0:46:52 | |
She was a big, good-looking woman, and divine, | 0:46:52 | 0:46:55 | |
not to mention sublime and splendid. | 0:46:55 | 0:46:58 | |
She was a powerful force of nature, | 0:46:58 | 0:47:00 | |
a guitar-playing, singing evangelist. | 0:47:00 | 0:47:03 | |
# ..is a clean train Everybody ride it if you can... # | 0:47:03 | 0:47:09 | |
You know, she travelled to England with Muddy Waters and a whole bunch | 0:47:09 | 0:47:13 | |
of other blues performers in the early '60s, and I'm sure | 0:47:13 | 0:47:16 | |
there are a lot of young English guys | 0:47:16 | 0:47:19 | |
who picked up an electric guitar after getting a look at her. | 0:47:19 | 0:47:22 | |
# ..is standing in the station This train is waiting on all of you | 0:47:22 | 0:47:27 | |
# Come on, then, let's go... # | 0:47:27 | 0:47:29 | |
In the summer of 1964, Rosetta was booked by Granada Television | 0:47:42 | 0:47:46 | |
to perform in a folk, blues and gospel special. | 0:47:46 | 0:47:49 | |
The musicians were American, the audience English students, | 0:47:52 | 0:47:56 | |
the venue a disused railway station - Chorlton-cum-Hardy, | 0:47:56 | 0:48:00 | |
just outside Manchester. | 0:48:00 | 0:48:02 | |
The Manchester gig was a curiosity in the middle of the tour for us. | 0:48:04 | 0:48:09 | |
It was kind of bizarre. But, you know, we were all new to England, | 0:48:09 | 0:48:13 | |
and we were aware of all this interest in blues and gospel. | 0:48:13 | 0:48:16 | |
We all thought it was strange, | 0:48:19 | 0:48:23 | |
the setup with the audience on one platform | 0:48:23 | 0:48:25 | |
and the musicians on the other. | 0:48:25 | 0:48:27 | |
And she rose to the occasion. | 0:48:35 | 0:48:38 | |
She loved the drama of the situation, | 0:48:38 | 0:48:41 | |
trying to bridge that gap between the platforms, | 0:48:41 | 0:48:46 | |
sell the whole thing across the track to the audience. | 0:48:46 | 0:48:51 | |
By now Rosetta was 49 years old | 0:48:55 | 0:48:57 | |
and she had been on the road for more than 40 of those years. | 0:48:57 | 0:49:01 | |
But even in cold, wet and windy England, the magic was still there. | 0:49:01 | 0:49:07 | |
The inimitable Sister Rosetta Tharpe. | 0:49:07 | 0:49:11 | |
Oh, the sweet horsey. Oh, the sweet horsey. | 0:49:19 | 0:49:22 | |
Oh. | 0:49:22 | 0:49:23 | |
This is the wonderfullest time of my life. | 0:49:23 | 0:49:26 | |
And the people are so sweet to stay here. | 0:49:26 | 0:49:28 | |
-Oh, ain't they sweet? -And I'm coming over! -Yes! | 0:49:28 | 0:49:32 | |
Let me tell you what... | 0:49:32 | 0:49:34 | |
Oh, yeah! | 0:49:37 | 0:49:38 | |
# Didn't it rain, children? | 0:50:04 | 0:50:08 | |
# Rain, oh, yes | 0:50:08 | 0:50:10 | |
# Didn't it? Yes Didn't it? You know it did | 0:50:10 | 0:50:13 | |
# Didn't it? Oh, oh, yes | 0:50:13 | 0:50:17 | |
# How it rained | 0:50:17 | 0:50:19 | |
# I said it rained, children | 0:50:19 | 0:50:22 | |
# Rained, oh, yes | 0:50:23 | 0:50:25 | |
# Didn't it? Yes Didn't it? You know it did | 0:50:25 | 0:50:28 | |
# Didn't it? | 0:50:28 | 0:50:29 | |
# Oh, my Lord, how it rained | 0:50:29 | 0:50:33 | |
# Somebody at the window Somebody at the door | 0:50:58 | 0:51:01 | |
# Some crying, "Brother Noah can't you take on more?" | 0:51:01 | 0:51:04 | |
# But, "No," he cried out "Uh-uh, my friends | 0:51:04 | 0:51:06 | |
# The angel's got the key and you can't get in" | 0:51:06 | 0:51:09 | |
# I know it rain, you know it rain | 0:51:09 | 0:51:12 | |
# Rain too long, all night long | 0:51:12 | 0:51:15 | |
# Rain all day, rain all night | 0:51:15 | 0:51:18 | |
# Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain | 0:51:18 | 0:51:21 | |
# Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain | 0:51:21 | 0:51:23 | |
# Rain, children | 0:51:23 | 0:51:26 | |
# Rain, oh, yes | 0:51:26 | 0:51:29 | |
# Didn't it? Yes, Didn't it? You know it did | 0:51:29 | 0:51:31 | |
# Didn't it? | 0:51:31 | 0:51:33 | |
# Oh, my Lord, how it rained! # | 0:51:33 | 0:51:37 | |
Sister Rosetta was a huge success on the tour. | 0:51:48 | 0:51:53 | |
She did great. Audiences loved her. | 0:51:53 | 0:51:57 | |
She was very happy, everybody was happy. | 0:51:57 | 0:51:59 | |
Oh, I love you so, my English friends, | 0:52:04 | 0:52:08 | |
forever and ever until I leave this world. | 0:52:08 | 0:52:12 | |
While Rosetta was away in Europe enjoying the upturn in her career, | 0:52:17 | 0:52:21 | |
back in Philadelphia, her mother was becoming increasingly frail. | 0:52:21 | 0:52:27 | |
In 1968, Katie Bell died. | 0:52:27 | 0:52:31 | |
For 53 years she had stuck close by her daughter | 0:52:33 | 0:52:36 | |
through good times and bad | 0:52:36 | 0:52:38 | |
as the one constant figure reminding Rosetta of her faith in God. | 0:52:38 | 0:52:43 | |
The loss took a heavy toll on Rosetta. | 0:52:47 | 0:52:51 | |
She became increasingly depressed, | 0:52:51 | 0:52:53 | |
and to make matters worse, she was diagnosed with diabetes. | 0:52:53 | 0:52:57 | |
I'm going to sing a song | 0:52:59 | 0:53:02 | |
that maybe you wouldn't understand it and maybe you do, | 0:53:02 | 0:53:05 | |
a song that I love so dearly, | 0:53:05 | 0:53:08 | |
and I have so many friends here in Copenhagen, | 0:53:08 | 0:53:11 | |
for many, many years I've been coming here, | 0:53:11 | 0:53:14 | |
and then some time, my friends... | 0:53:14 | 0:53:16 | |
Made in 1970 in Denmark, | 0:53:16 | 0:53:18 | |
this is the last known recording of Sister Rosetta performing. | 0:53:18 | 0:53:22 | |
Maybe you wouldn't understand that, but someone died | 0:53:22 | 0:53:26 | |
who they dearly love, and mine did too, | 0:53:26 | 0:53:29 | |
my mother died two years ago and left me alone. | 0:53:29 | 0:53:34 | |
But nevertheless, I have you. | 0:53:34 | 0:53:36 | |
I went to see her, and she had this black spot on her foot. | 0:53:37 | 0:53:41 | |
I said, "Sister, what is that?" and she said, "I don't know." | 0:53:41 | 0:53:48 | |
I said, "Sister, go see about that, please!" | 0:53:48 | 0:53:51 | |
That's going to happen. | 0:53:52 | 0:53:53 | |
But there is a divine power. | 0:53:53 | 0:53:55 | |
I believe it - I don't know about you, but I got to believe it, | 0:53:55 | 0:53:59 | |
because I was raised that way. | 0:53:59 | 0:54:02 | |
I sing this song. | 0:54:02 | 0:54:04 | |
# Because Lord | 0:54:06 | 0:54:08 | |
# Take my hand | 0:54:11 | 0:54:13 | |
# Lead me on | 0:54:16 | 0:54:22 | |
# And let me stand | 0:54:22 | 0:54:24 | |
# I'm tired and I've worked so hard | 0:54:27 | 0:54:31 | |
# And I'm weak | 0:54:32 | 0:54:34 | |
# My body is worn | 0:54:36 | 0:54:39 | |
# Whoa, yes | 0:54:41 | 0:54:44 | |
# But I got to go anyhow | 0:54:44 | 0:54:46 | |
# Through the storm... # | 0:54:46 | 0:54:49 | |
She wouldn't listen to anybody. | 0:54:49 | 0:54:52 | |
So, the next thing, | 0:54:52 | 0:54:55 | |
foot started turning black. | 0:54:55 | 0:54:57 | |
Then she did have to go to the doctor, | 0:54:57 | 0:54:59 | |
then they found out they had to cut her leg off. | 0:54:59 | 0:55:02 | |
# ..just the same... # | 0:55:02 | 0:55:06 | |
Sometimes she would call me and say, | 0:55:06 | 0:55:08 | |
