The Real Origins Of Rock And Roll
by Rick London
Though I've been telling people since I can remember that Rock And Roll was born in my own little humble hometown of Hattiesburg, Ms., not many believe me. I know it to be true. Even the honorable Rolling Stone Magazine agrees as mentioned in Wikipedia....
Not that Wikepidia is the leading authority on the topic, but here is their take: Birthplace of Rock and Roll
"It is a little-known fact that music scholars consider Hattiesburg to be the historic birthplace of rock and roll. [weasel words] As noted in the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll, Hattiesburg was a recording location of Blind Roosevelt Graves and his brother, Uaroy Graves, who, along with piano player Cooney Vaughn, recorded two songs in 1936 that "...featured fully formed rock & roll guitar riffs and a stomping rock & roll beat." The Graves Brothers and Vaughn--performing as the Mississippi Jook Band--recorded the songs 'Barbecue Bust' and 'Dangerous Woman' for the American Record Company, reportedly at the Hattiesburg Train Station."
I do not know why my hometown of Hattiesburg failed to promote such an important topic, when it is well-documented and so many other towns and cities make similar claims. I haven't a clue . Maybe it didn't understand the importance, perhaps it was embarrassed. I did not even know until years after I left the area. They have not erected anything but a large green highway sign commemorating this important event which heralds, "Hattiesburg, Birthplace Of Rock And Roll".
Less than a decade later, a young singer just out of the military from Tupelo, Ms also made a bit of a splash in the Rock N' Roll hall of fame. People simply called him "Elvis". It was journaled that Elvis was always a very polite young man who was reluctantly pushed into fame and fortune, but actually enjoyed "the creative process" much more than the hype (we would later discover that the stress and anxiety of the hype became his demise, unfortunately).
That same small plot of Mississippi land, within miles of Elvis, also gave us B.B. King, Morgan Freeman, John Grisham, William Faulkner, Willie Morris, and other legends too many to count. How could that be, being in the least educated state in the country at the time, and in that particular part of the state, the poorest?
