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A lot of ink has been spilled by
music writers about what deserves to be
considered the ‘first rock and roll song’.
I’ve always felt that the beginning of any new
spirit or style in the world- in sports, art,
religion, politics- makes for an interesting
story. Who jumps aboard the new thing right
away and who decides, no thanks, I’m sticking
with what I know? What is the cost when you
make either decision? HONEYDRIPPER takes place
in the little crossroads town of Harmony,
Alabama, in 1950. Blues singers still sit
outside the drugstores, playing for pennies, the
jukebox has room for big bands, jump combos like
Louis Jordan’s, country and proto-rockabilly
stars like Hank Williams, Perry Como style
crooners and perky novelty songs, while gospel
is the most commonly listened-to live music.
But technology is about to intrude. The guitar
player, relegated to sideman on the bandstand,
is about to plug his ax in. And once the guitar
can wail and slide with the same volume as the
horns or piano-- watch out.
In the movie Gary Clark Jr., a
guitar prodigy out of Austin, plays Sonny Blake,
conjuring up the spirit of Ike Turner, T Bone
Walker, Johnny Watson and countless others who
pushed the music forward when they got
electrified, and Danny Glover plays Pinetop
Purvis, an itinerant boogie-woogie piano player
who has made his stand by buying the
Honeydripper Lounge and presenting the music
he’s absorbed in his own life, up-to-the-moment
or not. He is haunted by his past and resistant
to the future, and suddenly this good-looking
kid rolls into town carrying a guitar with no
hole in it---
There is tension and harmony
in almost every song, and wars are fought within
music without a word being uttered. One of
these battles for dominance that was waged in
the early 50’s was between the guitar and the
piano. Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis did
their best to hold the stage, but when Chuck
Berry started blasting piano chords on his
guitar and duck- walking across the stage (Jerry
Lee did his best, but the piano is not a mobile
instrument) the course of popular music was
set. Even the honking saxophone, raunchy soul
of rhythm and blues, faded to a support role, or
in white rock, disappeared almost entirely.
I’ve heard inner city hoop
players and jazz musicians use the same phrase
to describe the rules of entry to their world-
‘If you can play, you can stay.’ Electrified
blues bands in Chicago were known to literally
play their competitors off the stage, taking
over their gigs. In HONEYDRIPPER Pinetop Purvis
has to decide whether the new music is a threat
or a life-saving opportunity. Tension, harmony,
potential violence- put some rhythm in it and
it’s drama. It’s rock and roll.
--John Sayles |
