Cross the Water Blues: African American Music in Europe

10. Whose “Rock Island Line”?: ORIGINALITY IN THE COMPOSITION OF BLUES AND BRITISH SKIFFLE

167 Airplay has always been the major key to creating a hit record, particularly in the era before television exposure,celebrity reputations,and wider media coverage became significant. Over the years DJs have made hits out of the most unlikely records—David Seville’s “Witch Doctor” and Chipmunks’ records in America,“Happy Wanderer” by the Obernkirchen Children’s choir and three hits by the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Military Band in Britain are just a few examples that spring to mind. Surely at the time it first became popular , before it spearheaded a whole popular music phenomenon, “Rock Island Line” must have been seen in this novelty category. Despite the seemingly exotic nature of the lyrics, something about it appealed to British disc jockey Eamonn Andrews,1 who was credited with “discovering” Lonnie Donegan’s recording for BBC radio’s Pied Piper series. With repetition, listeners also became intrigued with this railroad saga from the Deep South. (Jack Train’s version of “The Runaway Train,” originally a hit by Vernon Dalhart, was another BBC favorite at this time.) Not that they would be entirely unfamiliar with genuine American folk music, thanks to the efforts of Alistair Cooke, 10 ORIGINALITY IN THE COMPOSITION OF BLUES AND BRITISH SKIFFLE —BOB GROOM Whose “Rock Island Line”? 168 BOB GROOM whose pioneering BBC radio series I Hear America Singing in 1938 contained an appreciable element of jazz and black music, drawn from commercial recordings and the Library of Congress Archive of folk song, folklorist Alan Lomax (resident in the United Kingdom in the 1950s), and BBC producer/ presenter Charles Chilton, perhaps better known for the sci-fi thriller series Journey into Space. When Lonnie Donegan’s “Rock Island Line” was first broadcast, it was simply one track of a popular eight-track ten-inch LP by Chris Barber’s Jazz Band2 on Decca (New Orleans Joys), but such was its popularity on air that Decca eventually issued it as a single (Decca F-J 10647) with “John Henry” on the B-side. It was also later made available on a Decca EP (DFE 6345) and so was available in all vinyl formats then in commercial use. Record charts based on sales rankings had been introduced in Britain in 1952 by the New Musical Express, the “Hit Parade” having previously been constructed from sheet music sales (which still continued to be important for some years). By the autumn of 1955 all the major music papers featured record charts and “Rock Island Line” quickly made an appearance in them, climbing rapidly through January 1956 to reach its highest position at No. 8 during the first week of February. However, quite different from the“shooting star” path of most pop singles today—zooming to the top, and then quickly dropping off the chart—records often spent months on the charts, selling steadily. “Rock Island Line” spent twenty-two weeks on the chart, and when the Top 20 was extended to become a Top 30 in April 1956, it was back in at No. 16 and was listed at No. 19 the week before its last placing in June. (By which time Lonnie was at No. 2 with his first Pye-Nixa single, “Lost John.”) Even more improbably,“Rock Island Line”became a major hit in America. Its raw excitement, a quiet opening, followed by acceleration to a fast and furious climax, hit the spot with U.S. record buyers. Lonnie himself was astonished by the record’s huge popularity.3 Ironically he derived no direct income from its sales (just a session fee as a member of the band when the recordings were made back in July 1954), although it gave him a seven-year career as a major pop star. While Decca shilly-shallied (instead of offering royalties and putting Lonnie on contract), Pye-Nixa signed up the new young sensation. Suddenly Donegan the jazzman was a pop star. Those in the know felt that Lonnie had ripped off a composition of Leadbelly (Huddie Ledbetter) by claiming authorship of the song.“New words and music by Lonnie Donegan” was the credit, but neither element of this 169 ORIGINALITY IN THE BLUES AND BRITISH SKIFFLE claim was correct. Essex Music first credited the song to Donegan on the sheet music, later changing it to “words and new music” by Donegan. On recent CD issues Ledbetter, J. and A. Lomax, and Donegan are co-credited with...