It was said that she was the “godmother of rock and roll”, that she “helped give birth to this genre”, “played an important role in its creation”, “influenced”, and “left her mark”. , “inspiring”… There are too many detours and euphemisms to deny, or at least avoid, the fact that the talented and exciting singer and guitarist is. Sister Rosetta Tharpe was the first person to do this rock and roll count SPAIN NEWSPAPER.
Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley They realized his undoubted influence on them. Also Johnny Cash, Tina Turner or Jimy Hendrix. However Tharpe had a lot going against her in her time: being a woman, being black, and being bisexual. Despite his early commercial success and his reputation as an outstanding guitarist with a long career filled with concerts in some of the most emblematic venues in the United States, when he died in 1973, he was buried in a grave without a tombstone. denial, minimization and forgetting by popular culture.
We will need to continue asking more questions, related to the question that prefaces these lines: What if the case of Rosetta Tharpe is one of many women whose achievements have been silenced? So what if we face each other? An innovative, solid and brave guitarist Who has contributed as much or more to the world of music than other male artists and yet has not received the same silent and forgetful treatment in music history books and collective memory? Let’s look for some light to find the answers to these questions.
American writer Janice Kaplan wrote: “Sister Rosetta Tharpe may be the most famous rock and roll star you’ve never heard of. If you don’t know her name, try to imagine an African-American woman dressed in a long white sequined dress and high heels, touring America in the 1930s and ’40s with an electric guitar around her neck. Another American journalist, Kate Streer, “It’s not news to anyone that women have been overlooked in music since its creation, although one of the biggest injustices in this regard is Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s name. His name remains unknown, given his invaluable influence on generations of rock and roll artists who followed him.
At the Cotton Club
Rosetta Tharpe had to face social and racial obstacles since childhood. Born in the southern United States (Cotto Plank, Arkansas, March 20, 1915), some sources claim that she began playing the guitar at the age of four, and two years later she was already a girl extraordinarily talented on the instrument. . Daughter of cotton pickers and preachers, He began accompanying his mother, Katie Bell, to church, wowing parishioners who called him a “miracle of singing and guitar.”
“He was willing to cross forbidden lines, break barriers, allow his charisma and determination to transfer into other styles of music where he performed wonderfully, but the price paid was too high.”
She moved with him to New York in 1938. Rosetta entered there first to sing the famous song. Cotton Club and later joined Lucky Millinder’s orchestra. Despite his main genre was gospelTheir foray into secular music did not sit well with its close and immersive attitude. In the atmosphere of religious intolerance in which he lived, he viewed leaving religious music as an evil act. For this reason, he had to privately play jazz, blues and swing songs, which he practiced with determination, as well as gospel songs, over and over again. He was willing to cross forbidden lines, break barriers, let his charisma and determination transfer to other styles of music where he performed wonderfully, but the price paid was too high.
But his first hit, ‘Rock Me’, inevitably had a gospel root. That year, 1938, he would perform at Carnegie Hall in the ‘From Spirituals to Swing’ concert; here some critics and scholars had already seen the interpretation of the first rock and roll songs in history. “Sister Rosetta Tharpe was playing rock ‘n’ roll long before anyone else,” keyboardist said Lonnie Liston Smith in a magazine interview Richmond In 2018.
An extraordinary guitarist
In the mid-40s, Tharpe achieved resounding success with the song ‘Strange Things Happen Every Day’, which contained a foreboding about her later historical dullness as an artist. Special and advanced way to strum guitar stringsGoing beyond traditional chords, standing on the verge of rock and roll.
Although she maintained a sarcastic style vocally as a mezzo-soprano, this style was overshadowed by her overwhelming prowess on the guitar. He had no intention of hiding it on stage, where he moved with energy and played the sounds that propelled the instrument, inspiring many guitar heroes years later: “They can’t play like me. “I play better than the men,” she said. it wasn’t one wedding nor an empty appreciation: Last October, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him the sixth best guitarist in history.He is ahead of BB King, Keith Richards or Carlos Santana in the list led by Jimy Hendrix, who once stated that he “just wanted to play like Rosetta”.
Jimy Hendrix once said he ‘just wanted to play like Rosetta’.”
His record records and achievements continued. Their marriages too. I’ve been married three times. However The most talked about thing was his relationship with singer Marie Knight.. She formed a musical duo with him, and although they both always denied it, it was an open secret that they were also romantically involved. These were years of utter antagonism, and homosexual intercourse was rejected not only by the religious community.
Added to this was the racial barrier: in some states when both were on tour They were banned from entering hotels and restaurants. So Rosetta arranged a bus so they could sleep and eat during the tours.. His relationship with Marie Knight ended when he lost his mother and two children in a fire. This was the end of their relationship, although they occasionally met again on stage years later.
He was buried in a grave without a headstone
Tharpe’s popularity began to wane in the 1950s, but her career still enjoyed a revival when she toured Europe with Tharpe in 1964. Muddy Waters and other blues artists. His performance at Manchester railway station on 7 May that year was unforgettable. The impact and influence of this gospel and blues concert on British musicians was noted by Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Brian Jones and Jimmy Page, among others.
He suffered a stroke in 1970 and died the same year. Complications from his diabetes led to the amputation of one of his legs. Although he offered other musical performances, he died in Pennsylvania three years later on October 9, 1973, at the age of 58. He was buried under an unmarked grave in Northwood Cemetery.
Although some of the greatest artists in rock history have acknowledged her influence, the figure of Rosetta Tharpe remained shrouded in oblivion for decades. Elvis Presley He recorded many of his songs. Chuck Berry He admitted that his career was completely inspired by him. Little Richard He went on stage for the first time in front of a church he invited and said he had admired her since childhood and Johnny Cash He remembered her in his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction speech. Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklyn, Tina Turner, Jerry Lewis and Carl Perkins also recognized her influence on them. But we had to wait several decades after his death for some dignity and justice to be done to his name.
He was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2007, and completed his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame eleven years later. In 2008, a concert was organized to raise funds for a tombstone with his name written on his grave. Now, in it you can read: “I could sing until you cried and then I could sing until you danced with joy.. “He helped the church survive and enabled the saints to enjoy it.” It also wouldn’t be bad to engrave one of his most memorable lines in stone: “Oh, these guys and rock and roll, it’s just rhythm and blues sped up, I’ve been doing this for a long time.” Or this: “Here lies the woman who invented rock and roll.” No question.