Amazing, wish more people would put things like this up. This is Pedro Haley and I'm very moved by the interview. I'm a Texan and never new dad came to the DFW area when he was so young, but claims it during interview. Fascinating.
Best origin of rock by the leader himself. there is the origin of rock explained. Hit songs of a fast beat music from someone a fan of fast beat music done in black circles. They had no hits but a style.
What is interesting to me is that,despite being a severe alcoholic, Bill and his band were still performing at a high level, and as you can hear in this interview, he sounded extraordinarily sharp and articulate.
Thanks soooo much for posting this. It must be from 1973 because Bill is talking about the film "Let The Good Times Roll" by Richard Nader. Just read the new book about Bill,written by Otto Fuchs from 2011 and it was just fab.
In a nutshell Haley found a sound that was commercially viable, it made money and he stuck with it, he had the first worldwide hits with rock around the clock and shake rattle and roll, anything before was simply country, swing music. Over in Memphis they had rockabilly artists recording rockabilly, this changed to rock and roll by early 56 and that's when the rock and roll sound became defined. By early 56 Haley was old hat in the USA and his record sales had dropped, in Europe he was doing better and continued to place records in the top 10 until the end of 56, by then his hit making days in both the us and Europe were over and he became a popular touring star, early 60s he had huge success in Mexico making twist records as he saw this as a way of making easy money and tapping into a new genre of music. After that he simply cashed in on his previous fame, first rock and roll star and the revival scene of that genre that was happening in Europe in the late 60s, early 70s. Happy day's, American graffiti etc
There is a second part of this interview on TH-cam also. Please listen to both of them. We are on Face Book at "Pine Knob" in Kentucky and also "Honus Shain"
Insert the following words- " I was one of only A FEW WHITE GUYS TRYING R& B. I DIDN'T INVENT IT." - before all his claims. Rock history had become near completely fabricated even by its main characters by the 1970's as few scholarly attempts at researching actual historical facts had been undertaken up to that time. Beyond an artifact, this interview is basically Haley repeating a self serving and aggrandizing version of almost nothing in the way of autobiographical fact. The pre RATC songs were all his Essex releases, quite available in the wake of his Decca successes for many years thanks to Essex Records owner Dave Miller's refusal to stop selling Haley product. His mention of a TWO YEAR OLD SON ( this in 1973) and his MEXICAN FAMILY COMPLETELY IGNORES his first marriage and children from the 1950s. Again, Haley telling the Haley version of the Haley universe.
Amazing. HALEY, LIKE PELVIS INVENTED NOTHING. He is an appropriator, at best. What he DID HAVE was an inoffensive delivery and appearance that posed no direct "threat" and SOMEWHAT SAFE for "DELICATE" WHITE KIDS EARS and EYES. Unlike that of what came in his wake.......... It is amazing to me how much revisionist crap is now being attributed to his artistic legacy these days. Everything the guy ever did was a derivative of elements that were already in place. In every case, he (or his producers) went for an extremely watered down approach in presenting the product and specifically tailored it to WHITE AUDIENCES. Going back to his cover of "Rocket 88", spoon fed to him under duress by Dave Miller in the studio, he was (slowly) transitioning from a singer of second rate C&W product to an improbable position as a WHITE R&B act. He was hardly the first act trying this at the time. Others, Freddie Bell, Murray Schaft, (look him up) to name a few were also transitioning into R&B stylings to stay relevant and to provide product that could be presented in WHITE venues. By WHITE BANDS. Simultaneously, BLACK R&B records were now being bought in greater numbers by white listeners who were hearing the music on various radio programs initially reaching black audiences. By 1954, it was inevitable that the record business was searching for a white act to be the "face" of this new( to white ears) music. Johnny Ray had been at best an experiment some two years before in what was thought to be a "black" presentation but was dismissed (rightfully) as an outlier. (Presley later, would adopt elements of Ray's approach, all of which was derived from black artists.) Haley's( or Milt Gabler's) one shining moment was to take Sonny Dae's utter wreckage of "Rock Around The Clock" and reconstruct it into something listenable. That the Haley version is a redo of Hank Williams' "Move It On Over" from 1947 ( also regarded as a contender for the first rock song), still speaks volumes as to Haley's role as an appropriator rather than an innovator assuming that the Haley version of RATC arrived fully formed prior to its April 1954 recording session. If Haley, did in fact, reconstruct the song, his talents as an arranger are woefully underappreciated and deserve a further examination. No reliable treatise on the subject of Rock & Roll places Haley ( or Pelvis) as the inventors of the genre' . Rightfully so, they are celebrated as examples of great commercial success but at the expense of many seminal artists who built the foundation of Rock music. The breakthrough of "RATC" in 1955 cannot be overestimated but one must look deeper and quite a bit away from it's singer to arrive at any conclusions as to the true INVENTION of Rock music.
