Juvenile Delinquency of the 50's.

I found it incredibly interesting reading and learning more about the juvenile delinquency problems of the 50's with the onset of Rock and Roll and Blackboard Jungle. Reading the article "Rock Around the Clock" Bill Randal is quoted as saying "Rock and Roll doesn't cause delinquency it reflects it." couple this with "sexually aggressive lyrics coated in euphemisms it becomes a total breakdown about sex." I always felt music itself is polarizing especially when the establishment is challenged. I remember asking my mom about that. She had four other sisters, so naturally they were all consumed by the new sounds coming from the subsequent  heartthrobs of their time, Bill Haley excluded. Mom would always tell me that at home Perry Como was always playing in the background while  Grandma  watched Lawrence Welk. Years later mom and I were watching Lawrence Welk on TV on PBS and she looked over at me and said "Now I'm an old lady, because I'm watching Lawrence Welk which I swore I would never do." I told her "this show was hilarious because you don't get to see people play the accordion on TV very often." Anyways I asked her if the music caused any problems at home growing up. she said, "not really." She said Blackboard Jungle came out the same year the Mickey Mouse club debut. So we listened to Rock Around the Clock, on record in our rooms then watched Annette Funicello. I asked her if the lyrics ever seemed racy, she said she was to naive to assume Great Balls of Fire meant anything than just that. She did add that being that my Grandparents were Italian growing up in Welby Colorado which was all Italians she was insulated from the problems that arose across the country, "my parents didn't mind us all listening to race records, but when my aunt Bernice dated a black guy....well then that was a different story." But I digress. Mom always told me that in high school "we dressed up to go to the movies, riots never broke out, we went to the sock hops to dance,  but since it was an all Catholic school they never played rock and roll music, they couldn't even wear patent leather shoes, cause the boys could see up the dress of the girls, but on our own and  on the radio was when we got to listen to our music, she told me. Then she pulled out an old 45 of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers from 1956, the title I'm
Not a Juvenile Delinquent.

Chuck Berry is the music of my childhood.

      Above all things I am grateful for in my life, I am most grateful for my mother who instilled in me a inherent love of all things culture related. Film, Novels, classic T.V. shows and most importantly music. I was born in 1983, which makes me older than most of the kids I go to college with, but that just makes me more culturally advanced than they are. HaHa. Anyway my mom didn't have me until she was 42. So when I was growing up, I was listening to and learning all about the music of her generation. She graduated high school in 1959, so she experienced first hand Rock and Roll music from its inception, which was great  because I loved learning about the 50's, 60's and 70's.  On top of that my mom had a great record collection that spanned all kinds of genres of music. Whenever she was cooking or it was the weekends she would always play her old vinyls for me. And I would always go through and look and them and just pick randomly from them to listen. I remember listening to Dion and the Belmont's, Runaround Sue, Teenager in Love. I can still see that cover of Alone with Dion with the girl with pink gloves reaching around him. Classic. But the one I remember  hearing first when I a kid was this two record set featuring Chuck Berry. It was bright yellow and it had Chuck doing his duck walk, guitar in hand  across the front cover.It was called the great Twenty Eight.We had these two large old speakers from the 80's and an Onkyo record player. And when I put that needle down and Maybellene came on, I was blown away. I felt that I were their live in person listening to him play. It was awesome!! Watching Hail Hail Rock and Roll the other day in class It was a nostalgic trip to my childhood even though it wasn't music of my own generation it was still apart of my childhood. I guess that's the testament to his music in that is possesses a simplistic timelessness to it that is devoid of pretension. When he talked about writing these songs to appeal to those who go to school, fall in love, and likes cars he appeals to everybody. That's why when I was a kid the first tape I ever got to play in my Walkman was the best of Chuck Berry, the second was the best of the Coasters, cause Yakety Yak was cool. But Chuck Berry will always be the father of rock and Roll, beholden to no one.