Carl Hogan

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Carl Hogan was an American jazz and rhythm-and-blues guitarist and bassist. He was born in 1917, possibly in Louina, Alabama, and grew up in various places in the southern United States; his father was a preacher. According to other sources he grew up in St. Louis. He played guitar and bass in the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra and in the orchestra of George Hudson.

Music and breakthrough

He then joined Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five, at first as a temporary bassist. With that band he played on many well-known recordings, such as Choo Choo Ch'Boogie, Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens, Let the Good Times Roll and Open the Door, Richard. He also appeared in Jordan's films. He stayed with the group until 1949. Jordan's music was swinging jump blues: short, cheerful and made for dancing, one of the forerunners of rock 'n' roll.

Influence

Hogan's most important moment comes in Ain't That Just Like a Woman (They'll Do It Every Time) from 1946. On it he played a short guitar riff that later returned almost note for note as the opening of Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode from 1958. Berry himself named Hogan, alongside T-Bone Walker and Charlie Christian, as one of his sources. In this way an almost unknown accompanist became the man behind perhaps the most famous guitar intro in rock 'n' roll. Hogan died in St. Louis in 1977.

Listening

In School of Rock

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