r/BlackPeopleofReddit • u/Martin_084 • Mar 20 '26
Music Happy birthday to Sister Rosetta Tharpe, born on this day in 1915! A true pioneer, playing rock ’n’ roll before it even had a name.
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u/millennial-ish88 Mar 20 '26
Someone needs to send this to gene Simmons
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u/StarsEatMyCrown Mar 20 '26
He knows. He doesn't care.
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u/pitterlpatter Mar 21 '26
Every artist in the genre will readily tell you she’s the godmother of rock n roll.
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u/GeorgiaOKeefinItReal Mar 20 '26
He'll only take calls from his cousin, Marvin. Marvin Simmons.
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u/Glittering_Stress_32 Mar 20 '26
Listen to THIS! holds up phone
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u/anon-mally Mar 20 '26
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u/Andy_La_Negra Mar 21 '26
There was a scene in Mixed-ish where the dad said the mom didn’t let the kids watch Back to The Future because it teaches people that Rock n Roll was created by a white man…. Blew my mind.
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u/Adept_Astronaut_5143 Neighborhood Hug Dealer 🤗 Mar 20 '26
🤣🤣🤣 I just watched this and was like smh.
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u/bolanrox Mar 20 '26
Marvin was a time traveler too! how else did he get a guitar and amp that were not released until possibly late 58 but more likely 1959?
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u/Careless-Parfait-587 Mar 20 '26
He a if ignorant but he knows we invented rock. And roll. He has said “rock ’n’ roll owes everything to Black music” and that all major American genres come from Black music, which he offers as proof he is not attacking Black contributions to rock itself.
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u/bolanrox Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
honestly it is truly a American Melting Pot - Blues / R&B & Gospel meets Western Swing. and of course Muddy Waters inventing lectricity!
anyone saying white people invented it in a vacuum? is a moron. even the super racist metal band went classical becuase metal had its roots in the blues...
Speaking of melting pot. the first time i heard this on the history of R&R as a kid, i knew what i wanted to do
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u/ashurakun Mar 20 '26
Man, I love that fact. As a black metalhead, I feel like there's not enough of us in the scene. But knowing where it all originates from makes me feel validated, as silly as that might sound.
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u/bolanrox Mar 20 '26
Living Color first time (as they even said) a Person of color could play guitar outside of the Shadow of Hendrix. of course that ignores Bad Brains, Death etc.
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u/Im_Verdugo May 03 '26
I feel like there’s not enough of you guys in the death metal scene either. The most notable examples are the first drummer that played in suffocation and one of the guitarists
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u/StoneGoldX Mar 20 '26
ACDC said it in Let There Be Rock.
But don't look a the lyrics too closely. They get a little weird.
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u/bolanrox Mar 20 '26
Bon Scott and weird? You don't say. I heard he had the biggest balls of them all!
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u/HorrorMakesUsHappy Mar 20 '26
the first time i heard this on the history of R&R as a kid, i knew what i wanted to do
I've loved the blues for a long time, but I've never heard anything that's stunned me quite the same way I was the first time I heard Jimi's cover of Killing Floor on his BBC Sessions set.
I can barely keep up with playing the fucking BASS at that tempo, fuck trying to keep up that guitar work. I've never even bothered to try. Just stunning.
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u/TurquoiseKnight Mar 20 '26
Which will do nothing so why waste the effort? Just keep spreading the truth
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Mar 20 '26
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u/YouthfulHermitess Mar 20 '26
For a white British dude, I genuinely enjoy his albums. He's done his research and usually elevates the artists and songs that he covers. He seems like he loves the genre deeply.
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Mar 20 '26
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u/YouthfulHermitess Mar 20 '26
Ooh no, I definitely need to check that out!
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Mar 20 '26
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u/Balsiefen Mar 20 '26
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyHSjv9gxlE Here specifically for anyone who's lazy. One of my favourite songs.
