[Today: The Grandfather of Rock...]
Well before Elvis shook his thang, before Chuck Berry had Beethoven rolling over in his grave, before Bill Haley was rocking around the clock or Ike Turner was singing about his Rocket 88, Big Joe Turner was shouting the blues raw and getting banned from the radio for his troubles. Make no mistake, Turner’s music wasn’t rock & roll – rather, he sang what was called “Jump Blues”, a spirited pre-cursor to R&B and Rock. On paper, the configuration of his band looks like a jazz group, but their driving swing is punctuated by Turner’s powerful, primal growl. If his voice was raw, it wasn’t nearly as raw as his lyrics, which usually touched on skirts, skin and sex.
The term Rock & Roll was originally slang for sex, and in that respect Turner has certainly earned his designation as the “grandfather of rock” (he was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1987). The Rolling Stones would eventually sing about not being able to get any satisfaction, but Turner sang like a man who couldn’t get enough of the stuff. “You can take me pretty mama, jump me in your Hollywood bed/I want you to boogie my woogie ’til my face turns cherry red,” he sings on ‘Cherry Red’, the first cut on The Boss Of The Blues. ‘Roll ‘Em Pete’ is named for his piano player, Pete Johnson, but there’s no question that the rolling Turner references here involves a mattress and box spring.
Joseph Vernon Turner Jr. was born in 1911 in Kansas City and was singing professionally by the time he was 14 years old. He worked his way up through the nightclubs of Kansas City, washing dishes, tending bar and waiting tables before eventually stepping behind the microphone. He earned his nickname (‘Big Joe’) through sheer girth – he was 6’2″ and weighed nearly 300 pounds. But his voice was by far the biggest part of him, and his urgent, booming vocals led him to become one of the first artists signed to Atlantic Records.
The Boss Of The Blues was recorded on March 6th and 7th, 1956, well after the rock & roll revolution was underway. This album doesn’t include his breakthrough hit ‘Shake, Rattle & Roll’, but it’s a fine introduction to the original voice of rock and roll sin…
Listen: Cherry Red
Listen: Roll ‘Em Pete
