What a wonderful world

AN INTERESTING discussion on 'Smile Jamaica' (thank God Bertis is back) on Friday centred on music, one of my passions.

Bertis asked Simon (The Joker) about game changers. Among Bob Marley, Elvis, Michael Jackson and the Beatles (four genuine legends), he queried, who was the biggest game changer. The Joker tried hard to sound knowledgeable before coming down on the side of Elvis who, according to The Joker, brought black music into the mainstream and so became a cross-over artiste.

Seriously? First, when Americans (who coined the phrase) talk about "cross-over" they mean from one popular music chart to another. I understand what The Joker was trying to say but "crossing-over" properly-so-called is no indication of game change. Elvis was a great singer and performer. He hasn't written a single lyric or note. Worse, most of his hits were covers of other people's originals. Elvis "canna" cross anything but he was one of the famous five (Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis) whose December 1956 recording session at Sun Records is credited with the creation of rock and roll.

But what America calls rock and roll is a mainstream (read 'white') version of what had always been a sub-set ('jump blues' or 'boogie woogie') of foundational genre, 'The Blues'. Long before Elvis plus four jammed so brilliantly at Sun, Louis Jordan had recorded Choo Choo Ch' Boogie (1946); Fats Domino released The Fat Man (1949); Lloyd Price recorded Lawdy, Miss Claudie (1952) and 'the Architect of Rock and Roll' Little Richard, influenced by the jump-blues style of Billy Wright, laid down the classic Tutti Frutti (1955). Elvis distinguished himself from other rednecks by admiring those early geniuses to the extent that he would visit blues nightclubs to listen and learn at their feet. When he could no longer tolerate pure 'hillybilly' and wanted to bring 'black music' to white America, handlers changed 'boogie woogie' to 'rock and roll'. It fooled nobody as mainstream America immediately dubbed it 'The Devil's Music' (no prizes for guessing who 'The Devil' was) which only made it more popular with rebellious teenagers.

Pioneers ignored

Rock and roll pioneers like Chuck Berry and Little Richard were roundly ignored as well as the 'other four' in that Sun Records session and Elvis became the Creator of Rock and Roll then The King.

Let's not fool ourselves. Elvis was a white America commercial creation. Yes, he was a great singer. But he created nothing. He was a simple country hick with a clean heart and a fantastic singing voice who just wanted to sing gospel music. Yes, your glasses haven't misted up, it's gospel music. His handlers, led by the infamous Colonel Parker, refused to allow him to do so and, instead, forced him to become a garish, exaggerated caricature of wild sex. Nobody will ever convince me otherwise that if Elvis had been allowed to become the great gospel singer he really was, he would be alive today like Jerry Lee, Chuck and Little Richard who had the gumption to insist on being who they really were.

So, when it comes to game changers, among the four postulated by Bertis, Elvis came fourth. Next on the list would be Michael Jackson who changed no game but simply took the game he learned from past greats like Sammy Davis Jr, Jackie Wilson, Fred Astaire, James Brown and others and raised it to a level never before experienced.

We are left with two genuine game changers Bob Marley and The Beatles. Both these icons of change taught the world a new music and a new way to create. They were awesome. I don't want to have to choose between them but, if you put a gun to my head, it's our own Bob Marley that gets the nod for the breadth of his reach while he was alive. It's tough because he had the advantage of better communications during the late 1970s than the Beatles had in the early 1960s.

But, no doubt, due to their excessive youth, Bertis and Simon failed to mention some of the greatest game changers who were as important as Bob or John. If Elvis was a game changer, what was Frank Sinatra? But the granddaddy of game changers - the best who ever did it - was the late, legendary Louis Armstrong. Before Pops, music didn't even know that a trumpet could be a solo instrument. Legends like Louis Jordan learned at Satchmo's feet as sidemen. His music truly made this 'A Wonderful World'.

Peace and love.

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.