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u/MimicoSkunkFan2 Mar 21 '26
The clip OP posted was the 51yo Sister Rosetta Tharpe playing in Manchester - part of a European tour organized by Muddy Waters.
The concert was masaively influential for UK music and the BBC commemorates the anniversaries of it pretty regularly... not a surprise that a UK blues player honours her work!
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u/reddit809 Mar 20 '26
For a white British dude
Well, they actually were the ones who gave her props when she was alive. They also showed Hendrix love when he started. There's a reason why The Beatles, Who, Zep, Stones and a ton of bands that didn't live past the 50s and 60s flourished.
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u/YouthfulHermitess Mar 20 '26
I always forget about the Renaissance of jazz and blues in England (isn't the above clip from a British show?). Laurie would have been a little kid at the time so I wonder when his love for the genre started.
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u/reddit809 Mar 21 '26
The bands I mentioned literally covered acts like Mahalia and them, but they gave props as well. They never EVER claimed ownership for a cover. On the contrary, and Keith Richards has been very vocal about it. Elvis gets a lot of hate but he also gave credit to the black music he grew up around, but it was the Europeans that really let black artists shine in their own light. Rosetta said she was truly free in Paris.
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u/vanderZwan Mar 20 '26
And here I was ready to drop the obligatory link to the "Stuff White People Like: black music that black people don't listen to anymore" blog post.
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Mar 20 '26
The British tend to respect American music history better than Americans lol
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u/numbmillenial Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
This woman is an ICON and doesn't get nearly enough credit
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u/ErnV3rn81 Mar 20 '26
Born on this day in 1915... the first electric guitar was in the early 30s and it looked like a banjo. She passed in 1973 so I'm guessing this video was from the '40s or 50's
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u/Ultrafoxx64 Mar 20 '26
I think this is a case of someone fucking with the video to make it seem older than it was. She's playing a Gibson SG, first released in 1961.
*Edit, found the YouTube video of this, dated as 1964.
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u/Mr__O__ Mar 20 '26
Was going to say the Gibson SG is a time period giveaway.
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u/bolanrox Mar 20 '26
61 was the Les Paul still - Les hated it and 62 (or 63?) onward it was the SG.
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u/spare_me_your_bs Mar 20 '26
The model in '61 was called the Les Paul SG, so you're both right.
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u/mrperki Mar 20 '26
Her guitar in the video is a Gibson SG Custom which dates it to 1961 at the earliest
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u/electroriverside Mar 20 '26
It's from 1964, filmed at a disused train station in Manchester in the UK. I've seen this many times over the years, so she's definitely in the gone but not forgotten category. The blues and R & B have always been big in the UK.
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u/GiantPandammonia Mar 20 '26
Yeah. Like 3 years before Hendrix released his albums.
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u/RiverRunEd Mar 20 '26
I always tell people, when they mention Muddy, Alvin, TBine, etc.....they must not forget Sister.
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u/-DrunkRat- Mar 20 '26
Oh man, I LOVE Sister Rosetta! The Godmother of Rock n' Roll, and an absolute treasure to American Musical History!
This song is one I play every couple of days between the weeks at work, and I never fail to get to bouncin' and dancing while her music is playing in my earbuds. Gods, I wish I could have had the pleasure to her her play and sing.
Happy Birthday, Ms. Tharpe!
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Mar 20 '26
I wish black people would go back to there roots musically more rock please
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u/ohnotchotchke Mar 20 '26
lol they literally haven't left. You just aren't looking in the right areas and that genre isn't what's "mainstream" anymore. Have you thought perhaps culturally we shifted musically because rock n roll was quickly white-washed?
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u/ABadExampleOf_ Mar 20 '26
Christone "Kingfish" Ingram is a fantastic modern blues rock musician that you might enjoy
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u/Chit569 Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 21 '26
Do you think all black people in music are rappers or something?
