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Rock 'n roll Music Without Drums? Rockabilly Proves It is possible - And delay!

It's tough for fans of rock 'n roll to assume the way a rock song could exist without drums. Well, maybe some rock ballads or slower folk-rock tunes might get away from it. However, not a driving rock song which makes you want to get up and move to the music activity. Absolutely no way, right? Wrong. Enter rockabilly!
60's music

So most rockabilly songs do indeed feature drums. In fact, the drums--particularly the snare drum--have become an intrinsic member of the standard rockabilly combo. However it wasn't always like that. some of the most famous rockabilly songs was lacking any drums whatsoever and so they still rock as hard every other tune ever recorded.

Rockabilly evolved away from a variety of several musical styles. The blues, rhythm and blues, gospel, and some aspects of jazz all contributed something. And also the supplier with the "billy" part of the name: country music (that has been often called "hillbilly" music back in the 1940s and early 1950s.) Several artists and bands often will be pointed to as creating music that sounded a great deal like rockabilly whilst far back because the 1940s. A few of these bands were R&B bands and some where country-oriented bands. It was Elvis who really melded these styles together to make undoubtedly that was a new form of music plus it came into existence called rockabilly.

Elvis had obviously been influenced by most of these musical forms, nevertheless it was country music he decided to pursue. Needless to say, that made sense since he was obviously a white kid and blues-related music was mostly created by black musicians. In early 1950s, that color difference made a big difference. Blues and R&B music was "race" music. A white performer would be bucking strong racial currents being involved in it. Therefore, Elvis looked to country.

But the other music had become this type of part of the young Elvis that it couldn't be held down long. As he appeared at Sam Phillips' Memphis Recording Service studios to chop several country tracks for Phillips' Sun Records, Sam hired a few country musicians (Scotty Moore on classical guitar and Bill Black on string bass) to accompany Elvis in the sessions. New bands didn't make heavy usage of drums during those times and thus no drummer was earned for your session. During a break from recording the scheduled songs, Elvis started camping it to a classic R&B number called, "That's Alright Mama". Moore and Black followed his lead and joined in. Phillips knew there was clearly a gift in what he was hearing and told the boys to start over right away, this time around using the tape running.

The result was an amazing recording with the song which Phillips released on Sun Records under the title "That's All Right" along with a country number "Blue Moon of Kentucky" done up in exactly the same style. Maybe they didn't know what to it at that time, but it was rockabilly through and throughout. Both recordings are as rockin' as anything ever recorded and there aren't any drums on either recording! Instead, Bill Black provided the percussion with the slap-bass style that he'd learned from listening to and watching blues bop and R&B bass players. This slap style has developed into a hallmark of rockabilly music from the time.

This didn't require much time before Phillips started adding drums to Elvis' Sun Records recordings, getting drummer D.J. Fontana to provide the beat. All of them recognized what are the drums could give a previously exciting rockabilly recording and also the drums have, needless to say, be a must-have in rock and roll music. But those early recordings prove it wasn't always that way.


60's music