"What is rock and roll?"
"[Teenagers] have been made either happier or sadder because of a certain song that was popular at the time."
"There was a different form of music being enjoyed by some people that originated from the rhythm and blues sounds of the negro spirituals."
"True rhythm and blues were songs of emotion and feeling; however for more general acceptance by the public, the tempo was changed somewhat, and the lyrics were changed to themes of love and romance."
"One popular disk jockey, Alan Freed, thought this new beat was so different that he could feel a definite rocking movement every time he played one of these songs."
If any of the preceding sentences made you laugh, cry, or simply reflect on your own impending death, this is the record for you. Norm N. Nite, owner of possibly the whitest voice ever committed to vinyl, had idle hands one day as a student in the radio studio of Ohio University, and he decided it was the perfect opportunity for "putting down on tape everything that I knew or could remember about those Rock N' Roll years". He eventually sold the idea of his "definitive history of Rock N' Roll" to Laurie Records, original home of Dion and the Belmonts, who released this LP in 1967.
Laurie licensed huge chunks of original rock hits, with the songs mixed hard left and Norm's narration mixed hard right, to create this 29-minute documentary program split over two sides. I've included a homemade bonus track for your enjoyment, a cutdown version of the whole LP in which I trimmed every tune, whenever possible, to a single sample of the vocalist saying the name of the song: thirteen minutes of pure ADHD ear candy that'll have you reaching for pen and paper to take down that 800 number!
DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.
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