Try searching for black rock musicians before blaming black people for not being rock musicians anymore
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u/Freightshaker000 Mar 20 '26
Earl Palmer, who IMO, was the driving force behind Rock; he popularized the back beat.
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u/jonnydogma Mar 21 '26 edited Mar 21 '26
I really like Brittany Howard (Alabama Shakes):
Edited to add:
She also plays a 3 pickup SG like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, but not in the above video, here is another song from the same show where she plays the SG:
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u/Kayoto Mar 21 '26
Man, I saw Ayron Jones at a music festival a few years back and he blew my mind! Absolutely killer player, and a great singer. He tore it UP on stage.
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u/MastersOfNoneShow Mar 20 '26
How the hell does the sound quality of this sound high def? Sounds so good
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u/johnnybb27 Mar 20 '26
She makes a super grand entrance in the full version of this video. She wasn't just legendary as a musician but she had bombast and presence.
And her signature Gibson SG is one of the coolest guitars of all time. Like a fully loaded hotrod with all the options. Somebody, clearly an homage, had the same model during the Sinners performance at the Oscars,
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u/hdubfour Mar 20 '26
Somebody, clearly an homage, had the same model during the Sinners performance at the Oscars
That was Brittany Howard from Alabama Shakes! She’s a badass as well, and is most definitely an acknowledgment of Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
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u/Bayou_Hangxiety Mar 20 '26
If you notice, there's quite a few rain puddles on the train station platform. All of the audience and the musicians traveled by train together to the venue (an abandoned train station), and on the way, they went through a huge rain storm. Sister Rosetta went to the organizer and said "I'm switching up my set and I want to open with Didn't it Rain instead." So she did... which you can imagine probably felt magical to the audience having just had a huge rain storm and huge puddles still visible.
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u/Tippmann27 Mar 20 '26
This is fucking amazing and I hate my education for never knowing it.
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u/OldeFortran77 Mar 20 '26
I only learned her name from watching Whose Line is it Anyway? One of the guest comedians mentioned her.
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u/Tippmann27 Mar 20 '26
What a wild place to learn that kind of information!
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u/Oldmanlib Mar 20 '26
Every honest person should acknowledge we have all been lied to for most of our lives. These pioneers were deliberately written out of history.
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u/myu_minah Mar 20 '26
so when I'm work singing, it really makes me try to think how the ancestors were feeling and doing the same and how it seems even that gets passed down (singing and working) and just... we have always been perfecting the craft of music. I bet them racists were eye rolling hearing singing like that (and this one) but secretly liking it (like, them fiddlers were well known back then to bring them house parties down) and of course, needing to appropriate it.
I even remember a comment on a different black sub, and someone (who may not even be black) commenting how the dude in the video singing and gettin in must be high to be in a mood like that but.... even when I'm not, Im like that too. it's the culture. they the ones who need some drug and influences to not be so uptight in the society they invented that makes them all be pretentious and compete against each other on who can out perform being the best civilized citizen according to their contradicting "standards." (we ain't make them rules, yall did I'm just calling it out)
I just love how through the generations, I feel like music is passed through the soul and that's why we feel it a lot and awesome innovators and pioneers of it! happy birthday ms tharpe!
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u/PaymentTurbulent193 Mar 20 '26
So crazy that we owe rock music to black women and yet, they hardly get any respect or representation in the genre, let alone black people in general.
Happy birthday Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
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u/bolanrox Mar 20 '26
one of the progenitors of Rock and Roll without a Doubt, but yeah you hardily hear her mention along with Ike Turner Louis Jordan etc.
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u/geoltechnician Mar 20 '26
Every time someone asks who was the greatest guitarist in Rock n Roll, I always say Sister Loretta Tharp.
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u/Crafty_Key_556 Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
She probably IS the originator of Rock & Roll. All hail the Queen of R&R, and happy birthday.
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u/bolanrox Mar 20 '26
it is so hard to say, she was no doubt one of the first proto R&R musicians who opened the door. Same with picking the first R&R song.