OK, IT AINT ABOUT THE MUSIC- IT NOW , THEN AND ALWAYS WILL BE ABOUT MONEY. Have Mommy read to you the constant accounts of Sam Phillips dreaming of the day he could " find a WHITE MAN TO SING BLACK MUSIC" and how he would " make a MILLION DOLLARS" when he found said white man. Have Mommy explain to you how "a million dollars" is MONEY- NOT ART or SKITTLES AND BEER or whatever most dipwads think commercial music is valued at. Have mumsy also explain to you that HANK WILLIAMS DIED TWO YEARS BEFORE CHUCK BERRY MADE RECORDS. Also ask her in your indoor voice how Berry REPEATEDLY STATED THAT IF NOT FOR MONEY HE WOULD NOT HAVE EVER WRITTEN SONG ONE. Finally, as earthshaking a concept as a second rate country singer from northeastern Pennsylvania and a Tennessee delivery truck driver both inventing anything, consider this: Haley was made to do the Rocket 88 cover under duress ( have Mommy explain that word to you) by Dave Miller who, like Phillips,the Chess Brothers, the Bihari's, the Erteguns, and others, could see the possibility of covering other markets ( read WHITE) with a genre' being promoted via radio by Alan Freed, Hunter Hancock, Dewey Phillips and other mostly WHITE DJ's of the time, that there was MONEY ( ooh, that bad old word again) in R&B IF the product could be made palatable ( safe) for those delicate white ears. Much like biblical times, the music business was waiting for its "deliverer". Those in the independent sector of the record racket knew the time was nigh.... As for our truck driver, his first encounter with Phillips was a long and fruitless cornucopia ( warning- big word, go get Mommy.....) of retreads from WHITE SINGERS, notably Dean Martin ( white, Italian,oh my...) BEFORE Phillips, in exasperation, asked if he had ANYTHING ELSE. Anyfuckingthing else......... BTW, if the presistoric Presley sounded like anybody then, it is said that a clone of Martin was a likely starting point. ONLY THEN DID PELVIS GIVE HIM TWO SONGS, NEITHER OF WHICH HE CREATED IN ANY WAY. The first being "Blue Moon of Kentucky", a blue grass groaner by Bill Monroe ( white guy) which even rhythmic farting could have improved and Pelvis' tour de force, a NEAR COMPLETE COPY of a half forgotten Delta blues, "That's Alright Mama" by Arthur Crudup. A BLACK MAN. Who WROTE and recorded it in the early 1940's. Except for a cleanup of meter issues and a percussive rhythm provided by Scotty Moore and Bill Black, the Presley version is completely NOT ORIGINAL IN EXECUTION. HOWEVER, IT IS A WHITE GUY. FROM THE SOUTH. SINGING A " BLACK" SONG. 5000 copies later, the Pelvis Parade of covers, discounted publishing, false composer credits and stolen stage moves was on the way to "WHITE PEOPLE USA". Black audiences experiencing him in the 1950's did not find any new ground nor innovation in his presentation,sound, carriage. Seems Black audiences had seen "WHITE APROPRIATION" BEFORE. Blacks were largely charatable in their arms length tolerance of his presentation but were not fooled by it as white female and later men but largely southern in either case audiences were and continue to be having elevated him to deity levels. The closest comparable performer to Pelvis' in the 1950's was probably.......wait for it... He's BLACK!!!...... Jackie Wilson. With second place going to Clyde McPhatter. Also,uh,black. Both working black audiences prior to the rise of "Rock Jeebus".... As for poor Haley, he quickly became last year's news as he was in no position to compete with younger, more intense acts coming from all directions. Unfortunately, somebody had to be first and Haley drew the first card. Haley's 1954 redo of "Rock Around The Clock", an originally unlistenable novelty rightfully gives him pride of place as the 1954-58 work of Presley also does for Presley. But remember 20 percent of America had heard it all before and still hear it first to this day. You've had a big day. Lots of wordy things to hear, dreams shattered, BOOKS TO READ THAT ALREADY EXPLAIN ALL OF THIS. Ask Mommy to insert your special suppository now and think of how those big adults do things for big people money.💰 PS, it's OK to like imitators, I enjoy amplified Mummers bands and old Sun records but: DONT try to elevate either to high art. Again- READ. It's all been written before. For years.
