Sister Rosetta Tharpe is finally being inducted into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame. Now, I realize the Hall of Fame is meaningless, in the same way the Oscars are meaningless. (Cary Grant never won an Oscar in competition. I have no use for the Oscars, at least not in terms of their actual conferring of actual weight/importance: They get it wrong CONSTANTLY) – but inclusion is hugely symbolic. If the world were just, Sister Rosetta would have been in the First Class inducted. But such is life, and so here we are. All I can say is: FINALLY.
She was crossover before “crossover” was even even really a concept. In the music of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, you can see the future. You can see Little Richard. You can see Link Wray, Scotty Moore, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Lee Lewis. You can see Keith Richards. They all revered her. They all were inspired by her. She opened up ground. She created space … for herself, to do her thing, but for those that followed in her footsteps. That’s what pioneers do: they blast through walls, pierce a frontier considered absolute, creating more space for others to follow.
She should be more well-known, that’s for sure … but that’s often the case with those who arrive somewhere first. She was a gospel singer, who brought rhythm ‘n’ blues into her church-going spiritual style. God was always present for her. You can feel it in her performances. Check out her transportive performance of “This Train.” She GOES somewhere. That song TAKES her somewhere.
I love this live performance, too, on a rain-wet train platform in England, 1964. With the explosion of Elvis, and his aftermath … as well as the rise of folk music … many of the more obscure musicians, who had been doing their groundbreaking stuff since the 30s, and earlier … found new life and a new appreciative audience in the 60s. People had whole new chapters in their career opened up. Sister Rosetta was one of them.
Watch her energy. She’s performing for, what, 100 people?
But her energy could fill a stadium.
Her melding of seemingly-disparate styles – the sacred and the so-called profane – is what would eventually be known as “rock ‘n’ roll”. Musicians had been plugging in their guitars since the 30s. An electric guitar was necessary for the Big Band music of the time: it needed to be heard. But it was Sister Rosetta Tharpe – and a couple of others (Les Paul, Lonnie Johnson, T-Bone Walker) – who understood the real breakthrough that was the electric guitar. She was its foremost pioneer. She was the future. She stood IN the future, holding up a torch – an electric torch, of course – for the quite literally MILLIONS who followed in her footsteps. She knew the way already.
Rock and Roll writers — particularly those closely associated with Rolling Stone– frequently seem unfamiliar with the deep history of this music, perhaps because our tastes in popular music are like everyone’s idea of what pizza is. You fall in love with the pizza you grew up with, and the music that was on the jukebox at that pizza joint is likewise formative.
As for awards, it is interesting to think about what performance Cary Grant should have won a Best Actor prize (apart from nearly all of them). Part of the problem is that he is best known for comic roles, which seldom win awards. (The big exception is “Penny Serenade”). “The Awful Truth”? “Suspicion”? There is a case to be made for “Philadelphia Story”, but probably “North By Northwest” would be the best pick- late in his career, shows a fair amount of range…..