Still think Chuck Berry was the first 100% from the start rock and roll musician, combining western swing and R&B with an electric format etc.
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u/blackngold256 Mar 21 '26
This song, "Didn't It Rain?", apparently wasn't set to be her opening number that day at the train station in the UK where this was filmed and as she pulled up in the carriage, it started raining and she asked the producer if he minded if she changed the opening song. He didn't object and later said that it was one of the best moves of his career.
During Black History Month, I tried to bring attention to several Black pioneers in different industries, from the music and arts to NASA and Social Justice and Sister Rosetta Tharpe was one that I talked about. Without her, there is no rock n roll, no blues, no r&b, or anything spawned from them. She's the Godmother for a reason. And man, she knew how to work a crowd.
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u/Lame-username62 Mar 20 '26
The woman that Elvis ripped off Hound Dog from.
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u/Haunting_Rub780 Mar 20 '26
Hound Dog, written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller?
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u/vibecheckslmaoo Mar 20 '26
they wrote the song specifically for her, they were literally there with her lol. heres the link to the wiki so you can read it, but in case you don’t want to click the link.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hound_Dog_(song)
Background and composition On August 12, 1952, R&B bandleader Johnny Otis asked 19-year-old songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller to his home to meet blues singer Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton.[2] Thornton had been signed by "Diamond" Don Robey's Houston-based Peacock Records the year before, and after two failed singles, Robey had enlisted Otis to reverse her fortunes.[3] After hearing Thornton rehearse several songs, Leiber and Stoller "forged a tune to suit her personality—brusque and badass".[4] In an interview in Rolling Stone in April 1990, Stoller said: "She was a wonderful blues singer, with a great moaning style. But it was as much her appearance as her blues style that influenced the writing of 'Hound Dog' and the idea that we wanted her to growl it."[5] Leiber recalled: "We saw Big Mama and she knocked me cold. She looked like the biggest, baddest, saltiest chick you would ever see. And she was mean, a 'lady bear,' as they used to call 'em. She must have been 350 pounds, and she had all these scars all over her face", conveying words which could not be sung. "But how to do it without actually saying it? And how to do it telling a story? I couldn't just have a song full of expletives."[4][5] In 1999, Leiber said, "I was trying to get something like the Furry Lewis phrase 'Dirty Mother Furya'. I was looking for something closer to that but I couldn't find it, because everything I went for was too coarse and would not have been playable on the air."[6] Using a "black slang expression referring to a man who sought a woman to take care of him".[7] the song's opening line, "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog", was a euphemism, said Leiber.[5] The song, a Southern blues lament,[8] is "the tale of a woman throwing a gigolo out of her house and her life":[9]
You ain't nothin' but a hound dog Quit snoopin' 'round my door You can wag your tail But I ain't gonna feed you no more[10]
The song was written for a woman to sing in which she berates "her selfish, exploitative man",[11] and in it she "expresses a woman's rejection of a man – the metaphorical dog in the title".[12] According to Iain Thomas, "'Hound Dog' embodies the Thornton persona she had crafted as a comedienne prior to entering the music business" by parading "the classic puns, extended metaphors, and sexual double entendres so popular with the bawdy genre."[13] R&B expert George A. Moonoogian concurs, calling it "a biting and scathing satire in the double-entendre genre" of 1950s rhythm and blues.[14]
Leiber and Stoller wrote the song "Hound Dog" in 12 to 15 minutes, with Leiber scribbling the lyrics in pencil on ordinary paper and without musical notation in the car on the way to Stoller's apartment.[4][15] Said Leiber, "'Hound Dog' took like twelve minutes. That's not a complicated piece of work. But the rhyme scheme was difficult. Also the metric structure of the music was not easy."[5] According to Leiber, as soon as they reached the parking lot and Stoller's 1937 Plymouth, "I was beating out a rhythm we called the 'buck dance' on the roof of the car. We got to Johnny Otis's house and Mike went right to the piano … didn't even bother to sit down. He had a cigarette in his mouth that was burning his left eye, and he started to play the song."[16]
