Manzarek does deserve credit. My only problem with Manzarek is he used going around making the statement, and I've seen him do it on talk shows and the like, that if wasn't for black people, white people would be stuck doing minuet dances on their tippy toes. That's cuckish.
Doesn't that kind of talk from prominent White musicians just drive You nuts?
A propagandist's most useful tool is the ignorance of his audience.
Perhaps the most preposterous yet stubbornly persistent "popular culture" myth about the genesis of rock and roll is that the genre was single-handedly "invented" by Chuck Berry. This is easily disproved and I always enjoy providing the following iron-clad facts to anyone who subscribes to The Great Chuck Berry Myth.
Berry's debut single
Maybellene was released in 1955.
Maybellene was based on a specific version of the traditional Appalachian folk song called
Ida Red that Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys recorded in 1938. This little tidbit handily scuppers the doggedly tenacious untruths which claim that Negroes were the creative leaven of early rock and that only White artists covered and modified songs written by blacks and never vice versa. Smarmy leftist hipster wimps delight in accusing Elvis Presley of "stealing"
That's All Right from the black Arthur Crudup but conveniently remain silent about the original version of Chuck Berry's first single.
Bill Haley had already composed and released
Crazy, Man, Crazy in 1953 in addition to reworking
Rocket 88 (a rhythm and blues song written by the black Ike Turner) into a "proto-rockabilly" piece a few months after the original was released by the black Jackie Branston (and his Delta Cats) all the way back in 1951. Of course, Elvis had released
That's All Right (whose B-side was
Blue Moon Of Kentucky, a rockabilly cover of Bill Monroe's 1946 bluegrass composition) in 1954. So much for the trailblazing role of Chuck Berry. Oh, but I forgot: every rockabilly artist had seen, heard, and been profoundly influenced by Berry's club performances from 1953 onwards...
One final comment about Chuck Berry and the suppositious contention of Negro originality and White imitation. Berry's
Roll Over Beethoven appeared in May 1956 and featured the lyrics "Well early in the morning, I'm giving you my warning, don't you step on my blue suede shoes". But wait - this cannot be! Carl Perkins had released
Blue Suede Shoes four months earlier on New Year's Day...
Enough from me. Here's Elvis with
Blue Moon Of Kentucky...
ELVIS PRESLEY -BLUE MOON OF KENTUCKY: