When you think of the fact that both Little Richard and Johnny Cash stated her as their greatest influence and Chuck Berry said his career was just "One Long Rosetta impersonation" it's hard to believe that she is hardly known in popular culture.
@@coreys2686 nah, its the fact that she's a woman that she gets as much interest as she does. Imagine this music being played by a white man. Would you be saying holy cow what a genius? Nah. And there's none of her music that anybody would be happy to listen to any longer. It doesn't hold up. Whereas you take somebody like Berry, his tunes do. If she had recorded Johny B Good she'd be a household name still to this day. Don't get me wrong, I love her. But her legacy isn't being held back because she's a woman or black.
@@dm0065 Yes I would. She's an amazing player, the moreso because she's the first. The religious aspect is probably the biggest reason the music doesn't hold up. Her being homosexual doesn't help either. Being homosexual was illegal for most of her life.
So agree. Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, etc. all learned from Sister Rosetts Tharpe. She is unquestionably buried in the annals of rock and roll. She deserves to be recognized as THE ROOT of Rock and Roll.
@@anthonytaylor7928 as an "influencer'. I think she deserves a lot more respect and shoulda been first in. And I think most of the best guitarists would agree with me.
Today I discovered the Mother of Rock n Roll and damnit if I didn't shed a tear at the realization that she has not been given the credit she rightfully deserves. Amazing woman.
God I wish she had been able to record her sound with the kind of sound technology they have today. Those crisp guitar riffs are bad ass. She's been long gone but Sister Rosetta Tharpe needs to have the recognition she deserves.
A lot of her recordings from the '30s and '40s are lost, but she was playing guitar since she was like 6, so she probably shredded out solos in those two decades as well.
And the thing the thing with her type of playing was she was a plug and play type of guitar player I don't think she had no special techniques for her foot pedals or nothing it was straight playing she taught a lot of people things that they don't know about today. I wonder how many musicians studied her type of playing to learn and they just don't want to tell people I bet you a lot so wonderful that lady was ahead of her times
@@hank1519Because she came up during the very height of Jim Crow and the whites at the time just didnt care but rip her off without credit. History compounds on itself when it isn't reconciled with.
@@hank1519 это буги .. конечно очень напоминает рок - н -ролл потому что у них один папа - блюз. Просто у рок-н-ролла квадратный ритм , а у буги он "шагающий"..
You nailed it bro. That would be worth doing. Her third marriage was at a Major League Baseball game with thousands of “witnesses.” That husband was pretty worthless but they were together till she died.
@@AustinStarr191 It was at a baseball stadium, but the event was her concert, not a ball game. Still, over 30,000 people paid to see her get married and then play a concert.
She is all the way to the top by herself... no one before and now can reach her. Talented, Stylish, elegancy, well dressed, the greatest instrumentist ever, great voice, a rock-and-roll true ARTIST.
The music evolved from the black church before and after the civil war.1,500,000 European immigrants died trying to preserve and abolish slavery.58 million Europeans died during ww1.75 million during WW2 fighting over China India Africa and SE Asia is Vietnam.Europe's population has never recovered as we witness reverse colonization in Europe.
Within the past 10 years, the interest and appreciation of Sister Rosetta Tharpe has grown soo large and I'm just happy to see folks following rock music to its true origins. No longer will she be a name lost to time or miscrediting. Appreciate y'all and keep on listening!
She deserves her flowers, matter of fact the entire garden. As a black woman who love rock, alternative and all that, seeing a gospel singing woman like her (black woman) start rock! You can't tell me nothin'! This woman is a QUEEN!!!
That country rock ability Cajun .. just good blues .. music doesn't know color and damn well shouldn't .. she should be and is for those of us who are older and play, but she should be up there with the Elvis and other old timers who brought us rock/blues .. she was a talent and great spirit
A lady. Wearing lovely dresses. Just right earrings. High heels. Wielding and playing an electric guitar. An extraordinary sight to behold and a feast for the ears. Now I know where all those guitar "heroes" steal their moves.
as a metal musician, i can't believe i've only discovered this now. for metal comes from rock 'n roll and, apparently, all rock n' roll came from sister rosetta 🤟😄 that's just insanely, insanely awesome. such soloing technique in the 1940's!!! astonishing. thanks so much for the upload!
She was obviously light years ahead of everyone else in her time. I heard someone say she had a big old steel guitar that had a very strong sound. I’m no music expert but is that a Les Paul she is playing in some of those clips? That guitar is probably priceless now….