@@pjriverdale8461 Rock n Roll isn't art. Go listen to some Miles Davis or some trendy Beatles Sgt pepper. I would just listen to rock n roll like Haley and Presley.
While we, or at least you, would like to keep it simple- the original concept of three chords and a beat got lost. Want the Fifties? Plenty of outlets for that. Almost every record has been reissued or can be accessed via the googleplex. Want "musical masturbation"( ask any musician), git down with anything that smacks of self indulgent shit. Again, plenty of that out there too. One day enough REVISIONIST HISTORY will be disseminated even at levels that the average "fan", who believes people like Haley and Pelvis MAGICALLY INVENTED ROCK AND ROLL between April and July of 1954, will finally have to realize there were many roads mostly through non-White neighborhoods that lead to that heady spring and summer sixty five years ago. At best, RATC is heralded as the largest wide spread commercial break through of the new music. Pelvis presented the role of saviour in that he singlehandedly presented what the "musik biz" dreamed of- WHITE-YOUNG- THEREFORE MARKETABLE. Haley never had those advantages and, in so trying to present as completely inoffensive, became a parody of the music. Record buyers then as now( I think), see through most crap the "bidness" throws out there. Haley was done after 1956, one can successfully debate that Pelvis' best years were behind him after 1958. Hardcore rockabilly lunatics would amend even that to the last Sun release c. fall 1955.
So by that notion the inventors of rock and roll were the only ones allowed to play it? Racist much? I wonder if IBM computers should have never been invented because they didn't invent electricity?
Amazing, wish more people would put things like this up. This is Pedro Haley and I'm very moved by the interview. I'm a Texan and never new dad came to the DFW area when he was so young, but claims it during interview. Fascinating.
Your dad was awesome!
Best origin of rock by the leader himself. there is the origin of rock explained.
Hit songs of a fast beat music from someone a fan of fast beat music done in black circles. They had no hits but a style.
What is interesting to me is that,despite being a severe alcoholic, Bill and his band were still performing at a high level, and as you can hear in this interview, he sounded extraordinarily sharp and articulate.
Bill Haley doesn't get nearly the credit he deserves.
Thanks soooo much for posting this.
It must be from 1973 because Bill is talking about the film "Let The Good Times Roll"
by Richard Nader.
Just read the new book about Bill,written by Otto Fuchs from 2011
and it was just fab.
u look like Bill.
GREAT INTERVIEW OF ROCK KING HALEY MORE MORE BILL HALEY
In a nutshell Haley found a sound that was commercially viable, it made money and he stuck with it, he had the first worldwide hits with rock around the clock and shake rattle and roll, anything before was simply country, swing music.
Over in Memphis they had rockabilly artists recording rockabilly, this changed to rock and roll by early 56 and that's when the rock and roll sound became defined.
By early 56 Haley was old hat in the USA and his record sales had dropped, in Europe he was doing better and continued to place records in the top 10 until the end of 56, by then his hit making days in both the us and Europe were over and he became a popular touring star, early 60s he had huge success in Mexico making twist records as he saw this as a way of making easy money and tapping into a new genre of music.
After that he simply cashed in on his previous fame, first rock and roll star and the revival scene of that genre that was happening in Europe in the late 60s, early 70s.
Happy day's, American graffiti etc
I swear Bill Haley kinda sounds like Norm McDonald
Crazy how little credit this band gets... right at the place where it all meets, then rock n roll comes out...
Nice interview have never heard this one before.
There is a second part of this interview on TH-cam also. Please listen to both of them. We are on Face Book at "Pine Knob" in Kentucky and also "Honus Shain"
The original Rock N Roller who started it all. Brilliant musician
Great to hear Bill in such fine form!
Pj get over it,it's music and we love it,you have issues mate 🥴🥴
Insert the following words- " I was one of only A FEW WHITE GUYS TRYING R& B. I DIDN'T INVENT IT." - before all his claims.
Rock history had become near completely fabricated even by its main characters by the 1970's as few scholarly attempts at researching actual historical facts had been undertaken up to that time.
