"The First Rock and Roll Record"

Musicians play music, and when they play, they don't begin something so much as they pick something back up that was there all along, and music expands like a delta this way, an unbreakable loop that doesn't begin or end but just rolls onward like a wave. And rock & roll as an American musical form is very much like a delta, collecting elements from jazz, blues, country, gospel, R&B, show tunes, and whatever else was floating around into a high-charged, rambunctious music that defined and drove pop culture across the backwaters of the 20th century and into the 21st. So where is the start of all this? Where is either the chicken or the egg that begat rock & roll? It's a bit like deciding which drop of water really started the river flowing to the sea. This three-disc, 82-track collection tries to find that drop of water and trace it forward, but it's an impossible task -- the river flows all at once everywhere. The first disc explores songs from the 1920s, '30s, and '40s that feature rocking and/or rolling in the lyrics, while the second charts a little more of rock & roll's linear expansion into the amplified and electric modern world it would come to define and provide a pulsing soundtrack for, and if the chicken or the egg question of where rock & roll began isn't exactly answered here, this set makes for a fascinating tour through some wonderfully cool and classic stuff like Amos Milburn's rollicking "Chicken Shack Boogie," Tampa Red's desperately frantic "It's Tight Like That" (from 1927), and Les Paul and Mary Ford's timelessly amazing "How High the Moon," the first single in the modern world to suggest the recording studio itself was a player in all this. The set ends with Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel," as close to a template for the perfect rock & roll single as one is likely to find. So, what came first, the rock & roll chicken or the rock & roll egg? No matter. The chicken crossed the road, and that's when rock & roll really started. The rest is discography. (Steve Leggett, Allmusic)trax disc 1:

1. The Camp Meeting Jubilee - Unknown 2. My Man Rocks Me - Trixie Smith 3. Kansas City Blues - Jim Jackson 4. Going to Move to Alabama - Charley Patton 5. Move It on Over - Hank Williams 6. It's Tight Like That - Tampa Red 7. Pinetop's Boogie Woogie - Clarence "Pinetop" Smith 8. Jimmy's Blues - Jimmy Blythe 9. Crazy About My Baby - Blind Roosevelt Graves 10. Tiger Rag - The Washboard Rhythm Kings 11. Rock and Roll - The Boswell Sisters 12. Get Rhythm in Your Feet - The Benny Goodman Orchestra 13. Oh Red! - The Harlem Hamfats 14. Skippy Whippy - The Mississippi Jook Band 15. Cross Road Blues - Robert Johnson 16. Sing! Sing! Sing! (With a Swing) - Gene Krupa 17. Rock It for Me - Ella Fitzgerald 18. Rock Me - Sister Rosetta Tharpe 19. Ida Red - Bob Wills 20. Roll 'Em Pete - Big Joe Turner 21. Rockin' Rollin' Mama - Buddy Jones 22. New Early in the Morning - John Lee Williamson 23. Down the Road a Piece - Will Bradley 24. Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy - The Andrews Sisters 25. Lullaby (Rock a Bye Baby) - Virginia O'Brien

trax disc 2:

1. Flying Home - Lionel Hampton & His Orchestra 2. Blues, Pt. 2 - Illinois Jacquet 3. Mean Old World - T-Bone Walker 4. The Joint Is Really Jumpin' Down at Carnegie Hall - Judy Garland 5. Rockin' the Town - Gertrude Niesen 6. Straighten Up and Fly Right - Nat King Cole 7. Strange Things Happening Every Day - Sister Rosetta Tharpe 8. Be Baba Leba - Helen Humes 9. Honeydripper - Joe Liggins 10. Guitar Boogie - Arthur Smith 11. That's All Right (Mama) - Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup 12. Let the Good Times Roll - Louis Jordan & His Tympany 5 13. House of Blue Lights - Freddie Slack 14. Hillbilly Boogie - The Delmore Brothers 15. Ten Gallon Boogie - Pee Wee King 16. Good Rocking Tonight - Wynonie Harris 17. We're Gonna Rock, We're Gonna Roll - Wild Bill Moore 18. I Can't Be Satisfied - Muddy Waters 19. Chicken Shack Boogie - Amos Milburn 20. Rovin' Eyes - Bill Haley 21. It's Too Soon to Know - The Orioles 22. Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee - Stick McGhee 23. Rock and Roll Blues - Erline Harris 24. Rock the Joint - Jimmy Preston 25. Saturday Night Fish Fry - Louis Jordan & His Tympany 5 26. The Fat Man - Fats Domino 27. Rock a While - Goree Carter

trax disc 3:

1. Gonna Dance All Night - Hardrock Gunter 2. Hot Rod Race - Arkie Shibley & His Mountain Dew Boys 3. 60 Minute Man - The Dominoes 4. How High the Moon - Les Paul & Mary Ford 5. Rocket 88 - Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats 6. Boogie Woogie Blues - Charlie Gracie 7. Hound Dog - Big Mama Thornton 8. Rockin' an' Rollin' - Charlie Gracie 9. Lawdy Miss Clawdy - Lloyd Price 10. Have Mercy Baby - The Dominoes 11. One Mint Julep - The Clovers 12. Gee - The Crows 13. Crazy Man, Crazy - Bill Haley & His Comets 14. Mess Around - Ray Charles 15. Money Honey - Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters 16. Honey Hush - Big Joe Turner 17. Shake, Rattle and Roll - Big Joe Turner 18. Sh-Boom - The Chords 19. Rock Around the Clock - Sunny Dae & the Knights 20. I've Got a Woman - Ray Charles 21. Work with Me, Annie - Hank Ballard & The Midnighters 22. Riot in Cell Block Number Nine - The Robins 23. Tweedle Dee - LaVern Baker 24. Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley 25. Maybellene - Chuck Berry 26. Tutti Frutti - Little Richard 27. Blue Suede Shoes - Carl Perkins 28. That's Alright Mama - Elvis Presley 29. Rock Around the Clock - Bill Haley & His Comets 30. Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis Presley

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