Amidst a fairly large crowd in the Pottle Music Building Auditorium, professor of communication, Dr. Joseph Burns delivered his annual “Then and Now” music lecture. This year Burns presented “What was the First Rock and Roll Record?” which approached the topic of finding out what Rock ‘n’ Roll truly was, the music it covered, its derivatives and origins, all the while leading up to the major question, “What was the first Rock and Roll record?”
“Anybody that says they know what the first rock n’ roll record is, they’re probably lying,” said Burns, who said that everyone has their own definition rock ‘n’ roll.
From there, Burns gave a list of songs that could possibly be called the first rock ‘n’ roll song, along with a case being made for each. Among the songs were classics such as “How High the Moon,” by Les Paul and Mary Ford, “Rock Around the Clock,” by Bill Haley and the Comets, and “Fat Man,” by Fats Domino.
Though all had fairly strong cases, at least two of them had strong evidence against them. “Fat Man” was a piano-based remake, while “Rock Around the Clock” was also a remake, and was not the first rock ‘n’ roll song Bill Haley and the Comets created.
During the lecture, Burns showed the six different parents of rock ‘n’ roll music, including rhythm and blues, country pop, white pop, jazz, gospel and folk. All six genres added their own concepts in to the mixture, such as lyrics, motivation behind those lyrics and the addition of instruments etc, such as the saxophone, which was a dominant instrument at the time of rock ‘n’ roll. According to Burns, half the reason for a song to be considered rock ‘n’ roll is because of the lyrics.
“In rock ‘n’ roll, it’s everything,” said Burns. “See, there’s a lot of rock ‘n’ roll songs that some people think are the first rock n’ roll songs that are instrumental. The big one being Blues Part 2. And, its from an album called Jazz at the Philharmonic, and so many people believe that is the first rock ‘n’ roll song, and it can’t be, because it doesn’t contain lyrics.”
Burns concluded his lecture, after being asked for his opinion on lyrics in general.
“I’ve heard it said that rock ‘n’ roll is three chords and teenage angst,” said Burns. “And, I don’t know if that’s true, because a lot of the songs were happy.”
After Burns was finished speaking, students shared what they took away from his lecture.
“Oh, I loved it, I thought it was great,” said Ashley Reed, an English sophomore. “I learned some new stuff about rock ‘n’ roll. I did not expect Fats Domino to be considered rock ‘n’ roll.”