"Strange Things Happening Every Day" - Sister Rosetta Tharpe
On Being the First
America’s first electric guitar shredding rock n roll icon was a Black queer woman.
Nothing’s more American than apple pie and erasing Black history, especially if that Black history also intersects with women’s and queer history. The story of rock n roll is no exception. Today, most people are unaware how the genre was set in motion by a Black, queer, woman named Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Not even the Rock Hall of Fame officially acknowledged her as the “Godmother of Rock” until 2018, a half century after she died.
Every rock historian and journalist has an argument about who officially gets credit as the inventor of rock n roll, and the thing about an entire genre of music is that no single artist deserves all the credit. That being said, we should start by agreeing Black musicians invented the craft and not Bill Haley, Pat Boone or Elvis Presley.
The usual contenders:
1939: Some point to blues artist Big Joe Turner as the spark that eventually ignited the new genre of rock with his hit “Roll ‘Em Pete.” The opening piano line might as well be a premonition of a Jerry Lee Lewis song more than a decade later.
1949: “That’s Alright,” which became Elvis Presley’s breakout hit in 1954, was first released by blues artist Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup. Rock historian Joseph Burns credits Crudup’s original as the first rock n roll song.
1949: Louis Jordan is known for mixing jazz, blues, and boogie-woogie into a new style called “Jump Blues,” and his 1949 hit, “Saturday Night Fish Fry,” is noteworthy for its upbeat tempo and lyrics — “It was rockin…it was rockin” — which recount a party that gets busted by police.
1951: Others claim it was “Rocket 88” written by Ike Turner that was the very first rock n roll record.
1953: “Big Mama” Thornton, a queer Black woman like Rosetta Tharpe, got paid a measly $500 for her multi-million-selling hit “Hound Dog,” a raucous and gritty track that would be covered three years later by Elvis Presley.
But long before these musicians who fused musical styles into something new, there was Sister Rosetta — an electric guitar shredding, gospel wailing vocalist whose first single, “Rock Me,” may very well be the genesis of the genre we know today as rock.
It was 1938.
Officially, “Rock Me” was a gospel song. But Tharpe’s subtly sexual growl at the end gave listeners a hint this wasn’t solely church music. “Rock Me” introduced Tharpe to the mainstream, and it was her 1944 hit “Strange Things Happening Every Day” that would cement her as a rock legend. It became the first gospel song to cross over to the “race” charts (later renamed R&B) and reached No. 2.
“Tharpe plugged into an electric guitar in the late 1930s and became a rock star before the men considered the pioneers of rock and roll had dreamt of doing so. She's the ‘Godmother of rock and roll’ who influenced every musician traditionally identified with helping launch the genre during the 1950s."
- Cleveland.com in reference to Tharpe’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Rosetta Tharpe picked up a guitar at 4 years old and, by the age of 6, was touring with her evangelical mother performing at churches around the country, quickly gaining notoriety as a guitar prodigy with a larger than life stage presence. After a failed marriage at the age of 19, Tharpe settled in New York City and was offered a steady gig performing “secular” music at the famed nightclub The Cotton Club. Though her church community was aghast at the idea of Tharpe playing in nightclubs, it was here that Tharpe realized gospel and secular music could co-exist in her repertoire. She was happy to defy convention.
At the age of 23, she was invited by Decca Records to record several songs. “Rock Me” catapulted her to fame as one of the first commercially successful gospel artists, and Tharpe was signed to a 10-year deal.
Regardless of her celebrity, institutional racism in the mid-1940s was rampant. On tour, most restaurants and hotels were segregated, so Tharpe had to sleep on her tour bus while white band members, who were granted access inside, brought her food. Before each show, Sister Rosetta Tharpe put on her makeup outside using the bus headlights — nevermind that it was her name scrawled across the side of the bus. Tharpe’s iconic hit, “Strange Things Happening Every Day” was a protest song. It was both a response to the racism she faced and the backlash she received from the religious community for singing secular music.
Oh, we heard church people say
They are in the holy way
There are strange things happening every day
With Tharpe’s virtuoso guitar and the boogie-woogie piano beat, “Strange Things Happening Every Day” is rock n roll’s inception. And that on its own deserves a place of honor in rock history, except this is a story about breaking a multiplicity of boundaries.
By the time Sister Rosetta Tharpe was 30, she’d been divorced twice and been intimately involved with men and women. In 1946, Tharpe met a younger singer named Marie Knight and fell in love, both personally and professionally. According to the 2007 biography “Shout, Sister, Shout” by Gayle Wald, Tharpe was open about her sexuality within the music industry, though it was kept a secret from the public. Several friends and former bandmates spoke (albeit off the record) about the intimate and loving relationship Tharpe had with Marie Knight. The pair teamed up to record and tour as a successful duo.
