Browse content similar to Sweet Little Sixteen. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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60 years ago... | 0:00:07 | 0:00:08 | |
FAINTLY: # Wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom... # | 0:00:08 | 0:00:11 | |
..America shook. | 0:00:11 | 0:00:13 | |
# Four o'clock rock... # | 0:00:13 | 0:00:15 | |
It was explosive. | 0:00:15 | 0:00:16 | |
# Go, Johnny, go... # | 0:00:16 | 0:00:18 | |
It sounded so different. | 0:00:18 | 0:00:20 | |
# Great balls of fire... # | 0:00:20 | 0:00:22 | |
It was free, it was wild. | 0:00:22 | 0:00:25 | |
# Shake, rattle and roll... # | 0:00:25 | 0:00:27 | |
These are some of the last witnesses | 0:00:27 | 0:00:29 | |
to the birth of a music that changed...everything. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:34 | |
HE CHUCKLES | 0:00:39 | 0:00:40 | |
And they still feel it... | 0:00:40 | 0:00:42 | |
Ooh... | 0:00:42 | 0:00:43 | |
..like it was yesterday. | 0:00:43 | 0:00:45 | |
I'll never forget that. | 0:00:45 | 0:00:46 | |
Elvis, such a damn smash hit. | 0:00:46 | 0:00:49 | |
The whole place exploded. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:51 | |
GIRLS SCREAM We had sex appeal. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:55 | |
I'm at the age if I make somebody mad by tellin' the truth, tough. | 0:00:55 | 0:00:59 | |
# I'm a roadrunner, honey | 0:00:59 | 0:01:02 | |
# And you can't keep up with me... # | 0:01:02 | 0:01:05 | |
These are the innovators, the free-thinkers... | 0:01:05 | 0:01:08 | |
Let it all hang out! | 0:01:08 | 0:01:09 | |
..who shocked America. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:11 | |
The vulgar performances of Elvis Presley. | 0:01:11 | 0:01:13 | |
He should not be on television. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:15 | |
The morals are dangerous. That's all I know. And you can't get away | 0:01:15 | 0:01:18 | |
from it, you can't clean it up cos it's dirty to begin with. | 0:01:18 | 0:01:21 | |
They followed their own path | 0:01:21 | 0:01:24 | |
and transformed America. | 0:01:24 | 0:01:26 | |
People were afraid of integration. | 0:01:26 | 0:01:29 | |
Rock'n'roll is obviously nigger music. | 0:01:29 | 0:01:31 | |
Integration is happening in our heads, through our ears. | 0:01:31 | 0:01:35 | |
This is what we been waiting for. | 0:01:35 | 0:01:37 | |
# I got to put you down... # | 0:01:37 | 0:01:40 | |
We'll continue to charge on. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:42 | |
# I'll see you someday | 0:01:42 | 0:01:44 | |
# Baby, somewhere hangin' around... # | 0:01:44 | 0:01:46 | |
A whole lot of shakin' goin' on. | 0:01:46 | 0:01:49 | |
Today, a remarkable construction project is transforming | 0:01:59 | 0:02:03 | |
the face of the countryside. | 0:02:03 | 0:02:04 | |
The area below will, within the next two years, | 0:02:04 | 0:02:07 | |
be the busy community of 70,000 people | 0:02:07 | 0:02:10 | |
living in a city which was completely planned | 0:02:10 | 0:02:13 | |
before the first house was built. | 0:02:13 | 0:02:15 | |
America of the early '50s, | 0:02:16 | 0:02:19 | |
where 11 out of 13 million new homes were built in a new suburbia. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:25 | |
MAN: Hey, how about a couple of eggs this morning? | 0:02:25 | 0:02:28 | |
OK, dear. Oh, but get a move on or you'll be late. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:31 | |
'It's a great life, eh, Bob?' | 0:02:31 | 0:02:34 | |
Communities built around a family unit, expanding in a baby boom | 0:02:34 | 0:02:39 | |
created by returning World War II GIs. | 0:02:39 | 0:02:42 | |
Life was perfect. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:44 | |
The fathers and mothers in our home town | 0:02:45 | 0:02:47 | |
are just plain, nice-living folks. | 0:02:47 | 0:02:50 | |
The smoking of marijuana | 0:02:50 | 0:02:52 | |
are tempting more and more | 0:02:52 | 0:02:54 | |
teenage youngsters along dangerous paths. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:57 | |
You know, main street folks who say, "Hello, nice morning," | 0:02:57 | 0:03:00 | |
even when it rains on Mondays. | 0:03:00 | 0:03:02 | |
I'm getting sick and tired of being treated like a kid. | 0:03:02 | 0:03:04 | |
Why be stuck with one expensive car when you can enjoy all the fun | 0:03:04 | 0:03:09 | |
and freedom of two fine Fords? | 0:03:09 | 0:03:12 | |
This is home, sweet home to us. | 0:03:12 | 0:03:15 | |
We feel safe and are very proud of our friendly characters. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:19 | |
When the coloured people came into the neighbourhood, | 0:03:19 | 0:03:23 | |
I would become nauseous. | 0:03:23 | 0:03:25 | |
We are proud of our excellent schools that provide | 0:03:25 | 0:03:27 | |
for the education of our children. | 0:03:27 | 0:03:29 | |
Proud of their part in preparing our youths to face the future. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:32 | |
Atom bombs may some day be dropped on our cities, | 0:03:33 | 0:03:37 | |
and let us prepare for survival. | 0:03:37 | 0:03:39 | |
The air force itself has officially admitted that flying saucers exist. | 0:03:40 | 0:03:44 | |
Space saboteurs seize control of earthmen's minds. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:48 | |
Communism, in reality, is not a political party. | 0:03:48 | 0:03:51 | |
It is a way of life, an evil and malignant way of life. | 0:03:51 | 0:03:54 | |
But one thing that America could rely on in these times | 0:03:56 | 0:04:00 | |
was the radio... | 0:04:00 | 0:04:01 | |
..programmed with popular music of the day. | 0:04:02 | 0:04:05 | |
# Do not forsake me, oh, my darling | 0:04:07 | 0:04:13 | |
# On this, our wedding day | 0:04:14 | 0:04:20 | |
# Wait alone... # | 0:04:20 | 0:04:22 | |
But not of all of America was like this. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:25 | |
Below the Mason-Dixon line, | 0:04:25 | 0:04:28 | |
like a wayward cousin, | 0:04:28 | 0:04:30 | |
lay America's buried past, | 0:04:30 | 0:04:32 | |
where something was happening that would shake up not just the music | 0:04:32 | 0:04:36 | |
but America's way of life... down south. | 0:04:36 | 0:04:40 | |
Way down south. | 0:04:40 | 0:04:42 | |
There are things in New Orleans | 0:04:49 | 0:04:50 | |
that you wouldn't see anywhere in the world. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:52 | |
Just about anything went. | 0:04:52 | 0:04:55 | |
The gay entertainers who would dance with a boa constrictor. | 0:04:55 | 0:05:00 | |
Storyville was where they used to have legalised prostitution. | 0:05:00 | 0:05:04 | |
And that lasted for about 20 years. | 0:05:04 | 0:05:07 | |
There were exotic dancers who could make their cleavage jump up and down | 0:05:07 | 0:05:12 | |
-in different patterns. -HE LAUGHS | 0:05:12 | 0:05:16 | |
Man, I remember the first place I ever really got loaded on whisky. | 0:05:16 | 0:05:21 | |
I ain't never experienced anything like that in my life. | 0:05:21 | 0:05:25 | |
And I never want to experience it again. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:29 | |
New Orleans music was for dancing, for entertainment. Make people move. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:36 | |
The dancers were going to be doing boom, bam, boom, bop. Boom! | 0:05:36 | 0:05:40 | |
He may see a big fat woman with a big butt, | 0:05:40 | 0:05:43 | |
and she right in tune with the bass drum - boom, boom, boom. | 0:05:43 | 0:05:48 | |
If you ever listen to New Orleans' music, you're going to move. | 0:05:48 | 0:05:52 | |
# I'm walkin' | 0:05:54 | 0:05:56 | |
# Yes, indeed, I'm talkin' | 0:05:56 | 0:05:58 | |
# 'Bout you and me, I'm hopin' | 0:05:58 | 0:06:00 | |
# That you come back to me | 0:06:00 | 0:06:02 | |
# I'm lonely as I can be | 0:06:03 | 0:06:05 | |
# I'm waitin' for your company | 0:06:05 | 0:06:08 | |
# I'm hopin' that you come back to me... # | 0:06:08 | 0:06:11 | |
Well, it has certainly been a long time since I've been here. | 0:06:12 | 0:06:16 | |
This is where it all took place, back here. | 0:06:18 | 0:06:20 | |
All right. Great. | 0:06:20 | 0:06:22 | |
It's a laundromat now but back in the day - | 0:06:25 | 0:06:28 | |
and I mean the most beautiful days, in fact, | 0:06:28 | 0:06:32 | |
the days that began putting us on the map - it was J&M Studio, | 0:06:32 | 0:06:36 | |
Cosimo's Recording Studio, owned by Cosimo Matassa. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:41 | |
And there was Cosimo back there, doing what he does. | 0:06:41 | 0:06:44 | |
The musicians would be back in that area. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:48 | |
Those bricks are probably the same bricks which witnessed | 0:06:48 | 0:06:51 | |
all of that wonderful music. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:54 | |
The whole call of the day was for most things to be done live. | 0:06:54 | 0:06:58 | |
In fact, when it was time to make a fade, at the end of the recording, | 0:06:58 | 0:07:01 | |
the musicians didn't want Cosimo to turn down the knob, | 0:07:01 | 0:07:05 | |
they wanted to just play softer and make a natural fade | 0:07:05 | 0:07:09 | |
cos they figured that that's a technical fade with the knob. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:12 | |
And very importantly, Fats Domino's career started here and it was 1949, | 0:07:12 | 0:07:19 | |
he recorded The Fat Man. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:21 | |
