One-eyed One rock and roll

Bill Haley.

Great White Artisan.

Rock and roll blacksmith.

His founding father.

Cheerful and smiling, older and wiser than many others.

As, however, befits a real father ...

Fate favored him.

Although in a very certain sense.

At the age of four, he went blind in his left eye.

What a shame ... The doctor made one wrong, completely wrong injection into his little ear.

It hurt so badly that spring ... And then it stopped.

And the world on the left faded.

But the world remained on the right.

The house of his birth was full of magic sounds.

Dad played the banjo and mandolin.

Mom - on the lute, organ and piano.

And although Pennsylvania, even with a great stretch, never became a southern state, in the house of the Hayley family it sounded exactly what southern music, as if it was not Pennsylvania, but, say, Kentucky.

Especially funny was the presence in all of Hillbilly home music - Tyrolean yodel.

Borrowed from the great Hank Williams.

Rumor has it that once, before the beginning of all time, Little Bill won a Tyrolean singing competition, somewhere in Indiana.

Little Bill.

From birth he bathed in music, not at all like in a bath for babies - like in the ocean.

Without land and coast.

Perhaps because the future rock stars needed their own, local Hephaestus.

He who knows how to forge the heavy, stubborn iron of the southern rhythms of the white redneck and the black poor.

Forge tirelessly.

Endless.

Never stumbling or losing rhythm.

Never letting go of the hammer.

Never leaving the anvil.

And he was born on July 6, 1925.

Detroit.

Under the name of William John Clifton Haley.

In the North of the States.

It is so strange - the one who was destined to turn the world upside down, opening the way for the furious southerners in his rage - came from the cool North.

We know about divine providence - it is a great joker.

Taking away the left half of the world, it gave Haley a wonderful curl on her forehead.

An incredibly funny and almost comical curl, designed to distract from the eye, deprived of sight.

This curl, which will casually fall years later on Elvis's forehead, will mark all rock and roll as it really is.

But also ... But there will also be music.

And thousands of thousands in the trash of broken chairs.

And millions of fans.

Including the Queen of England.

However, she is just an English queen.

And here is Bill Haley ... who spoke in front of her.

But Bill Haley ...

How, without a voice, but with a rhythm in his heart, does he do what we are exhausted for the seventh decade in a row, listening to and re-listening to his records?

He started a long time ago.

Until the beginning of all rock times.

In the early 1940s, he toured the States with countless country bands, occasionally releasing unsuccessful singles.

Hayley worked as a disc jockey at a radio station in Chester and, if possible, since she was, broadcast his recordings.

It was then, while working at the radio station, Haley, whose duties included lightning-fast response to changing musical demand, saw with one eye that young people, oddly enough, were attracted by Negro melodies and rhythms.

Barbaric, in a word, in the eyes of the deans and smooth inhabitants of the street music.

And what's so strange about that, on the other hand?

Everyone wanted fresh blood.

Everyone was eager to open the window.

And finally air the musty American stage.

Tenaciously grasping the tailcoats and motionless, one for all, carefully wiped with a velvet cloth microphone.

Haley, spitting on proportions, as if in a shaker mix black and white, blues with country, jazz, and especially with swing.

He showed incredible carelessness and simplicity.

He crawled, climbed and climbed the Olympus of rock.

While various other, say, the future southern kings were picking their snub noses with their fingers, with difficulty extracting stubborn boogers from there.

Hard, hopeless life.

But their Hephaestus was already inflating their furs.

Beal (ha-ha - Haley), wiping sweat from his forehead, over the stubborn heavy gland.

Forged armor that once and for all crushed pop music (do you have a different opinion?).

Everyone in this world is given a destiny.

Not everyone follows it.

In 46, Haley will be in the first professional group Down Homers, who played western swing, and he will be hired as a vocalist for a short time, and he, filled with feelings, will even leave home!

Down Homers will be followed by Range Drifters and Four Aces of Western Swing.

In 48, parents will convince their restless child to return home.

They will promise him a place at the radio station.

And Bill will give up for a while - disappointed in his solo career, with his wife and child in his arms.

At the very end of the 40s, as music director for radio, he would record several successful country songs - they were really recognized only after his death.

In 1951, Haley will be spotted by Dave Miller, the producer of the Philadelphia record company Holiday Records, on which in 52nd will be recorded the most infamous single Rock the Joint, which sold 100 thousand copies in Pennsylvania.

The single was clearly ahead of its time, but the fuse was lit.

Rock and roll took one last short puff before knocking on the doors of the world.

And Bill worked like an ox.

Finished at two nights in the clubs and at six in the morning opened live on the radio.

He longed for recognition and victory.

In 52nd, The Saddlemen (Haley's group) will finally be renamed Bill Haley & His Comets.

This will mark a turning point in rock history as well as the future greatest rock and roll symbol.

This is how he himself speaks of the times before the beginning of time:

“We started out as country and western and then suddenly added a bit of rhythm and blues.

It wasn't particularly calculated, it just happened.

We were not like anyone else, we were something completely new.

And so they had a hard time finding a job.

