Rock and Roll Music
Stone Music Without Drums? Rockabilly Proves Easy it really is - And It Works!
It's tough for fans of rock and roll to visualize how a rock song could exist without drums. Well, maybe some rock ballads or slower folk-rock tunes might get away by using it. But not a driving rock song which makes you would like to wake up and go on to the music. No way, right? Wrong. Enter rockabilly!
So most rockabilly songs do indeed feature drums. In fact, the drums--particularly the snare drum--have become an intrinsic member of the normal rockabilly combo. Nevertheless it wasn't always this way. many of the most famous rockabilly songs was lacking any drums at all and they still rock as hard just like any other tune ever recorded.
Rock and Roll Music
Rockabilly evolved away from a variety of several musical styles. The blues, rhythm and blues, gospel, and a few components of jazz all contributed something. As well as the supplier with the "billy" section of the name: country music (that was often called "hillbilly" music during the 1940s and early 1950s.) Several artists and bands often will be pointed to as creating music that sounded an awful lot like rockabilly even as long ago as the 1940s. Some of these bands were R&B bands and some where country-oriented bands. It had been Elvis who really melded these styles together to create without doubt that would be a new form of music and it came to be called rockabilly.
Elvis had obviously been influenced by all of these musical forms, but it was new bands he chose to pursue. Obviously, that made sense since he would be a white kid and blues-related music was mostly produced by black musicians. In the early 1950s, that color difference designed a big difference. Blues and R&B music was "race" music. A white performer could be bucking strong racial currents being involved in it. And thus, Elvis looked to country.
However the other music had become this kind of area of the young Elvis which it couldn't be held down long. While he appeared at Sam Phillips' Memphis Recording Service studios to chop a couple of country tracks for Phillips' Sun Records, Sam hired a couple of country musicians (Scotty Moore on guitar and Bill Black on string bass) to accompany Elvis in the sessions. Country music didn't make heavy usage of drums during those times therefore no drummer was earned for your session. Throughout a break from recording the scheduled songs, Elvis started camping it up on a classic R&B number called, "That's Alright Mama". Moore and Black followed his lead and joined in. Phillips knew there was something in what he was hearing and told the boys to begin over right away, now with the tape running.
The result was an amazing recording of the song which Phillips released on Sun Records beneath the title "That's All Right" and also a country number "Blue Moon of Kentucky" done in the identical style. Maybe they didn't know very well what to call it during the time, but it was rockabilly through and throughout. Both recordings are as rockin' as anything ever recorded there aren't any drums on either recording! Instead, Bill Black provided the percussion using the slap-bass style that he'd learned from playing and watching blues bop and R&B bass players. This slap style has turned into a hallmark of rockabilly music since.
This didn't take long before Phillips started adding drums to Elvis' Sun Records recordings, attracting drummer D.J. Fontana to offer the beat. They all recognized what the drums could provide an already exciting rockabilly recording as well as the drums have, obviously, be a must-have in rock 'n roll music. But those early recordings prove it wasn't always that way.
Rock and Roll Music
It's tough for fans of rock and roll to visualize how a rock song could exist without drums. Well, maybe some rock ballads or slower folk-rock tunes might get away by using it. But not a driving rock song which makes you would like to wake up and go on to the music. No way, right? Wrong. Enter rockabilly!
So most rockabilly songs do indeed feature drums. In fact, the drums--particularly the snare drum--have become an intrinsic member of the normal rockabilly combo. Nevertheless it wasn't always this way. many of the most famous rockabilly songs was lacking any drums at all and they still rock as hard just like any other tune ever recorded.
Rock and Roll Music
Rockabilly evolved away from a variety of several musical styles. The blues, rhythm and blues, gospel, and a few components of jazz all contributed something. As well as the supplier with the "billy" section of the name: country music (that was often called "hillbilly" music during the 1940s and early 1950s.) Several artists and bands often will be pointed to as creating music that sounded an awful lot like rockabilly even as long ago as the 1940s. Some of these bands were R&B bands and some where country-oriented bands. It had been Elvis who really melded these styles together to create without doubt that would be a new form of music and it came to be called rockabilly.
Elvis had obviously been influenced by all of these musical forms, but it was new bands he chose to pursue. Obviously, that made sense since he would be a white kid and blues-related music was mostly produced by black musicians. In the early 1950s, that color difference designed a big difference. Blues and R&B music was "race" music. A white performer could be bucking strong racial currents being involved in it. And thus, Elvis looked to country.
However the other music had become this kind of area of the young Elvis which it couldn't be held down long. While he appeared at Sam Phillips' Memphis Recording Service studios to chop a couple of country tracks for Phillips' Sun Records, Sam hired a couple of country musicians (Scotty Moore on guitar and Bill Black on string bass) to accompany Elvis in the sessions. Country music didn't make heavy usage of drums during those times therefore no drummer was earned for your session. Throughout a break from recording the scheduled songs, Elvis started camping it up on a classic R&B number called, "That's Alright Mama". Moore and Black followed his lead and joined in. Phillips knew there was something in what he was hearing and told the boys to begin over right away, now with the tape running.
The result was an amazing recording of the song which Phillips released on Sun Records beneath the title "That's All Right" and also a country number "Blue Moon of Kentucky" done in the identical style. Maybe they didn't know very well what to call it during the time, but it was rockabilly through and throughout. Both recordings are as rockin' as anything ever recorded there aren't any drums on either recording! Instead, Bill Black provided the percussion using the slap-bass style that he'd learned from playing and watching blues bop and R&B bass players. This slap style has turned into a hallmark of rockabilly music since.
This didn't take long before Phillips started adding drums to Elvis' Sun Records recordings, attracting drummer D.J. Fontana to offer the beat. They all recognized what the drums could provide an already exciting rockabilly recording as well as the drums have, obviously, be a must-have in rock 'n roll music. But those early recordings prove it wasn't always that way.
Rock and Roll Music