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Thought We Were Writing the Blues: But They Called It Rock 'n' Roll


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Leonard Lopate had the author of this book on Rose Marie McCoy on his radio show on WBAI yesterday, and I had never heard of it before (or McCoy). The author met McCoy through a mutual acquaintance, and was probably the only writer to have access to McCoy, because McCoy was almost impossible to schedule interviews with, for various reasons.

The dedicated author was retired when she wrote the book, so she had a lot of free time to interview the elusive songwriter, who was the first black woman to break into the entirely white,male province of the Brill Building songwriters, paving the way for Carole King and others.

The music biz was less corporate back then, and McCoy (who was a talented singer) was able to walk into any office, belt out a song, and get a contract in a matter of minutes. As a result, her songs were recorded by everyone from Nat Cole to Elvis. Lopate himself told a story about how he and a friend were able to do the very same thing while they were in high school, and got a contract on the spot with The Sultans, after singing an agent a few of their songs.

https://www.amazon.com/Thought-We-Were-Writing-Blues-ebook/dp/B00SVYJMLU

Edited by sgcim
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