Most Important Person in Rock and Roll

[Dutch]

Hey Dutch, where's that article from?

Sorry Doc, I meant to add it to the bottom of my post. It's from AOL Music.

http://music.aol.com/artist/moon-mullican?flv=1

 

[Doc Manhattan]

I was curious--it's a neat article. I was not at all aware of Moon's history/influence!

 

[Dutch]

I was curious--it's a neat article. I was not at all aware of Moon's history/influence!

Doc, thanks for the response!

I had not heard of him either until I visited the childhood home of Hank Williams south of Montgomery AL. I purchased a Hank Williams box set, and one of the rare cuts in that box set was "Cherokee Boogie." Hank gives an intro on that cut, and explained it was a cover of one of his influences, Moon Mulligan.

I've always been interested in knowing who influenced someone who has an outstanding talent. It really says a lot about how important it can be to spend a little time with a child or young adult, and how valuable the time invested actually is.

 

[ZeroContent]

I'm not exactly up on my music history but who ever is responsible for taking down disco and bring back the rock I'll say them. Because if that was still popular in my youth I probably would have gone insane. I was lucky enough to have Grunge during younger years and Korn and Deftones during my high school years.

 

[dshpipes]

I've got to second Les Paul here. He basically invented modern recording as we now know it. Without Les, we would have no multitrack recording, no reverb, and no Gibson Les Paul Standard!

Les is the father of modern music.

http://www.lespaulonline.com/bio.html

 

[gospelman]

I'm not sure there would ever be a clear cut answer to the question. As we have seen from the comments on this thread, several people have made contributions without which, it could be argued, rock and roll would not exist.

Thank you to Ben Franklin for figuring out how to harness lightning (electricity). Thank you to Thomas Edison for figuring out how to make it possible to bring light into homes. Thank you to Leo Fender, Les Paul, and countless other inventors for their contributions.

Musically, I think you go back to Robert Johnson. But even then, you have to look at his influences for helping shape his sound.

Muddy Waters sang a song once called "The Blues Had a Baby and Named it Rock and Roll." He had it right, but you also have to put gospel music in the DNA as well, since the Blues was influenced by gospel.

Having said all that, if I had to name one person who might be the most important person in the development of Rock and Roll, I would say (as I think someone else already has) Sam Phillips. He said if he could find a white boy who sounded black, he could make a lot of money. While Elvis didn't exactly sound black (to me, anyway) he certainly didn't sound like the polished white-bread popular singers of the day. Thus, white kids everywhere...here and abroad...were introduced to music they had never, ever heard before. And that, I believe, started it all.

I don't know if someone else would have discovered Elvis, but as is usually the case when momentous events happen, Sam Phillips was in the right place at the right time.

So I guess my vote would go to Brother Sam.

Mike

 

[WaydeG]

Forest Gump...

According to the movie, he taught Elvis that "crazy little dance".