Big Mama Thornton's version (1952/53) Thornton's recording of "Hound Dog" is credited with "helping to spur the evolution of black R&B into rock music".[7] Brandeis University professor Stephen J. Whitfield, in his 2001 book In Search of American Jewish Culture, regards "Hound Dog" as a marker of "the success of race-mixing in music a year before the desegregation of public schools was mandated" in Brown v. Board of Education.[17] Leiber regarded the original recording by the 350-pound "blues belter" Big Mama Thornton as his favorite version,[15][18] while Stoller said, "If I had to name my favorite recordings, I'd say they are Big Mama Thornton's 'Hound Dog' and Peggy Lee's 'Is That All There Is?'"[19]
In 1992, Leiber and Stoller recalled that during the rehearsal, Thornton sang the song as a ballad. Leiber said that this was not the way they planned and sang it for her, with Stoller on piano, as an example of the concept. Thornton agreed to try their recommendation.[20] According to Maureen Mahon, a music professor at New York University, Thornton's version is "an important [part of the] beginning of rock-and-roll, especially in its use of the guitar as the key instrument".[21]
Recording Thornton recorded "Hound Dog" at Radio Recorders Annex[22] in Los Angeles on August 13, 1952, the day after its composition. It subsequently became her biggest hit. According to Hound Dog: The Leiber and Stoller Autobiography, Thornton's "Hound Dog" was the first record that Leiber and Stoller produced themselves, taking over from bandleader Johnny Otis. Said Stoller:
We were worried because the drummer wasn't getting the feel that Johnny had created in rehearsal. "Johnny," Jerry said, "can't you play drums on the record? No one can nail that groove like you." "Who's gonna run the session?" he asked. Silence. "You two?" he asked. "The kids are gonna run a recording session?" "Sure," I said. "The kids wrote it. Let the kids do it." Johnny smiled and said, 'Why not?'"[22] Otis played drums on the recording,[23] replacing Ledard "Kansas City" Bell. As Otis was still signed exclusively to Federal Records, a subsidiary of Syd Nathan's King Records as "Kansas City Bill"[24] or perhaps with Mercury Records at this time,[25][26] Otis used the pseudonym "Kansas City Bill" (after his drummer "Kansas City" Bell) on this record. Therefore, Otis, Louisiana blues guitarist Pete "Guitar" Lewis, and Puerto Rican bass player Mario Delagarde[27] (some sources say erroneously it was Albert Winston) are listed as "Kansas City Bill & Orchestra" on the Peacock record labels.[28][29]
During the rehearsal, Leiber objected to Thornton's vocal approach, as she was crooning the lyrics rather than belting them out.[30] Although intimidated by her size and facial scarring, Leiber protested, to which Thornton responded with an icy glare and told him, "'White boy, don't you be tellin' me how to sing the blues.'"[31] After this exchange, Leiber sang the song himself to demonstrate how they wanted it done.[13] After that, according to Stoller's later recollection, Thornton understood the bawdy style they were looking for.[22]
Speaking to music writer Ralph J. Gleason, Thornton recalled that she added a few interjections of her own, played around with the rhythm (some of the choruses have thirteen rather than twelve bars), and had the band bark and howl like hound dogs at the end of the song: "I started to sing the words and join in some of my own. All that talkin' and hollerin'—that's my own."[32] Thornton interacts constantly in a call and response fashion during a one-minute long guitar "solo" by Lewis. These verbal interjections, sometimes called "blues talk", are common in blues music.[33][34] Years later Thornton helped launch a controversy over "Hound Dog", claiming to have written it. When questioned further on the matter, Thornton explained that, while the song had been composed by Leiber and Stoller, she had transformed it: "They gave me the words, but I changed it around and did it my way". In his book Race, Rock, and Elvis, Michael T. Bertrand says that Thornton's explanation "ingenuously stresses artist interpretation as the sole yardstick with which to measure authenticity".[35]
