Listen to "Rock Around the Clock", by Bill Haley and the Comets. This 1954 recording is a classic example of rock and roll in its embryonic state. I want you to compare this treatment of the blues form both to the classic blues and treatments of the blues form by mid-20th century jazz musicians.

In general, I want you each to form your own impressions of the music and pick out as much as you can through your own listening. But many of the questions that follow depend on you hearing both similarities and differences. In parts a, b and c, you should find several musical features that "Rock Around the Clock" shares with the jazz and blues that we've listened to. At the same time, you should hear significant differences, both in terms of features found in jazz but not in "Rock Around the Clock", and features that are shared but have a different sound or feeling in Haley's song.

a) Start with the rhythm section, especially the bass and drums. In what ways are they played alike and in what ways different than in a bebop or Kansas City swing rhythm section?

• Is the rhythm based on a swing feel, like in jazz?
• Is the drummer playing a ride pattern?
• Is the bass walking?

In a bebop band the rhythm section players (especially the piano and drums) fulfill dual roles, on one hand laying the musical foundation (the beat on the drums, the chords on the piano, both players lay out the musical form) and on the other hand constantly responding to the soloist in a free, ad-lib manner (any of the listening selections with Max Roach on drums will give good examples of this). Compare the approach of the Comets to that of a typical bebop rhythm section, in particular addressing these questions...

• What are the drummer and the guitar players in the Comets doing to support, reveal, clarify, or outline the musical form?
• How free, flexible, or ad-lib does their playing feel—do they seem to engage in the same kinds of dialogs as bebop rhythm section players?

b) Now look at the lyric.

• How does it differ in content and mood from a classic blues lyric?
• How does it differ in lyric structure from the classic AAB form?

There is a fairly standard way in which classic blues lyrics are fit into the 12-bar musical form, both in terms of how the lines of the lyric divide the musical form into 3 parts and in terms of give and take between the music and the lyrics (or, to put this second aspect another way, how the lyric is delivered to fill or not fill the time spans of the musical form).

• What is different about how the lyric is laid out on the music in Rock Around the Clock?

For an example of a classic blues, use "Lost Your Head Blues."

c) Consider "Rock Around the Clock" in the context of the African features of the blues as they've been presented by Amiri Baraka (in Blues People), by Olly Wilson (in the handout I gave you), in Gioia's History of Jazz, and in class.

• Which African features that are characteristic of classic blues are still present in "Rock Around the Clock", and which are missing (or, if not missing, greatly reduced)?

The answer to part b, above, should lead you to one clear difference between "Rock Around the Clock" and a classic blues in terms of one of the characteristics of African music that is fundamental to the blues and jazz. Comparing the rhythmic, vocal, and instrumental approaches of Haley and his band to what is heard on "Lost Your Head Blues" or "Parker's Mood" should suggest some other differences, while listening to a Basie or Goodman piece should suggest some similarities.

d) Although "Rock Around the Clock" might be considered a "modern" piece of music, in the everyday sense of the word, the musical approach and attitude was not "modernistic" in the way that bebop was.

• Make a comparison between "Parker's Mood", on one hand, and "Rock Around the Clock", on the other, that illustrates this fundamental difference in attitude.

e) It is generally acknowledged that many elements of rock and roll came to it from African American music by way of the blues and jazz. I think virtually all scholars, musicians, and fans will agree with this, but there is less accord about how it should be interpreted. For some the rise of rock signifies a shift to a less authoritarian and less Eurocentric America, and thus a crucial step towards integrating African American culture into the mainstream. For others it is one more in a long string of appropriations, with white musicians and record companies making vast sums of money from a watered-down version of music that black musicians had made for love and possibly a meager living. Most interpretations are more nuanced. Ultimately, though, it's a matter of opinion—it is not possible to prove that one or another interpretation is correct.

Before getting to the essay assignment, I want to stress that it is very important to keep in mind that I am not asking you to write about rock and roll, the blues, and jazz as if they were generic, monolithic entities. I'm asking you to write about a few specific pieces of music—"Rock Around the Clock", "Lost Your Head Blues", "Goin' Down to the River", "Parker's Mood", and perhaps another piece or two drawn from the class material or from your other musical interests. You should spend very little time on background and generalities—more than half a paragraph discussing "Rock and Roll," or "The History of American Music," or "The Evolution of Classic Blues" without a meaningful reference to a specific recording is too much and will lower your grade. My introductory paragraph above is meant to frame this project as a whole and to make it clear that what I want from you as you wrap it up is an interpretation, not just a neutral summary of some things you've found in the music. Do not write your essay at the same level of black and white (pun intended) abstraction.