And it clicked on a switch that lasts for decades and decades. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:27 | |
Fats' debut hit is a contender for the very first rock'n'roll record, | 0:07:31 | 0:07:35 | |
and its origins lay in a traditional song | 0:07:35 | 0:07:38 | |
from the wild heart of New Orleans. | 0:07:38 | 0:07:40 | |
It was a drug song. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:42 | |
That lyric was, | 0:07:42 | 0:07:43 | |
"They call, they call me a junker cos I'm loaded all the time." | 0:07:43 | 0:07:48 | |
Dave Bartholomew, the producer, said, "We can't sing about junkies, | 0:07:48 | 0:07:52 | |
"we're going to have to sing about the fat man." | 0:07:52 | 0:07:54 | |
# They call They call me the fat man | 0:07:54 | 0:07:58 | |
# Cos I weigh two hundred pounds | 0:07:58 | 0:08:02 | |
# All the girls, they love me | 0:08:02 | 0:08:05 | |
# Cos I know my way around... # | 0:08:05 | 0:08:08 | |
Fats' rhythm proved innovative and irresistible, | 0:08:08 | 0:08:11 | |
but not just to black audiences in the South. | 0:08:11 | 0:08:14 | |
Now for the big finale. The guy you've all been waiting to hear... | 0:08:14 | 0:08:18 | |
Through the '50s, he'd overcome the musical segregation of the time, | 0:08:18 | 0:08:22 | |
crossing over from the black R&B chart to white audiences | 0:08:22 | 0:08:26 | |
on the national pop chart. | 0:08:26 | 0:08:28 | |
# You made me cry | 0:08:28 | 0:08:31 | |
# When you said | 0:08:31 | 0:08:33 | |
# Goodbye | 0:08:33 | 0:08:34 | |
# Ain't that a shame? | 0:08:34 | 0:08:38 | |
# My tears fell like rain... # | 0:08:38 | 0:08:42 | |
And what was special about his rhythm that got the kids hooked | 0:08:42 | 0:08:45 | |
was a piano triplet that underpinned Fats' biggest hits. | 0:08:45 | 0:08:49 | |
This little simple beat - one, two, three, one, two, three - | 0:08:49 | 0:08:52 | |
on his piano... | 0:08:52 | 0:08:53 | |
A lot of great musicians around New Orleans didn't want to play | 0:08:58 | 0:09:02 | |
behind Fats Domino cos they said his music was so simple. | 0:09:02 | 0:09:05 | |
People kind of made fun of you when you just played | 0:09:07 | 0:09:09 | |
dink-dink-dink-dink-dink, but that's what he did | 0:09:09 | 0:09:12 | |
and it made people dance. | 0:09:12 | 0:09:14 | |
Those simple lines, and he played it all the way through the song. | 0:09:17 | 0:09:20 | |
And so, even in the Deep South, even in the segregated South, | 0:09:23 | 0:09:27 | |
whites started showing up at his shows. | 0:09:27 | 0:09:29 | |
# Oh, well | 0:09:29 | 0:09:31 | |
# Goodbye | 0:09:31 | 0:09:33 | |
# Although | 0:09:33 | 0:09:34 | |
# I'll cry | 0:09:34 | 0:09:36 | |
# Ain't that a shame?... # | 0:09:36 | 0:09:38 | |
Black concerts were coming through Memphis | 0:09:38 | 0:09:40 | |
and we'd go down and watch 'em. | 0:09:40 | 0:09:42 | |
They made us sit upstairs, | 0:09:42 | 0:09:43 | |
you know, it was kinda crazy, | 0:09:43 | 0:09:45 | |
but we didn't care. And when those guys started rockin' on stage, | 0:09:45 | 0:09:48 | |
the kids jumped up in the aisle and started dancing. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:50 | |
And I said, "Uh-oh, something's happening here, big time." | 0:09:50 | 0:09:53 | |
The whites started dancing, mixing with the blacks. | 0:09:53 | 0:09:57 | |
One thing led to another. | 0:09:57 | 0:09:58 | |
Herbert Hardesty, Fats' saxophone player, | 0:09:58 | 0:10:00 | |
says there was a fight every night. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:03 | |
And the reason why is because he was causing that integration. | 0:10:03 | 0:10:06 | |
-MAN: -Fats, this rock'n'roll music seems to be under | 0:10:10 | 0:10:12 | |
an awful heavy attack from all over the country. There's been riots, | 0:10:12 | 0:10:16 | |
it's been banned in certain parts of this country and abroad. | 0:10:16 | 0:10:19 | |
-You know of any reason for that? -Well... | 0:10:19 | 0:10:21 | |
as far as I know, music makes people happy. I know it makes me happy. | 0:10:21 | 0:10:25 | |
-You wouldn't blame it on rock'n'roll? -No indeed. | 0:10:25 | 0:10:27 | |
Maybe you'll excuse me, I'd like to go back to my practice. | 0:10:27 | 0:10:30 | |
I saw some protestors one time right in the midst of that era | 0:10:33 | 0:10:38 | |
saying, "Send all the Negros back to the Congo, except Fats Domino." | 0:10:38 | 0:10:43 | |
Fats wasn't alone in integrating audiences. | 0:10:49 | 0:10:52 | |
Alan Freed, a DJ who popularised the term "rock'n'roll"... | 0:10:52 | 0:10:56 | |
Hi, everybody. How y'all? | 0:10:56 | 0:10:58 | |
This is yours truly, Alan Freed... | 0:10:58 | 0:11:00 | |
..staged a Moondog Ball in Cleveland in 1952 for a mixed-race audience | 0:11:00 | 0:11:06 | |
of 20,000. | 0:11:06 | 0:11:07 | |
It was shut down by police for fears of a riot. | 0:11:07 | 0:11:11 | |
But segregation was just part of a wider narrative in post-war America, | 0:11:12 | 0:11:18 | |
as millions of black Americans | 0:11:18 | 0:11:20 | |
migrated up the Mississippi corridor, | 0:11:20 | 0:11:22 | |
bound for the industrial cities of the Northeast and Midwest. | 0:11:22 | 0:11:27 | |
People in Mississippi, Louisiana - they worked their way | 0:11:29 | 0:11:33 | |
to get to Memphis. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:34 | |
And they go to St Louis... | 0:11:34 | 0:11:36 | |
East St Louis - wasn't St Louis - East St Louis. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:39 | |
Then he goes to Chicago. | 0:11:39 | 0:11:41 | |
They were trying to get to Detroit, where the Ford plant was, | 0:11:41 | 0:11:45 | |
and Chicago, where the steel mill was. | 0:11:45 | 0:11:47 | |
Sometimes, it'd take you two months to get to Chicago. | 0:11:50 | 0:11:53 | |
And with the people, the music migrated. | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
This song, from 1951, Rocket 88 by Jackie Brenston, | 0:12:01 | 0:12:05 | |
another contender for the first rock'n'roll record, | 0:12:05 | 0:12:08 | |
was written in Clarksdale, recorded in Memphis, | 0:12:08 | 0:12:12 | |
and released in Chicago on Chess Records, | 0:12:12 | 0:12:14 | |
as the Blues moved upstream to the big cities of the Midwest. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:19 | |
When you look at it, you've got Chicago, St Louis, | 0:12:19 | 0:12:24 | |
Memphis, New Orleans | 0:12:24 | 0:12:25 | |
all on a straight dotted line all the way down. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:28 | |
And those are all pretty hip music towns all the way up. | 0:12:28 | 0:12:31 | |
So there's something about being on this big ol' muddy river. | 0:12:31 | 0:12:34 | |
By the early '50s, Chicago was the hub of an Electric Blues scene, | 0:12:38 | 0:12:43 | |
rooted in a booming migrant black community. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:46 | |
Jimmy Reed was a guy that I was in love with | 0:12:48 | 0:12:51 | |
in Chicago playing the Blues. | 0:12:51 | 0:12:53 | |
He's had songs like... | 0:12:53 | 0:12:55 | |
HE PLAYS BLUES MUSIC | 0:12:55 | 0:12:58 | |
# Oh, baby | 0:12:59 | 0:13:01 | |
# You don't have to go | 0:13:02 | 0:13:05 | |
# Whoa, baby | 0:13:07 | 0:13:09 | |
# You don't have to go... # | 0:13:11 | 0:13:15 | |
But by the mid-'50s, the Electric Blues stars like Jimmy Reed | 0:13:15 | 0:13:18 | |
and Muddy Waters were nudging 30 and 40, | 0:13:18 | 0:13:22 | |
and a younger generation in these cities craved a new sound | 0:13:22 | 0:13:26 | |
that spoke of their experience. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:29 | |
The Blues is always losin' the girl. | 0:13:29 | 0:13:31 | |
# My baby done left me... # | 0:13:31 | 0:13:34 | |
Doo-wop gave me the idea of fulfilling my dream | 0:13:34 | 0:13:39 | |
by getting the girl. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:41 | |
Blues writers were older people. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
They had been in the South, | 0:13:44 | 0:13:45 | |
they had seen things that were very different, | 0:13:45 | 0:13:48 | |
whereas the doo-wop writers were teenagers. | 0:13:48 | 0:13:52 | |
# Oh, baby... # | 0:13:52 | 0:13:55 | |
Hey, man! What you all doing, standing out here in the cold? | 0:13:55 | 0:13:58 | |
I'm freezing! | 0:13:58 | 0:13:59 | |
Oh, no! | 0:13:59 | 0:14:01 | |
CHEERFUL GREETINGS | 0:14:01 | 0:14:03 | |
Nice seeing you, though. | 0:14:03 | 0:14:05 | |
In 1953, the Spaniels were a teenage street-corner group | 0:14:05 | 0:14:09 | |
from the edge of Chicago, with a first single climbing the charts... | 0:14:09 | 0:14:13 | |
We got street light... | 0:14:13 | 0:14:15 | |
..and a follow-up that would become a classic of the new doo-wop style. | 0:14:15 | 0:14:19 | |
# Doot-do-do, doot-do-do | 0:14:19 | 0:14:21 | |
# Doot-do-do-do-do | 0:14:21 | 0:14:23 | |
-ALL: -# Good night, sweetheart | 0:14:23 | 0:14:25 | |
# Well, it's time to go | 0:14:25 | 0:14:28 | |
# Doot-do-do-do-do | 0:14:28 | 0:14:30 | |
-ALL: -# Good night, sweetheart | 0:14:30 | 0:14:32 | |
# Well, it's time to go | 0:14:32 | 0:14:35 | |
# Do-do do-do | 0:14:35 | 0:14:38 | |
# I hate to leave you but I really must say | 0:14:38 | 0:14:43 | |
-ALL: -# Good night, sweetheart | 0:14:43 | 0:14:47 | |
# Good night | 0:14:47 | 0:14:49 | |
# Doot-do-do, doot-do-do | 0:14:49 | 0:14:51 | |
# Doot-do-do-do-do | 0:14:51 | 0:14:53 | |
-ALL: -# Good night, sweetheart... # | 0:14:53 | 0:14:55 | |
It is truly the sound of the city. | 0:14:55 | 0:14:57 | |
