The Real Origins Of Rock And Roll
A small town ninety miles south of Jackson, Ms. called Hattiesburg, population about 100k, is the real birthplace of rock and roll. It is where I was born. It is well-documented in many prestigious hard copy and online periodicals
Not that Wikepidia is the leading authority on the topic, but here is their take: Birthplace of Rock and Roll
"It is a little-known fact that music scholars consider Hattiesburg to be the historic birthplace of rock and roll. [weasel words] As noted in the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll, Hattiesburg was a recording location of Blind Roosevelt Graves and his brother, Uaroy Graves, who, along with piano player Cooney Vaughn, recorded two songs in 1936 that "...featured fully formed rock & roll guitar riffs and a stomping rock & roll beat." The Graves Brothers and Vaughn--performing as the Mississippi Jook Band--recorded the songs 'Barbecue Bust' and 'Dangerous Woman' for the American Record Company, reportedly at the Hattiesburg Train Station."
Why pray-tell did my naive community fail to capitalize on that and so many other cities and towns across America make it faux claims to such origins? Heaven knows. Maybe it didn't know better, perhaps it was embarrassed. I did not even know until years after I moved away. They've never even built a museum commemorating it. (It was always hard for folks to agree down there on much as I remember it).
Only ten years later, a talent just out of military service from Tupelo, Ms also made a name for himself, later forever seen in the Rock N' Roll hall of fame. He was known as Elvis Pressley but most just called him "Elvis". It said that Elvis was always a very polite young man who was reluctantly pushed into fame and fortune, but actually enjoyed "the creative process" much more than the fame. Many close to him said the fame made him so stressed and uncomfortable, it led to his untimely death.
But why shouldn't Mississippi be the birthplace of such a creative endeavor. It also brought us Elvis, also gave us B.B. King, John Grisham, William Faulkner, Willie Morris, and numerous other legendary greats in the poorest and least educated part of the United States.
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