From the beginning of the fifties,
Bill Haley, a former disc jockey, blended
rhythm and blues hits into his repertoire of
country and western classics. Inevitably, the new sounds
met with a favourable response from young audiences,
even though - to satisfy the
morality guidelines established by a puritanical white society —
he sanitized the contents of some of his songs; somewhat
obscene in Joe Turner's original version, 'Shake, Rattle and Roll'
was transformed by Bill Haley into an
innocuous teenage
ditty.
But the rhythm remained, and the term
'rock' soon found itself associated
with a series of songs that spread
the new musical message far and wide.
The famous 'Rock Around the Clock',
recorded in April 1954,
holds a key position in the story of this music.
The song's importance would be measured the
next year, when it appeared
on the soundtrack of the newly released
film Blackboard Jungle. Thus began a strange life
for Bill Haley and His Comets. These chubby,
overgrown teenagers, these easy-going nice guys
who set upon black rhythms, found themselves
speaking for rebellious youth. Their concerts turned
into riots; their names appeared on the leather jackets
of rebels the world over.
If rock music aroused such passion on its own, what
would happen when its performers also adopted the
image of potentially dangerous rebels?
