Various Artists 

Rock the Joint: The Records That Ushered in Rock'n'Roll

(Blue Century Records)

Slip a quarter to Pops at the door and careful the fifth in your jacket doesn't hit the jamb as you sashay into the hubbub. The only reason neighbors aren't pounding walls over the hi-fi blasting is 'cause they're all here. Long tall daddies and lipsticked honeydews everywhere: Some belly-rub dancing, others slap-and-tickling, still more managing both. Nobody knows what time it is 'cause the clock got knocked off the wall.

Recommended: "Caldonia" (Louis Jordan & his Tympany Five), "Good Rockin' Tonight" (Roy Brown), "Rock the Joint" (Jimmy Preston), "The Fat Man" (Fats Domino),  "Let's Jump Tonight" (Chuck Willis), "Rock-A-Bye Baby" (Big Mama Thornton; lead guitar by Pete Lewis, of the Johnny Otis Band), "Flip Our Wigs" (Milt Trenier), "Jam Up" (Tommy Ridgley)

Videos: "Caldonia"   "Good Rockin' Tonight"   "Rock the Joint"   "Flip Our Wigs"   "Jam Up"

Blue Century Records

Bandcamp

Amazon

Qobuz

KKBOX

Spotify

TIDAL

Tuff Darts

s/t

(Sire / Music on CD)

Led by lead guitarist/primary tunesmith Jeff Salen (RIP), the Tuff Darts were among the more colorful and proficient of the 1970s CBGB class. That was amply evidenced in their three tracks on 1975's Live at CBGBs double LP. Robert Gordon was then the group's voice.

Tommy Frenzy, himself crackerjack at the mic, had by this 1978 Sire platter assumed the Darts' frontman position. The undersung colleagues of Big Apple brawlers the Ramones, Blondie, Dead Boys, and Heartbreakers shone like streetlights amid a streetfight, and are recalled fondly by in-know survivors of bowery overnights.

Tuff Darts compositions were mini-classic episodes in which regulation Rock'n'Roll and Pop inclinations were strained through wiseass Punk attitude (that occasionally cruised the more deviant Red Light precincts), ending up as sleek missiles that satisfied. 

Some tracks cried 'Radio.' Others belonged in the back pages of under-counter periodicals. All, though, were front-of-the-underclass. 

Several reissues of this LP have occurred over decades, the most recent being a 2024 CD issuance by Music on CD.

Recommended: "Who's Been Sleeping Here," "(Your Love is Like) Nuclear Waste," "Here Comes Trouble," "Rats," "Fun City," "All For the Love of Rock'n'Roll," "Love and Trouble," "Head Over Heels," "Slash," "Phone Booth Man," "My Guiar Lies Bleeding in My Arms"

Videos: "Who's Been Sleeping Here"   "(Your Love is Like) Nuclear Waste"   "Here Comes Trouble"   "Rats"   "All For the Love of Rock'n'Roll"   "Head Over Heels"   "Slash"

Amoeba Records

Music on CD

Darkside Records

Amazon

With previous lead singer Robert Gotdon

Mexico Road  

Cool Cat City

(Self-issued)

The 16-cut Cool Cat City was issued mere months after the group's Rock, Rhythm, and Roll, and continues the Keystone Staters' advancement in generating swingout, happy-feet rhythms. Many chairs are likely to suffer loneliness when the trio at issue plugs in and stampeders storm hardwood. 

Recommended: "Becky," "Cool Cat City," "Switch Blade," "Neptune," "Get in the Ocean," "You Drive Me," "California Grange Boogie," "Hey Yeah"

Videos: "Cool Cat City"   "Neptune" (live)  "Get in the Ocean"    "California Grange Boogie" (live)

Facebook

zdigital

Amazon

Apple

Spotify

Convict Class 

Not the Enemy

(Randale Records)

When last heard from (2024's Generation of Discontent), Australia's CC were leveraging chords as bombardments, pretty much slapping into basketcase-dom everybody in the place. That remains fitting appraisal, though mention must also be made of earnest (albeit unapologetically brutish) messaging. Oi! gets it fucking done.

Recommended: "War," "Loser," "Old School Punk," "Anger Management," "Only Fans," "Not the Enemy," "Maximum Impact"

Videos: "Loser"   "Only Fans"   "Not the Enemy"   

Facebook

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Instagram

Bandcamp

randaleshop

Amazon

Apple

Spotify

Roy Clark

"Please Mr. Mayor, don't ban Rock'n'Roll!" was in-tizzy Roy's 1958 Rockabilly plea, shouted with the desperation of a cat distraught over that era's no-fun crusaders. Bluenoses scrawled placards, but Roy got the last Hee Haw.

Video: "Please Mr. Mayor"

Discogs

Bear Family

Johnny / The Biscats 

In a straight-out finger-popper penned by 'Johnny' ('80s and '90s bop vet Masato Asanuma of Yokohama Ginbae), the Biscats acquit themselves as 100% able to ride the whitewalled Cadillac tide. The cheaters-and-pomp icon rips a solo that projects way deep into fracturization ether.

Video: "James Dean no Youni"

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The Delta Rhythm Boys: Voices swingin' the Word 

Rock'n'Roll was hardly the 'Devil's Music' harrumphing 1950s criticasters assailed it as being. From its genesis, our rollick internalized tent-revivalism's whirling dervish, but owed also to melodic spiritualizing. 

It's always been as much about expression as emotion.

Among gospel serenaders whose joyful labors fed into the nascent musical form were 1934 Oklahoma-germinated Delta Rhythm Boys. (Shortly following their coalescence, they moved to Louisiana.) The sonorous Jubilee quartet would eventually scale 1941 charts with "Dry Bones." They minted the half-step progressions and regressions since associated with the song. The Boys' rendition enjoyed showcases in 15 films, including 1955's Rock'n'Roll Revue.

A reasonable assumption is that any professional competitiveness between the Delta Rhythm Boys and other 'Golden Age of Gospel' vocal groups -- for instance, the Golden Gate Quartet, Soul Stirrers, Swan Silvertones, and Dixie Hummingbirds -- was friendly in nature. They did, after all, work for the same Boss.

1960's Swingin' Spirituals (Coral) was only one of the foursome's recordings. But its 12 cuts into thick vinyl portrayed the Boys' excellent gifts from the Lord, as well as their devotion to Him and dedication to spreading His sublime Word. 

Alongside "Dry Bones," further executive renderings proclaimed the glories that await all who seek them. "So High, So Low, So Wide" and "Joshua Fit De Battle of Jericho" found the group's eminent singers snapped to attention and evincing the polished, respectful manner appropriate. 

The endeavor demanded Class with a capital C.

Between those two, "Great Gettin' Up Mornin'" combined latin percussion with a smoother-than-smooth chorus, against which a bass voice boomed "Fair thee well!" to forsaken sinners of all stripes.

"Sit Down" featured a chorusers / basso profundo exchange:

"What are you doing out of your seat?"

"I just got to Heaven, gotta look all around!"

"What are you doing on the Golden Street?" 

"I just got to Heaven, gotta walk around!"

It was exactly fitting that the rapturous quartet received accompaniment by what were doubtlessly some of the finest musicians available. In fact, every facet of Swingin' Spirituals -- voices upraised in praise, instrumentation nonpareil, and production fit for the august undertaking -- rang loudly and proudly of sanctified soldiers in God's Great Army.

Numerous similarly reverential waxings followed, as did further worldwide acclaim. In later years, and after undergoing several personnel permutations (noted members went to their rewards), the Delta Rhythm Boys relocated to European climes. 

And in 1987, the curtain descended for the final time.

But the Delta Rhythm Boys' tones were so aburst with Divine resonance; their wondrous tones -- preserved on vinyl and in film footage -- still have the effect of shaking away temporal woes and delivering up a Gospel-abundant horn of plenty from which joyful belief speaks.

We need but listen.

Videos: "Dry Bones"   "Great Gettin' Up Mornin'"   "Joshua Fit De Battle of Jericho"   "Sit Down" (live 1968)   "Great Gettin' Up Mornin'"