Monthly Archives: August 2016

Black history, Fear of Rock, Music et al

1955 Juvenile Delinquency Crime Commission

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1955 Juvenile Delinquency Crime Commission

Houston, TX

Fear of Rock

The Fear of Rock and Roll · Propeller
1955 Juvenile Delinquency Crime Commission

Rock & Integration?

Some have argued that rock and roll did as much to integrate the United States as legislation or demonstrations. It is difficult to quantify the contribution of any one civil rights strategy, but it is interesting to think that rock and roll music did not start out as a way to bring races together.

1955 Juvenile Delinquency Crime Commission

International fear

The fear of rock music was not limited to the United States. On May 8, 1954 the UK’s BBC radio banned Johnnie Ray’s song “Such A Night” after some listeners complained about its ‘suggestiveness.’ Ray was famous for his emotional stage act, which included beating up his piano and writhing on the floor.

1955 Juvenile Delinquency Crime Commission

Billboard’s Fear

Later that year, on September 24, 1954, a Billboard magazine editorial entitled “Control the Dimwits” called for removing rhythm and blues records with sexual double entendres from jukeboxes.

The Songwriters Protective Association (today the Songwriters Guild of America ) endorsed the editorial. Police in Memphis, Tennessee, and Long Beach, California, confiscated jukeboxes with the offending records. The largest jukebox operator in the New York City area offered to remove any records that Billboard listed.

1955 Juvenile Delinquency Crime Commission

Variety’s Fear

The following year, on February 23, 1955, Variety magazine wrote “A Warning to the Music Business,. Music ‘leer-ics’ are touching new lows and …policing, if you will, [has] to come from more responsible sources. Meaning the . . . record manufacturers and their network daddies. . . . It won’t wash for them to . . . justify their ‘leer-ic’ garbage by declaring ‘that’s what kids want’ or ‘that’s the only thing that sells today.”

1955 Juvenile Delinquency Crime Commission

Institutional Fear

Again that year, on May 17, 1955,  Princeton University students played the Bill Haley hit record Rock Around the Clock simultaneously from their dorm rooms. University administrators suspended four students.

1955 Juvenile Delinquency Crime Commission

Municipal Fear

Some US cities began to ban concerts by certain rock and roll artists…mainly black like Fats Domino.

1955 Juvenile Delinquency Crime Commission

Juvenile Delinquency and Crime Commission

Finally on August 21, 1955, the Juvenile Delinquency and Crime Commission in Houston, Texas, claimed success  in its anti-rock and roll crusade. The effort involved pressuring radio stations not to play recordings with “lewd or suggestive” lyrics. All nine Houston radio stations had cooperated.

The Commission had prepared a list of objectionable records. “Wash-Out-The Air,” a subcommittee of the Commission, looked for records that were supposedly suggestive, obscene, or had lewd intonations. The list contained twenty-six records and almost all by black artists, including:

  • Ray Charles “I Got a Woman”
  • Clyde McPhatter “Whatcha’ Gonna Do Now”
  • Hank Ballard and the Midnighters “Annie Had a Baby”
  • Dominoes “Sixty Minute Man”
  • Drifters “Honey Love”
  • Roy Brown “Good Rockin’ Tonight”

The Commission told radio station owners that the Commission would complain to the Federal Communications Commission if the stations did not cooperate.

For more about Houston in particular and the fear of rock in general, see the book, Anti-rock: The Opposition to Rock ‘n’ Roll by Linda Martin and Kerry Segrave.

Birthdays, Music et al, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Drummer Uncle John Turner

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Drummer Uncle John Turner

Drummer Uncle John Turner

Woodstock alum

August 20, 1944 – July 26, 2007

from Winter & Turner, “Made in the Shade”
Drummer Uncle John Turner

Port Arthur, TX

Uncle John Turner was born in Port Arthur, Texas and grew up listening  to Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Lazy Lester, and Jimmy Reed. He started his musical career on guitar in 1957, switched to bass, and then drums with the Nightlights

In 1960 the Nightlights and Johnny Winter shared a
bill and met. 

Drummer Uncle John Turner

With Winter


They met again in Houston in 1968 when Turner replaced drummer Jimmy Gillan in Winter’s soul music band. Turner convinced Winter to follow his heart and play the blues. They added  Tommy Shannon to play bass.