It is truly the street-corner symphony. | 0:14:57 | 0:15:00 | |
You could stand under a street lamp and just sing. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:05 | |
# Do-do do-do... # | 0:15:05 | 0:15:08 | |
We could imagine that we would be on stage | 0:15:08 | 0:15:10 | |
and that lamp would actually brighten the whole corner | 0:15:10 | 0:15:15 | |
and people could come and watch you and you could do your stuff. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:19 | |
So we were on stage there. | 0:15:19 | 0:15:21 | |
# It's three o'clock | 0:15:21 | 0:15:24 | |
# In the morning | 0:15:24 | 0:15:26 | |
# Do-do... # | 0:15:26 | 0:15:28 | |
Through the music, you could court a girl. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:31 | |
All you had to do was sing a song. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:34 | |
I think that women like low voices, | 0:15:34 | 0:15:38 | |
almost like a mating call of the bull walrus | 0:15:38 | 0:15:42 | |
or something like that. | 0:15:42 | 0:15:44 | |
-ALL: -# Because I love you so | 0:15:44 | 0:15:49 | |
# Doot-do-do, doot-do-do | 0:15:49 | 0:15:50 | |
# Do-do do-do | 0:15:50 | 0:15:53 | |
-ALL: -# Good night, sweetheart... # -It was our music. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:56 | |
The lyric spoke for the things that we felt | 0:15:56 | 0:16:00 | |
and we couldn't express ourselves. | 0:16:00 | 0:16:03 | |
And you only heard it all the way at the other end of the dial. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:06 | |
The little black stations, 13-40. | 0:16:06 | 0:16:09 | |
# I love that girly so... # | 0:16:09 | 0:16:13 | |
-14-10. -# Hello, hello again | 0:16:13 | 0:16:16 | |
# Sh-boom and hopin' we'll meet again | 0:16:16 | 0:16:18 | |
# Oh, life could be a dream... # | 0:16:18 | 0:16:20 | |
You didn't hear it on the major 9-50s... | 0:16:20 | 0:16:23 | |
# Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer... # | 0:16:23 | 0:16:25 | |
..or 5-60s... | 0:16:25 | 0:16:27 | |
# How much is that doggy in the window? # | 0:16:27 | 0:16:30 | |
..which were big, powerful radio AM stations, | 0:16:30 | 0:16:32 | |
which are heard around the country, you see. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:35 | |
RADIO STATIC | 0:16:35 | 0:16:36 | |
-# Oh, oh... -Doo-doo-doo... # | 0:16:36 | 0:16:40 | |
But while radio was still largely segregated, | 0:16:40 | 0:16:42 | |
there was one technology that wasn't. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:45 | |
# I love that girl | 0:16:45 | 0:16:46 | |
# Love that girl... # | 0:16:46 | 0:16:48 | |
1950 saw the advent of the 45 RPM jukebox, | 0:16:48 | 0:16:52 | |
and it was this invention that helped the growth of doo-wop, | 0:16:52 | 0:16:56 | |
as record labels used the jukeboxes | 0:16:56 | 0:16:58 | |
as testing grounds for new releases. | 0:16:58 | 0:17:01 | |
Jukebox was very, very important | 0:17:02 | 0:17:05 | |
because some of the great record labels said, | 0:17:05 | 0:17:07 | |
"The black radio stations are playing it, | 0:17:07 | 0:17:09 | |
"let's put it into the jukebox and see if kids recognise it." | 0:17:09 | 0:17:13 | |
# My love must be a kind of blind love... # | 0:17:17 | 0:17:21 | |
Doo-wop was the first pop music | 0:17:21 | 0:17:23 | |
performed by teenagers for teenagers. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:25 | |
# I can't see anyone but you... # | 0:17:25 | 0:17:29 | |
And there were more teenagers than ever before, | 0:17:29 | 0:17:32 | |
due to increases in the birth-rate around World War II. | 0:17:32 | 0:17:36 | |
# Are the stars | 0:17:36 | 0:17:39 | |
# Out tonight?... # | 0:17:39 | 0:17:42 | |
And from the mid-'50s, America's older population began to feel | 0:17:42 | 0:17:46 | |
overrun by a new adolescent attitude. | 0:17:46 | 0:17:50 | |
And the song is Why Do Fools Fall In Love? | 0:17:50 | 0:17:53 | |
AUDIENCE LAUGHS | 0:17:53 | 0:17:55 | |
..Call themselves the Teenagers... | 0:17:55 | 0:17:57 | |
-DEEP VOICE: -Come on, boys, let's sing our song. | 0:17:57 | 0:17:59 | |
-That come out of you? -Yes, can we sing now? | 0:18:00 | 0:18:03 | |
What's your hurry? | 0:18:03 | 0:18:04 | |
Have to make my money before my voice changes. | 0:18:04 | 0:18:06 | |
AUDIENCE LAUGHS | 0:18:06 | 0:18:08 | |
# Mm-bop, mm-bop, mm-bop Doo-roo-roo | 0:18:08 | 0:18:11 | |
ALL: # Ooh wah, ooh wah | 0:18:11 | 0:18:13 | |
# Ooh wah, ooh wah | 0:18:13 | 0:18:16 | |
# Ooh wah, ooh wah | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
-BOTH: -# Why do fools fall in love? | 0:18:19 | 0:18:21 | |
# Why do birds sing so gay? | 0:18:21 | 0:18:25 | |
# And lovers await the break of day | 0:18:25 | 0:18:27 | |
# Why do they fall in love? # | 0:18:27 | 0:18:29 | |
Now there's a whole strata of young people that have some money | 0:18:29 | 0:18:34 | |
and their own taste. | 0:18:34 | 0:18:36 | |
They will go for things that maybe their parents don't like. | 0:18:36 | 0:18:39 | |
Do you realise what time it is? | 0:18:42 | 0:18:46 | |
Oh, Mother, don't be such an old fuddy-duddy. | 0:18:46 | 0:18:48 | |
Our young people are getting out of hand everywhere. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:51 | |
It changed the type of clothing they wore, | 0:18:51 | 0:18:53 | |
it changed the type of movies they liked, | 0:18:53 | 0:18:56 | |
it changed the way they talked. | 0:18:56 | 0:18:57 | |
Rock'n'roll is cool, Daddy, and you know it! | 0:18:57 | 0:18:59 | |
It's crazy music, man. | 0:18:59 | 0:19:02 | |
Whoo! | 0:19:02 | 0:19:03 | |
-What does that do for you? -It makes you feel good inside. | 0:19:03 | 0:19:07 | |
The youth could see that they had power | 0:19:07 | 0:19:09 | |
and through the music they were spreading messages. | 0:19:09 | 0:19:11 | |
For me, it was a major shift. | 0:19:11 | 0:19:13 | |
For a newly liberated youth, there was | 0:19:18 | 0:19:21 | |
a new form of entertainment vying for their attention. | 0:19:21 | 0:19:23 | |
Just look at this real big-screen Westinghouse set. | 0:19:23 | 0:19:27 | |
Why, it's big enough so the whole family can watch | 0:19:27 | 0:19:30 | |
your favourite entertainer without anybody having to block the view. | 0:19:30 | 0:19:34 | |
But while TV was on the rise, it was limited to safe, family fodder. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:39 | |
With money and time on their hands, | 0:19:39 | 0:19:42 | |
teenagers look for their own entertainment and own hang-outs. | 0:19:42 | 0:19:46 | |
And there was one location in every town | 0:19:46 | 0:19:48 | |
that would increasingly become theirs. | 0:19:48 | 0:19:50 | |
After 1950, television sales are going through the roof. | 0:19:52 | 0:19:56 | |
Audiences in the cinemas are declining. | 0:19:56 | 0:19:59 | |
And they're declining at an alarming rate. | 0:19:59 | 0:20:01 | |
But teenagers, they don't want to sit at home and watch TV. | 0:20:01 | 0:20:05 | |
The studios absolutely aimed for the teen market. | 0:20:05 | 0:20:08 | |
And they're marketing a kind of cool, which is like rebellion, | 0:20:14 | 0:20:19 | |
but at the same time a kind of emphasis on belonging, | 0:20:19 | 0:20:22 | |
like belonging to your gang. | 0:20:22 | 0:20:23 | |
The great example is Marlon Brando in The Wild One, | 0:20:26 | 0:20:28 | |
where he's kind of an individual | 0:20:28 | 0:20:30 | |
but he's dressed in a way that looks like he belongs to something. | 0:20:30 | 0:20:33 | |
Hey, somebody tell me what that means - B-R-M-C. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:35 | |
-What does it mean? -Black Rebels Motorcycle Club. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:38 | |
Isn't that cute? Hey, Johnny, what are you rebelling against? | 0:20:38 | 0:20:42 | |
What have you got? | 0:20:42 | 0:20:44 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:20:44 | 0:20:46 | |
Hey, Cathy, aren't they wonderful? | 0:20:46 | 0:20:49 | |
But whereas 1953's The Wild One | 0:20:49 | 0:20:51 | |
featured a cast in their late 20s and a jazz swing soundtrack... | 0:20:51 | 0:20:55 | |
I go, "What are you rebelling against, Johnny?" | 0:20:55 | 0:20:57 | |
He says, "What have you got?" What have you got?! | 0:20:57 | 0:21:01 | |
..1955 saw the release of Blackboard Jungle, | 0:21:01 | 0:21:05 | |
set in an inner-city school | 0:21:05 | 0:21:08 | |
and addressing the problems of teenage delinquents. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:10 | |
-Excuse me, I believe I have an appointment with the principal. -Name? | 0:21:10 | 0:21:14 | |
-Name? -Richard Dadier. | 0:21:14 | 0:21:16 | |
My dad's character in the film, Richard Dadier, | 0:21:16 | 0:21:19 | |
was a schoolteacher who was trying to get through to his students. | 0:21:19 | 0:21:23 | |
Bring your paper up here. | 0:21:23 | 0:21:25 | |
'And they were not wanting to be educated.' | 0:21:26 | 0:21:29 | |
There was a lot of elements in the film that were quite shocking. | 0:21:30 | 0:21:34 | |
There was an attempted rape in the library | 0:21:34 | 0:21:36 | |
of one of the teachers by a kid who my father beat down. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:41 | |
You know, you didn't see this in film. | 0:21:43 | 0:21:45 | |
-What happened? -It's the first day of school, Teacher. | 0:21:46 | 0:21:51 | |
'I believe I'm 16 years of age. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:53 | |
'I said, "Wow, man, this cat, whoever produced this movie, | 0:21:53 | 0:21:56 | |
' "got it down right the way it is in some of the neighbourhood ghettos." ' | 0:21:56 | 0:22:00 | |
