Wonder Woman of the Week: Sister Rosetta Tharpe
While Elvis Presley is often called the King of Rock and Roll and Chuck Berry the Father, this week's Wonder Woman known as the Godmother of Rock and Roll. Sister Rosetta Tharpe often does not receive the credit she deserves as one of the founders of rock music. With her unique electric guitar sounds before most musicians started using the instrument, Tharpe made a unique sound in the early years of the genre that would shape rock music forever and carve out a place for women rockers for decades to come- but not just women. Several household names in rock history cited Tharpe as one of their main influences including Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and Johnny Cash.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe was born Rosetta Nubin in Arkansas in 1915 and became famous as a gospel and blues performer in the 30's and 40's. Tharpe's music evolution didn't end there though. Tharpe's unique combination of gospel lyrics with electric guitar and a unique rhythm and playing style would become an essential music combo to the birth of rock and roll. Tharpe also was an early performer in the rhythm-and-blues genre and is often nicknamed the "original soul sister" and the "godmother of rock and roll." Tharpe's heavy distortion on the electric guitar in the early 1960's would make her an immediate hit over in the UK where her style would influence British Rock- especially when she went on a European tour with Muddy Waters in 1964 where she played for an audience including Keith Richards, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe died in the 1970's, but her music continued to inspire well past the 20th Century. In 2004, the US Library of Congress selected her song "Down by the Riverside" for the National Recording Registry defining her as one of the major influences on the birth of R&B and Rock and Roll. Her song "Strange Things Happen Every Day" hi the Billboard Top 100 back in the 1940's and it's record is often citied as one of the first- if not the first- rock and roll music album in history. There's no suprise then that Tharpe is an inductee in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame- joining the roster in 2018.
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