I enjoyed these ahead-of-her-time solos from the 30s-60s. The older clips are from before the birth of rock & roll (in my opinion they ARE the birth of rock & roll) and they influenced early rock musicians like Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. The most recent clips are from the Manchester, England stop on a 1964 tour with Muddy Waters. By that time she was still innovating, and was one of the first to use electric guitar distortion the way it would later be used in rock. Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Keith Richards all cited this tour stop as a major influence. Tharpe was only inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame posthumously in 2018.
