Rock 'N' Roll Jews

Rating:
Summary: Review by the "Journal of Religion and Popular Culture"
Review: Billig, Michael. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2001. 185 pp. $19.95 US. ISBN 0-8156-0705-9 (PB).

[1] This short book explores developments in the world of early rock n' roll, calling attention to the significant, but frequently overlooked contributions of Jews. As a sociologist, Michael Billig is sensitive to the wider context of the burgeoning post-war developments in American popular music, which means his study of the Jewish presence in this field is a story about "culture, prejudice and identity" (1). Strange as it sounds to modern sensitivities, such a book may not have been well-received in the recent past. Now, however, in a cultural climate in which "the old prejudices recede and ethnicity becomes something that can be more easily displayed in public, it is possible to draw attention to things that previously were only half recognized and about which it would have been better not to comment too loudly" (14-15).

[2] Contrary to popular perception, Billig argues, Jews were not only involved with the behind-the-scenes, business side of the developing rock music industry. Or said another way, there is more to the story of rock 'n' roll Jews than Brian Epstein's management of the Beatles (17-18). True, many of those introduced by this book are lesser-known figures (managers and impresarios, songwriters, and record producers). But there are also examples of a more public Jewish presence. The famous disc jockey Alan Freed, for one, helped popularize rock n' roll, and of course no study on the topic of Jews in music would be complete without biographical sketches of such luminaries as Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Lou Reed, and Leonard Cohen. (The author apologizes early-on for omissions, making it clear there is no attempt to provide an encyclopedic listing of Jews involved with the rock music industry.)

[3] Why did Jews find success in the world of rock n' roll? Billig often returns to this question, observing, for one thing, that since Jews were often excluded from traditional professions, they were "all the more ready to plunge into the new opportunities that the establishment considered beneath their [sic] dignity," like the entertainment industry (21; cf. 32). Further, rock's (black) blues roots were viewed with suspicion by (white) mainstream music companies, which used the term "race music." Jews were ideally suited to orchestrate the fusion of Southern white country music and Southern black blues that became rock. Because they did not share the suspicions that ran both ways between these groups, Jews, "who were distancing themselves from their own cultural heritage" in an effort to fit into American society, "could play with the musical heritages of gospel, blues and country music, moving easily from one to another" (14). And so it was that many of the companies willing to record early black rhythm and blues music ("race labels") were owned by Jews (e.g., Chess Records, who recorded, among others, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and Muddy Waters). For their part, Jewish songwriters had so effectively adapted to the music industry that their songs were occasionally assumed to be the work of African American artists (e.g., the histories often overlook the fact that Elvis' hit "Hound Dog" was written by Jews, not African Americans [see 42-47]; the composers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller are thoroughly introduced [47-60]).

[4] This is a fine book. The author guides readers behind the familiar heroes of rock n' roll to trailblazers who helped make their success possible in the first place. Among conclusions reached, Billig finds that the contribution of American Jews "has been out of all proportion to the numbers of Jews in the population at large" (157). What is more remarkable is the extent to which this story has been ignored.

Michael J. Gilmour
Associate Professor of New Testament, Providence College
Otterburne, Manitoba, Canada
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