This is the eighth volume in a series of double-disc anthologies from French label
Fremeaux Records
that chronicles the years that led up to the birth of
rock & roll
. While the magic year of 1954 is usually accepted as the dawn of the
age, the whole matter has always generated a good deal of debate, and this installment in the
Fremeaux
series only muddies the waters, since the year it covers, 1952, shows things rocking along pretty well. One could argue that some of the tracks here, like
Wally Mercer
's wonderful
"Rock Around the Clock,"
are really just speeded-up
R&B
, and technically, that's probably so, but there's no denying that something resembling the
attitude is already in full swing in 1952. It's a remarkably short drive from
Big Mama Thornton
's funky
blues
original of
"Hound Dog,"
included here, to
Elvis Presley
's all-dressed-up-for-radio version released a couple years later. On the other hand, it's difficult to relate some of these cuts to
at all, like
the Carter Sisters
'
"Juke Box Blues"
or even
Jimmy Bryant
's
"Pickin' the Chicken,"
which, while it features an absolutely blazing electric guitar break, doesn't rock so much as break the speed barrier. Matters of musical history aside, it is just great to hear some of these songs, many of which are fairly rare, like one of the more upbeat (relatively) sides
John Lee Hooker
ever made,
"Walkin' the Boogie,"
Peppermint Harris
' classy
"I Cry for My Baby,"
or
Percy Mayfield
's elegant and stately masterpiece
"Louisiana."
Whether these tracks contain the musical DNA that begat
or not is, in the end, fairly irrelevant, since these records rock, pedigree or no. ~ Steve Leggett