Beyond an artifact, this interview is basically Haley repeating a self serving and aggrandizing version of almost nothing in the way of autobiographical fact.
The pre RATC songs were all his Essex releases, quite available in the wake of his Decca successes for many years thanks to Essex Records owner Dave Miller's refusal to stop selling Haley product.
His mention of a TWO YEAR OLD SON ( this in 1973) and his MEXICAN FAMILY COMPLETELY IGNORES his first marriage and children from the 1950s.
Again, Haley telling the Haley version of the Haley universe.
Amazing. HALEY, LIKE PELVIS INVENTED NOTHING.
He is an appropriator, at best.
What he DID HAVE was an inoffensive delivery and appearance that posed no direct "threat" and SOMEWHAT SAFE for "DELICATE" WHITE KIDS EARS and EYES.
Unlike that of what came in his wake..........
It is amazing to me how much revisionist crap is now being attributed to his artistic legacy these days.
Everything the guy ever did was a derivative of elements that were already in place. In every case, he (or his producers) went for an extremely watered down approach in presenting the product and specifically tailored it to WHITE AUDIENCES.
Going back to his cover of "Rocket 88", spoon fed to him under duress by Dave Miller in the studio, he was (slowly) transitioning from a singer of second rate C&W product to an improbable position as a WHITE R&B act.
He was hardly the first act trying this at the time. Others, Freddie Bell, Murray Schaft, (look him up) to name a few were also transitioning into R&B stylings to stay relevant and to provide product that could be presented in WHITE venues. By WHITE BANDS.
Simultaneously, BLACK R&B records were now being bought in greater numbers by white listeners who were hearing the music on various radio programs initially reaching black audiences.
By 1954, it was inevitable that the record business was searching for a white act to be the "face" of this new( to white ears) music.
Johnny Ray had been at best an experiment some two years before in what was thought to be a "black" presentation but was dismissed (rightfully) as an outlier.
(Presley later, would adopt elements of Ray's approach, all of which was derived from black artists.)
Haley's( or Milt Gabler's) one shining moment was to take Sonny Dae's utter wreckage of "Rock Around The Clock" and reconstruct it into something listenable. That the Haley version is a redo of Hank Williams' "Move It On Over" from 1947 ( also regarded as a contender for the first rock song), still speaks volumes as to Haley's role as an appropriator rather than an innovator assuming that the Haley version of RATC arrived fully formed prior to its April 1954 recording session.
If Haley, did in fact, reconstruct the song, his talents as an arranger are woefully underappreciated and deserve a further examination.
No reliable treatise on the subject of Rock & Roll places Haley ( or Pelvis) as the inventors of the genre' .
Rightfully so, they are celebrated as examples of great commercial success but at the expense of many seminal artists who built the foundation of Rock music.
The breakthrough of "RATC" in 1955 cannot be overestimated but one must look deeper and quite a bit away from it's singer to arrive at any conclusions as to the true INVENTION of Rock music.
OK, IT AINT ABOUT THE MUSIC-
IT NOW , THEN AND ALWAYS WILL BE ABOUT MONEY.
Have Mommy read to you the constant accounts of Sam Phillips dreaming of the day he could " find a WHITE MAN TO SING BLACK MUSIC" and how he would " make a MILLION DOLLARS" when he found said white man.
Have Mommy explain to you how "a million dollars" is MONEY- NOT ART or SKITTLES AND BEER or whatever most dipwads think commercial music is valued at.
Have mumsy also explain to you that HANK WILLIAMS DIED TWO YEARS BEFORE CHUCK BERRY MADE RECORDS. Also ask her in your indoor voice how Berry REPEATEDLY STATED THAT IF NOT FOR MONEY HE WOULD NOT HAVE EVER WRITTEN SONG ONE.
Finally, as earthshaking a concept as a second rate country singer from northeastern Pennsylvania and a Tennessee delivery truck driver both inventing anything, consider this:
Haley was made to do the Rocket 88 cover under duress ( have Mommy explain that word to you) by Dave Miller who, like Phillips,the Chess Brothers, the Bihari's, the Erteguns, and others, could see the possibility of covering other markets ( read WHITE) with a genre' being promoted via radio by Alan Freed, Hunter Hancock, Dewey Phillips and other mostly WHITE DJ's of the time, that there was MONEY ( ooh, that bad old word again) in R&B IF the product could be made palatable ( safe) for those delicate white ears.
