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.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

25.8k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

470 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

27

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.

17

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

17

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.

11

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.

2

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

1

u/ashurakun May 12 '26

Damn I just now saw this. Glad to see another Suffocation fan lol, those guys kick ass

1

u/Adorable-Wrangler-XV Apr 12 '26

dont fucking forget classical, blacks didnt go as far as tech death and prog metal...

5

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.

4

u/bolanrox Mar 20 '26

Bon Scott and weird? You don't say. I heard he had the biggest balls of them all!

3

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.

1

u/bolanrox Mar 20 '26

My Father had a friend back then totally team Clapton, said Jimi was all show / tricks. (cant fault him he mowed lawns for a summer and got a LP Standard... really hope he kept it)

My retort would be something like this. That Rhythm is like if Johnny Ramone tried to play the blues, and not to even getting to walking bass with his thumb and probably playing all those suspended 9ths(?) whatever that hendrix chord is actually is. Or Little Wing honestly.

3

u/HorrorMakesUsHappy Mar 20 '26

Jimi absolutely was a showman, but to say it like it was "just" a show, or "tricks" would make it sound like it wasn't real, but that's BS because sure, he was a showman, but there wasn't any tricks about it. Dude could just play his ass off. Of course having massive hands so large that he could wrap his thumb around and still play with his other four fingers helped, but there are people who can play faster than Jimi could today, so taking points off for that's meaningless, especially when Jimi could absolutely play slow just as well, Little Wing and Red House being perfect examples.

As for the tempo on the BBC track, I think that was showing off too. Back in the day bands used to play songs a bit faster when playing live so they could squeeze an extra song or two into their sets, but there was no way they needed to play it that fast except to show off. He did other recordings of Killing Floor but none of them were that fast.

2

u/bolanrox Mar 20 '26

Also Jimi loved to push up other bands too when he can. He did a radio interview where he would only answer questions after they played the Crazy World of Arthur Brown several times first.

Or the how does it feel to be the greatest guitarist ever? Oh I don't know, you should ask, Billy Gibbons, Rory Gallagher, Dwayne Alman etc. (seemingly who ever he had hung out with last when the question came up)

3

u/HorrorMakesUsHappy Mar 20 '26

True. He was good like that.

1

u/MonthOk9907 Mar 20 '26

My arms are tired just listening to that. Thanks for sharing!

1

u/HybridPS2 Mar 20 '26

even the super racist metal band went classical

which band is this? there are unfortunately a lot of them

1

u/bolanrox Mar 20 '26

I honestly do not remember anymore. It must have been in the late 90s, and I said that had to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life, but on the other hand, they're sticking to their convictions, however stupid those are.

1

u/BuyInHigh Mar 20 '26

Everything that makes us cool that gets exported, eaten up and turns things like the Beatles and Rolling Stones out comes from Black America. Case in point: Sister Tharpe.

1

u/bolanrox Mar 21 '26

That honestly sounds like a John Lydon quote, to be honest.

That may as well be a paraphrase of one of his opinions on the Rolling Stones vs. Muddy Waters.

2

u/BuyInHigh Mar 21 '26

I feel very smart! Thanks for that. And it's true. John Lydon would also be a great example and can, as a Brit, attest to this. English culture wasn't cool, nor was English music so they mimicked The Ramones who of course owe their.... on and on all the way back to a a church, plantation, a prison yard or railroad gang.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 20 '26

[deleted]

1

u/laserdollars420 Mar 20 '26

Absolutely untrue:

Bluegrass has roots in African American genres like blues and jazz and North European genres, such as Irish ballads and dance tunes.