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Unsung heroes of rock 'n' roll : the birth of rock in the wild years before Elvis

Title: Unsung heroes of rock 'n' roll : the birth of rock in the wild years before Elvis / Nick Tosches ; with a new preface.
Author: Tosches, Nick.
Publication: New York : Da Capo Press, 1999.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Request in advance	ML394 .T67 1999	Off-site

Description

xiii, 274 pages : illustrations; 22 cm

Summary

"Long before Elvis Presley entered Sam Phillips's Sun Records studio in 1954, rock 'n' roll was being performed and recorded by the likes of Big Joe Turner, Louis Jordan, Wynonie Harris, The Clovers. The Dominoes, The Midnighters, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Wanda Jackson, and Johnny Ace. More than just a series of shrewd and evocative portraits of these and sixteen other performers, this book is also a paean to a forsaken time of relentless excess, sudden ruin, and fierce music.
For this edition, the author has contributed a new listing of recent CD reissues. From 1945 to 1955, from Chinese hillbillies to Elvis's long-lost twin brother, here are the Unsung Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

Note

Bibliography (note)

Contents

Jesse Stone: He Who Controls Rhythm -- Big Joe Turner: Steak for Breakfast, Gal Meat on a Rainy Day -- Nat King Cole: Beyond Pink Cadillacs -- Louis Jordan: Hep and the Art of Alto-Sax Repair -- Wynonie Harris: The Man Who Shook Down the Devil -- Charles Brown: From the School of Cool, Endlessly Drifting -- Ella Mae Morse: The Cow-Cow Girl -- Cecil Gant: Owl Stew, and All That -- Amos Milburn: The Chicken-Shack Factor -- Roy Brown: Good Rockin' Tonight -- Louis Prima: Gleeby Rhythm Is Born -- Ming and Ling: The Chinese Hillbillies -- The Treniers: Their God Wore Shades -- Stick McGhee: Spo-Dee-O-Dee: How to Get It, How to Use It -- Young Bill Haley: The Lounge Act That Transcendeth All Knowing -- Roy Hall: See, We Was All Drunk -- Hardrock Gunter: The Mysterious Pig-Iron Man -- Merrill Moore: The Saddle, Rock & Rhythm Man -- Skeets McDonald: Whom in the End the Tattooed Lady Slew -- The Clovers: Absalom, Absalom! Doo-Wah, Doo-Wah! -- The Dominoes: The Glory of Bubbonia --
Jackie Brenston: To the Package Store in Style -- The Midnighters: From the Sins of Annie to the Twist -- Jimmie Logsdon: The Man Without a Subtitle -- Screamin' Jay Hawkins: Horror and the Foot-Shaped Ashtray -- Wanda Jackson: Laced by Satan, Unlaced by the Lord -- Johnny Ace: Number One with a Bullet -- Esau Smith: The Hairy and the Smooth -- What That Was: A Chronology of the Coming of Rock 'n' Roll -- Archaeologia Rockola -- Old Noise, New Plastic: Unsung Heroes on Compact Disc.

ISBN

0306808919 (alk. paper)

LCCN

98052421

OCLC

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries