Yes, I can see how it would be strange for blacks to listen to rock & roll. I am sure Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino and Little Richard all thank the NYT for this bit of patronizing. Only liberals get away with such obvious stereotyping, as long as it comes from a patronizing and/or victimhood angle. Think about it: how else could someone get away with the declarative sentence "Except, as it turned out, he didn’t really belong, because he is black"?
El Blogero seems to be implying with his references to Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, and Jimi Hendrix that "rock'n'roll" is a genre that was co-opted by white musicians, and thus that, a long way down, the road, a young African-American hearing Nirvana for the first time is only discovering his birth-right.
But I disagree. White musicians have always expressed themselves musically in genres originated by black musicians. This is true of blues, and it is true of jazz. But in neither case did white musicians co-opt the genre. There have been a few decent white R&B artists, but R&B was not co-opted by white musicians. The truth about rock'n'roll is that it was always essentially a white genre that owed as much to country/hillbilly music as it owed to blues and R&B. Chuck Berry riffs predate Chuck Berry, and Fats Domino's music is New Orleans R&B, not rock'n'roll. The music of Jimi Hendrix is fundamentally blues; he played "rock" in the same sense that the Yardbirds, and Cream, and The Blues Project played rock.
So the young black kid for whom Nirvana struck a sympathetic chord is perhaps a musical visionary and anomaly, as the Times article suggests.
It's taken for granted now, but when rap music first began to gain such a large following among white kids, it was treated just as this news is, as some strange thing worthy of attention...unfortunately, society as a whole, not just any particular ideology or newspaper, tends to pigenhole things, especially cultural stuff...but hey, why let that stop some from using this as a club to bash liberals and/or the New York Times, eh?
Hate to keep on that "patronizing white liberal vibe" of mine for today, but it just shows how clueless the "some of my best friends are black" lefty writers at the Times are. Yeah, NO BLACK PERSON EVER listened to non-R&B, and we didn't exist until the (Heavenly Chorus) New York Times discovered us. Dank Yoo Lawd!
I won't even get into Big Joe Turner, Bo Diddley, or Louis Jordan as the fathers of modern rock. Or the fact that Bill Haley and the Comets, a predominantly white band, were based out of predominantly-black town Chester, PA (home of my Roots Alma-Mater, TOBY FARMS).
Any of those dumbasses at the NYT ever hear of D.H. Peligro (drummer of the Dead Kennedys), Jon Butcher, Bad Brains, Fishbone? Have they ever heard of the TWO TONE SKA Movement?
Did they know that Hank Williams was taught by a black man how to play guitar?
Have they heard of Charley Pride? That George Clinton SPECIFICALLY formed two different bands at the same time (Parliament/Funkadelic) JUST so they could appeal to many broad audiences of ALL races?
Did they know that one of the biggest Black labels, Stax/Volt (which I prefer to Motown) was started by a WHITE brother and sister, and that Booker T and the MGs were an INTEGRATED SOUTHERN BAND, even as MLK was getting hosed down by Southern Sheriffs.
Boy, RAG, you just WANT me to walk into NPR/NYT with an axe handle, doncha? All that to say, the story was more Terry Gross-like garbage. Black and white folk have been getting along just fine in Rock, Country, Jazz, Classical Music (my cousin, Leotyne Price) for DECADES without the need for the clueless farts at the NYT to grace us with their presence.
I was all set to do "Great Pop Songs Sung in French" this week, now I'm hopping mad and gotta change up!
The Return of the Singing Nun?
Dominique, nique, nique
S'en allait tout simplement,
Routier pauvre et chantant
En tous chemins, en tous lieux
Il ne parle que du bon Dieu.
A l'époque où Jean Sans Terre
D'Angleterre était roi,
Dominique, notre Père,
Combattit les Albigeois.
Madscribe--
Is that an official Lester Maddox autograph axe handle?
"Is that an official Lester Maddox autograph axe handle?"
Signed by Malcom X, perhaps? Talk about multiculturalism!
No, AIP, signed by Roger Waters and David Gilmour:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=BS1ypdTdnMU
And Rob,
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PITnJAnmjqw
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zTp4C1QU94E
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uQEgN4yVZ5A
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KzuznCIlczk
And speaking of multiculturalism, this is why I just love the hell out of Youtube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JgyTC2YIBVc
When was the last time you saw a mash-up like THAT on MTV, BET, or VH1?
Madscribe: "Great Pop Songs Sung in French"? Ask and ye shall receive (and yeah, YouTube is the greatest invention EVER):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PITnJAnmjqw
And here's the original Plastic video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u...h?
v=ug22qaE31Wc
At present rate, why don't I just skip Ragged Thots today and hang out at Youtube? :P
Robert,
Thanks for the update links. "Negro Bowl I"! 
