Bickey-Bi, Bo-Bo-Go: Rockabíllys Rabíd Moment

So, seeing Narcissus wandering through the lonely country-side, Echo fell in love with him, and followed secretly in his steps. The more closely she followed, the nearer was the fire which scorched her: just as sulphur, smeared round the top of torches, is quickly kindled when a flame is brought near it. —Ovid, Metamorphoses x

I dont know anything about music. In my line I dont have to. —Elvis Presley, 1955

For thirty years, country music gave birth to a series of musical crossbreeds through an on-again, off-again, illicit relationship with black blues and jazz. In 1954, Elvis Presley delivered the strangest and meanest mutt of them all—rockabilly. Like a grubby mongrel tormented by fleas, the reckless genre of rockabilly attracted hordes of hillbillies. Countless grits let their sideburns blossom and their libidos roam, surrendering themselves to ihe intoxication of absolute chaos—hiccups, stutters, gasps, shudders, and ultimately, quivers, down the backbone of lust.

To the poor Southern white, rockabilly meant emotional license. Freed from the strait jacket of Southern charm school (where manners, Mom, and modesty were the curricula), the rockabilly found a new home in a mental ward called Temporary Psychosis, Hillbilly-Style. For three years., 1955-57, that ward was packed.

In July, 1954, Elvis Presley, Scotty Moore, and Bill Black went into . Sam Phillips Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee, to cut the first rockabilly record. Moore and Black were the guitarist and bass player for a local hillbilly band, the Stariite Wranglers; by day, Elvis was driving a truck, trying toNsing like Dean Martin, and waiting. In the studio, after Black recovered from the shock of Presleys sideburns and pink shirt, the trio began to experiment. The first results—metamorphoses of Bill Monroes "Blue Moon of Kentucky" and Arthur Crudups "Thats All Right"— defined the rockabilly moment. In the wake of that single and Presleys four other Sun recordings, almost every other rockabilly was destined to try to relive that elusive, seemingly unreachable, moment.

Rockabilly and punk... proved too raw, uncompromising and unrelentingly rhythmic for their times.

Some simply chased the musical style itself: a teetering balance of uptempo country and blues impulses that often collapsed into mere hillbilly music, either becoming awkward and stiff through an uncomfortable beat, or degenerating into a raucous parody of Presleys stuttering dementia. Others embraced Presleys hepcat image, the country boy now one gone daddy thanks to an overdose of pink and purple threads, curled lips, blue suedes and black leather, and most importantly, a general horny posture. The gaunt and physically tortured Gene Vincent was an even tougher, and purer, crystallization of the image than Elvis.

More typical of the rockabilly circus was Sonny Burgess, who came from Arkansas, recorded at Sun, and, not unlike Johnny Cashs man-in-black, became the man-inred. Consider Georgias half-breed Jackie Cochran ("Jack the Cat"), attired in skin-tight black pants, who would take the stage only after a laminate of a giant black cat with red flashing eyes was rolled out: Still, one could play rockabilly to a perfection, like Malcolm Yelvington or Don Woody, without actually being a rockabilly. Conversely, there were wild men, like Ray Harris or Billy Barrix, who wore the image like skin but never really captured the sound and substance.

Rockabilly was recorded best, and most often, by Sam Phillips at Sun Recording Studio. Following Elvis regional success, Phillips stopped recording bluesmen and concentrated on rockabilly music. Phillips creation of the "Sun Sound" was marked by essentially three elements: 1) liberal use of tape echo on vocals, 2) an amplified bass drum and slapping bass fiddle, and 3) a spontaneous, unrehearsed atmosphere. The results, like many of Phillips early blues recordings, were stark and primitive, creating a sense of heightened musical reality, or "audio uer/te." Sonny Burgess "We Wanna Boogie," so drunk and loose not even Krazy Glue could keep it together, is perhaps the best example of Phillips feel for the impromptu.

The most provocative evidence of Sam Phillips ability to capture the native genius of his hillbilly artists lies in Carl Perkins "Put Your Cat Clothes On," in which scat-like guitar and slurred vocals skim along on top of the rhythm. The band tries to follow Perkins while he unleashes spluttering solos full of harsh, ringing treble notes. Though never issued by Sun, the record was released in England in the mid-70s. A few years ago, when Perkins toured England, he was bewildered that audiences requested the song. Later, he admitted that he did not even remember composing or recording the song. Today, Perkins can only conclude that he recorded the song in a drunken stupor, making it up on the spot!