With those preliminaries in mind, here is the assignment:

• Write a short (2-3 pages double spaced) essay characterizing and interpreting the relationship between "Rock Around the Clock" and the jazz and blues recordings mentioned in this assignment. The essay should be based on the facts you collected in parts a-c above (part d stands on its own and is not meant to tie into this essay).

There are many ways to go about it, and you are free to approach it from whatever angle you find most interesting as long as your answer is thoughtful and clearly connected to the music. Here are some questions that may help to get you started, as well as give you an idea of what kind of an answer I'm looking for.

• General issues and overall impressions
• How close is Bill Haley's embryonic rock and roll to the blues or jazz, either from the same or from earlier eras?
• To the extent that you see Haley and his musicians drawing on jazz or the blues, do the connections seem deep or superficial? Is it a matter of sounds and technique or of feeling and soul?
• In the end, did the different musical genres end up seeming more closely connected or more disconnected?
• Does the comparison help to clarify the cultural underpinnings of the different styles (that is, the aims and values of the musicians and their audience)? Do you have a clearer idea what each style looked like from the other side of the divide?
• Concerning the relationship to jazz and jazz rhythm
• How does the rhythm section of Haley's band compare to Basie's rhythm section or one of Parker's rhythm sections, both in terms of feeling and of technique? What do the similarities and/or differences suggest about the attitudes and goals of the musicians, the purpose they envisioned for their music, and the way they related to their instruments and to each other?
• Extrapolating the last question, how do Haley and the Comets compare to jazz musicians in terms of their relationship to the musical composition, the chorus form, and each other?
• Concerning the blues and blues form
• What do you make of the use of 12-bar blues form in "Rock Around the Clock"? Is it a blues song, does it have significant blues inflections, or is the 12-bar form just a convenience that's unrelated to the blues as a mode of musical expression (that is, as way of singing and playing and telling a story that transcends the convention of the 12-bar form)?
• How would you characterize "Rock Around the Clock" in relation to the original context, form, and function of the blues? Does it seem to be a continuation, an evolution, an adaptation, an extension, a transformation, an appropriation, a misappropriation, a misunderstanding, a plaigarization, a bowdlerization, or something else?
• "Parker's Mood" is considered by jazz musicians to be one of the most powerful and profound expressions of the blues that has ever been recorded, on purely musical grounds and as an eloquent expression of feeling. What does this say about the way jazz musicians had come to think about and perform the blues in the late 40s? How does the bebop attitude to the blues compare to earlier attitudes, how does it compare with what Haley seemed to get from the blues, and how are these different visions reflected in the music?

Please note that these questions are not a recipe for your essay. Do not try to incorporate answers to all of them. Do not feel you have to restrict yourself to just these questions. What is most important is that you base your short essay on musical features of "Rock Around the Clock" and of jazz and blues pieces that we've studied in this class. If other music that you know helps you to make your point, by all means include it in your discussion, but only as a supplement, not as the primary material. I consider the structure of the lyric and the way it is integrated into the piece to be a musical feature, but the content of the lyric is not. This doesn't mean that you can't write about the meaning of the lyric—in fact it is an excellent thing to write about—but it should not be your sole or even your primary focus. I don't expect or even want you to get into technical details about the music—the musical features I have in mind are things like the rhythmic feel; the general feel and sound of the drumming and the instruments; the extent to which the music seems prearranged vs. spontaneous; the drum fills, instrumental riffs, and ways of phrasing that most obviously structure the music or delineate the form; the singing style; and the way the lyric and the music are fit together.

At the risk of repeating myself too many times, please keep these things in mind.

• I want a short and modest essay in which you discuss a few aspects of a few specific pieces of music. I am not expecting and do not want you to state a broad thesis about whole categories of music.
• It is very important that, whatever points you make in your essay, you support them with reference to specific features of specific pieces of music. If you want an A on your project you must do this.

Rock Around the Clock
Words and music by Max C. Friedman and Jimmy DeKnight

Recorded in 1954 by Bill Haley and the Comets:
Bill Haley (voc, g); Joey D'Ambrosio (ts); Danny Cedrone, Billy Williamson (g);
Johnny Grande (p); Marshall Lytle (b); Billy Gussack (d)

Back to the assignment.

Here is a site that has some background about this song and the musicians.