***Did they know that one of the biggest Black labels, Stax/Volt (which I prefer to Motown) was started by a WHITE brother and sister, and that Booker T and the MGs were an INTEGRATED SOUTHERN BAND, even as MLK was getting hosed down by Southern Sheriffs.***
Don't forget the Allman Brothers Band...granted that was at the end of the decade but they were also an integrated southern band.
At present rate, why don't I just skip Ragged Thots today and hang out at Youtube? :P
But then you'd miss whatever proprietary content RAG has up his sleeve after the "construction" is done ...
Don't forget the Allman Brothers Band...
Moose, Hell yeah!
(Born in Tennessee, so I have occassional claim rights to a Southern drawl)
Ed: That's why you come to RT -- to be connected to wonderful posts like "Negro Bowl"! I would have expected you to have already discovered that, being the football expert! 
Robert,
I don't generally troll other blogs.
***Moose, Hell yeah!
(Born in Tennessee, so I have occassional claim rights to a Southern drawl)***
Well, then you may enjoy this little diddy. They are still incredible live....at least they have been the last couple times I've seen them.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=z2btw...related&
search=
Wow! I read RAG, Madscribe, and now that assimlatednegro fella. My life is so much richer than Biden's!
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com...ives/
012202.php
BTW, I am really into Grerengue and Gralsa and have many good-looking, articulate Dominican friends. They might even be employed, here legally, and not out on parole for all I know!
French songs? Here is something to go with those youtube links:
Wam! Bam!
Mon chat, splatch
Gît sur mon lit
A bouffé sa langue
En buvant dans mon whisky
Quant à moi
Peu dormi, vidé, brimé
J'ai dû dormir dans la gouttière
Où j'ai eu un flash
Hou ! Hou ! Hou ! Hou !
En quatre couleurs
Allez hop !
Un matin
Une louloute est v'nue chez-moi
Poupée de Cellophane
Cheveux chinois
Un sparadrap
Une gueule de bois
A bu ma bière
Dans un grand verre
En caoutchouc
Hou ! Hou ! Hou ! Hou !
Comme un indien dans son igloo
Ça plane pour moi
Ça plane pour moi
Ça plane pour moi moi moi moi moi
Ça plane pour moi
Hou ! Hou ! Hou ! Hou !
Ça plane pour moi
"Like an Indian in his igloo? Now that's what I call transgressing the stereotypes! Here is the rest:
Allez hop ! La nana
Quel panard !
Quelle vibration !
De s'envoyer
Sur le paillasson
Limée, ruinée, vidée, comblée
"You are the King of the divan"
Qu'elle me dit en passant
Hou ! Hou ! Hou ! Hou !
I am the King of the divan
Ça plane pour moi
Ça plane pour moi
Ça plane pour moi moi moi moi moi
Ça plane pour moi
Hou ! Hou ! Hou ! Hou !
Ça plane pour moi
Allez hop !
T'occupe
T'inquiète
Touche pas ma planète
It's not to day
Quel le ciel me tombera sur la tête
Et que l'alcool me manquera
Hou ! Hou ! Hou ! Hou !
Ça plane pour moi
Allez hop ! ma nana
S'est tirée
S'est barrée
Enfin c'est marre, a tout cassé
L'évier, le bar me laissant seul
Comme un grand connard
Hou ! Hou ! Hou ! Hou !
Le pied dans le plat
Ça plane pour moi
Ça plane pour moi
Ça plane pour moi moi moi moi moi
Ça plane pour moi
Hou ! Hou ! Hou ! Hou !
Ça plane pour moi
Ça plane pour moi
Ça plane pour moi
Ça plane pour moi
Que sera sera... :P
Tu m'en fiche!
Axe: Thanks, but did you have to run the lyrics TWICE? I mean, two different video clips of Plastic Bertrand is one thing...
About the patronizing liberal speak that I referenced in my post above, thank you Brother Biden for showing us the way. Any conservative who uttered this would be on resignation death watch right about now.
And BTW, I was not implying anything about the co-opting of black music. I was attempting to point out that for the the self-described urban-biased NYT to do a "white kids listening to black music" or a "black kids listening to white music" piece in 2007 is not exactly an example of journalistic insight. In fact, R&R is and has always been a multi-race and multi-cultural genre at its core, so for the NYT to discover this now shows a remarkable level of insularity.
RAG: too many carriage returns for l'il ole haloscan to deal with in one go.
Nice blog! I started a conservative digg alternative called GOP Hub (GOPhub.com). Anything you can do to help spread the word would be great. Plus you can post any articles you write on your blog. Keep up the great work!
Commenting by HaloScan
