A lot of thought today about the Anniversary of American Bandstand and the removal of Alan Freeds ashes from the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. I may lose some friends today with this post and I am sure there will be those that will disagree, but I am going to say what I am going to say. Dick Clark changed the face of RocknRoll. The music was derived from a mix of Rhythm and Blues solo and vocal group performers, country music with a beat and white harmony. Alan Freed got the idea to fuse these three forms of music into a new genre called RocknRoll. But make no mistake!!!! Most of the performers he featured on the air and in his concerts were black. Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, the Moonglows, the Flamingos, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, The Harptones, Otis Williams and the Charms with a touch of Johnny Burnette and the RocknRoll Trio and Buddy Holly and the Crickets with Teddy Randazzo and the Three Chuckles thrown in for good measure. So what did Dick Clark do when he took over the reigns on television? He featured a different Frankie and Fabian and the like. Who were the Harptones or the Five Keys???? They were forgotten and overlooked and Mr. Clark brought his own banal brand of Rock AND Roll ( no longer the exciting RocknRoll) of Alan Freed from just a few years earlier. Some of the big names carried over like Chuck and Fats. But did you ever hear the Five Keys or Otis Williams and the Charms again even though they continued to record? Sure he did feature some good acts. But many were not exciting and more pop than RocknRoll. And now the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame wants to remove the ashes of Alan Freed from the site. There would have been no RocknRoll let alone Rock AND Roll if it were not for Mr. Freed. I know the man was not a saint. I know there were a lot of questions. But he deserves every honor for what he did give us and he deserved better in life than what he received.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 23:06:09 +0000