Rock & Roll: From the Blues to the British Invasion

How did a form of African American, rural folk songs become the basis for a musical industry that has lasted decades? This presentation will review African American contributions to music culture, highlight the development of the Blues in the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta, and discuss some of the myths and legends. The program will continue with post WWII musical developments, the advent of mass broadcasting in the 1950s and the new Rock N’ Roll music, to the wave of Beatlemania and other successful British Rock artists in the 1960s.

Paul Groom, who now lives in Scotch Plains, attended the same high school as Paul McCartney and George Harrison, as well as the same Sunday school as John Lennon. He went to the youth club where Lennon met McCartney. And he lived in the same village of Harrison and Lennon. And, of course, he is a Beatles fan.
 

This program is cohosted with the Historical Society of Plainfield / Drake House Museum.