@@OriginalKingRichTv the sg didn't come about till 1960, and that 3-pickup sg custom a few years after that, I think those people assuming the footage was from the 40s were deceived by it being in black and white
She didn't record anything that remotely sounded that way on guitar until late 1958. The guitar she's playing in these film clips is a Gibson SG that wasn't even made until 1962. T-bone Walker, Elmore James and others were playing the guitar that way well before Chuck Berry combined it with Grady Martin and Merle Travis' country guitar licks and put it all to lyrics aimed at the emerging teen culture in 1955. Her primary influence was her vocal style, which inspired 14-years old Little Richard in 1947 to want to be a performer when he saw her at a concert in his hometown of Macon, GA were he was selling snack concessions at her concert. It was her vocal delivery that had a profound effect on young Elvis Presley. It was her singing style that no one had ever done before she did it that way.
@@Yourbankaccount That's nothing many Delta Blues and hillbilly artists weren't already doing by 1938. Go back and listen to some of the Lomax Smithsonian recordings collection from 1933-34. Those are not the full stop slide glissandos which characterizes early Rock & Roll that Chuck Berry was recording in 1955 that we don't hear from Rosetta until late 1958.
Her Mom was a singer & musician in a choir & band, beside described as a prodigy, I'm sure Rosetta was provided inspiration & lessons, traditional & else, although that guitar style is her own (especially around that era). Sure seems to inspire & connect with everybody.😁
Thanks for pointing out her lineage. It is a romantic idea to think she is a natural but realistically you can never get that level of excellence with training.
She learned a lot of that by listening to folks like Elmore James and Chuck Berry. Her guitar didn't begin to sound anything like that until the late1950s. It wasn't fully formed until the early 1960s. The Gibson SG she's playing in all of the old film clips wasn't offered by Gibson until 1962. It was her singing style and vocal delivery that was revolutionary in the 1940s and 1950s. That's what affected Little Richard, Elvis, and many others in the 1950s.
Not to take away from your point, but Robert Johnson only influenced rock artists after the 60s when they unearthed and sold his “King of the Delta Blues” compilation. He was unknown back in the 40s and 50s because his singles didn’t perform that well and were buried away in a vault by Vocalion, which was bought out less than a decade after Johnson recorded. He was, however, an extremely talented player and had enormous influence, especially on the British Invasion of the 60s. (🤓🤓🤓)
Remember that she was probably using 12 or 13 gauge strings (the norm for the times), had no pedals and plugged straight into a simple amp with no gain knob or reverb or delay. I’d love to see a modern day shredder make a sound using her gear!
Sister Rosetta was doing a version of that guitar style in the late 1930s on an archtop acoustic. So yeah, she predates Chuck Berry with her ripping, sliding double stop figures. She was an American treasure, always connected to her church roots, much appreciated in Europe as a folk star. Thanks much for this awesome compilation.
I wonder about her possible connections to the touring Black Jazz groups who were in Berlin in the 30's. I had no idea about this woman. My mind is reeling.
This woman is little short of astonishing. What a guitarist. And she could sing. And there's a good chance she made the first ever rock'n'roll record - in the 40s. Why isn't there an international Sister Rosetta Tharpe Day?
Well, she had a day. January 11, 2008. The city of Philadelphia acknowledged it as Sister Rosetta Tharpe day. 😊👍 I dont think it's an annual day though
She started rockin' out in the 1930's to become extremely popular. During WW2 she was one of two gospel recording artists that were allowed to make recordings for the US military to listen to at their bases and over the airwaves.
Her singing was much more influential in the development of early Rock & Roll than her guitar playing, which sounded nothing remotely like this until the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was her *singing style* that made a tremendous impression on 14 years-old Little Richard in 1947 when he was selling concessions at her concert in Macon. It was her *vocal gymnastics* that caught the ear of young Elvis Presley in the very early 1950s. It was the way she sang like no one else before her had that was revolutionary. The style of guitar she's playing in these film clips from the 1960s didn't begin to appear on her records until late in 1958, three years after Chuck Berry's Maybelline and other hits with similar guitar sounds released in 1955. Chuck combined what he'd heard from bluesmen like T-Bone Walker and Elmore James, "hillbilly" guitar pickers like Merle Travis and Grady Martin, R&B piano arrangements of Johnnie Johnson, and set all of that music to lyrics aimed directly at the emerging teen sub-culture in 1955. The Gibson SG she's playing in these film clips wasn't even offered by Gibson until 1962.
When she waves her right arm she's hearing something in her mind that is beyond the equipment she has. Like, I wish she had a whammy bar and I wish she had a lot of sustain (or any!) and I'd love to know what else she heard. She wasn't limited by the past, or the sounds of the past. Everything about her was a brave walk into the future. What a giant of a person!
I totally understand what you mean, I was very surprised about her "modern rock star" movements, and I can almost imagine how it would sound if she had a whammy bar and a pedal.