We had a guy called Mr Mimilich. He was the biology guy. | 0:22:01 | 0:22:05 | |
We'd throw things at him. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:07 | |
Biology, he turned his head, we would throw things at him, spitballs... | 0:22:07 | 0:22:11 | |
I mean, these things actually happened. | 0:22:11 | 0:22:13 | |
'A lot of the bosses at MGM, they were quite concerned | 0:22:13 | 0:22:16 | |
'about the film representing America in not so nice a way.' | 0:22:16 | 0:22:21 | |
The fact that juvenile delinquents, they were being depicted as | 0:22:21 | 0:22:24 | |
the youth of America - this was quite scandalous. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:27 | |
Switchblade knives were very prominent at that time. | 0:22:27 | 0:22:30 | |
This is going to be a showdown now. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:34 | |
The gunfight at the end of the movie. | 0:22:34 | 0:22:36 | |
As Richard Dadier starts to stalk him... | 0:22:36 | 0:22:39 | |
Give me that knife. | 0:22:39 | 0:22:40 | |
..the rest of the classroom is motionless. | 0:22:40 | 0:22:42 | |
And you hear that clock... tick-tock, tick-tock. | 0:22:42 | 0:22:46 | |
"Come on, boy. Come on." | 0:22:46 | 0:22:49 | |
End of the line, boy. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:51 | |
'The knife drops. Belazi picks up the knife.' | 0:22:54 | 0:22:57 | |
-Belazi! -Shut up! | 0:22:57 | 0:22:59 | |
And that's when my character, Santini, decides to take over. | 0:22:59 | 0:23:04 | |
And he goes and grabs the American flag and he runs across the room | 0:23:04 | 0:23:08 | |
and rams the eagle into Belazi's chest and he drops the knife. | 0:23:08 | 0:23:12 | |
Unlike the bikers in The Wild One, | 0:23:14 | 0:23:17 | |
these teenagers showed their generational difference | 0:23:17 | 0:23:20 | |
with a hatred of jazz, | 0:23:20 | 0:23:21 | |
smashing a teacher's collection of rare swing records. | 0:23:21 | 0:23:24 | |
This is Cherokee. Anybody want to hear this record, huh? | 0:23:24 | 0:23:27 | |
STUDENTS GRUMBLE | 0:23:27 | 0:23:30 | |
Towards the end of production, the film's director, Richard Brooks, | 0:23:34 | 0:23:38 | |
realised he needed one final element for his movie - | 0:23:38 | 0:23:41 | |
a theme song that would speak to this generation of restless teens. | 0:23:41 | 0:23:45 | |
And it couldn't be swing. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:47 | |
Richard Brooks would come to our house, | 0:23:47 | 0:23:50 | |
often at the end of the day on his way home, cos he lived up the street. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:54 | |
And he was looking for a tune. | 0:23:54 | 0:23:57 | |
I had a very big record collection for a young nine-year-old kid | 0:23:57 | 0:24:00 | |
and I played a number of records for him in my collection | 0:24:00 | 0:24:04 | |
cos Dad said I had all these unusual records. | 0:24:04 | 0:24:07 | |
Glenn Ford's son was a Haley fan. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:10 | |
You know, as a young kid. | 0:24:10 | 0:24:12 | |
# There were thirteen women and only one man in town... # | 0:24:12 | 0:24:16 | |
I had purchased this song called | 0:24:16 | 0:24:18 | |
Thirteen Women And One Man In Town, | 0:24:18 | 0:24:20 | |
which was supposed to be the A side on Decca. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:23 | |
And I didn't like it and, like most kids did in those days, | 0:24:23 | 0:24:26 | |
I turned the thing over and I really liked that one. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:28 | |
The producer says, "That's a terrific song." | 0:24:28 | 0:24:32 | |
It was by chance. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:34 | |
I went to the premiere at the Encino Theatre, | 0:24:36 | 0:24:39 | |
a few days before my tenth birthday. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:41 | |
This song comes on - "One, two, three o'clock..." | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
# One, two, three o'clock Four o'clock rock | 0:24:44 | 0:24:47 | |
# Five, six, seven o'clock... # | 0:24:47 | 0:24:48 | |
It was just thrilling. I mean, it was absolutely thrilling. | 0:24:48 | 0:24:52 | |
# We're gonna rock around the clock tonight | 0:24:52 | 0:24:54 | |
# Put your glad rags on... # | 0:24:54 | 0:24:56 | |
The whole place exploded. | 0:24:56 | 0:24:58 | |
The kids, when they heard that song, | 0:24:58 | 0:25:00 | |
started jumping up and dancing in the aisles. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:03 | |
And that never happened before. | 0:25:03 | 0:25:05 | |
The kids got up and started doing the jitterbug up and down the aisle. | 0:25:05 | 0:25:10 | |
Here it was, coming out loud, | 0:25:10 | 0:25:13 | |
those big speakers in the movie theatre, it sounded good. | 0:25:13 | 0:25:16 | |
A lot better than jukeboxes, cos the only way you heard it was 45 records. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:21 | |
It was explosive. It just blew you right out of the... | 0:25:21 | 0:25:24 | |
Obviously, it blew the kids out of their seat | 0:25:24 | 0:25:27 | |
cos they were dancing in the aisle. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:28 | |
Some theatres had to close down in the Midwest. | 0:25:28 | 0:25:31 | |
They couldn't show the film because the kids were so taken with it. | 0:25:31 | 0:25:35 | |
Many municipalities banned the movie altogether, | 0:25:35 | 0:25:40 | |
or muted the music in that first scene. | 0:25:40 | 0:25:44 | |
It sounded so different from anything else that was being played. | 0:25:44 | 0:25:48 | |
Clearer. More crisp. | 0:25:48 | 0:25:51 | |
Most of the records of that nature, before, were not recorded very well. | 0:25:51 | 0:25:56 | |
# When the chimes ring five, six and seven | 0:25:56 | 0:25:58 | |
# We'll be right | 0:25:58 | 0:26:00 | |
# In seventh heaven... # | 0:26:00 | 0:26:01 | |
They concentrated on the rhythm section. | 0:26:01 | 0:26:04 | |
Ba-bow! This big echoey snare. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:07 | |
# We're gonna rock, gonna rock around the clock tonight... # | 0:26:07 | 0:26:10 | |
Each instrument had been miked, which hadn't been done before. | 0:26:10 | 0:26:14 | |
So it was the sound of it that kids identified with. | 0:26:14 | 0:26:17 | |
I certainly did at 15. | 0:26:17 | 0:26:19 | |
# We're gonna rock, rock, rock till broad daylight... # | 0:26:19 | 0:26:23 | |
That became the number one hit | 0:26:23 | 0:26:26 | |
in the United States for eight weeks, which was never even heard of. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:30 | |
Rock Around The Clock was the first rock'n'roll song to top | 0:26:44 | 0:26:47 | |
the national pop charts in America, | 0:26:47 | 0:26:50 | |
with the lyrics and title perfectly selling the idea | 0:26:50 | 0:26:53 | |
of a new, wild dance music. | 0:26:53 | 0:26:55 | |
But while Bill Haley might have hit on the perfect message, | 0:26:58 | 0:27:02 | |
the ex-hillbilly singer was a reluctant messenger... | 0:27:02 | 0:27:06 | |
..becoming increasingly nervous at rock'n'roll's association | 0:27:08 | 0:27:11 | |
with juvenile delinquents. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:13 | |
I think he would have preferred to have been a country star. | 0:27:19 | 0:27:22 | |
I think, really, in his heart. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:24 | |
That's what he really grew up with. He loved country music. | 0:27:24 | 0:27:27 | |
He even tried another couple of recordings. They were OK. | 0:27:27 | 0:27:31 | |
He didn't dress like a rock'n'roller. | 0:27:31 | 0:27:34 | |
He was kind of chunky. He didn't look like a rock'n'roller | 0:27:34 | 0:27:37 | |
and he went on to other and lesser things | 0:27:37 | 0:27:42 | |
in a career that kind of petered out. | 0:27:42 | 0:27:44 | |
He was in his 30s. | 0:27:44 | 0:27:46 | |
Doesn't seem too old to me now | 0:27:46 | 0:27:48 | |
but by rock'n'roll standards, trust no-one over 23. | 0:27:48 | 0:27:52 | |
But what also made Bill an outsider was the fact | 0:27:56 | 0:28:00 | |
he was based out of Chester, Pennsylvania, | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
at a time when the Mississippi Delta, | 0:28:03 | 0:28:05 | |
and in particular a segregated Memphis, | 0:28:05 | 0:28:08 | |
was where it was all happening. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:10 | |
60 years ago, there's a fine line between where black people could go | 0:28:24 | 0:28:30 | |
and if you went one block left or right of here, | 0:28:30 | 0:28:34 | |
there was no black people, other than people working. | 0:28:34 | 0:28:38 | |
There wasn't no party. | 0:28:38 | 0:28:40 | |
Party was right here, this is where the black people were. | 0:28:40 | 0:28:42 | |
# The thrill has gone | 0:28:42 | 0:28:45 | |
# The thrill has gone away... # | 0:28:46 | 0:28:50 | |
We're going to stop by BBs. | 0:28:50 | 0:28:52 | |
# The thrill has gone, baby... # | 0:28:54 | 0:28:56 | |
Hey, baby. How you doin'? | 0:28:56 | 0:28:58 | |
# The thrill has gone away... # | 0:28:58 | 0:29:02 | |
When I was working here this was all 99% black clubs. | 0:29:02 | 0:29:08 | |
These buildings wasn't here. | 0:29:08 | 0:29:10 | |
It was what they called honky-tonks. | 0:29:10 | 0:29:13 | |
Juke joints. | 0:29:13 | 0:29:15 | |
Some in the back room was gamblin', shootin' dice and whatever. | 0:29:15 | 0:29:19 | |
It was like the Las Vegas for the black peoples. | 0:29:19 | 0:29:23 | |
