Sister Rosetta Tharpe

The Mother of Rock-n-Roll

In an article for Afro-punk, Erin White writes “Rock-n-Roll was invented by a queer Black woman born in 1915 Arkansas. Your disordered hardcore punk rock was sanctioned by a kinky-haired Black girl born to two cotton pickers in the Jim Crow South. The electric guitar was first played in ways very few people could have ever imagined by a woman who wasn’t even allowed to play at music venues around the country. The Patron Saint of rock music is Sister Rosetta Tharpe.”

Portrait of Tharpe, 1938 by James J. Kriegsmann

White writes, “In 1944…she released ‘Strange Things Happening Every Day’. A song that went on to become the first gospel to chart on Billboard’s Harlem Hit Parade (now R&B chart). It is considered by some to be the first rock song, ever.”

Tharpe’s biographer Gayle Wald said, “She influenced Elvis Presley, she influenced Johnny Cash, she influenced Little Richard. She influenced innumerable other people who we recognize as foundational figures in rock and roll.”

“She influenced innumerable other people who we recognize as foundational figures in rock and roll.”

Tharpe posted with a guitar, 1938

In an NPR piece by Bruce Warren and Alex Lewis., it’s said that, “Her fame faded by the 1960s as a new generation of musicians began to expand upon her style. She found new audiences in Europe, but otherwise settled into a quiet life in Philadelphia. Tharpe died in 1973 at the age of 58. Although her name fell into the shadows of history for decades, her influence did not.”