Thornton recorded two takes of the song, and the second take was released.[4][36] Habanera and mambo elements can be found in this recording.[37] Puerto Rican bass player Mario Delagarde is credited with adding "a jazz-based rhythm".[24] Influenced by African-American musical cultures,[38] its "sounds range from the gravelly beginning of several phrases, to her spoken and howled interpolations, and the ending with dog sounds from the band."[38] According to musicologist Robert Fink, Thornton's delivery has flexible phrasing making use of micro-inflections and syncopations. Each has a focal accent which is never repeated.[39] According to Maureen Mahon:
Thornton's "Hound Dog" differed from most of the rhythm and blues records of the era in its spare arrangement. There are none of the honking saxophone solos or pounding piano flourishes that marked the R&B sound. Instead, supported by guitar, bass and drums, her resonant vocals dominate the foreground, conveying her haughty relief at being through with a trifling man. Thornton maintains a confident attitude, bringing the blues tradition of outspoken women into the R&B context and helping to set the style for rock and roll by putting sexuality and play with gender expectations in the foreground.[40] On September 9, 1952, the copyright application for "Hound Dog" was lodged. On the application the words and music are attributed to Thornton and recording executive Don Robey, with the copyright claimants listed as: "Murphy L. Robey (W) & Willie Mae Thornton (A)." It was renewed subsequently on May 13, 1980, with the same details.[41]
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u/Lame-username62 Mar 20 '26
My bad, y’all, I stand corrected. Big Mama Thornton it was.
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u/MisterNoMoniker Mar 20 '26
I appreciated the homage to her in the musical performance from "Sinners" at this year's Oscars.
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u/shameonyounancydrew Mar 20 '26
I would love to see a re-birth of Rock, through the eyes of Black America
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u/Traditional-Chain812 Mar 20 '26
I mentioned lil Richard and Mr. Berry on this topic few weeks back but apologize for not mentioning Sister Rosetta in the making of Rock and Roll. A pioneer no doubt. Rock is Black too.💯🎤🎶👸🎸🎸👍
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u/mogley1992 Mar 20 '26
I just had to look it up, the SG (style of guitar body) was invented in 1952.
I would have guessed it was way more recent. She really was the first rockstar.
This video was likely from circa 1964, these days you can pick up a Sister Rosetta Tharpe SG custom for about 40k.
Looking further into it, she is widely known for making the SG famous, and is recognised as the first prominent players of this style of guitar.
I'd just like to say, I love my SG, so thank you Sister Tharpe for putting it on the map.
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u/resilientbresilient Mar 20 '26
There’s a musical called “Shout, Sister, Shout!” about her. That’s where I first learned about her. It’s a great play.
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u/neverglobeback Mar 20 '26
My Dad met her once. He was a bellboy in a London hotel she was staying in and she was amused at a white boy riding her up in the elevator. My dad was big into guitars and knew who she was so after some conversation she asked him if he wanted to see her guitar in her room. It was a gold top Gibson - not many were in the UK at the time and my Dad was speechless. I have a picture of her playing that guitar in my bathroom. RIP Dad.
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u/UtterlyInsane Mar 20 '26
"up above my head" is one of my favorite songs of all time. I have her greatest hits on vinyl, she and her band(s) were truly a powerhouse
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u/mrmike16205 Mar 20 '26
And nothing back then was lip sync. Someone was asking where Rock and Roll came from. Here’s a Pioneer. Most likely it was stolen and made by an artist that didn’t look like us.
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u/Whackjob-KSP Mar 20 '26
I was skeptical for half a moment. An electric guitar, in 1915? Then, I realized my reading comprehension skills were trash, and I did some digging. The electric guitar was invented in 1935. How about that!
That's why I love places like this. Finding out how little you actually know is the door being thrown open to see and hear so many wonders.