We had come so far, still dressing like a cowboy, but playing our new explosive mixture, that we ourselves did not understand who we were.

Seeing us at the concert, the blacks were disappointed that we were not blacks, but whites did not understand anything at all.

Our first big show was in Chicago at a jazz club.

Dizzy Gillespie himself played in front of us, and then I came out.

And even though our single was everywhere in the city, people left after listening to the first song ... After three days we canceled our shows.

And we did not regret anything.

Because they were the first.

Or almost the first.

We played rock and roll, even though no one called it then.

The era of big bands is over.

There was free space in front of us.

And it was very difficult for us to miss.

So we didn't miss. "

They didn't miss.

They, because Bill Haley & His Comets themselves were completely unique.

What was performed on stage overshadowed everything that existed (at that time) in the most sophisticated minds.

Saxophonist Rudy Pompilli, a perfect genius in his field, easily entered into constant duels with guitars, turning on an already frenzied audience.

At the same time, the bassist, riding the contrabass, was jumping across the stage with whoos and whistles, then lying under his instrument, then lifting and turning it upside down, and then playing lying down.

And all this uniform rock outrage was accompanied by a truly blissful, kindest, sweetest smile of the most charming Bill Haley.

Fate could not help smiling at such a good girl.

And soon the first glimpses of Victory appeared on the distant horizons.

In the summer of 53, Haley and his Comets recorded the single Crazy Man Crazy, which reached # 12 on the US charts the same year.

In the same 53rd, Rock Around the Clock was written for Haley.

For various, rather strange and even mystical reasons, he could not record it in the studio until April 12, 1954.

Great things do not happen at once.

Initially, Rock Around the Clock was considered a failure, but soon Haley performed a cover version of Big Joe Turner's world hit Shake, Rattle and Roll, which sold a million copies and became the first rock and roll single to enter the UK charts in December 54- th.

Haley managed to grab a huge youth audience, who had previously been in complete obscurity about the nascent rock and roll.

The decisive chance came in 55, when Rock Around the Clock rumbled in the credits of the wildly popular Blackboard Jungle and soared to the top of the American Billboard chart for nineteen weeks, eight of which it held out in first place.

The same thing happened in Britain.

Here's to you for fun - in 68 and 74, the single was reissued twice, and both times it became a hit again.

The recording entered the Guinness Book of Records as a piece of music, with a circulation of 25 million copies.

Everything that happened meant a musical revolution and wide-open doors for the likes of Elvis and the rest of the southern guard.

Fortunately, the children of royal blood managed to grow up and mature (practicing in combing cocks and wearing shirts of absolutely incredible colors).

They will be on stage soon.

Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Charlie Rich and many, many others.

Haley will go into the shadows for a while.

To forever remain behind the First Ones from the South.

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However, Bill Haley & His Comets will certainly have high-profile achievements.

Rock Around the Clock will be the first single to sell over 1 million copies in Britain and Germany, and in 57th Hayley will become the first rocker to tour Europe.

He will forge hits one after another throughout the 50s.

He even manages to play the leading roles in the first rock and roll films, which are completely banned from showing in some countries - young people at the sessions smashed the very chairs that were mentioned at the beginning.

In 1957, Hailey with the Comets will arrive in Great Britain.

In the port of Southampton, they will be greeted by seven thousand fans desperately in love with rock and roll.

It will be a true triumph - the "eternal" record for continuous stay in the British charts (110 weeks for 1956-1957).

Further more often they say something like: "His star was soon overshadowed by a young and sexy Elvis, but Bill Haley still remained popular in Latin America and Europe throughout the 60s."

Absolute nonsense.

Not having anything to do with Bill Haley.

Say something else similar about Beethoven ...

"Soon Beethoven was overshadowed by a younger and sexier ..." Who?

Who in our world can outshine Beethoven?

Hayley was doing his thing.

Played rock and roll.

Until the day of departure to unknown shores.

He did his job amazingly well.

At 25 with a huge fat plus.

Without changing yourself and style.

Without betraying those who love him.

Carrying the fire of rock in my heart.

Forging armor for those who are forever doomed to fight the dull and dull pop.

Before leaving for his planet (40 years ago - February 9, 81st) he was unwell.

He drank.

Rather, from the realization of the inevitable end of the whole present in front of the emptiness of daily boredom and meaninglessness.

When he was in the mood, he went into the studio and just recorded another breathtaking album.

Like Just Rock-End-Roll Music.

Played as if with two fingers, ultra-reliable, with a triple safety factor - a fastener that keeps the present from the desire to fly to pieces.

And, perhaps, no one better than him was able to understand those games that reckless, cheerful people very recklessly start up.

Just like us.

One of the games is rock.

As music and as the inevitability of life itself.

Bill Haley sang.

That's all.

Our business is to remember this.

And from time to time to lower the needle into the ringing abyss of vinyl, where unprecedented wondrous fish live in the gloomy darkness.

Where, if you dive deeper and close your eyes, you can still see the Palaces and Halls of Fame of Rock and Roll.

Now flooded by the Great Sea.

But who knows who will take it and when.

The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.