The History of Rock: For Big Fans and Little Punks
FOR LITTLE PUNKS For the little punks in my life Francisco João Guilherme Matilde Maria Vasco Alice Tiago Zé Pedro Inês Sofia Gonçalo and those to come Rita To all those with whom I’ve shared tapes CDs and endless conversations about music To all those with whom I’ve had the pleasure of attending concerts To all those with whom I’ve played band To all those with whom I’ve played in make believe bands To my best friends Joana Inside this book you’ll find the main bands and musi cians in the history of Rock through illustrations short overviews of their lives special traits and trivia about each band or solo artist Who are the most important artists How did they start their bands and careers What is a Rock star made of This history of Rock is divided into several chapters At the beginning of each you’ll find a short text that will ex plain which artists or bands you’ll get to know and the reason they appear together Apart from the illustrations text and trivia about the musicians you’ll also find ex planatory tables to learn their names where they were born and what music genre s they played There’s also a section with suggestions of songs from important artists that have not been featured You’ll understand that there are musicians from all walks of life while some have studied music in school others did it by themselves or with friends and there are even those who never stopped learning and trying new things If you have any doubt about words you don’t know you can check the glossary at the end of the book or the index of music genres where you’ll find more than 40 defini tions You’ll find what Rockabilly Reggae Punk Indus trial Glam New Wave Progressive Heavy Metal Goth Grunge and many other words mean I suggest that while reading the book you listen to some of the recommended songs the best way to know music is to listen to it If you do so and if you read the entire book you’ll become a true specialist
FOR BIG FANS Three essential factors aligned in order for this book to come to life my passion for music the fact that I’m a teacher who interacts daily with children and finally the realization that there are almost no books about Rock for children This was the determining factor in embarking on this music epic targeted at children but winking at adults too There are many ways to write about the history of mu sic particularly Rock Each writer approaches the subject in a different way their own way of listening to and understanding music In this book I tried to follow the history’s timeline highlighting the most important art ists and bands I measured an artist’s relevance by the level of influence they had on others and by the depth of their mark on our culture This required investigative work consisting of research as well as structuring listen ing to and categorizing hundreds of bands In order to avoid making it too personal I perused books and refer ence websites different top charts from magazines and field experts lists of essential bands curated by musicians and music lovers whom I thank elsewhere in this book and also websites and biographies from the bands them selves Still I’ve surely left out some artists that should have been highlighted but space is finite I was fortunate enough to work with a talented team Nuno my project editor who had the demanding work of trimming unnecessary fat and improving many of the texts Joana who has materialized my ideas for each artist or band in art form Andreia who brought all the parts together without ever failing a deadline This team was joined by Pedro the translator who turned out to be much more than that being passionate about music he didn’t leave a loose end Finally Charlotte came aboard and reviewed the English text to make it bulletproof I made an effort to keep in mind that this book which may be of interest to adults was conceived of and written for children Therefore I tried to find funny anecdotes in the artists history and softened the language in order to make it fun to read the book I’ve wondered many times if the reason for this project’s existence lies actually in my own childhood in the plea sure that I would have drawn from reading such a book one that would reveal to me a less obvious musical realm in a way I could understand Rita Nabais
wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom THE PIONEERS OF ROCK In the early 1950s a musical earthquake called Rock and Roll shook the United States of America The sounds and traditions coming from different places like the African rhythms and the melodies sung by European emigrants blended for the first time People from all races creeds and origins working side by side and listening to each other singing their songs influenced one another and fused their traditions in a rich cultural melting pot that would create the music that is simply known as Rock The energy-filled rhythms and the simple and saucy language struck a chord especially with adolescents A lot of musicians started Rock and Roll’s journey but in these pages you’ll find some of those that placed Rock in the history of music The band’s name Bill Haley His Comets was inspired by Halley’s Comet As Bill’s surname was pronounced the same way he decided to create a pun adding his Comets to Haley BILL HALEY and HIS COMETS At the start of his ca reer Bill Haley played and sang Country songs and then later R B One day he decided to mix these two styles in a single song called Crazy Man Crazy Young kids went wild with it That was when Haley decided to change both the style of his songs and of himself he swapped his cowboy outfit with a check ered jacket covered his hair with pomade which is similar to hair gel and started styling a big curl of it on his forehead Bill Haley His Comets were playing and singing Rock and Roll even before the name was invented To gether they recorded two of the most famous songs in the history of Rock Rock Around the Clock and Shake Rattle and Roll debut album 1953 origin Chester PA genre Rock and Roll Country Rockabilly famous songs Rock Around the Clock Shake Rattle and Roll See You Later Alligator LITTLE RICHARD Little Richard was one of the first Rock and Roll stars Even as a child growing up in a 12 child household he loved to sing He was 10 when he performed live for the first time and by 14 he had left his parents house to fol low travelling musical acts His songs were based on a magical formula fast and explosive piano playing coupled with lyrics filled with words that made no sense sung in a high pitched voice His first major hit was Tutti Frutti 6 He was really eccentric played like a madman had long hair and sang a lot of uuuhhhs a song that starts with the sentence Wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom whatever that means debut album 1957 origin Macon GA genre Rock and Roll R B Gospel Soul famous songs Tutti Frutti Lucille Long Tall Sally Good Golly Miss Molly
CHUCK BERRY The intros to his songs with the unforgettable sound of the electric guitar and catchy melodies made him one of the Rock and Roll pioneers Fans loved Chuck’s concerts and the way he dressed and moved on stage He was always very clean cut three-piece black suit white shirt and bow tie with hair pulled all the way back with a lot of po made Before he became a musi cian he worked at an automobile assembly plant and as a hairdresser which might explain why he was so stylish One of his biggest fans was a boy named Keith Richards who would later become the guitar player in one of the biggest Rock bands in the world The Rolling Stones rock of pioneers the debut album 1957 origin St Louis MO genre Rock and Roll famous songs Roll Over Beethoven Rock and Roll Music Johnny B Goode You Never Can Tell Jerry played the piano with almost every part of his body and he even set a piano on fire during a concert He had this strange way of criss-crossing the stage in a duck-like fashion JERRY LEE LEWIS Jerry Lee Lewis started playing the piano when he was 8 He played so well in fact that upon hear ing it his parents decided to sell the house in order to buy him a piano pi anos are expensive instru ments He was 21 when he travelled to the city of Memphis where he would record his first songs for the best well-known label in town Sun Records To help pay for the trip they had to raise chickens and sell eggs lots of eggs It was there that he recorded all his initial hits Crazy Arms Whole Lotta Shakin Going On and Great Balls of Fire Lewis was one of the most influential Rock and Roll pianists in the history of music Elvis Presley once said that if he played the piano like Jerry he wouldn’t even have to sing debut album 1958 origin Ferriday LA genre Rock and Roll Rockabilly Country Gospel Blues famous songs Great Balls of Fire Crazy Arms Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On 7
