History Question: Pre-Rock'n Roll Music to Vintage hot rods

I've always wondered how the 30's- 40's- 50's music applied to the gearheads & hot rodders of that time.

I was researching my '52 chebby. I realized my chevy was very popular a**** the Latino/Mexican community in the 50's. The latino's got 'em second-hand & made chebby taildraggers outta them by puttin sand-bags in the trunk, While they wore their d****s....... what was their music choice?

Or....Um Vic Edelbrock. Speed equip. God. Dry lakes interests. 1940 era, & Edelbrock racing personality - what was the common music of that time which represented racing interests & social circles.

NOWDAYS we have many more musical styles to listen to --But during the birth of hotrodding, lowriding, customizing....Blues, Jazz, & Country were the basic categories of music during the ---The birth of hotrodding & Rock 'n Roll.

Historically, does the music and car of that time become influenced by the geography & ethnicity of early gearheads.

(I really am interested in this topic, I hope it doesn't fall to never-never land....Thanx for the history lesson!)

 

can't answer to 30s-40s stuff around here, but my surviving grandpa was somewhat of a hotrodder for the era, and his soci-economic status. had a pretty fast 39 tudor, ended up putting a 49 merc mill in it. he and my grandma would go around to alot of shows and dances, popular country of the time. saw hank sr. in concert, that kinda thing. rock n roll was a bit later for him, and being in very rural SE ohio, i highly doubt any kinda bebop, blues, jump or jazz woulda been around. my other grandma, who is slightly older, spoke of hillbilly music, which woulda been earlier country, probably more of a bluegr*** flavor. that's the very slim slice of the pie around here.

 

I think the music of the 30-40's was a geographic thing. Big bands in the eastand big cities;country,bluegr***,blues down south, a mixture of jazz and blues in the cities of the mid-west and west and blues and country in the rural parts of the west.
Think about country swing and where it started and grew up.
Watch an old Roy Rogers or Gene Autry movie and you'll get the idea.
Actually, watch any movies of that era and you'll hear what was popular with everyone.Hotrodders included.

 

nice answer and pretty true.

 

Good Answer. I collect music as far back as the late 1800's (Edison Acoustic music, etc) but don't have a clue what rodders listened to. Cool thread! BTT

 

I always like to picture some kid sitting out at the dry lakes in the '40s with his roadster, listening to some bottleneck slide blues......probably didn't but I do I listen to '20s-'40s music just as much as '50s-early '60s!
-Dean

 

Just like today, I'd think that the younger generation of the times would listen to stuff that "pushed the envelope". Rebellion stuff. Maybe Blues race records. By the mid to late 40's, I'd think a lot would listen to Bop. Dizzy, Parker and all the sounds coming from New York.

"You know, dig the rebop on the bebop, daddio".

Me, I'd have been listening to the Prez. Lester Young is still the tops.

 

i've thought about this before...i dont think they actually listened to anything other than what was on the radio coming from there pops radio in the living room,,,and if they were in the garage they PROBABLY couldnt hear it! and im SURE they didnt have a radio in there old real hotrods either!!

so the answer is ,,they didnt listen to ****..

 

kinda like,,in the future,,what they might ask....

..."i wonder what the RAT RODDERS of '06 where pl;aying on there ipods in their rat rods back then???"

..or " man,iwonder what games on PS2 the RAT RODDERS of '06 where playing while they looked at there RAT RODS they bought on EBAY,,,yeah! you remeber EBAY??man,my pops said it was so awesome,,you'd purchase parts of that website,,thens send a COMPLETE stranger cash and he'd send you the part!!!! man ,,can you imagine doing that NOWADAYS!!?!??!DAYMN!"

 

I've read alot of speculation...I wonder if there are any 'ol-time gearheads who are here that could lend their thoughts?

Ultimately...I was trying to find out if each car has a different feel, & soul,,,such as build style,,,cruise style & music style...such as a traditional '32 ford roadster- maybe listning to Hank Williams?...or cruisin a chebby listening to polka?...???

 

Nick, I must say I did'n't read the reply's....


Jazz man, jazz

Oldies didn't become pop until amercin graffity

 

read Fifties Flashback , by Al Drake , he does a great job covering all that stuff, like what they listened to what they wore and what they read .

I would guess it was like anyone else , different strokes .

 

John, That's the first time I've heard Al's name mentioned by anyone here by anyone but me!!

Al told me they listened to Jazz back in the day, he is a friend

Buddy, Jack, and the mulitude (sp) of others......