This was the Chitlin' Circuit | 0:29:24 | 0:29:27 | |
where all the black entertainers, all along here with myself, | 0:29:27 | 0:29:31 | |
Rufus Thomas, BB King... | 0:29:31 | 0:29:35 | |
was playin' on this street. | 0:29:35 | 0:29:37 | |
This was Chitlin' Circuit. | 0:29:37 | 0:29:38 | |
There's no more Chitlin' Circuit now, it's uptown. | 0:29:38 | 0:29:41 | |
While segregation ruled back then, | 0:29:49 | 0:29:51 | |
one man took steps to change attitudes to a wealth of black music | 0:29:51 | 0:29:56 | |
in the South - Sam Phillips. | 0:29:56 | 0:29:59 | |
Hailing from a poor cotton-farming background in Alabama, | 0:29:59 | 0:30:03 | |
he quit his job as a local radio announcer to set up a unique | 0:30:03 | 0:30:07 | |
recording studio in Memphis. | 0:30:07 | 0:30:10 | |
One thing that I always admired about Sam was that he had | 0:30:20 | 0:30:23 | |
a fantastic job, a job that anybody dreamed to have. | 0:30:23 | 0:30:27 | |
And he quit it to record primarily black musicians during a time period | 0:30:27 | 0:30:31 | |
where you couldn't even use the same bathroom. | 0:30:31 | 0:30:33 | |
Sam grew up working in cotton fields. | 0:30:39 | 0:30:42 | |
He never really looked at the colour of someone's skin. | 0:30:42 | 0:30:45 | |
He just felt a connection with them and he felt a rhythm with them. | 0:30:45 | 0:30:49 | |
He shared with me that he noticed the difference in the rhythm | 0:30:49 | 0:30:52 | |
when they were picking cotton in the fields together. | 0:30:52 | 0:30:55 | |
That's something that most people wouldn't notice. | 0:30:55 | 0:30:57 | |
# Love my baby | 0:30:58 | 0:31:00 | |
# Keeps her business to herself... # | 0:31:00 | 0:31:04 | |
It was 1950 and my dad opened Memphis Recording Service here | 0:31:07 | 0:31:10 | |
and he would let black people come in for free. | 0:31:10 | 0:31:13 | |
He would tell them, "Play for me. Forget that I'm a white man. | 0:31:13 | 0:31:17 | |
"Play for me. Give me what you would do if you were on your front porch." | 0:31:17 | 0:31:21 | |
For four years Sam worked tirelessly... | 0:31:24 | 0:31:28 | |
..driving the back roads of the South, | 0:31:29 | 0:31:32 | |
distributing records on his own label, | 0:31:32 | 0:31:34 | |
all the time chasing a hit sound. | 0:31:34 | 0:31:37 | |
But back in his office at Sun Studios, | 0:31:39 | 0:31:42 | |
he'd often talk about finding the unthinkable - | 0:31:42 | 0:31:45 | |
a white singer with a black voice. | 0:31:45 | 0:31:49 | |
Unbeknownst to Sam, | 0:31:49 | 0:31:51 | |
he'd already recorded him. | 0:31:51 | 0:31:53 | |
# Let's get together and... # | 0:31:53 | 0:31:55 | |
When we think of Elvis, we think of the stud, the guy in | 0:31:55 | 0:31:58 | |
the leather pants and he's confident and arrogant and rules the world. | 0:31:58 | 0:32:02 | |
But at that time, Elvis didn't have his jet-black hair, | 0:32:02 | 0:32:06 | |
he had light brown hair, acne. | 0:32:06 | 0:32:08 | |
He wore a lot of pink and scarves | 0:32:08 | 0:32:10 | |
and just really was alien almost to most people. | 0:32:10 | 0:32:13 | |
# But it wouldn't be the same | 0:32:14 | 0:32:18 | |
# Without you... # | 0:32:18 | 0:32:21 | |
By the summer of '54, Elvis had cut three demo acetates at Sun, | 0:32:21 | 0:32:26 | |
showing potential but yet to release a record. | 0:32:26 | 0:32:29 | |
# Would just make me blue... # | 0:32:29 | 0:32:33 | |
In July, Elvis came back to try his luck with another ballad of the day. | 0:32:33 | 0:32:38 | |
But, again, failed to impress Sam. | 0:32:38 | 0:32:41 | |
There's no air conditioning in there. | 0:32:42 | 0:32:44 | |
We're talking about July, so it's steaming hot. | 0:32:44 | 0:32:47 | |
And tube equipment gets pretty hot. | 0:32:47 | 0:32:49 | |
So it's getting kind of aggravated and people are getting tired | 0:32:49 | 0:32:53 | |
and he said he kind of called it for a while. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:56 | |
And that's when Scotty said Elvis, in a bunch of nervous energy, | 0:32:57 | 0:33:00 | |
picked up acoustic - and he didn't say he played it, | 0:33:00 | 0:33:02 | |
he says every time he was beatin' on it - | 0:33:02 | 0:33:04 | |
and he just kind of started doing That's All Right Mamma | 0:33:04 | 0:33:07 | |
by Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup. | 0:33:07 | 0:33:08 | |
# Well now, that's all right now, Mama | 0:33:08 | 0:33:11 | |
# That's all right for you... # | 0:33:11 | 0:33:13 | |
That night it was Bill Black here - in fact, there's a little hole | 0:33:13 | 0:33:16 | |
in the floor where his spiker came out of his upright bass. | 0:33:16 | 0:33:19 | |
Bill Black jumped up, not very seriously playing along, | 0:33:19 | 0:33:22 | |
he was hootin' and hollerin' and slappin' the bass real silly. | 0:33:22 | 0:33:25 | |
This X on the floor here's where Scotty Moore stood. | 0:33:26 | 0:33:31 | |
Of course, Elvis was right here. | 0:33:31 | 0:33:33 | |
# Well, that's all right now, Mamma | 0:33:33 | 0:33:36 | |
# That's all right for you | 0:33:36 | 0:33:39 | |
# That's all right now, Mamma | 0:33:39 | 0:33:41 | |
# Just anyway you do | 0:33:41 | 0:33:43 | |
# That's all right | 0:33:43 | 0:33:45 | |
# That's all right... # | 0:33:45 | 0:33:47 | |
Sam ran out there in front of that little door right there | 0:33:47 | 0:33:49 | |
and just said, "What's going on here? | 0:33:49 | 0:33:51 | |
"Keep doing it!" And he moved some mics and started the tape rolling. | 0:33:51 | 0:33:54 | |
# Well, Mamma she done told me | 0:33:54 | 0:33:57 | |
# Papa done told me too | 0:33:57 | 0:33:59 | |
# Son, that gal you foolin' with | 0:33:59 | 0:34:01 | |
# She ain't no good for you | 0:34:01 | 0:34:03 | |
# But that's all right... # | 0:34:03 | 0:34:05 | |
I think what happened was they felt they weren't recording | 0:34:05 | 0:34:08 | |
and they finally loosened up and that's how it all really came out | 0:34:08 | 0:34:11 | |
because, you know, my dad told me a lot of times, | 0:34:11 | 0:34:13 | |
"Don't pay any attention to that microphone. | 0:34:13 | 0:34:16 | |
"It'll scare you to death." | 0:34:16 | 0:34:17 | |
Sam originally cut direct to disc and then he went to tape, but everything | 0:34:17 | 0:34:22 | |
ended on disc, so he had... I've got the same model right over here. | 0:34:22 | 0:34:26 | |
And so that night Sam made an acetate of it, which is a one-sided record, | 0:34:26 | 0:34:29 | |
and took it straight to Dewey Phillips. | 0:34:29 | 0:34:32 | |
Two days later he played it on the air. | 0:34:32 | 0:34:34 | |
Everyone went crazy that night in Memphis. | 0:34:34 | 0:34:36 | |
I think he played it 14 times in a row, they said. | 0:34:36 | 0:34:39 | |
'Man, I got her one, I got Elvis's autograph. | 0:34:39 | 0:34:42 | |
'I'm sayin', man, she's runnin' down Main Street...' | 0:34:42 | 0:34:45 | |
You could not keep from turning the radio volume up. | 0:34:45 | 0:34:49 | |
Right now I'm going to play the next record. Just flat drive you crazy. | 0:34:49 | 0:34:52 | |
# I'm leavin' town now, baby | 0:34:52 | 0:34:54 | |
# I'm leaving town for sure... # | 0:34:54 | 0:34:56 | |
You're either in your car... | 0:34:56 | 0:34:58 | |
We drive up and down Main Street, "dragging Main", as they called it, | 0:34:58 | 0:35:01 | |
and looking for the pretty girls and what have you, | 0:35:01 | 0:35:04 | |
and when That's All Right Mamma would come on the radio, we'd turn | 0:35:04 | 0:35:07 | |
the volume up and you could hear it in just about every car that | 0:35:07 | 0:35:10 | |
you would pass. | 0:35:10 | 0:35:11 | |
# I got dee, dee... # | 0:35:11 | 0:35:14 | |
People heard the voice | 0:35:14 | 0:35:16 | |
and they couldn't quite figure out, was this voice black or white? | 0:35:16 | 0:35:19 | |
And that song...that, like, wasn't a white person's song. | 0:35:19 | 0:35:24 | |
He did a Blues song with a hint of Bluegrass. | 0:35:24 | 0:35:29 | |
"He must be black." | 0:35:29 | 0:35:30 | |
'We got one of the hottest cotton-pickin' shows | 0:35:30 | 0:35:33 | |
'in the country - whoa, you're messin' up, partner...' | 0:35:33 | 0:35:37 | |
What confused things further was local DJ Dewey Phillips' | 0:35:37 | 0:35:41 | |
pioneering style of programming. | 0:35:41 | 0:35:43 | |
'In Memphis, Tennessee, and it's Friday night, | 0:35:43 | 0:35:45 | |
'tomorrow's payday and bathday, that's a good deal...' | 0:35:45 | 0:35:48 | |
Dewey Phillips would play three black songs and two white guys. | 0:35:48 | 0:35:52 | |
'Oh, yes, sir, that's octopus - | 0:35:52 | 0:35:54 | |
'I mean, Opus Number 1 by the late, great Tommy Dorsey...' | 0:35:54 | 0:35:57 | |
He would play Tommy Dorsey and follow that with Hank Williams. | 0:35:57 | 0:36:00 | |
# I got a feeling called the Blues... # | 0:36:00 | 0:36:04 | |
He would play Hank Williams, he would play Howlin' Wolf. | 0:36:04 | 0:36:07 | |
# Yeah, they called me the rocker | 0:36:07 | 0:36:09 | |
# I can rock you all night long... # | 0:36:09 | 0:36:12 | |
So Elvis is at a movie theatre seeing a movie | 0:36:12 | 0:36:14 | |
and they call Gladys and Vernon. | 0:36:14 | 0:36:16 | |
Dewey said, "You gotta get your son, we gotta put him on the air | 0:36:16 | 0:36:19 | |
"and do an interview." So they rip him out of the movie theatre, | 0:36:19 | 0:36:22 | |
drive him down. He's terrified. | 0:36:22 | 0:36:24 | |
And one of the first things he does on the programme is says, | 0:36:24 | 0:36:27 | |
"What high school do you go to?" | 0:36:27 | 0:36:29 | |
Because people in Memphis will know by what high school you go to | 0:36:29 | 0:36:33 | |
