Gospel Music: The *Other* Black Sabbath

[Zzzptm]

Please pardon the pun, but I couldn't resist. I mean, the performer is black, she's singing Sabbath tunes, and if you're in doubt, Sister Rosetta Tharpe is plaing a Gibson SG, just like Tony Iommi.

If this doesn't set your foot a-tapping, you must be dead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnAQATKRBN0

Gospel music, particularly from the black churches, is an important part of the roots of rock. So much so, that this performer is known - deservedly so, if you ask me - as the Godmother of Rock and Roll.

Quite a few early rock acts started out as gospel singers that were trying to break into a new audience, so they'd take gospel tunes and make the lyrics secular and then they had a hot little record on their hands. Often, to avoid getting the stink-eye for being a secular act, they'd record gospel music under one name and secular tunes as a different band.

While I can appreciate these tunes on many levels, I want to use this thread to focus on their connection to rock music itself and how it's inspired artists as well as provided them with basic material to work with.

[Sabbabbath]

Thanks for starting this topic! I would have posted a Rosetta Tharpe song myself sooner or later. She's like the "displaced other" of popular, visible rock 'n' roll: an amazing rock 'n' roll pioneer who is female, black, reportedly bisexual, and (in the later parts of her career) not slim. Not surprisingly, it was other people who got the big money and fame. I guess it is mostly due to Youtube that she is getting at least SOME recognition these days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9bX5mzdihs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRSEp9z22lg

There's more:
https://noisey.vice.com/en_au/article/rbydm6/ten-musical-pioneers-youve-never-heard-of-the-girls

[Zzzptm]

Sad thing is that even that article can't list 'em all. I have to get ready for work, but there's more to post on both gospel roots of rock and some names that are important to know when you look for pioneers of rock.

On a side note, each Saturday, my mom puts on a radio show 10am-noon US Central Time. I'm on it as "Steve the Cockroach" and we focus on music from the 50s and early 60s, but also pick up on roots of rock as far back as Big Joe Turner's "Roll 'Em Pete" from 1939. It's called The Magic Time Warp Show and online listening/podcast links can be found at www.knon.org.

[Thelemech]

 Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens    She is a relatively new Gospel singer, check out the album Cold World, absolutely fabulous.

[Zzzptm]

Mahalia Jackson... my mom said if Mahalia Jackson sang the phone book, she'd buy that record.

Her voice carries such an emotion with it, it's what just about every soul singer wanted to bring out in their recordings. Here and there, you can hear notes that Elvis copied into his style. We have to remember that it was gospel music that really inspired Elvis' musical career.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as1rsZenwNc

[Zzzptm]

Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens    She is a relatively new Gospel singer, check out the album Cold World, absolutely fabulous.

Have to agree 100%, she's got the goods! I was hooked as soon as she sang that first note.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsCEx9qKeDg