By Marilyn Brennan Santa Monica
Regarding Neil Macaulay’s column (“What about that guy Named Elvis,” page 5, Feb. 15) he gently chides John Whitehead’s column on Buddy Holly about the true genesis of rock ‘n’ roll.
The rockers mentioned in Neil’s column did indeed bring rock to the mainstream, but both Neil and John are forgetting the ones who fully started the whole thing.
Back in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, in a small town in Illinois, we used to go down to the then-segregated African-American community to the Royal Sports Record Store where we could get the real goods (not the white bread Pat Boone type junk). These artists truly were the forerunners of the rock scene. Great stuff. We could also on particularly clear summer nights tune in a station from somewhere in the deep south to hear this great music. The added bonus to this was that you could send for the records, which we did.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 23, 2008. Read the original PDF.