Part
Five - White country and western
music meets black blues PreviousNext
The craziness of rock and roll life
however, did not infect all of its
performers. Compared to the escapades of a Jerry Lee Lewis
or a Little Richard, the life of a
Carl Perkins or a Bill Haley
seems very settled. Perkins was part of the Sun stable before
Lewis arrived. A down-to-earth country musician, Perkins had
no problem slightly modifying the rhythm of his music to write
more rock and roll-type songs like 'Blue Suede Shoes'. He joined
Elvis - who borrowed the song from him and made it a hit - and Jerry Lee Lewis as one of the premier early rock and rollers.
Like other musicians of this generation, Perkins followed the
path traced by Hank Williams, a true legend of country music.
Hank Williams' music, with its blues
strains, captured the spirit - if not
the letter - of rock and roll and broke
with the canons of traditional country
music. While Williams was declared persona
non grata at the staid Grand Ole Opry in
Nashville, those up
north in the big cities paid little attention to a controversy
engendered by what they perceived as some
backward country folk clinging to the old ideas of
racial segregation. And, in
any case, they preferred Bill Haley and His
Comets.
