The day that changed the sound of music

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33857, 31 May 1975, Page 12

The day that changed the sound of music

(By

CLOYD BRAY)

NEW YORK. One day in June 1950, a temporary disc jockey slapped a rhythm - and - blues record on the turntable of a Cleveland, Ohio, radio station and intoned the words which have made sure pop-music would never be the same again:

“OK, let’s have some Rock ’n* Roll . . .” “It just came to me,” recalls Alan Freed, the man who started it all just 25 years ago. “I didn’t like the earlier descriptions and this one just seemed to fit.” Today, both Freed, and the man whose music he was describing, an unknown bandleader named Bill Hayley, are pop legends.

They hope to get together in New York about the time of the anniversary for a celebratory drink. As Freed, now a wealthy music promoter, told me: “Just as swing belonged to my generation, rock ’n’ roll belongs to today’s youngsters. “I’ve been accused of fomenting rock riots and that kind of thing, but it W'as nothing to do with the music. Something wrong “It’s a shame 97 per cent of youngsters had to suffer because of the hooligan element.” Today, the basic rock ’n’ roll of a quartercentury ago is back in high fashion. Fifties gear — including £BO Teddy Boy suits .— are stacked ■ in the boutiques and Hayley’s “Rock Around The Clock” is still the world’s most popular pop record with total sales of more than 20m. It has been top of the American hit parade no fewer than six times! Bill Hayley, who formed his most popular band, The Comets, in 1953, still tours at least half the year. At 47 he is plumper than when he burst so dynamically on the scene, and the legendary kiss-curl seems to originate from further back on the scalp. Latest revival The latest rock ’n’ roll revival could earn him more money than he made in the fifties. Bill told me recently: “I don’t fully understand it, but I guess there has to be something wrong with the pop music of the present if kids want to live in the past. “I think that what has happened is that the record companies and the musicians have misjudged the tastes of the public. People are sick of screaming amplifiers and difficult music. Uncomplicated "They want to get back to down-to-earth music that is uncomplicated and that they can understand. And that is what we play. That is what we

have always played. We have never changed at all.’.’ Golden days Back in the golden days of rock, Haley once held the first five places in the hit parade. In Britain alone, fans bought one million of his records in under a month. When he arrived for a British tour, 4000 fans waited all night on the quayside to welcome him off the Queen Elizabeth. He didn’t know what hit him. “My feet didn’t touch the ground for 50 yards,” he remembers. “I lost my overcoat, my overnight case and the buttons off my suit. “I -admit I was overwhelmed and a little scared. Fan devotion on this scale was something new.” Alan Freed is not at all surprised that rock ’n’ roll has returned to become the in-sound of 1975. ' Same sound “People have been saying for years that rock ’n’

roll is finished but it just goes round in circles back to square one-

“It’s totally fresh and new to the kids of today. Nine-year-olds are buying Bill Haley records. This is incredible. It just proves that rock ’n’ roll is a lasting music.” A quarter of a century ago people weren’t sure where rock ’n’ roll would lead. In the Deep South, a worried pastor held a prayer service that rock stars might be granted salvation. A psychologist announced that rock was “a perfectly good outlet for exurbrance but the impact for good or evil depends on the performance. The performer has therefore a great responsibility. Classical records Now 55, Alan Freed lives in an elegant New York apartment, its shelves lined with classical records. “The classics have always been my personal favourite,” he says. “But then I was too old for rock ’n’ roll even when I invented it.”