whether you're black or white. | 0:36:33 | 0:36:35 | |
And, shocking to people's ears, | 0:36:35 | 0:36:37 | |
this white guy was playing a black style of music. | 0:36:37 | 0:36:40 | |
And the phones lit up like mad. | 0:36:40 | 0:36:42 | |
I mean, he was really capturing a zeitgeist of the moment. | 0:36:42 | 0:36:46 | |
# Oh, give me land | 0:36:46 | 0:36:49 | |
# Lots of land | 0:36:49 | 0:36:51 | |
# Under starry skies above | 0:36:51 | 0:36:54 | |
# Don't fence me in... # | 0:36:54 | 0:36:57 | |
Back in those days, the white singers had no movement on stage. | 0:36:57 | 0:37:00 | |
They would just come out and sing their ballads | 0:37:00 | 0:37:03 | |
cos there weren't any rock'n'roll. | 0:37:03 | 0:37:05 | |
The word was spreading pretty fast about this Presley kid. | 0:37:05 | 0:37:08 | |
He was something else, "You gotta see this guy." | 0:37:08 | 0:37:10 | |
# Well, that's because you think you're so pretty | 0:37:10 | 0:37:14 | |
# And just because your mamma thinks you're hot... # | 0:37:14 | 0:37:17 | |
I MC'd his first show in Memphis. | 0:37:17 | 0:37:19 | |
# You think you've got something... # | 0:37:19 | 0:37:22 | |
He was on the back of a flatbed truck, opening up a shopping centre | 0:37:22 | 0:37:26 | |
in East Memphis, and they'd hired me to be the disc jockey. | 0:37:26 | 0:37:29 | |
When I introduced him and he got on stage, he started moving around. | 0:37:29 | 0:37:32 | |
# Hottest thing in town | 0:37:32 | 0:37:34 | |
# Well, just because you think you got something... # | 0:37:34 | 0:37:36 | |
When he came off, the kids said, "More, more!" | 0:37:36 | 0:37:39 | |
And Elvis asked Sam Phillips, "Mr Phillips, why are they screaming? | 0:37:39 | 0:37:42 | |
"Am I doing something wrong?" | 0:37:42 | 0:37:44 | |
He said, "No, man, just keep on doing it, shaking your body, | 0:37:44 | 0:37:46 | |
"shake your leg, man. Shake anything. They like it, they like it." | 0:37:46 | 0:37:49 | |
-I liked him. -SHE CHUCKLES | 0:37:49 | 0:37:52 | |
He was sexy. He was charming. | 0:37:53 | 0:37:56 | |
But his moves, I think that's probably what made him | 0:37:56 | 0:38:01 | |
to begin with. | 0:38:01 | 0:38:03 | |
Scotty Moore says that Elvis was shaking his legs, | 0:38:06 | 0:38:10 | |
his pants were loose, and people could see his privates | 0:38:10 | 0:38:13 | |
jiggling inside. | 0:38:13 | 0:38:15 | |
And that's why the girls were screaming. | 0:38:15 | 0:38:18 | |
Elvis broke big. | 0:38:22 | 0:38:25 | |
But only in the South... | 0:38:27 | 0:38:28 | |
# You saw me standing alone... # | 0:38:28 | 0:38:31 | |
..making it as far as the Louisiana Hayride by '55. | 0:38:31 | 0:38:35 | |
The King was but a local prince. | 0:38:37 | 0:38:39 | |
# Without a love of my own... # | 0:38:39 | 0:38:43 | |
And there would be another pretender to the crown. | 0:38:43 | 0:38:46 | |
Can I say something? | 0:38:46 | 0:38:48 | |
Let it all hang out | 0:38:48 | 0:38:50 | |
with the beautiful Little Richard from down in Macon, Georgia. | 0:38:50 | 0:38:54 | |
I am the king of rock'n'roll. Ow, ow, ow! My, my, my, my, | 0:38:54 | 0:38:58 | |
I just had to do that. Now I feel so much better I got it out. | 0:38:58 | 0:39:01 | |
In the early '50s, | 0:39:02 | 0:39:04 | |
Little Richard cut his teeth on the Chitlin' Circuit, | 0:39:04 | 0:39:07 | |
first as a female impersonator | 0:39:07 | 0:39:09 | |
and then as a singer with his hot band, The Upsetters. | 0:39:09 | 0:39:13 | |
In '55 he sent a demo to producer "Bumps" Blackwell, | 0:39:13 | 0:39:17 | |
who thought he could be the next Ray Charles... | 0:39:17 | 0:39:21 | |
..and invited him to New Orleans' J&M Studios. | 0:39:22 | 0:39:25 | |
# Every hour in the day... # | 0:39:25 | 0:39:28 | |
After a frustrating morning session trying out slow ballads, | 0:39:28 | 0:39:31 | |
they took a break... | 0:39:31 | 0:39:33 | |
# Every hour... # | 0:39:33 | 0:39:35 | |
..and headed to a nearby supper club. | 0:39:35 | 0:39:38 | |
# Every hour in the day... # | 0:39:38 | 0:39:41 | |
This is the legendary Dew Drop Inn. | 0:39:41 | 0:39:46 | |
The desired location for the duration. | 0:39:46 | 0:39:50 | |
This is where many a tear has to fall. | 0:39:50 | 0:39:53 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:39:53 | 0:39:55 | |
This is where the legends were made. | 0:39:55 | 0:39:58 | |
The stage would have been right about here. | 0:39:58 | 0:40:02 | |
Little Richard walks in and got up to the piano, | 0:40:02 | 0:40:05 | |
which about a'been right about here, | 0:40:05 | 0:40:07 | |
and he started singing one of his popular songs that he did | 0:40:07 | 0:40:11 | |
on his road show with The Upsetters. | 0:40:11 | 0:40:13 | |
The lyrics were kind of suggestive and kind of risque. | 0:40:13 | 0:40:17 | |
# A wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom | 0:40:17 | 0:40:20 | |
# Tutti frutti, good bootie | 0:40:20 | 0:40:23 | |
# Tutti frutti, good bootie | 0:40:23 | 0:40:25 | |
# Tutti frutti, good bootie | 0:40:25 | 0:40:28 | |
# A wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom. # | 0:40:28 | 0:40:31 | |
And Bumps Blackwell heard the song and he said, | 0:40:31 | 0:40:35 | |
"Man, this is what we've been waiting for!" | 0:40:35 | 0:40:38 | |
Little Richard and Tutti Frutti! | 0:40:38 | 0:40:42 | |
But the real original lyrics to Tutti Frutti | 0:40:42 | 0:40:45 | |
is "Tutti Frutti, good bootie. | 0:40:45 | 0:40:50 | |
"If it's tight, it's all right. | 0:40:50 | 0:40:53 | |
"And if it's greasy, it make it easy." | 0:40:53 | 0:40:56 | |
-Ooh! -HE LAUGHS | 0:40:56 | 0:40:59 | |
# A wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom | 0:40:59 | 0:41:01 | |
# Tutti frutti, all rutti, | 0:41:01 | 0:41:04 | |
# Tutti frutti, all rutti... # | 0:41:04 | 0:41:06 | |
When they got back in the studio, | 0:41:06 | 0:41:09 | |
Dorothy LaBostrie, another great songwriter, was in the studio | 0:41:09 | 0:41:13 | |
and she suggested they use some hipster jargon | 0:41:13 | 0:41:16 | |
that was really popular during the '50s and that was "All rutti." | 0:41:16 | 0:41:21 | |
All right - all rutti. | 0:41:21 | 0:41:22 | |
So she said, "Well, that rhymes with tutti frutti." | 0:41:22 | 0:41:25 | |
"So it's tutti frutti, all rutti. Wop bop a loo bop..." | 0:41:25 | 0:41:30 | |
# ..A lop bam boom | 0:41:30 | 0:41:31 | |
# Got a girl named Daisy | 0:41:31 | 0:41:33 | |
# She almost drives me crazy | 0:41:33 | 0:41:36 | |
# Got a girl named Daisy... # | 0:41:36 | 0:41:38 | |
The beauty of his delivery... | 0:41:38 | 0:41:40 | |
it was free, it was wild. | 0:41:40 | 0:41:42 | |
# Knows how to love me, yes indeed | 0:41:42 | 0:41:44 | |
# Boy, you don't know... # | 0:41:44 | 0:41:47 | |
It was not Patti Page. It was not Perry Como. | 0:41:47 | 0:41:49 | |
You got a taste of black vernacular. | 0:41:49 | 0:41:52 | |
# Tutti frutti, all rutti... # | 0:41:52 | 0:41:55 | |
You realised this is a whole other language. And it was exciting. | 0:41:55 | 0:41:59 | |
# Wop bop a loo bop | 0:41:59 | 0:42:01 | |
# Ow... # | 0:42:01 | 0:42:03 | |
This what you call doing your own thing time. | 0:42:10 | 0:42:12 | |
-Do you always dress like that? -Every day. I go to the grocery store | 0:42:12 | 0:42:15 | |
like this and people turn around. When I walked through the airport | 0:42:15 | 0:42:18 | |
here in London today a man dropped his cup of coffee. | 0:42:18 | 0:42:21 | |
In '56, Richard notched up multiple hits as young America was entranced | 0:42:21 | 0:42:26 | |
by his extravagant performance and extraordinary appearance. | 0:42:26 | 0:42:29 | |
He brought it out. He was the guy. | 0:42:45 | 0:42:47 | |
Liberace didn't know nothing till you saw Little Richard. | 0:42:47 | 0:42:50 | |
# Gonna tell Aunt Mary about Uncle John | 0:42:50 | 0:42:53 | |
# He claims he has the music but he has a lot of fun | 0:42:53 | 0:42:55 | |
# Oh, baby... # | 0:42:55 | 0:42:57 | |
He looked so different with all that hair and everything like that, | 0:42:57 | 0:43:00 | |
hair on his head and the pancake make-up. | 0:43:00 | 0:43:03 | |
He had SOME make-up. About that thick. | 0:43:03 | 0:43:06 | |
# Well, long tall Sally, she's built for speed, she got | 0:43:06 | 0:43:09 | |
# Everything that Uncle John need | 0:43:09 | 0:43:11 | |
# Oh, baby... # | 0:43:11 | 0:43:13 | |
..supposed to wear make-up. Just like, "I put sugar in your coffee," | 0:43:13 | 0:43:17 | |
you're supposed to add a little touch to it. | 0:43:17 | 0:43:19 | |
-I must remember that. -Yes, God. | 0:43:19 | 0:43:21 | |
I met Little Richard. We were in East Point, Georgia, | 0:43:21 | 0:43:24 | |
and he come on the stage, said, | 0:43:24 | 0:43:26 | |
"Ladies and gentlemen, the prettiest two guys in the world..." | 0:43:26 | 0:43:29 | |
He said, "Me and Bobby Rush." | 0:43:29 | 0:43:31 | |
-HE LAUGHS -I'll never forget that. | 0:43:31 | 0:43:34 | |
I wish he'd just said handsome. | 0:43:36 | 0:43:38 | |
-HE LAUGHS -Oh, man! | 0:43:38 | 0:43:41 | |
# Go, man, go | 0:43:41 | 0:43:43 | |
# I got a girl that I love so, I'm ready... # | 0:43:43 | 0:43:45 | |
But Little Richard kept them guessing, | 0:43:45 | 0:43:48 | |
with a string of songs from The Girl Can't Help It | 0:43:48 | 0:43:51 | |
to Ready Teddy, celebrating the women in his life. | 0:43:51 | 0:43:54 | |