 

The song Hotrod Lincoln, which was the last of the "Hotrod Race" songs, came in the 70's. The orignal Hotrod Race first version was about 1910. With several more popular versions in the late 40s. Heck the rarest Jotrod Magazine, #3 had a 1950 version in it.

Hotord music, has been around in one form or another, as long as production cars have been.

 

Drummer ,

Everyone should read his stuff , Street was fun in 51 , was the first of his that I read and I realized that he had a great knac for remembering all the little details , and lots of pictures of real cars too , I like that he was into mild customs , and even though he tells you that most of the trends were regional , it really gives you a good feel of what was going on with young rodders , and as a history buff , and hotrodder and custom car owner I somehow identify with him , and understand where he was coming from.

everyone on the hamb should own a copy of Fifties Flashback.

 

my girlfriend's dad is 76. He told me once that him and all his buddies listened to 3-piece jazz when they were teenagers and messing with cars. As for regional, this was in Los Angeles where he grew up. For what it's worth, he had a model A coupe, him and a buddy took the body off, cut it in half so they could carry it across the road to the s**** place. Then, they took that money ($5 cash), and bought a 32 ford roadster body from that yard, and dropped it on the A frame. He said back then, they were only worth the metal they were made of...

 

It's my understanding from talkin' to my parents that it was a lotta' Country/Blue-Gr***, a little Jazz, & lots of "Ball-Room" Music: Tommy Dorsey & Guy Lombardo kinds of stuff.

 

Several people have told me:

"I knew it was you before I saw you! I could hear Sinatra and open headers coming around the corner!"

I usually put a loud stereo in my cars. Some cars required turning it up to 11 to hear the music over the exhaust. One fond memory I have is from being stopped at a drawbridge in my 64 GTO. I had "Songs for Swinging Lovers" playing, a redhead riding shotgun, and the couple next to me got out of the car and started dancing in the street! We had a great party in those 5 minutes waiting for the bridge.

 

I would sway towards jazz...bebop....or jump blue- pre rock 'n roll

 

Hank Williams made references to both a 'Hot Rod Stroker' in Settin the Woods on Fire and a 'Hot Rod Ford' in Hey Good Lookin. Given the timeframe he was touring in, that hot rod stroker was almost ***uredly a flattie with a Merc crank. Still, I'd imagine it varied according to who you talked to. Remember, there was a big resistance to 'race music' back then and all the early RockNRoll was considered as such. It's weird to think that racism would have prevented someone from listening to Jackie Brenston's stellar 'Rocket 88'...

 

I think it was probly like the old Andy Hardy movies.

 

people have been covering hot rod lincoln for years, but charlie ryan's copyright date on hot rod lincoln is 1955. i'm aware of the long chain of various hot rod race songs in the late 40s-mid 50s, hadn't heard of the 1910 version. got any info on that? lyrics would have to be a trip as far as slang goes.

 

I have the same opinion as Apple Dumplin...I don't think they listened to a damn thing.

In the 30's and 40's, music, and the radios they were played on, were for the adults. And that big radio in the living room would have never been allowed to be turned up far enough to hear it outside. (Mom and Pop would have tanned your hide) And as far as Frank Sinatra... the only way you'd hear him AND open headers comming around a corner is if he was in the car screaming "Slow this thing down man!!!" They didn't even put radios into production cars until what... the 50's? And even then most of the "hot rodders" of the time wouldn't have wanted one in their car. They were stripping **** off them to make em faster. You just know you could hear any one of us in the 50's saying "you wanna listen to music, go to a sock hop baby, this is a hot rod"

 

Well, I guess I grew up smack dab in the middle of it all in Detroit. I was a teenager in the fifties and this is what I listened to. Most of all it was Robin Seymour the disc jockey and we listened to whatever he played on the radio. Bobbin' with Robin was the cool thing. Now I got my first brand new car, 1956 Chevy 210 hardtop jet black with bubble skirts, and put a 45 rpm record player on the tunnel and a 30 pound converter in the trunk to convert to 12 volt and I played Elvis, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley, Lots of doowop, and if I wanted to score, my big brother taught me to put on some Sinatra. Later, for my own listening pleasure I got into Jazz. That's is one guy's memory from the fifties.

 

You were posting as I was, so I would like to add that they had radios in cars for a couple of decades before you think, and no one would strip them off. Everybody wanted a radio in their car if it would work. The folks had long thrown out the big radio and had a small TV in the living room, and it started at 10 in the morning and went to 12 at night. Uncle Miltie, Dragnet. etc.

