Did a former Franktown resident change the world?

BY  BEN FINLEY

FRANKTOWN, Va. (AP) — Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup helped invent rock ‘n’ roll.

His 1946 song “That’s All Right” would become the first single Elvis Presley ever released. Rod Stewart would sing it on a chart-topping album. Led Zeppelin would play it live.

But you wouldn’t have known it if you saw Crudup living out his later years on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, dressed in coveralls and leading a crew picking cucumbers, tomatoes and sweet potatoes.

The Mississippi-born blues musician died 50 years ago, leaving behind one of the starker accounts of 20th century artist exploitation. As the 70th anniversary of Presley’s recording of ”That’s All Right” approaches Friday — July 5, considered a cultural milestone — here are some key takeaways from the AP’s story on Crudup:

Why did Crudup make so little money?

Crudup didn’t hold the rights to his own songs. His original manager did. And that was common practice back then

Lester Melrose had initially signed and managed Crudup.

“I wouldn’t record anybody unless he signed all his rights in those tunes over to me,” he once said, according to Alan Lomax’s book “Mister Jelly Roll.”

Many Black musicians signed over copyrights or were forced to share them, Southwestern Law School professor Kevin J. Greene told The Associated Press.

“A huge chunk of what we’re talking about in terms of exploitation is still under copyright,” said Greene, who testified before a California reparations task force.

In 1971, Downbeat magazine estimated that Crudup should have earned $250,000 — $2 million today — from “That’s All Right” as well as “My Baby Left Me,” which Creedence Clearwater Revival recorded. High Fidelity was more conservative, writing in 1972 that Crudup’s total royalties would’ve been around $120,000 — still more than $900,000 today.

Did Crudup like Presley’s version?

He said he did.

“He made it into a kind of hillbilly record,” Crudup told the Los Angeles Times in 1969. “But I liked it. I thought it would be a hit. Some people like the blues, some don’t. But the way he did it, everyone liked it.”

Presley had started playing the song while on a break during his tryout session in Sun Studios, according to Peter Guralnick’s book, “Last Train to Memphis.”

Guralnick told The Associated Press that Presley’s recording of “That’s All Right” set him off “on what would soon become his almost unimaginable path to stardom.”

Best selling history author Bill OReilly stated in his book “Killing the Legends” that Elvis Presley started what would be come one of the greatest culture shifts ever to take place in this country. Presley’s superstardom paved the way for the advent of Rock and roll which led to numerous  groups and artists that would literally change our culture forever leading to the Beatles , Beach Boys and many other superstar groups.  Krudup, who eventually moved to Franktown on the Eastern Shore wrote the song that started it all.

In 1956, Presley paid homage to Crudup.

“Down in Tupelo, Mississippi, I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now,” he told The Charlotte Observer, “and I said if I ever got to the place I could feel all old Arthur felt, I’d be a music man like nobody ever saw.”

Arguments abound over who wrote the first rock ‘n’ roll song. But “That’s All Right,” mixing elements of blues and country, stakes a strong claim.

“It doesn’t sound like country, it doesn’t sound like blues, although I can hear them in there,” said Joe Burns, a professor of communications and media studies at Southeastern Louisiana University. “It really is a brand new thing.”

Tomorrow we will continue our story.