# Going to the corner Pick up my sweetie pie | 0:43:54 | 0:43:56 | |
# She's my rock'n'roll baby She's the apple of my eye, I'm ready | 0:43:56 | 0:43:59 | |
# Ready, ready, Ted, I'm ready | 0:43:59 | 0:44:02 | |
# I'm ready, ready, Ted, I'm ready | 0:44:02 | 0:44:04 | |
# Ready, ready, Ted, I'm ready Ready, ready to rock and roll | 0:44:04 | 0:44:07 | |
# All the flattop cats and dungaree dolls | 0:44:07 | 0:44:09 | |
# Are headed for the gym to the sock hop ball | 0:44:09 | 0:44:11 | |
# The joint's really jumpin' The cats are goin' wild | 0:44:11 | 0:44:14 | |
# The music really sends me, I dig that crazy style, I'm ready... # | 0:44:14 | 0:44:17 | |
I was a disc jockey and I was playing his music. | 0:44:17 | 0:44:19 | |
Tutti Frutti, all the big hits he had. | 0:44:19 | 0:44:22 | |
And I didn't know he was gay. | 0:44:22 | 0:44:25 | |
Oh, he was. Yeah, he is. | 0:44:25 | 0:44:28 | |
He's gay as you can be. | 0:44:28 | 0:44:30 | |
You know? | 0:44:31 | 0:44:32 | |
He invited me but I said no, thank you. | 0:44:32 | 0:44:35 | |
I said no, no, that's not for me. | 0:44:36 | 0:44:39 | |
That was quite a time back there at the Paramount Theatre. | 0:44:40 | 0:44:43 | |
All of us were working together and things were going on, man. | 0:44:43 | 0:44:48 | |
We were all kids. | 0:44:48 | 0:44:50 | |
# Directly | 0:44:54 | 0:44:58 | |
# Directly from my heart to you... # | 0:44:58 | 0:45:01 | |
Just as Fats Domino's innocent charm had won over a young, white audience | 0:45:01 | 0:45:04 | |
in an era of segregation, | 0:45:04 | 0:45:07 | |
Richard, from the early days, traded on his flamboyant personality | 0:45:07 | 0:45:11 | |
to overcome the colour bar in the South. | 0:45:11 | 0:45:14 | |
We would play white clubs and we had to dress like a bunch of gay guys | 0:45:14 | 0:45:18 | |
so we wasn't a threat. | 0:45:18 | 0:45:21 | |
The white promoters didn't want us to mess with the white girls down South. | 0:45:21 | 0:45:25 | |
That's the strategy he used | 0:45:25 | 0:45:28 | |
to introduce rock'n'roll to the Southern States. | 0:45:28 | 0:45:32 | |
We're walkin' on stage switchin', you know, walkin' across the stage | 0:45:32 | 0:45:35 | |
and a lot of people would say, "Here comes Richard and his sissies." | 0:45:35 | 0:45:39 | |
HE LAUGHS Very smart. | 0:45:39 | 0:45:41 | |
He knew how to get the audience to love him and stuff like that. | 0:45:41 | 0:45:45 | |
# If she walks by | 0:45:45 | 0:45:46 | |
# The men folks get engrossed | 0:45:46 | 0:45:48 | |
# She can't help it The girl can't help it... # | 0:45:48 | 0:45:51 | |
But Little Richard also stood out and caught the ear of young America | 0:45:51 | 0:45:54 | |
by building his hits on a rhythm that deviated from the standard | 0:45:54 | 0:45:58 | |
R&B swing beat that was the foundation of rock'n'roll. | 0:45:58 | 0:46:02 | |
# The girl can't help it... # | 0:46:02 | 0:46:04 | |
Little Richard's beats are... | 0:46:04 | 0:46:06 | |
I would even say radically different | 0:46:06 | 0:46:07 | |
from, like, Bill Haley and The Comets, | 0:46:07 | 0:46:09 | |
which is a very swing beat. | 0:46:09 | 0:46:11 | |
It's "Rock around the clock tonight," | 0:46:11 | 0:46:14 | |
that just, you know, the emphasis is on the two and the four - | 0:46:14 | 0:46:17 | |
one, two, three, FOUR - like that. | 0:46:17 | 0:46:19 | |
Whereas Lucille is... HE MIMICS FASTER BEAT | 0:46:19 | 0:46:24 | |
..and it hits on the one and the three. | 0:46:24 | 0:46:26 | |
It's just something you feel. | 0:46:28 | 0:46:29 | |
It feels...exciting. | 0:46:31 | 0:46:34 | |
# Lucille | 0:46:34 | 0:46:37 | |
# You won't do your sister's will | 0:46:37 | 0:46:39 | |
# Lucille | 0:46:41 | 0:46:43 | |
# You won't do your sister's will... # | 0:46:44 | 0:46:47 | |
I remember one day, Richy was lookin' at me | 0:46:47 | 0:46:50 | |
and this guy got something in his mind. | 0:46:50 | 0:46:52 | |
He said, | 0:46:52 | 0:46:55 | |
"We goin' to the train station in Macon, Georgia, on Fifth Street. | 0:46:55 | 0:46:59 | |
"We're going to follow this train | 0:46:59 | 0:47:01 | |
"as it move along and we's going to listen to the sound of the train." | 0:47:01 | 0:47:07 | |
I say, "OK." | 0:47:07 | 0:47:09 | |
TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS | 0:47:09 | 0:47:11 | |
And the train picked up speed, so it went choo-choo-choo-choo, | 0:47:11 | 0:47:15 | |
choo-choo-choo-choo. | 0:47:15 | 0:47:16 | |
He say, "Joe?" I say, "What?" | 0:47:16 | 0:47:18 | |
He say, "What kind of notes are those?" | 0:47:18 | 0:47:20 | |
I say, "Richard, those are eighth notes." | 0:47:22 | 0:47:24 | |
He says, "When we have rehearsal tomorrow at my house, | 0:47:25 | 0:47:28 | |
"I want you to play that beat behind me | 0:47:28 | 0:47:31 | |
"and I'm going to be playing the same thing on piano." | 0:47:31 | 0:47:34 | |
I say, "OK." | 0:47:34 | 0:47:36 | |
MUSIC SPEED MIMICS TRAIN | 0:47:36 | 0:47:39 | |
Sound like a damn earthquake. | 0:47:50 | 0:47:52 | |
HE CHUCKLES | 0:47:52 | 0:47:54 | |
# Lucille | 0:47:55 | 0:47:57 | |
# Please come back like you belong... # | 0:47:57 | 0:48:00 | |
And of course the way they used to record, with one or two microphones | 0:48:00 | 0:48:03 | |
up in the air, it just sounds like all one thing. | 0:48:03 | 0:48:06 | |
And that just has a way of getting at ya. | 0:48:06 | 0:48:10 | |
It sort of marks out the way that teenagers felt at the time. | 0:48:10 | 0:48:13 | |
"What are you rebelling against?" "I don't know. Whaddaya got?" | 0:48:13 | 0:48:16 | |
But we're going to do it and we're going to do it now. | 0:48:16 | 0:48:18 | |
While trains inspired Little Richard, | 0:48:24 | 0:48:26 | |
America in the '50s was a nation | 0:48:26 | 0:48:29 | |
expanding its love affair with the car, | 0:48:29 | 0:48:31 | |
the auto industry gaining power through government closure | 0:48:31 | 0:48:34 | |
of public transport and a massive plan to extend America's highways. | 0:48:34 | 0:48:40 | |
NARRATOR: This is the American dream - | 0:48:40 | 0:48:43 | |
a freedom on wheels. | 0:48:43 | 0:48:45 | |
An automotive age, travelling on time-saving superhighways. | 0:48:45 | 0:48:50 | |
# Baby, baby Don't you need some... # | 0:48:51 | 0:48:55 | |
Cars were like a major part of the culture - drag racing | 0:48:57 | 0:49:00 | |
and teenagers going out in their own cars. | 0:49:00 | 0:49:02 | |
This wasn't happening before. | 0:49:02 | 0:49:04 | |
'Plenty of speed here...' | 0:49:04 | 0:49:06 | |
The design of cars changed as well, | 0:49:06 | 0:49:09 | |
with more powerful engines like the mass-produced V8 Ford, | 0:49:09 | 0:49:13 | |
and styling taking on chrome plating, | 0:49:13 | 0:49:15 | |
two-tone colours and rocket-age streamlining and fins. | 0:49:15 | 0:49:19 | |
Sam Phillips recorded a record by Jackie Brenston called Rocket 88. | 0:49:21 | 0:49:25 | |
# V8 motor in this modern design | 0:49:25 | 0:49:28 | |
# Black convertible top and the girls don't mind | 0:49:28 | 0:49:32 | |
# Sportin' with me... # | 0:49:32 | 0:49:33 | |
Rocket 88 was a model | 0:49:33 | 0:49:35 | |
of Oldsmobile car. | 0:49:35 | 0:49:38 | |
It was the first American car that had two-tone colours. | 0:49:38 | 0:49:41 | |
Blue - I remember a powder blue and a navy blue | 0:49:41 | 0:49:45 | |
and that in the ghetto was hot stuff, like new Nikes would be today. | 0:49:45 | 0:49:50 | |
The whole idea of a love song to the car - I'm going to pick you up | 0:49:50 | 0:49:53 | |
for a date, we're going to be free to be ourselves, | 0:49:53 | 0:49:56 | |
go wherever we want to go, do what we want to do, | 0:49:56 | 0:49:58 | |
and no-one has to know. | 0:49:58 | 0:50:00 | |
# Step in my Rocket and don't be late, baby | 0:50:00 | 0:50:03 | |
# We're pullin' out about half past eight | 0:50:03 | 0:50:06 | |
# Goin' round the corner... # | 0:50:06 | 0:50:07 | |
The next car record to ride high in the charts | 0:50:07 | 0:50:10 | |
came from an unlikely source - | 0:50:10 | 0:50:13 | |
a 28-year-old ex-hairdresser with an ear for Blues and Country... | 0:50:13 | 0:50:17 | |
going by the name of Chuck Berry... | 0:50:17 | 0:50:20 | |
..who, in the summer of '55, motivated up the migrant corridor | 0:50:22 | 0:50:26 | |
from St Louis to Chicago and Chess Records... | 0:50:26 | 0:50:29 | |
# In the wee wee hours... # | 0:50:29 | 0:50:31 | |
..with a Blues song called Wee Wee Hours. | 0:50:31 | 0:50:34 | |
# That's when I think of you... # | 0:50:34 | 0:50:37 | |
But what caught the ear of label head Leonard Chess | 0:50:37 | 0:50:40 | |
was not Chuck's Blues but the other song on his demo... | 0:50:40 | 0:50:43 | |
# Light in the parlour Fire in the grate... # | 0:50:43 | 0:50:46 | |
..an adaptation of Bob Wills' western swing song, Ida Red. | 0:50:46 | 0:50:52 | |
# Ida Red, I had a red | 0:50:52 | 0:50:54 | |
# I'm a fool about Ida Red... # | 0:50:54 | 0:50:56 | |
My family was always lookin' for what was new and cutting-edge. | 0:50:56 | 0:51:00 | |
My father's nickname was the Foot Stomper - his foot started going... | 0:51:00 | 0:51:03 | |
HE TAPS HIS FOOT | 0:51:03 | 0:51:05 | |
At Chess Records, Chuck's song went through a rewrite, | 0:51:05 | 0:51:08 | |
starting with its title. | 0:51:08 | 0:51:10 | |
# Lamp on the table, a picture on the wall | 0:51:10 | 0:51:12 | |
# There's a pretty sofa and that's not all... # | 0:51:12 | 0:51:14 | |
# As I was motivatin' over the hill | 0:51:14 | 0:51:16 | |
# I saw Maybellene in a Coup de Ville | 0:51:16 | 0:51:18 | |
# A Cadillac a-rollin' on open road | 0:51:18 | 0:51:20 | |
# Nothin'll outrun my V8 Ford... # | 0:51:20 | 0:51:22 | |
The story goes that, in the studio, there was | 0:51:22 | 0:51:25 | |
a Maybelline cosmetic package. | 0:51:25 | 0:51:27 | |