I would say that most of the guys in the fifties would be glad that you told the gals to go to the sock hop, because a lot of guys would be there to dance with them. Most gals of that era didn't much care for hotrods because they had pretty skirts and acrynalon slips and didn't want to get them dirty. They wanted to listen to music in the car on a moonlit night. Cars were great, but chicks were better. When you couldn't get a date, you worked on cars. Now this is just one guys memory again, but it is accurate and not speculation about what happened.

 

Well I was 13 in 1951 and this is what I remember. All music before then was mostly Bing Crosby, Vic Damone, Rosmary Clooney and the "BIG BANDS"

AM radios only in cars and they were an option.

Kids listened to Teresa Brewer, Patti Paige, Pat Boone, Kay Starr and others.

Kids in 9th grade taking dance lessons (Ya Right!) round dancing where you could feel the budding ****s dancin' close. Wonder why they don't dance close anymore Dad?

About '52 the local station WING hired a DJ called Gene Barry went by the name of Gene "By Golly" Barry while on the air. He advertized Mogan David Wine (he'd say "Only because it is so fine") He started playing a lot of black rythum & blues; thats what we called it not blues or country. AM Station 1410 on your radio dial.

"Annie had a baby can't work no more, no more,no,no,no,no
Annie had a baby can't work no more"
Every time she start's a working she has to start and walk the baby 'cross the floor" (My 8 year old grandaughter can sing this song word for word I downloaded it for her off of Limewire and her mother and grandmother 'bout wet themselves)

Get the idea? It was different and somewhat underground, all these white kids listening to black music; almost like it was prolly illegal or something. Kids became rebels naturally and James Dean made a killing on the theme I think in '55 or '56 and popularized the '49 Merc.

Drag racing right downtown from stoplight to stoplight and the cops didn't say anything. Twice pipes rappin' off of the walls of the 3 & 4 story buildings. Cruise thru the Hasty Tasty then drive 6 miles to the Parkmoor then 3 miles to the A&W Root beer place. Repeat as necessary. Drink a cherry coke at each stop for .10 cents. Gas was 24.9 cents/gallon so you could cruise pretty good on a buck; hell I was makin' $1.10/hour as a lifeguard in the summer. Another $0.90 an hour at the Sinclair station.

I'd live those times all again in a minute

 

Since this question is realeted to two of my loves, I feel the need to add to this thread. My pops was 20 in 1949 and never listen to a lick of Rock n Roll, he's a Jazz man, in fact was/is a trombone player by trade and toured the midwest with a small " big band" ( maybe 7,8 dudes) and he also hopped up cars. I would have to say that this is a very regional subject, but in his neck of the woods,( No. Illi.) in the fourties it would have been Stan Kenton ( who was kinda alternative for the time) or Les Brown. My old man also digs the "cl***ics", Bix Beiderbecke,The Wolverines or even some Louis Jordan ( none of which was very mainstream either)....there you have it, one mans perspective.

Also on the chicano front my mother is Mexican American and is a few years young then my dad, but I would have to say in El Paso, it was Jazz also probably with a few crooners thrown in. Sinatra, Crosby et' al.

 

Interesting and often annoying subject.

I have a book ***led "The Past is a Foreign Country." It's a pretty heavy tome, but the gist of it is that you can't make ***umptions about the past or try to interpret history based on the world as you know it today.

Even as recently as 50 years ago, the world was a very different place, and not just because of technology. The subtlties of the way people thought and did things would probably be a shock if we were to be magically dropped back there instantly.

Which is all to say I think the whole music/cars correlation is a bit misguided. I don't think there was (or is) car music for car people. Some popular culture music may have referred to car stuff, but that's just because cars were part of the general culture.

The comments re. the big "in the living room" radio are on the money. Look at 30's and 40's movies and listen to the sound tracks is another good idea. regional folks did have regional music at Saturday dances etc.

Guys doing the car thing as a hobby were doing it for fun as part of their general life, not a music+hot rods = lifetyle.

The hot rods = rock'n'roll thing ****s me to tears. It's a fantasy.

As someone else said, by the time it did come around, MEN did not listen to Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers.

Now I am rambling...

 

I don't think it was a fantasy at all, in fact in know it wasn't. I was into cars, both hotrods and customs, and all of the lifestyle of listening to Chuck Barry's Maybelline while cruising the drive-ins was definitely a lifestyle for me. We felt that this music and the cars, was something that our parents didn't understand and it was cool to us. I know because I was there and that was my life.
I would love to go back for a couple of nights.