The History of Rock n Roll Vol.1: 1995 Rock N Roll (16 of 21)

The History of Rock n Roll

He made it out of that kitchen and into the history books.
That is great.
His records are great.
They still sound great.
They always will.
Black people, they drew out of their community...
this powerful, emotional, majestic thing...
called Black gospel music, and jazz, and blues.
All those elements combined, played a part...
in forming rhythm and blues.
And later, as the whites were attracted to it...
It began to be known as rock 'n' roll.

Rock 'n' roll is a misnomer.
There's no such music as rock 'n' roll.
Rock 'n' roll was something that, just out of necessity...
was termed rock 'n' roll.
There was a man by the name of Alan Freed...
who started playing rhythm and blues music...
after the classical music station went off the air in Cleveland, Ohio.
Hi, everybody.
How y'all? This is yours truly Alan Freed welcoming you to The Big Beat on radio.
Every night at 10:00.
He called the show The Moon Dog Show.
He came to New y ork and there was an old beggar, a panhandler...
in this town by the name of The Moon Dog.
So Alan Freed couldn't call his show The Moon Dog Show anymore...
because the old panhandler sued him about the name.
So in a hurry to come up with a name...
bottom line was he decided that he was gonna call it The Rock and Roll Show.