From The Birth of Rock and Roll, by Jim Linderman
Composed mostly of about 150 found images of everyday people making music from the 1930s to 1950s, the book makes the case that rock 'n' roll did not begin with Elvis, Chuck Berry, or even Robert Johnson. For Linderman, rock 'n' roll was more like home cooking, in which a bit of everything was tossed into the stock pot to make a broth that is more than a sum of its parts. It also had a lot to do with sex."
In the introductory essay to the photos, Linderman asserts that the quest for sex, not money, prompted all those late-night performances in dives and honky tonks. “Since I’m kind of a sleazy guy, for me, rock music is as much about sex as gospel music is about religion,” he tells me. “The whole point was pretty much to get together, get drunk, and get laid. That’s the real history of rock ’n’ roll. But they never say that in any of the books about it. It’s a sexual thing for the performers, and it’s a sexy atmosphere that’s created, by its nature, to make people sweat, to make them buy drinks, and to make them go out back. It’s a beautiful thing.”
