IWD: SISTER ROSETTA THARPE - THE GODMOTHER OF ROCK & ROLL
Meet the woman who invented Rock and Roll.
Listen whilst you read!
What do Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash and Little Richard have in common, besides all being sanctified music legends and the forefathers of Rock and Roll? They were all heavily influenced by the gospel superstar and guitar virtuoso, Sister Rosetta Tharpe. However, despite being one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Tharpe isn’t a highly recognised household name like her counterparts.
On Women’s History Month 20201, VOCAL GIRLS wants to remember her undeniable contribution to Rock and Roll, her ability to fuse the spirituality of gospel with the soulfulness of the blues, and her trademark flamboyance and showmanship.
Image Credit: @PRITHANDPEN
Born in 1915 in Cotton Plant, Arkansas, to parents who were both musicians themselves, Tharpe was raised in the Pentecostal Church where the gospel tradition was ever present. She began singing and playing the guitar as ‘Little Rosetta Nubin’ at age four, and by age six she was regularly performing alongside her mother as part of a travelling evangelical troupe.
Billed as a "singing and guitar playing miracle," she accompanied her mother in performances that were part sermon and part gospel concert, in front of audiences across the American South. Tharpe gained considerable fame as a musical prodigy, standing out in an era when prominent black, female guitarists were rare.
In 1934, aged 19, she married Thomas Thorpe, a preacher, who joined her and her mother on many of their tours. Their marriage only lasted for four years before Rosetta left her husband and moved to New York City with her mother. Her new stage name however, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, would stay for the rest of her life.
On October 31,1938, aged 23, Tharpe recorded four tracks for Decca Records - the first gospel songs ever recorded for the label. The songs ‘Rock Me’, ‘That's All’, ‘My Man and I’ and ‘The Lonesome Road’ were all instant hits, skyrocketing Tharpe to overnight success and establishing her as one of the very first commercially successful gospel artists.
‘Rock Me’, which originally included spiritual lyrics that were reworked to appeal to a wider secular audience, influenced many Rock and Roll singers, such as Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. What really set Tharpe apart from the rest, was her pioneering guitar technique; she was among the very first popular recording artists to perform with the electric guitar, amplified with heavy and gritty distortion.
Her performances would only add to her notoriety, with Tharpe regularly playing in nightclubs and theatres, singing gospel songs alongside jazz musicians and scantily clad showgirls. Tharpe’s blurring of genre boundaries and introduction of gospel into the mainstream catapulted her to superstardom, but it also made her controversial. Her appearances with Cab Calloway at Harlem's Cotton Club in October 1938, and in John Hammond's ‘Spirituals to Swing’ concert at Carnegie Hall on December 23rd, 1938, won her even more popularity amongst non-religious audiences, but the more conservative members of her fan base grew increasingly critical of her departure from traditional gospel. Her music’s secular appeal shocked and angered many churchgoing gospel purists who found her mixing of devotional lyrics with ‘worldly’ music blasphemous.
Tharpe continued recording during World War II and in 1945 she released her biggest hit, "Strange Things Happening Every Day". The song featured Tharpe's bold and charismatic vocals and her signature electric guitar. It was the first gospel record to cross over into the mainstream, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard "race records" chart - what would later be referred to as the R&B chart.
By the late 40s Tharpe’s success had started to wane, so in an effort to boost her popularity, she did a monumental PR stunt - a huge staged wedding followed by a concert held at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. The promoters gave Tharpe one year to find a husband and in 1951 she married Russell Morrison in front of an audience of 25,000 paying customers! Her dress cost $800, (about the same price as a car back then), and was purchased from the upscale department store, Thalhimer’s in Richmond, Virginia, where Tharpe had been previously thrown out and subsequently arrested for “shopping while black.” Following the ceremony, Tharpe gave a spectacular vocal performance accompanied by her back-up singer bridesmaids.
Audio of Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s Wedding (1951)
Although the wedding had largely been a joke and it’s uncertain how well Tharpe even knew the groom at the time, their marriage ended up lasting for the long haul. Russell Morrison became Tharpe’s manager and the two of them stayed together until the legend passed away in 1973.
The systemic whitewashing of music history, and Rock and Roll in particular, has meant that Tharpe’s impact on the genre went unrecognised for too long. Years before the so-called inventors of Rock and Roll even took to the stage, Tharpe was already electrifying audiences with her unparalleled guitar skills and undeniable stage presence. It was only in 2017 that Tharpe's illustrious legacy was finally acknowledged with her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an 'Early Influence' on the evolution of the genre. Even today, rock is still considered an overwhelming white, male genre. However, if it hadn’t been for Sister Rosetta Tharpe, with her insurmountable talent and endless charisma, the genre we know and love might not exist.
According to Tharpe’s biographer, Gayle Wald, “When people would ask her about her music she would say, ‘Oh, these kids and Rock and Roll— this is just sped up rhythm and blues. I’ve been doing that forever’”.