Sister Rosetta Thorpe - The Godmother of Rock and Roll

About this episode

Sister Rosetta Tharpe invented rock and roll — and history erased her from it. Before Elvis, before Chuck Berry, a Black gospel woman from Cotton Plant, Arkansas plugged an electric guitar into the Pentecostal shouting tradition and created the template: heavy distortion, lead breaks, and pure showmanship. In 1938 alone she signed with Decca Records, played the Cotton Club, and sang gospel at Carnegie Hall. Her 1944 "Strange Things Happening Every Day" became the first gospel record to cross over. Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, and Elvis all learned from her — yet she died in 1973 in an unmarked grave, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame didn't induct her until 2018. Featuring her biographer…