"Sister, please come, please come to see me," | 0:55:08 | 0:55:11 | |
and I would say, "All right, I'm coming." | 0:55:11 | 0:55:15 | |
But the last few months I didn't go, because Russell was acting like | 0:55:15 | 0:55:21 | |
he didn't want nobody taking over from him. | 0:55:21 | 0:55:23 | |
When I went over to see Aunt Sis, | 0:55:23 | 0:55:25 | |
she was in the bed and she would say, "Where's Russell?" | 0:55:25 | 0:55:30 | |
I'd say, "Downstairs," and she would say, | 0:55:30 | 0:55:32 | |
"He's asking you about shows, right?" | 0:55:32 | 0:55:35 | |
and I'd say "No, he didn't say anything!" | 0:55:35 | 0:55:37 | |
"Yes, he is! He wants to know if I'm going back," | 0:55:37 | 0:55:40 | |
she said, "And I'm going back, | 0:55:40 | 0:55:42 | |
"but I'm not going to tell anybody when I'm coming back. | 0:55:42 | 0:55:45 | |
"But I am coming back." But she never did. | 0:55:45 | 0:55:48 | |
# My body | 0:55:48 | 0:55:50 | |
# Is all | 0:55:54 | 0:55:58 | |
# Suffering in pain | 0:55:58 | 0:56:01 | |
# Whoa, yes | 0:56:02 | 0:56:05 | |
# I got no-one to call on | 0:56:05 | 0:56:08 | |
# Hear my cry | 0:56:08 | 0:56:14 | |
# Hear my call | 0:56:14 | 0:56:16 | |
# Please, hold my hand | 0:56:18 | 0:56:22 | |
# Lest I fall | 0:56:23 | 0:56:26 | |
# Hmmm | 0:56:26 | 0:56:29 | |
# Take my hand | 0:56:29 | 0:56:31 | |
# Whoa! | 0:56:31 | 0:56:34 | |
# Precious Lord | 0:56:34 | 0:56:36 | |
# Lead me on... # | 0:56:38 | 0:56:40 | |
Rosetta's funeral was very quiet. | 0:56:40 | 0:56:42 | |
It wasn't any big thing. | 0:56:42 | 0:56:45 | |
It was no elaborate funeral, I can tell you that. | 0:56:45 | 0:56:48 | |
The church was half-full, | 0:56:48 | 0:56:51 | |
and Rosetta looked the best I had seen her in years. | 0:56:51 | 0:56:57 | |
Marie Knight, her old partner, she made Rosetta up. | 0:56:57 | 0:57:02 | |
She took care of her coiffure, of her makeup, | 0:57:02 | 0:57:07 | |
of how the fabrics looked and made her as glamorous as possible. | 0:57:07 | 0:57:11 | |
She looked a star. | 0:57:11 | 0:57:13 | |
I think I said, "She would sing until you cried, | 0:57:17 | 0:57:21 | |
"and then she would sing until you danced for joy. | 0:57:21 | 0:57:26 | |
"She kept the church alive and the saints rejoicing." | 0:57:26 | 0:57:30 | |
# Down at the river | 0:57:30 | 0:57:35 | |
# Oh, stinging | 0:57:35 | 0:57:38 | |
# Cut my feet | 0:57:41 | 0:57:43 | |
# Please, hold my trembling hand | 0:57:43 | 0:57:47 | |
# Hmmm | 0:57:47 | 0:57:51 | |
# And take my hand | 0:57:51 | 0:57:53 | |
# Oh, precious Lord | 0:57:53 | 0:57:58 | |
# Lead | 0:57:59 | 0:58:05 | |
# Me on. # | 0:58:05 | 0:58:09 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:58:17 | 0:58:20 | |
In 2008, some 35 years after Rosetta's death, | 0:58:31 | 0:58:35 | |
the Governor of Pennsylvania declared | 0:58:35 | 0:58:38 | |
that henceforth the 11th January | 0:58:38 | 0:58:41 | |
will be known as Sister Rosetta Tharpe Day. | 0:58:41 | 0:58:45 | |
-# Up above my head -Up above my head | 0:58:52 | 0:58:55 | |
-# I hear music in the air -I hear music in the air | 0:58:55 | 0:58:58 | |
-# Now, up above my head -Up above my head | 0:58:58 | 0:59:01 | |
-# You know I hear music in the air -I hear music in the air | 0:59:01 | 0:59:04 | |
-# Up above my head -Up above my head | 0:59:04 | 0:59:07 | |
-# I hear music in the air -I hear music in the air | 0:59:07 | 0:59:10 | |
-# And I really do believe -And I really do believe | 0:59:10 | 0:59:13 | |
BOTH: # There's a heaven somewhere Heaven somewhere. # | 0:59:13 | 0:59:16 |