CRAM Article November 2006: Shake, Rattle And Roll

Shake, Rattle and Roll is one of 3CR's longest-running music shows, beginning as it did in 1976 when 3CR first went to air. It is presented by The Australian Rock'n'roll Appreciation Society to showcase the Roots Music side of 50's Rock'n'roll.

The enormous significance of 50's white youth embracing black music and blending it with white popular musiclaid the foundations for the greatly enlightened attitudes we feel today for racial tolerance and integration.

These attitudes cannot be achieved by legislation, but only by cultural assimilation and education. Music spreads these attitudes without resorting to preaching. Of course, this takes time, and it's nowhere near complete.

Le's go back to 1956 when Chuck Berry was booked to play in Knoxville, Kentucky, and was refused entry because of his skin colour; to 1958 when the first black students enrolled in a white school in Little Rock, Arkansas; to the 1960's when a lot of black musicians went to Britain and Europe and enjoyed acceptance and success, which held them in good stead when they returned home; to the eventual dismantling of the Apartheid regime in South Africa.

50'S Rock'n'roll did not dismantle Apartheid, but it did herald the change in thinking that led to the international condemnation that pressured the old South African attitude to change.

White America had adopted Negro folk music previously, with Jazz in the 1920's, which was sanitized in the early 1930's as Swing, and Boogie-woogie in the late 1930's. White musicians came to the fore and the black musicians played second fiddle. This was soon to change. Pat Boone had the first success with Tutti-Frutti, but his version has been relegated to obscurity as the raw power of Little Richard took the world by storm. The black music of the 1950's is music of unparalleled excellence, and Shake, Rattle and Roll takes great delight in presenting this culturally significant music to the public. We play all streams of 50's music, black and white.

The other reason that we play good ol' Rock'n'roll is that listening to it makes us feel so damn GOOD!!

All the current presenters have been presenting Shake, Rattle and Roll for a number of years and play their favourite rock 'n' roll including rare recordings.

By Shake, Rattle and Roll presenter Chris Davis.