Episode 2: “Roll ‘Em Pete” by Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
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Introduction
Backbeat is the thing that differentiates early rock and roll from music that preceded it. Players in blues and jazz music had been using a back beat, off and on, since the 1920s. Lionel Hampton was never recorded playing like this with any other drummers at the time. The first recording in the prehistory of rock generally credited as having a back beat doesn't have a drummer at all.
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