Sister Rosettas 1963 3-pu Les Paul SG Custom (serial no. 3749) does hava a "whammy bar", the Gibson Vibrola. The Guitar is in the collection of The Met.
If you listen carefully she waves her arm while she is bending a note. It's not uncommon to see guitar players wave their right hand while they're bending a note with their left hand.
It would have been interesting to see her play a strat with the whammy bar which was more stable than the "sideways" tremolo system in her SG/Les Paul custom but I guess she preferred Gibsons and Gretsches...
She plays the best rock & roll guitar ever. What gets me, is her knowledge of jazz guitar as well. So much to call on including her ever present Savior who moves us through her music. Rest easy Honey.
👍🌟⭐️💫All I know is she is CLEARLY the Queen Mother of Rock & Roll! Everyone else learned from her and grew it. She should have been the FIRST person inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame! There wouldn’t even be a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame without her! Finally, she was inducted in 2017.
@@angeloacosta9411 No she didn't have any children or grandchildren. It doesn't matter though, as the Mother of Rock and Roll than makes all of us rock fans her children and grandchildren. :)
Which should tell you just how much of a joke that hall of fame is. It's fun for a lot of people but it's absolutely meaningless. The people nominating artists generally don't know anything about rock.
Among all the other wonderful things about Sister Rosetta is that her picking is amazing. The phrasing is almost like a trumpet part. Each note is articulated and played for a reason. To play with that much precision and emotion at the same time is a rare talent.
She's stellar but she seemed to downpick every note (a feat in itself) before the '60s; imagine if she'd mastered up-picking as well, and maybe finger releasing or tapping.
@@hhonez6538 Anybody could have invented tapping. Hendrix and Van Halen just popularized it. Rosetta innovated in her own ways. Imagine if she'd done tapping, the world would have exploded.
The irony. I looked to my right at the listing of other video clips. I see Hendrix, who i am a fan of. I think I bet she even inspired....... and before I could even finish the thought, I look to my left and see your comment. Great Minds.
She like Aretha Franklin was a phenomenal musician IN ADDITION to being a gifted singer. She would have made a good living just as a guitarist even if she had not sung a single note. The originator of Rock and Roll is a woman!!!!!!!
@@TugIronChief and she was bisexual. Another strike! She was once rich and famous but eventually yes. She did die with not much money.. couldn't even afford a tombstone, so, many years later the neighbors and city of Philadelphia, PA provided one smh. January 11th was declared Sister Rosetta Tharpe Day. 😊
What a guitar player and musician! She totally rocks the house!!! RU-vid at it's best for allowing content creators to showcase those who forged parts of today's culture. Respect to RnR Hall of Fame 2018! She is up there with the other greats!!!
How can you not love this woman, I'm just thankful to have found her and enjoy her music! Rosetta is amazing and inspiring and some of our favorite musicians also thought so!
same here! without Bailey, I would never have heard of Rosetta Tharpe! Rosetta should be a household name, should always be called the mother of rock n roll! So glad I watch Dark History
Think about it for a minute... what she's doing at the time she was doing it. That took real nerve, but she believed in herself and she certainly had the talent to back up that self-confidence. I read on another of her RU-vid videos that both Chuck Berry and Elvis were both inspired by her play. This video is pretty much intended to let guitar players geek out on her technique... and well they should. This woman could flat play...
Because that would debunk Chuck berry as the farther of rock n roll when in reality she already doing it before he was if u really listened close it's her style the god mother of rock n roll
Exactly & the stinking world craved it imitated it called it rock & roll....see the devil always perverts what God does originally....same old story , she didn't get recognition cos the serpents couldn't stand the lyrics simple as that .
Before Guitar Slim, little richard, chụck Berry, there was Rosetta, why is she not in the rock and roll hall of fame, as one of the first pioneers of rock and roll?
Her mother played mandolin for the church when Rosetta was a child, so probably not all self-taught. There's some good video documentaries of her here, you should hear them.
All hail the queen!! You know she had to fight for every step she took. Amazing courage and grace. Sister Rosetta Tharpe deserves her place on the throne.
Unfortunately there are no surviving tapes from her younger years, but she was playing like this to thousands of people a decade or two before these appearances. Easy to see her influence on the guitar Gods of the fifties and sixties.
She started it all. Make no mistake she is the Queen of Rock n Roll! She had the style,tone,and presence of a superstar at the time. She was just early. A pioneer. Few got her and that sound at the time. Man I listen now and think at that time it would of blown my mind. There’s something about that still sounds fresh to me.
Just about everything is pieced together from previous observations to forward w a new and different twist. But Sis. Tharpe was very impressive. RIP Sis. Tharrpe.