Two women on the road together without men as backing musicians or roadies was a radical and dangerous act. When not sleeping on the tour bus, Black funeral homes were one of the few safe places for two women to spend the night. Tharpe and Knight had to carry and set up their own equipment before donning evening gowns and glamorous makeup before each show. But, it was also liberating for the duo to make their own professional decisions and perform for sold-out crowds. The pair would each take the stage as soloists before joining on piano and electric guitar to sing their commercially successful hits like “Up Above My Head” and “Beams of Heaven.”
“For homosexuals in her audiences, rumors about Rosetta might’ve been liberating, an invitation to look for telltale signs of affirmation of their own veiled existence. Or perhaps Rosetta and Marie, performing together, might illustrate alternative possibilities of intimacy in a world where lines of gender and sexuality were religiously policed.”
Excerpt from “Shout, Sister, Shout”
In 1950, Marie Knight lost her mother and two small children in a tragic fire and left the tour, and the relationship. We don’t know what that break-up must’ve been like for Tharpe. All we know is that, less than a year later, the singer’s fame was waning and she was approached by concert promoters with a big idea about staging a wedding at a baseball stadium. Their scheme: sell tickets to her fans and the recording rights to Decca. Tharpe reluctantly agreed to the deal but there was just one problem….there was no husband or even any prospects. Weeks before the event, she was introduced to Russel Morrison who agreed to be her husband — and her manager. According to the documentary “The Godmother of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Tharpe’s friends were confused by the choice. “To tell you the truth, I was surprised when she said she was getting married and that Russell was the groom,” said Lottie Henry, Tharpe’s friend and backup singer. “I didn’t go to the wedding. I figured that Russell just wanted easy living,” claimed friend Roxie Moore. Marie Knight was furious as she also felt that Russell Morrison would use Tharpe for her fame. Despite all of that, Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s third marriage stuck for the next 22 years until her death. (Friends claim that Tharpe and Knight remained intimate even after her marriage to Morrison.)
Though Sister Rosetta Tharpe maintained a career up until her last moments in 1973, she died with no money due to mishandling by Morrison. The funeral was a small affair, not befitting of a superstar. And Morrison never bought a gravestone to mark the site where his wife laid to rest. It wasn’t until 2007, after the biography “Shout, Sister, Shout” was published, that fans organized a fundraiser to raise money for a proper headstone.
The tenderest of responsibilities went to Marie Knight, who lovingly dressed Tharpe’s body. She set her hair as it was worn in the late 40s, when the pair had toured together. That’s how she wished to remember the woman she loved. Now it’s our turn to consider how we ought to memorialize the Black, queer woman who breathed life into rock n roll.
Tell us what you think! Leave a comment with your thoughts about Rosetta Tharpe and her contributions to Rock n Roll.
It’s so easy when know the rules. It’s so easy, all you have to do is…
Name the artist who got their first big break because of Sister Rosetta Tharpe:
a) Chuck Berry
b) Little Richard
c) Etta James
d) Nina Simone
(Scroll to the bottom for the answer.)
And you’re a material girl.
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50% of all sales will go to the Dream Defenders, a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting the erasure of Black and queer rights in the state of Florida.
QUIZ ANSWER: While Rosetta Tharpe indirectly influenced everyone on the list, the answer is B! When Little Richard was 14 years old, he worked the concession stand at the Macon City Auditorium and serenaded Tharpe backstage before the show. She invited him onstage to sing during the show and then gave him $40. It was the first time he’d ever been paid to perform.
Read more about Little Richard’s story here:
No.1 "Tutti Frutti" - Little Richard
Did you know the first hit by the “King of Rock n Roll” was originally written about anal sex? No, not Elvis. The true King of Rock — Little Richard — had his first hit single with “Tutti Frutti.”
Tharpe played a stunning 1961 Gibson Les Paul SG Custom, and toured the US’s Jim Crow south during a period rife with racism, despite not being allowed a hotel room. Today we view the tourbus as a symbol that someone has truly ‘made it’. But back when Tharpe was on the road, she had no choice but to sleep on her own bus.
Great research and little-known facts! Nicely done! I didn't know that about Little Richard being so encouraged by Sister Rosetta! Never underestimate your contributions to rock history, as this piece will shine a bright light as long as there's an internet!