[On March 21st, 1952, Cleveland Arena hosted the Moondog Coronation Ball, an event widely considered the first major rock and roll concert. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy that concert and other groundbreaking rock and roll figures and stories, leading up to a special weekend post on 21st century rockers carrying the legacies forward!]
On three layers
to a foundational concert (beyond the role
of organizer and DJ Alan Freed, on whom more in tomorrow’s post).
1)
The Controversy: It’s strikingly telling that
the first rock and roll concert ran into problems with the authorities, setting
the stage for decades of such conflicts. In this case, the issue began with
ticketing errors that led to roughly twice as many tickets being issued as
Cleveland Arena could hold; when those roughly 20,000 ticket-holders
understandably tried to stay in the arena, the event was eventually shut down (although
the exact details of when and by whom remain uncertain and debated, setting the
stage for the kinds
of mythic stories/lore that have also accompanied rock concerts and rock
and roll overall ever since). One thing’s for sure, though: the planned
“coronation” of a teen king and queen at midnight, a clear reflection of
rock music’s youthful appeal and audience from the jump, sadly did not take
place.
2)
The Performers: While exactly when that shutdown
occurred remains disputed, there’s no doubt that many of the night’s later acts,
including Billy Ward and
His Dominoes and Varetta
Dillard, unfortunately did not get to perform. But as journalist and radio
pioneer Valena
Minor Williams recounted in her coverage
of the event, the first two headlining acts did get to play, and each
represents a unique thread to the history of early rock and roll. There was Paul Williams, the
saxophonist turned R&B band leader whose signature sax sound, developed in
hits like “The Huckle-Buck”
(which gave his band The
Hucklebuckers their name), embodied the evolution of jazz, blues, and
R&B into early rock and roll. And following them were Tiny Grimes and His Rocking
Highlanders, like Williams’ an all-Black band but in this case a group who performed in kilts, had
scored a huge hit with their cover of “Loch
Lomond,” and truly embodied the cross-cultural origins and evolution of
early rock.
3)
The Legacy: There are all sorts of ways to
remember a historic concert, including reading back into the coverage by Valena
Minor Williams (and listening to as much of those artists/bands as we can,
natch). But one of my favorite rock traditions is to keep concerts going, and
starting with 1992’s Moondog
Coronation Ball ’92—organized by Cleveland radio program director and
legend John
Gorman and featuring other legends including Ronnie Spector (rest in peace) and
The Drifters—that’s been the case here. For decades after that 1992 revival
radio station WMJI hosted an annual concert, although it seems to have paused
(and perhaps stopped for good) a few years back. Those concerts could be
labeled nostalgia, which of course has been a powerful force in rock (ie, “classic
rock”) for a long while—but to my mind, live music is never simply
nostalgic, and always a way to extend the legacy of the foundational such
events like the Moondog Coronation Ball.
Next rock and
roll remembrance tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Other rock and roll pioneers you’d highlight?
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