Undoubtedly, along with the Fabulous Pretzel, Perkins was rockabillys greatest artist. But there were many other demigods, of course, who ambled into Sun Studios. Some, like Charlie Feathers and Warren Smith, made the transition from country music; others, like Billy Lee Riley and Sonny Burgess, were rooted in R&B. Even a homely, pop-oriented nerd like Roy Orbison made the pilgrimage to Sun all the way from Wink, Texas.

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Essentially, every ingredient of the rockabilly genre can be discerned within the rich catalogue of Sun, its authority unsoiled and without reproach. Rockabillys foundation was a compulsive, infectious rhythm, featuring a slapping string bass, chopped acoustic guitar, and offbeat drumming, heavy orT the rimshots. The loose rhythm constantly shifted in dogged pursuit of the vocals, which were uncontrolled, filled with menace and inner tension, and unbelievably, trying to desperately follow the rhythm. Interrupting this futile game of musical tag usually was a frenetic guitar solo, blues-derived and insanely erratic. Somewhere between sexual hysteria and the primal Scream, rockabilly was authentic, uncalculated music, dedicated to the zeal of liberation and shit-kicking good times.

Perhaps the one identifiable characteristic most popularly associated with the "Sun Sound" was Phillips use of echo, which transformed the rockabillys hiccuping hysteria into an eery, remote spirituality. Carl Perkins has claimed that Phillips was enchanted with the phantom echoes of Hank Williams "Kaw-liga," and certainly most Sun recordings reverberate with God-forsaken voices, absorbed in echoic exchange as if to escape the constriction of time and enter the eternity of myth. Rockabilly, then, can really be perceived as an echo of Sun, as the powerful, but faint, response to Elvis initial awe-inspiring cry.

The first echoes of the Sun rockabilly recordings were heard in the small, independent studios which dotted the South and, like Sun, were accustomed to hillbilly, blues, or both. Meteor in Memphis, Trumpet in Jackson, Excello in Nashville, Goldband in Louisiana, TNT in Texas, and many others produced good rockabilly, but the limited distribution of these companies restricted them, at best, to a regional hit. The raw nature of these Southern recordings probably sounded as strange and exotic to the nations ears as the names of the artists themselves: Alvis Wayne, A1 Ferrier and His Boppin Billies, Onie Wheeler, Delbert Trolinder, Herschel Almond, Gar Bacon, and Groovey Joe Poovey. (Lets not forget Ariie Duff.)

The larger independents, of course, were more successful. King in Cincinnati produced classic sides by Mac Curtis and one of rockabillys few originals, Charlie Feathers, whose unique phrasing, highpitched hiccups and mumbling baby talk were much emulated in Memphis. Imperial, a West Coast R&B label, had Shreveports Bob Luman, who contributed to rock history both great rockabilly performances and an incredible rockabilly band (James Kirkland, Butch White, and the legendary James Burton). A rich kid named Ricky Nelson brought this band to L. A. so that he could sound like his idol, Carl Perkins. In Texas, Starday recorded Sonny Fisher and the Rocking Boys, a loose blues-based band whose • brand of rockabilly was tough enough to make Paul Anka pee his pants.

In early 56, Carl Perkins "Blue Suede Shoes" had topped the pop, country, and R&B charts, and the larger national record companies were already rumbling into the rockabilly fray. The majors pursued either of two strategies: pushing an established country performer into the chasm of hiccups or searching for a young, handsome hunk willing to worship at Presleys altar. Decca convinced 30-year-old Webb Pierce into attempting the "Teenage Boogie," while at Columbia younger country performers, such as Johnny Horton and > Marty Robbins, moved effortlessly into the new style. MGM, though, probably went too far when they propped up 66-year-old Carson Robison, a geezer who began his country career in 1906, to choke n chug his way through "Rockin and Rollin With Granmaw." Robison croaked shortly thereafter.*