“Johnny wanted to play blues; he just had never been in a position to be able to,” Turner told Winter’s biographer. “We were the first guys that would go out on a limb with him and gamble for the future.”

The trio recorded “The Progressive Blues Experiment,” “Johnny Winter,” and “Second Winter.”

The summer of 1969 found them playing many festivals, including the most famous of all, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Johnny’s brother Edgar Winter joined them there for most of the set. 

Drummer Uncle John Turner

Without Winter


After splitting with Johnny Winter in 1970, Uncle John moved to Austin, where he and Shannon formed Krackerjack, a band featuring a young Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar. Throughout his long career, Turner played or recorded with many great artists, including B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, Freddie King, Muddy Waters, and Lightnin’ Hopkins.

During the 80’s and 90’s, Turner continued to shape Austin’s blues scene, playing with guitarist Alan Haynes and with Appa Perry’s Blues Power.

Drummer Uncle John Turner

Reunited


In November of 2006, Uncle John Turner, Tommy Shannon and Johnny Winter reunited. It was the trio’s first live performance together in more than 20 years.

Uncle John Turner died  on July 26, 2007 in Austin, Texas from complications related to hepatitis C. He was 62 years old.

He had jammed with B. B. King, Jimi Hendrix, Freddie King, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and many more.

He had recorded with Walter “Shakey” Horton, Willie Dixon, Albert Collins, Nuno Mindelis (the Blues King of Brazil), Benoît Blue Boy (the godfather of French blues), Lazy Lester, and many more.

Thanks to the Uncle John Turner site and the Just Ask site  for much of this information.

Drummer Uncle John Turner
Anniversary, Beatles, Music et al, Music of the 60s

Beatles Play Cow Palace 1964

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Beatles Play Cow Palace 1964

August 19, 1964

Beatles Play Cow Palace

February prelude

The Beatles triumphant and record-breaking performance on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964 was simply a prelude to what would begin six months later in San Francisco.

That same February, the band had played three indoor concerts: Carnegie Hall, Miami, and Washington, DC, but their return for an official tour in August was the start of maximum-Beatlemania.

Beatles Play Cow Palace 1964

Back in the USA, via Canada

On August 18, the Beatles had flown from London Airport to San Francisco International, to begin their 25-date first American Tour.

They stopped briefly in Winnipeg, Canada…

…and in Los Angeles. Both stops had fans screaming to see the band. Media interviews also. They arrived in San Francisco to a similar scene of hysterics from around 9,000 fans.

Beatles Play Cow Palace 1964

Beatles Bible

Many thanks to the site Beatles Bible for much of this information:

Beatles manager Brian Espstein  wanted to be sure that the concert venues would sell out and chose those that were not overly big. He needn’t have worried. All 17,130 Cow Palace tickets sold out.

The other acts on the bill, and throughout the tour, were The Bill Black Combo, The Exciters, The Righteous Brothers and Jackie DeShannon. Showtime was 8 pm, and The Beatles took to the stage at 9:20 pm.

This tour’s performance typically consisted of 12 songs: Twist And Shout, You Can’t Do That, All My Loving, She Loves You, Till There Was You, Roll Over Beethoven, Can’t Buy Me Love, If I Fell, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Boys, A Hard Day’s Night and Long Tall Sally.

The performance lasted just 29 minutes and because threw jelly beans organizers stopped the concert twice.

At the end of the show The Beatles dropped their instruments, ran for their limousine. It was surrounded by fans, so organizers put the boys in an ambulance. They returned to their hotel, but left soon after to fly to Las Vegas for the next day’s show.

Beatles Play Cow Palace 1964

Lennon looked back

In The Beatles Anthology (2000) John Lennon said, People think fame and money bring freedom, but they don’t. We’re more conscious now of the limitations it places on us rather than the freedom. We still eat the same kind of food as we did before, and have the same friends. You don’t change things like that overnight. We can’t even spend the allowance we get, because there’s nothing to spend it on. What can you spend on in a room?

There were 22 more tours to go before the last one on this tour at the Paramount in NYC on September 20.

Beatles Play Cow Palace 1964