They came up with the name Maybelline and they recorded it. | 0:51:27 | 0:51:30 | |
# Maybellene | 0:51:30 | 0:51:32 | |
# Why can't you be true? | 0:51:32 | 0:51:34 | |
# Oh, Maybellene | 0:51:34 | 0:51:36 | |
# Why can't you be true? | 0:51:36 | 0:51:38 | |
# You've started back doin' the things you used to do... # | 0:51:38 | 0:51:41 | |
Chuck Berry is the Shakespeare of rock'n'roll. | 0:51:41 | 0:51:43 | |
# The Cadillac pulled up ahead of the Ford | 0:51:43 | 0:51:45 | |
# The Ford got hot and wouldn't do no more... # | 0:51:45 | 0:51:47 | |
Maybellene is about him chasing a beautiful woman who's in a Cadillac | 0:51:47 | 0:51:50 | |
and he's trying to catch up with her. | 0:51:50 | 0:51:51 | |
# Rainwater blowin' all under my hood | 0:51:51 | 0:51:53 | |
# I knew that was doin' my motor good | 0:51:53 | 0:51:55 | |
# Maybellene | 0:51:55 | 0:51:56 | |
# Why can't you be true... # | 0:51:56 | 0:51:58 | |
He was talkin' about the wind was comin' in, the rain was comin' down, | 0:51:58 | 0:52:01 | |
but all that could be good for his motor. He was sayin', keep it cool, | 0:52:01 | 0:52:03 | |
cos he's driving so fast, you know? | 0:52:03 | 0:52:05 | |
Then he happened to look out his window and she was right there, too. | 0:52:05 | 0:52:09 | |
# The motor cooled down, the heat went down | 0:52:09 | 0:52:10 | |
# That's when I heard that highway sound... # | 0:52:10 | 0:52:12 | |
What a story. What a man. | 0:52:12 | 0:52:15 | |
# 110 a half a mile ahead | 0:52:15 | 0:52:16 | |
# The Cadillac lookin' like it's sittin' still | 0:52:16 | 0:52:18 | |
# And I caught Maybellene at the top of the hill... # | 0:52:18 | 0:52:21 | |
There's a kind of ambiguity there because you don't know | 0:52:21 | 0:52:24 | |
if she's a white girl or a black girl. | 0:52:24 | 0:52:27 | |
Also, there's a class dimension. | 0:52:27 | 0:52:29 | |
He's driving a V8 Ford and she's driving a Cadillac Coupe de Ville. | 0:52:29 | 0:52:33 | |
That's a rich person's car! | 0:52:33 | 0:52:35 | |
You know, that's dangerous. In 1955, that's really dangerous. | 0:52:35 | 0:52:38 | |
Chuck Berry, I think, is the best rock'n'roll songwriter. | 0:52:38 | 0:52:43 | |
I don't think there was anybody like him before. | 0:52:43 | 0:52:46 | |
He came up with a different word for every note. | 0:52:46 | 0:52:49 | |
There was a word...for each note. | 0:52:49 | 0:52:52 | |
Which was not like Blues records. Chuck Berry doesn't repeat. | 0:52:52 | 0:52:56 | |
It's like, | 0:52:56 | 0:52:57 | |
# Deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans | 0:52:57 | 0:52:59 | |
# Way back up in the woods among the evergreens | 0:52:59 | 0:53:02 | |
# There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood | 0:53:02 | 0:53:04 | |
# Where lived a country boy name of Johnny B Goode | 0:53:04 | 0:53:07 | |
# Who never ever learned to read or write so well | 0:53:07 | 0:53:09 | |
# But he could play the guitar just like a-ringing a bell. # | 0:53:09 | 0:53:12 | |
I mean, that's a whole story right there. And then, | 0:53:12 | 0:53:15 | |
# Go, go, go, Johnny, go. # | 0:53:15 | 0:53:17 | |
So that's when he comes into the chorus but every note is a word. | 0:53:17 | 0:53:22 | |
# Deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans | 0:53:22 | 0:53:25 | |
# Way back up in the woods among the evergreens | 0:53:25 | 0:53:28 | |
# There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood | 0:53:28 | 0:53:31 | |
# Where lived a country boy named Johnny B Goode | 0:53:31 | 0:53:33 | |
# Who never ever learned to read or write so well | 0:53:33 | 0:53:36 | |
# But he could play a guitar just like a-ringing a bell | 0:53:36 | 0:53:39 | |
# Go, go | 0:53:39 | 0:53:40 | |
# Go, Johnny, go | 0:53:40 | 0:53:43 | |
# Go, Johnny, go... # | 0:53:43 | 0:53:44 | |
Before Chuck Berry, most everybody strummed their guitars | 0:53:44 | 0:53:47 | |
in a delicate manner. | 0:53:47 | 0:53:49 | |
And all of a sudden, here comes Chuck Berry and he's kicking butt. | 0:53:49 | 0:53:53 | |
He's not strummin' - he's hittin' that baby. | 0:53:53 | 0:53:55 | |
# Go, go... # | 0:53:55 | 0:53:57 | |
You didn't have to play just one role as just being a music maker, | 0:53:57 | 0:54:01 | |
it was a personality that he would play with. | 0:54:01 | 0:54:05 | |
SOFT GUITAR DROWNS OUT SONG | 0:54:05 | 0:54:09 | |
But Chuck was no spring chicken. | 0:54:09 | 0:54:11 | |
He'd been round the block | 0:54:11 | 0:54:13 | |
and cut an almost avuncular figure in this white teenage world. | 0:54:13 | 0:54:16 | |
I was very young, I was 13 when Chuck Berry came to Chess. | 0:54:20 | 0:54:23 | |
In my eyes he was extraordinarily eccentric. | 0:54:23 | 0:54:26 | |
One day my dad said, | 0:54:26 | 0:54:27 | |
"Take Chuck across the street, buy him some lunch." | 0:54:27 | 0:54:30 | |
We sat down in the booth and he ordered strawberry shortcake | 0:54:30 | 0:54:33 | |
as a starter. | 0:54:33 | 0:54:35 | |
And the main course AFTER, you know? He was just a very unique individual. | 0:54:35 | 0:54:40 | |
He had robbed a gas station, | 0:54:40 | 0:54:41 | |
he had done jail time when he was a teenager. | 0:54:41 | 0:54:44 | |
He knew the hard knocks of it. | 0:54:44 | 0:54:46 | |
But as I grew older, I was fascinated how he knew what was happening | 0:54:46 | 0:54:51 | |
with white teenagers riding around in an automobile. | 0:54:51 | 0:54:54 | |
Black teenagers weren't driving cars in 1955. | 0:54:54 | 0:54:58 | |
It was before civil rights. | 0:54:58 | 0:55:00 | |
That's the thing about Chuck, he was very highly motivated to make it. | 0:55:00 | 0:55:04 | |
Somehow, he was able to tap into what white teenagers were doing, | 0:55:04 | 0:55:09 | |
their lifestyle, how much different they're living than the black kids. | 0:55:09 | 0:55:13 | |
"That's the market. That's what I want to get into." | 0:55:13 | 0:55:15 | |
Chuck was able to see the teenager experience | 0:55:15 | 0:55:18 | |
and sing a song directly to your experience. | 0:55:18 | 0:55:21 | |
Ladies and gentlemen, Chuck Berry! AUDIENCE SCREAMS AND CHEERS | 0:55:21 | 0:55:24 | |
# Sweet little 16 | 0:55:24 | 0:55:27 | |
# She's got the grown-up blues | 0:55:27 | 0:55:30 | |
# Tight dresses and lipstick | 0:55:30 | 0:55:32 | |
# She's sportin' high-heel shoes | 0:55:32 | 0:55:35 | |
# Oh, but tomorrow morning | 0:55:35 | 0:55:38 | |
# She'll have to change her trend | 0:55:38 | 0:55:41 | |
# And be sweet 16 | 0:55:41 | 0:55:43 | |
# And back in class again... # | 0:55:43 | 0:55:45 | |
Chuck's songs were the first to explore the teen experience, | 0:55:45 | 0:55:48 | |
catching the moment a young America walked a line | 0:55:48 | 0:55:51 | |
between parental control and dolled-up, libidinous, | 0:55:51 | 0:55:55 | |
four-on-the-floor freedom on a highway to who knows where? | 0:55:55 | 0:56:00 | |
Despite being hatched in a divided country, | 0:56:00 | 0:56:03 | |
the music, through stealth and accident, | 0:56:03 | 0:56:05 | |
had stolen the soul of young America. | 0:56:05 | 0:56:08 | |
# Cos they'll be rockin' on bandstands | 0:56:08 | 0:56:10 | |
# In Philadelphia, PA... # | 0:56:10 | 0:56:12 | |
Just as the song describes, rock'n'roll would spread like | 0:56:12 | 0:56:15 | |
a gathering storm from the South to every corner of the US... | 0:56:15 | 0:56:19 | |
# All over St Louis | 0:56:19 | 0:56:21 | |
# Way down in New Orleans... # | 0:56:21 | 0:56:23 | |
..providing the newborn teenager | 0:56:23 | 0:56:25 | |
with their own fashions and language... | 0:56:25 | 0:56:27 | |
It excites me, man, excites me. You've got to dig that music. | 0:56:27 | 0:56:30 | |
..and their own culture and identity, | 0:56:30 | 0:56:34 | |
and through rhythm and poetry | 0:56:34 | 0:56:36 | |
held the promise of a very different America. | 0:56:36 | 0:56:39 | |
But that isn't how the story ends. | 0:56:43 | 0:56:46 | |
"Man, here we go. We're going to ruin America with this junk." | 0:56:49 | 0:56:52 | |
# Wake up, little Susie... # | 0:56:52 | 0:56:55 | |
The wonderful young Everly Brothers. | 0:56:55 | 0:56:57 | |
Once the music hits it's like smokin' weed. | 0:56:57 | 0:57:00 | |
Changes things. | 0:57:00 | 0:57:02 | |
I think Pat Boone is old enough to be their grandfather. | 0:57:02 | 0:57:05 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:57:05 | 0:57:06 | |
He didn't have the soul. | 0:57:06 | 0:57:08 | |
A wop bop a loobop, a lop what? | 0:57:08 | 0:57:10 | |
Jerry Lee Lewis! | 0:57:10 | 0:57:11 | |
He's interesting. You might ring his neck sometimes. | 0:57:11 | 0:57:15 | |
And don't ever say that to me again. | 0:57:15 | 0:57:18 | |
Elvis Presley! | 0:57:18 | 0:57:19 | |
'This vulgar, animalistic nigger...' | 0:57:19 | 0:57:21 | |
'Presley records.' | 0:57:21 | 0:57:22 | |
Electricity beyond comprehension. | 0:57:24 | 0:57:26 | |
He should not be on television. | 0:57:26 | 0:57:28 | |
Buddy Holly and The Crickets. | 0:57:28 | 0:57:30 | |
That'll be the day. | 0:57:30 | 0:57:31 | |
The parents called it the Devil's music. | 0:57:31 | 0:57:33 | |
The rock'n'roll records must go. | 0:57:33 | 0:57:36 | |
# Wake up, little Susie | 0:57:36 | 0:57:38 | |
# Well, what are we gonna tell your mama? | 0:57:38 | 0:57:42 | |
# What are we gonna tell your pa? | 0:57:42 | 0:57:44 | |
# What are we gonna tell our friends | 0:57:44 | 0:57:46 | |
# When they say | 0:57:46 | 0:57:47 | |
# Ooh la la? | 0:57:47 | 0:57:49 | |
# Wake up, Little Susie | 0:57:49 | 0:57:51 | |
# Wake up, Little Susie | 0:57:51 | 0:57:53 | |
# Wake up, Little Susie... # | 0:57:53 | 0:57:56 |