We're to take you all the way back now,
back at the very begin
ning of rock and roll.
Be fore it was even called rock and roll.
At first, it was called race music,
and then R &B,
long before it was called rock and roll.
In the beginning, four or five kids
down on the street corner
and harmonized with each other.
They didn't need no instruments,
no money,
no agents, lawyers, managers,
didn't matter what gender they were,
what race, what religion,
but they discovered that
by harmonizing with other
it created this magical vibration
an d they knew it made
him feel good
but they didn't know why
but they knew that they could not achieve
that kind of magic on their own needed
to interact with other people
for that kind of special magic.
An d that magic was
so strong
it would end up giving birth
to the entire rock
and roll industry that followed.
That's why we're here today.
The problem was in America in
the early 50s
you had black radio
and you had white radio
an d most of the kids harmonizing
were black
and it took the courage
of some very important white DJs
like Alan Freed
to play that black mu sic
for some white kids
an d the minute those
white kids
heard that black music
and absorbed it
the whole world changed
and they crucified Alan Freed for
do ing that he died a broken man,
but we all owe him a great
debt of gratitude
and others like him.
Those days of innocence
can never be lived again,
but we can visit there
every now and then,
remind ourselves of a more
innocent time.
That's what this song's all about,
we're about to do.
because I miss that.
I miss that innocence
an d I miss that harmonizing
with each other.
I wish we had more of that
in our society these days, you know, just in real life,
you know,
a little bit more harmony,
you know what saying?
Well, this is our tribute to those days,
those great doo -wop groups
and those great DJs that played then,
something called The City
Weeps Tonight.