Much like biblical times, the music business was waiting for its "deliverer". Those in the independent sector of the record racket knew the time was nigh....
As for our truck driver, his first encounter with Phillips was a long and fruitless cornucopia ( warning- big word, go get Mommy.....) of retreads from WHITE SINGERS, notably Dean Martin ( white, Italian,oh my...) BEFORE Phillips, in exasperation, asked if he had ANYTHING ELSE. Anyfuckingthing else.........
BTW, if the presistoric Presley sounded like anybody then, it is said that a clone of Martin was a likely starting point.
ONLY THEN DID PELVIS GIVE HIM TWO SONGS, NEITHER OF WHICH HE CREATED IN ANY WAY.
The first being "Blue Moon of Kentucky", a blue grass groaner by Bill Monroe ( white guy) which even rhythmic farting could have improved and Pelvis' tour de force, a NEAR COMPLETE COPY of a half forgotten Delta blues, "That's Alright Mama" by Arthur Crudup.
A BLACK MAN. Who WROTE and recorded it in the early 1940's.
Except for a cleanup of meter issues and a percussive rhythm provided by Scotty Moore and Bill Black, the Presley version is completely NOT ORIGINAL IN EXECUTION.
HOWEVER, IT IS A WHITE GUY. FROM THE SOUTH.
SINGING A " BLACK" SONG.
5000 copies later, the Pelvis Parade of covers, discounted publishing, false composer credits and stolen stage moves was on the way to "WHITE PEOPLE USA".
Black audiences experiencing him in the 1950's did not find any new ground nor innovation in his presentation,sound, carriage.
Seems Black audiences had seen "WHITE APROPRIATION" BEFORE.
Blacks were largely charatable in their arms length tolerance of his presentation but were not fooled by it as white female and later men but largely southern in either case audiences were and continue to be having elevated him to deity levels.
The closest comparable performer to Pelvis' in the 1950's was probably.......wait for it... He's BLACK!!!...... Jackie Wilson. With second place going to Clyde McPhatter. Also,uh,black. Both working black audiences prior to the rise of "Rock Jeebus"....
As for poor Haley, he quickly became last year's news as he was in no position to compete with younger, more intense acts coming from all directions.
Unfortunately, somebody had to be first and Haley drew the first card.
Haley's 1954 redo of "Rock Around The Clock", an originally unlistenable novelty rightfully gives him pride of place as the 1954-58 work of Presley also does for Presley.
But remember 20 percent of America had heard it all before and still hear it first to this day.
You've had a big day. Lots of wordy things to hear, dreams shattered, BOOKS TO READ THAT ALREADY EXPLAIN ALL OF THIS. Ask Mommy to insert your special suppository now and think of how those big adults do things for big people money.💰
PS, it's OK to like imitators, I enjoy amplified Mummers bands and old Sun records but: DONT try to elevate either to high art.
Again- READ. It's all been written before. For years.
@@pjriverdale8461 Rock n Roll isn't art. Go listen to some Miles Davis or some trendy Beatles Sgt pepper. I would just listen to rock n roll like Haley and Presley.
While we, or at least you, would like to keep it simple- the original concept of three chords and a beat got lost.
Want the Fifties? Plenty of outlets for that. Almost every record has been reissued or can be accessed via the googleplex.
Want "musical masturbation"( ask any musician), git down with anything that smacks of self indulgent shit.
Again, plenty of that out there too.
One day enough REVISIONIST HISTORY will be disseminated even at levels that the average "fan", who believes people like Haley and Pelvis MAGICALLY INVENTED ROCK AND ROLL between April and July of 1954, will finally have to realize there were many roads mostly through non-White neighborhoods that lead to that heady spring and summer sixty five years ago.
At best, RATC is heralded as the largest wide spread commercial break through of the new music.
Pelvis presented the role of saviour in that he singlehandedly presented what the "musik biz" dreamed of- WHITE-YOUNG- THEREFORE MARKETABLE.
Haley never had those advantages and, in so trying to present as completely inoffensive, became a parody of the music.
Record buyers then as now( I think), see through most crap the "bidness" throws out there.
Haley was done after 1956, one can successfully debate that Pelvis' best years were behind him after 1958. Hardcore rockabilly lunatics would amend even that to the last Sun release c. fall 1955.
So by that notion the inventors of rock and roll were the only ones allowed to play it? Racist much? I wonder if IBM computers should have never been invented because they didn't invent electricity?