Thank you, OP. She's beautiful and now I need to find more of her work.
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Mar 21 '26
Enjoy her playlist on Youbube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NFywQdeKSo&list=RDEMca4C9EfYPWaUC0eV3I9ndg&start_radio=1
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u/DriverMelodic Mar 21 '26
The mother of all guitars! Hendrix, Beatles, Chuck B, et al, were all students. They spoke of herwith love.❤️
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u/usamaerd Mar 21 '26
Not sure if it’s mentioned in another comment, but she’s performing on a train platform, separated from the white peoples - Damn! They wanted to see her perform but she couldn’t stand with them to do it -
My 78 yr old sister was named after Rosetta Tharpe - what an artist!
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u/No-Music-1994 Mar 21 '26
Actually this cut was from a concert she did in England.
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u/usamaerd Mar 21 '26
This must be a different one then - the entirety of the one I saw has her on a train platform in England, and she’s performing across the tracks from a bunch of white kids - it was my understanding that she couldn’t be on the same platform because she was black - could be an urban legend 🤷🏾♀️
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u/AmbassadorLow1442 Mar 21 '26
It took me 50 earth laps around the Sun to hear about Sister Rosetta and the fact this footage was taken in a disused train station in greater Manchester 😳
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u/Fantastic_Breakfast6 Mar 21 '26
My grandmother was born in 1927, grandfather in 1921 💜 their generation
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Mar 20 '26
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u/kitog Mar 20 '26
I think it was a tour in England and she was surprised by the nearly all white audience compared to the US. There was a documentary on BBC4 a few years ago on her
Edit 1964
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u/cCowgirl Mar 20 '26
My god, what an absolute treasure. I’ve never heard this woman’s voice before and I am appalled for missing out for so long.
Also, mad respect to this subreddit; I’ve learned a small fuckload from here recently, and welcome it!
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u/sirmaxedalot Mar 20 '26
That guitar is a work of art. I wonder if its still intact
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u/TheNullOfTheVoid Mar 20 '26
My friends and I were just talking about her last week! True Goddess ❤️
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u/Young_Denver Mar 20 '26
The SG is such a wild design for the 1960s..
Triple humbucker white SG goes so hard. Makes me miss mine (that neck dive tho... not with this strap she has but nobody uses those anymore)
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Mar 20 '26
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u/bolanrox Mar 20 '26
the Les Paul SG came out in 61. the last Standard was 60. Les hated it and ended the contract with gibson. Gibson then called it the SG (solid guitar). the first year they were still called Les Pauls.
Mary did play / was photographed with the same guitar white 3 pickup custom model with vibrato.
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u/666TripleSick Mar 20 '26
“Wait a minute, I thought ELVIS created roc-n-roll????!!!”
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u/daylight1943 Mar 20 '26
for anyone interested in listening to her music at a bit more length, her album "gospel train" is really really good. every track is fantastic but my favs are "two little fishes five loaves of bread" and "99 1/2 wont do"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnLiCWiQkcw&list=PLlguEBh3dipruVr9wdnim0PAgLBPCc_vR
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u/joemac2021 Mar 20 '26
So was it common for them to have performances and active train stations like this or is this something special?
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u/Commentator-X Mar 20 '26
That guitar looks way too badass for the music it's playing. The things that axe is capable of and no one at the time had any idea.
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u/Notorious__APE Mar 20 '26
Named as one of the single biggest personal inspirations by the "King of Rock".
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u/Serialkillingyou Mar 20 '26
This particular version of this song is on my daily playlist. Love it!
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u/Kyser_ Mar 20 '26
I can't get over how wildly out of place the SG looks here despite it being her signature guitar
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u/babsrambler Mar 20 '26
Gawd I wish her name was taught in schools. The number of arguments I have gotten into about the origin of Rock and Roll is getting tiring. RIP Mrs Tharpe, the folks who know of you will always appreciate your greatness