Reissues celebrate the birth of rock

Pop music aficionados love to argue about when rock ‘n’ roll was born. Generalists like to cite 1954, the year “Rock Around the Clock” came out and Elvis Presley made his first recordings. Country-leaning fans will argue that Hank Williams’ “Kaw-Liga” in 1952 brought together all the elements that would come to define rock ‘n’ roll, while many in the R&B; camp say the Jackie Breston-Ike Turner recording “Rocket 88” did it a year earlier. Still others suggest that Fats Domino’s “The Fat Man” from 1949 is a bona fide rock record.

Most celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the birth of rock music, however, will take place this year, and there’s a slew of reissues just out or on the way tied to the emergence in 1954 of a new style of music for a new generation of teens.

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Chuck Berry

“After School Session” (Chess/Geffen)

Another favorite topic of debate in rock circles is who deserves to be called “the father of rock ‘n’ roll,” most of it focusing on Elvis, Chuck Berry or Little Richard. That argument will never be settled, and it’s probably more instructive at this point to think of it as a three-way godhead, leaving fans to argue over who’s the father, who’s the son and who’s the holy spirit.

There’s little disagreement, however, that Berry was rock’s first important singer-songwriter-guitarist, a creative hat trick that’s fully evident in this debut album. When it came out in 1957, LPs were little more than a dumping ground for hit singles and their Bsides. That makes the added dimension Berry displayed here all the more significant.

Along with his hit single “School Day,” a master class of wordplay about teens champing at the bit to escape from that weekday prison known as school, the album includes songs with subtle expressions about issues of race that also came to a head in 1954 with the Supreme Court ruling that outlawed segregation in public schools.

“Too Much Monkey Business,” a key inspiration for Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” is a dazzling display of skill by a writer clearly in love with language. But beneath all the piled-up words Berry expresses frustration, couched in humor, at always getting the short end of the stick: “Runnin’ to-and-fro/Hard workin’ at the mill/Never fail/In the mail/Yeah, come a rotten bill!”

And even though no names are named in “Brown Eyed Handsome Man,” it’s impossible not to think of Jackie Robinson and the athletic and cultural barriers he broke a few years earlier as Berry sings:

Two, three count with nobody on/He hit a high fly into the stand/Rounding third he was headed for home/It was a brown eyed handsome man.

Besides the signature Berry rockers, “After School Session” includes the heartbreakingly picturesque ballad of missed romance “Havana Moon”; a fever dream of a journey to hell in “Down Bound Train”; and such bluesy instrumentals as “Wee Wee Hours” and “Deep Feeling,” intensely emotional musical workouts despite Berry’s frequent protestation that he did not consider himself a blues artist.

The expanded reissue includes three bonus tracks that originally appeared on the “Rock, Rock, Rock” movie soundtrack: “Maybellene,” “You Can’t Catch Me” and “Thirty Days (To Come Back Home).”

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James Brown

“Live at the Apollo” (Polydor/Universal)

This celebrated live album was recorded in 1962, well before Brown honed in on his proto-funk sound with such hits as “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” and “I Feel Good (I Got You).” But listen closely and you can hear it percolating, especially in the unusual and often jarring harmonic choices used by his horn section.

At this point in his career there still was a heavy gospel influence in his scorching vocals as he raises the pitch of romantic pleadings in each successive verse, each successive line, leading to explosive, sexually charged musical climaxes. The expanded edition includes single remixes of four songs, prepared after radio became unexpectedly interested in the material after its release.

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The Rolling Stones

“The Singles 1963-65” (ABKCO)

The Stones’ early recordings were deeply influenced by Berry, Brown and other African American musicians, which is obvious on these early singles. Listening to these recordings, you can hear them evolve from an enthusiastic cover band specializing in American blues and R&B; (note the sensitive rendition of Arthur Alexander’s aching “You Better Move On”) to the confident blues-based original rock group that created “The Last Time” and “It’s All Over Now.”

The gimmick here is the songs are packaged as nine separate CD singles and three multi-song EPs (all in the original mono mixes), each with a different cardboard photo sleeve and gathered into a beautifully glossy, albeit expensive ($59.98 list price ) box.

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The Stanley Brothers

“An Evening Long Ago: Live 1956” (Columbia/DMZ/Legacy)

While the early rockers were synthesizing a new fusion out of elements from country music, blues, gospel and R&B;, others were happy keeping those original strains pure. Bluegrass musicians Carter and Ralph Stanley recorded this off-the-air session at a Bristol, Va., radio station near their Clinch Mountain home, with the only audience being station engineers and staff.

Consequently, the song list reflects material closest to their hearts, including several numbers they rarely performed for fans, such as “The Story of the Lawson Family,” a tragic tale from the ‘20s when real-life stories were common song fodder. The only real war horses here are “Orange Blossom Special” and “Nine Pound Hammer.”

Though Ralph established a viable solo career after Carter’s 1966 death in a car accident, eventually being lionized as one of the patriarchs of bluegrass, he’s always said his favorite music was that which he made with his brother. And in 1956, the Stanleys were at their creative peak.