She's where Elvis learned swag He use to go to the black church sit in the back on Sunday night's before he was famous If not for her no Elvis Chuck Berry No Beatles Ect so sad she didn't get the respect she deserved inventing rock n roll
Elvis was always very open to giving credit to Sister Rosetta and the other black singers he learned from. He was a fundamentally good kid from the South who respected his elders, no matter their color.
White music owners black balled black artists and stole their content to give them to more presentable white artists. His existence means so many black artists were displaced and content/styles plagiarized.
Debería Hollywood o al menos Netflix hacer una película de la historia de esta gran artista 😍 la creadora del Rock and Roll y sin duda alguna es la madre del Rock and Roll y no la madrina, gracias a ella surge este género musical y por eso es la primer precursora del Rock. Increíble su forma de tocar!
I saw her live at a concert once. She solo duelled with a guy who only knew one single riff, and I got the impression that she felt sorry for him and didn’t want to humiliate him more.
Gimme a break. Do you think she could play what Dimebag did? They are completely different styles of music. Don’t get too carried away! Even Glen Campbell could shred circles around her. With that said… she is amazing and ahead of her time.
She is a phenomenal, absolutely professional guitarist. why have I only just heard of her? She is one of the most natural musicians I have ever seen. WE need more of her singing and playing.
You know what's so amazing,that took place,what, 60yrs ago, and after 60 yrs you can STILL FEEL HER MUSIC AND FEEL THE SOUL SHE HAD IN HER IN 2022 WOW!!!!!
I just recently learned about her. I used to posit that Chuck Berry was the father of Rock and Roll. He may be the father but Sister Tharpe is the mother....her guitar riffs, head and body movements, stage presence...Chuck copied all of them. Wow! She is great.
This playing is really minimalist... nothing extraneous, but stuffed full of joy, and I know when I've heard a real musician 'cos I can't stop listening or smiling. Now I've heard of Rosetta Tharpe. Thankyou for posting.
What an innovator! She definitely moved the adoption of electric guitar into American music ahead a few steps...and did it with such grace and poise. I applaud the STAX museum in Memphis for recognizing Sister Rosetta Tharpe in their introductory video. Thank you Glenn for putting this together!
She had so much rhythm and soul man that women could play. You watch her she lived every note she played. Just a fantastic women RIP Sister and thank you for the joy you gave me
She was so amazing.... I too discovered her so late in my life.... made sure to show my kids so history DOES NOT repeat this mistake..... This woman was as Badass as they come.... ripped off as an artist so many times... But she kept coming..... She is Rock and Roll .... Check your history.... she should be acknowledged as a founding member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame... not an afterthought....
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you....to who ever put this video up for all to see. AND, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to Sister Rosetta Tharpe for all of the great 🎸 guitar playing. 🎸
There are some great older clips of her with the Lucky Millander Orchestra too. Not much guitar playing on those, but the singing and the band is excellent.
Yes! I didn't know about her until about two years ago. I feel cheated that I got to the age of 48 and didn't know about her! I've been trying to spread the word about her and her influence to people I know since then. If anyone every talks about someone being the King of RnR, I will definitely set them straight. There was a Queen of RnR before any of the Kings!
@@darrenthomas6469 i heard that the SG later became the Les Paul.. or something like that lol. I'm not familiar with guitars. I'm just infatuated with this woman.
Wow! As a guitarist myself I say she is one of the best ever! I just discovered her and you can bet I'm going to be studying her body of work for inspiration!
People like to impose the standard weepy story arc on Rosetta Tharpe's life: she was criminally overlooked, she was cheated out of stardom, etc. But the fact is that, although she was buried without a head stone, she died having lived a full life on her own terms, doing what she loved. She played to thousands in her prime, and seemed happy. Who could ask for more than that?
She had diabetes, and that - together with a 1970 stroke - was the reason for losing one of her her legs and getting skinny at the end. She died of a second stroke on Oct. 9, 1973. And as far as I now, she was gay in a time when being a gay, black woman must've been like being a Jewish, one-eyed black man with a blond, Swedish wife...someone like Sammy Davis Jr.
I adore this lady's playing, singing & her stage presence with her total absorption in what she does so well. 12'ish yrs'ago, i bought a s/h CD to add to my car commuting listening, just titled "Gospel Music" with no other details, not even a date tho' you could tell it was an old original recording. It blew me away & it was there I first heard her, this (unknown to me) lady's great performances as part of other Gospel musician's singing tracks on the disc, but her guitar & singing was evident on many of the tracks. As soon as I saw her on-tube, I only then knew & saw who Sister Rosetta Tharpe was. All commonly famouse & allegedly brilliant guitarists like Clapton, Hendrix, Peter Green & whoever else, now fall very short of her talent I.m.firm.o.
Sister Rosetta was the one that lead all the other great blues artists, everyone else followed in her footsteps, truly inspirational...thanks for uploading
