ROCKIN’ AND ROLLIN’ ON THE RIVER

[HostDave]

When you think of a riverboat, what kind of music first comes to mind? Perhaps it’s the spirituals and hymns sung by the local communities back in the heyday of riverboats in the middle of the 19th century. It could be the jazz, blues and zydeco which got its start along the banks of the Mississippi River, the sounds of which carried across the swift current to the impressive floating palaces with their wedding cake upper works and bright red paddlewheels. At the American Queen Steamboat Company, we certainly think of all those possibilities but also another form of music comes to mind. Let’s not forget that rock and roll got its start in the South, the hub of steamboat traffic in the past and, along with the music, still a cultural icon today.

That why this August we’re offering two voyage that celebrate the music that has kept our toes tappin’, hands clappin’ and hips movin’ for a half century. Our 9-day Music of the 50s cruise on August 8 from St. Paul to St. Louis is a nostalgic journey to the fun-loving 1950s as we celebrate and re-create the music, activities and events of this golden era. Rock around the clock to the legendary sounds of Chuck Berry and Fats Domino performed by artists like The Comets, Sh-Boon and more. The return voyage from St. Louis to St. Paul on August 15, is a 9-day Music of the 60s cruise that explores how America expressed itself through music during a decade of change. During this special tribute to the 1960s, guests can dance to the sounds of Motown artists plus R&B and rock favorites like The Return performing hits from the Beatles. There’s never been a decade quite like the 1960s.

These voyages stop in ports such as Hannibal, Missouri; Dubuque, Iowa; Davenport, Iowa; Burlington, Iowa; La Crosse, Wisconsin; and Red Wing, Minnesota. Not only do you get a charming slice of the small towns that made America great and the people who are the backbone of our country, you do so with the music that shaped a generation echoing in your ears each time you go ashore. Performances on the American Queen each night are so enjoyable, so true, so authentic and so nostalgic, you’ll be humming your favorite tunes from morning to night the next day.

Interestingly, the term “rock and roll” had its etymological roots in the very music that it superseded such as blues, swing and gospel. While the term itself originally referred to the movement of a ship in heavy seas, that type of movement became associated with upbeat songs, many of which originated in the uplifting spirituals of Southern churches. Despite those heavenly connotations, the term’s use among the general populace came to represent the swaying of hips to the music with sexual undertones (a precursor to the furor that erupted over Elvis Presley’s stage gyrations a few decades later).

Believe it or not, the term “rock and roll” started to be used with some frequency as far back as the 1930s with a song of the same name performed by The Boswell Sisters from a 1934 film entitled Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round. The term gained traction throughout the 1940s although the music it described is not what we necessarily would classify as rock and roll today. A Cleveland radio station back in the early 1950s was the first to use the term repeatedly to describe the new, up-tempo music that was emerging and the phrase stuck in the American, and later global, lexicon.

As for the music itself that the term described, one could argue about its exact origins until the cows come home, get up the next morning, and do it all over again. Universally however, the South is seen as the birthplace of rock and roll since the music primarily evolved from Southern gospel and blues with elements of the low drumbeats of swing mixed in. An intermediary step on the way to full-fledged rock and roll was the evolution of rhythm and blues, often simply referred to as R&B, with an undercurrent of country music providing a more universal sound. Offshoots such as country boogie and electric blues took hold.

The advent of the electric guitar seemed to be a development tailor made for the rise of rock and roll. It lent a sound that firmly distinguished the new music from its predecessors.

It’s impossible to pin down the first true rock and roll artist, song or album. However, in terms of creating widespread exposure to the new musical art form, Bill Haley’s 1954 standard “Rock Around the Clock” takes the prize. Though at first it didn’t meet with popular acclaim, within a year of its release the sound and the song swept the nation. Rock and roll was born.

The genre that Haley launched has continued to evolve. The sounds of the Beatles of the 1960s is distinctly different than that of Chuck Berry in the 1950s yet both are undeniably rock and roll. The joys of traveling on one of these two August journeys on the American Queen embracing the early years of rock and roll is to understand and hear the development of the music itself. It not only can bring back memories, it can also make them. We invite you to join us on our 9-day Music of the 50s cruise on August 8 from St. Paul to St. Louis or our 9-day Music of the 60s voyage on August 15 from St. Louis to St. Paul.