Rock Awhile

"Rock Awhile"
"Rock Awhile"
	A-side
Single by Goree Carter & His Hepcats
B-side	"Back Home Blues"
Released	April 1949
Recorded	April 1949
Studio	ACA Studios
Genre	Rock and roll
Length	2:38
Label	Freedom Recording Company
Songwriter(s)	Goree Carter
Goree Carter & His Hepcats singles chronology
Audio sample
	Menu 0:00 file; help;

"Rock Awhile" is a song by American singer-songwriter Goree Carter, recorded in April 1949 for the Freedom Recording Company in Houston, Texas.

The song was released as the 18-year-old Carter's debut single (with "Back Home Blues" as the B-side) shortly after recording. The track is considered by many sources to be the first rock and roll song,^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] and has been called a better candidate than the more commonly cited "Rocket 88", which was released two years later.^[1]^[2]^[5] The song features an over-driven electric guitar style similar to that of Chuck Berry years later.^[1]^[2]^[3]

The former New York Times pop critic, Robert Palmer, made this comment about the recording in 1995:

"The clarion guitar intro differs hardly at all from some of the intros Chuck Berry would unleash on his own records after 1955; the guitar solo crackles through an overdriven amplifier; and the boogie-based rhythm charges right along. The subject matter, too, is appropriate -- the record announces that it's time to 'rock awhile,' and then proceeds to show how it's done."

^[6]

Personnel[]

Goree Carter – vocals, electric guitar
Lonnie Lyons – piano
Louis "Nunu" Pitts – bass
Allison Tucker – drums
Conrad O. Johnson – alto saxophone
Sam Williams – tenor saxophone (rhythm)
Nelson Mills – trumpet (rhythm)

References[]

^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d Robert Palmer, "Church of the Sonic Guitar", pp. 13-38 in Anthony DeCurtis, Present Tense, Duke University Press, 1992, p. 19. ISBN 0-8223-1265-4.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d John Nova Lomax (December 2014), Roll Over, Ike Turner, Texas Monthly
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c Roger Wood (2003), Down in Houston: Bayou City Blues, pages 46-47, University of Texas Press
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b "Uncovering Houston's lost music history". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
^ Palmer, Robert; et al. (1992). The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll:The Definitive History of the Most Important Artists and Their Music. Random House. p. 12. ISBN 0-679-73728-6. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
^ Racket

External links[]

Commentary on the song, SpontaneousLunacy.com

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[palmer19-1] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d Robert Palmer, "Church of the Sonic Guitar", pp. 13-38 in Anthony DeCurtis, Present Tense, Duke University Press, 1992, p. 19. ISBN 0-8223-1265-4.

[texasmonthly-2] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d John Nova Lomax (December 2014), Roll Over, Ike Turner, Texas Monthly

[wood-3] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c Roger Wood (2003), Down in Houston: Bayou City Blues, pages 46-47, University of Texas Press

[houston-4] Jump up to: ^a ^b "Uncovering Houston's lost music history". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved May 22, 2018.

[5] Palmer, Robert; et al. (1992). The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll:The Definitive History of the Most Important Artists and Their Music. Random House. p. 12. ISBN 0-679-73728-6. Retrieved August 13, 2013.

[6] Racket

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