I’ve done a pretty good amount of research on Bob Wills over the years, and one of the more interesting things I’ve unearthed was his apparent attitude toward rock ’n’ roll music in the late 1950s. Of course, this was when he and brother Johnnie Lee left the Cain’s Ballroom with the band, taking up a temporary residency in Las Vegas.
In all the interviews I’ve seen from this time period, Bob always says that rock ’n’ roll is basically what he and the band were doing from the beginning — mixing Black R&B and blues with white country music, and giving it all a solid dance beat. Sometimes, though, if you read between the lines in those interviews, you can sense his frustration with not being able to appeal to the kids.
A few years ago, I taught a class on Oklahoma movies and music at OSU’s Tulsa campus. Of course, we’d get into all of this, and then I’d ask them: Since Western swing embodied so many elements of rock ’n’ roll, why weren’t Bob and Johnnie Lee able to attract teens with their music?
I got a variety of answers every time I asked the question, and many of ‘em were solid and thoughtful, but I think the main one remains obvious: Kids want their own music, and it’s not going to be what their parents like. It wasn’t Bob’s music that turned teens off; it was his age — the fact that he was of their parents’ generation. I think this also goes a long way toward explaining why he and Johnnie Lee and the rest of the band went to Vegas. Patrons of the casinos were older, and more likely to be Bob’s contemporaries, age-wise.
So Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys never really became a rock ’n’ roll act. But it’s not because they didn’t try. Always amenable to changing with the times, Bob played and recorded at least a few rockers, one of which starts this Saturday’s edition of SWING ON THIS.
Also in the hour: Johnnie Lee Wills with a very nice take on one of the linchpin songs of the Big Band Era, and Billy Parker and Shoot Low Sheriff with their own interpretations of a pair of classic Wills numbers.
That and plenty more — including a “San Antonio Rose” all the way from Denmark — heads your way Saturday at 7 p.m. on KWGS, 89.5 in the Tulsa listening area and live-streams throughout the cosmos at publicradiotulsa.org. Always glad to have you aboard.
1. “So Let’s Rock,” Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys