Joe Boot and the Fabulous Winds: Rock and Roll Radio (1958)

 |   |  <1 min read

Joe Boot and the Fabulous Winds: Rock and Roll Radio (1958)

From The Ventures (Walk Don't Run) and the Kingsmen (the garageband classic Louie Louie of '63) through Jimi Hendrix, the grunge bands (Nirvana, Mudhoney, Pearl Jam etc) to the Posies, Sleater-Kinney and Modest Mouse, the Pacific Northwest has been a breeding ground for rock'n'roll.

Identifying the first rock'n'roll record to come out of the region however has been rather more difficult -- but local experts (and certainly the Experience Music Project compilers of the double CD Wild and Wooly collection) have agreed on this track by a local band which had formerly been a gospel group but added singer Joe Boot in '57.

It is said that Boot's old friend from Georgia, Little Richard, dropped by their sessions.

Unfortunately this single failed to sell and got no airtime in the "white-bread regional radio market".

But here is the song which kickstarted the local scene and within the same year Clayton Watson weighed in with his rockabilly single Everybody's Boppin', then came the Frantics, the Wailers (who, with singer Rockin' Robin, cut the first version of Louie Louie), the Sonics, Paul Revere and the Raiders . . . 

It might not sound much today, but the rock revolution in the Pacific Northwest started right here. 

For more oddities, one-offs or songs with a backstory see From the Vaults

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   From the Vaults articles index

Mel Brooks: To Be Or Not To Be; The Hitler Rap (1984)

Mel Brooks: To Be Or Not To Be; The Hitler Rap (1984)

Very few people -- and arguably only Jewish comedians? -- can get away with making fun of Hitler and the Nazis. Mel Brooks has been relentless in his ridicule which some find tasteless and others... > Read more

Lenny and Squiggy: Foreign Legion of Love (1979)

Lenny and Squiggy: Foreign Legion of Love (1979)

You don't dig into From the Vaults looking for good taste or class, but you do find oddities like this which resonates on many levels throughout rock culture. Lenny and Squiggy were the... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

NILE RODGERS AND CHIC, REVIEWED (2023): Everybody in the house say yo

NILE RODGERS AND CHIC, REVIEWED (2023): Everybody in the house say yo

About 15 years ago I took one of my sons – a Beatle fan in his 30s – to a touring tribute shows, either the Let It Be show or that by the excellent Bootleg Beatles. Either way, they... > Read more

FREEDOM, RHYTHM AND SOUND: Jazz with a raised fist and a copy of Malcolm X speeches in the other hand

FREEDOM, RHYTHM AND SOUND: Jazz with a raised fist and a copy of Malcolm X speeches in the other hand

Few people today -- musicians included -- consider rock or jazz as “political”, even in the broadest sense of the word. Yet back in the late 60s and through the 70s large areas... > Read more