Music in the Air
"In the 1940s, when big bands were hiring pretty girls with sweet voices to bob over their beats, Tharpe fronted Lucky Millinder's raucous swing outfit with gutsy force. In the late 1950s, when blues revivalists prized rootsy growls and acoustic guitar twangs, she happily shouted praises over electric riffs. And when early rock historians reached back to trace the form's lineage, this middle-aged lady cheerily shouting and soloing in front of robed choirs didn't quite fit their secular guitar-as-phallus ideal."