Capitol was the most successful with the "Find-an-Elvis" strategy, scoring with Gene Vincent. In fact, Vincents "Be-Bop-ALula" applied the Sun echo to Genes vocals with such accuracy that Elvis mom mistakenly called her son to congratulate the El on his new hit. Decca captured the strangled savagery of Johnny Carroll, whose band, the Hot Rocks, blistered with the searing guitar work of Grady Martin. MGM recorded Andy Starr, a Texas wildcat who walked on the wild side. Starrs , "Round and Round" exemplified the shift rockabilly made in the mid-50s from a country-based sound to an increasingly degenerate form of rock n roll. The beat assumed a thunderous quality, the guitar solos jumped out of nowhere and ran like headless chickens, and Starrs singing became a raunchy apocalypse of bogus hysteria.

In rockabillys pantheon, none was more legendary than Memphis Johnny Burnette and the Rock n Roll Trio. Compared to Presleys Sun recordings, the Trios style of rockabilly was especially wild, extracting Elvis country overtones while transforming the resignation of the blues into total rage. While backing Howlin Wolf in Memphis, the Trios guitarist, Paul Burlison, learned to play mean. Burlison discovered fuzztone when he accidentally loosened a tube in his amp. Yet, Johnny Burnettes vocals, brimming with ominous passion, separate the Trios classics—“Tear It Up," "Train Kept A-Rollin," and "Lonesome Train"—from the countless cover versions still endlessly appearing.

Despite Burnettes success in the Northeast, his failure to generate a national hit was symbolic of rockabillys inherent unsavoriness to Americas palate. Excluding the neo-rockabilly hits of Buddy Holly and Gene Vincent, rockabilly rarely charted: Carl Perkins "Blue Suede Shoes" (#4) and "Boppin the Blues" (*70), Roy Orbisons "Ooby Dooby" (*59), and Ronnie Selfs "Bop-A-Lena" (*67), owing as much to Little Richard as Elvis. If the success of "Blue Suede Shoes" suggested that, at least momentarily, rockabilly was the perfect fusion of R&B, hillbilly, and pop, the truth is that the genre proved too black for hillbillies, too hillbilly for blacks, and too poor white and black for the pop audience. By 1958, rockabilly was as tired and as useless as a hound dog after a coon hunt.

In pop music, the then-emerging quarantine on raw, ethnic impulses restricted the rockabilly epidemic to the South. If Elvis touched off the explosion, his move to RCA and development of a full rock n roll sound was the handwriting on the wall. Rockabilly in 58 had become just an ugly zit on pops blemish-free facade of ballads, novelties, and transparent teen idols.

The rockabilly legacy is an historical paradox. Logically, the music was an organic step in the evolution of uptempo hillbilly styles—Hank Williams honky-tonk, the country boogie of the Delmore Brothers and Arthur Smith, and Bill Monroes bluegrass. The invigoration of these styles by the R&B sound pervasive in the South was as natural as the earlier use of blues by Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Wills, and Hank Williams. From its earliest incarnation as a primitive, acoustic hillbilly form, rockabilly developed into a harder, electric rock form until its demise, both commercially and stylistically, was complete. Rockabillys "folk" context and adoption of black music was obvious even to the MC of the Louisiana Hayride who interviewed Elvis on a broadcast in December, 1954.

MC: Id like to know how you derived that style, how you came about that rhythm and blues style, thats all it is.

Elvis: Well, to be honest, sir, I dont know. We just stumbled upon it.

MC: Well, youre mighty lucky.

Elvis: Thank you, sir.

MC: Theyve been looking for Something new in the folk music field for some time, and I think youve got it.

On the other hand, rockabilly demanded the most inexplicable leap of faith in pop history, simply because theemotional extreme and hysterical edge of the music were spiritually antithetical to the realism and fatalism inherent in the country style. However closely one scrutinizes the stylistic progression of hillbilly, Elvis Sun records are primordial and revolutionary acts. Central to the rockabilly revolution was the simple psychological process of becoming "gone," "real gone," or "one gone cat." "Gone" basically meant losing ones self (as well as the limitation of ones past) in the emotional catharsis of the moment.. .and all the possibilities that moment promised for the future. Certainly this psychological state explains the transformation of Jerry Lott, a Southern country singer, into the Phantom. Mysteriously masked like a rockabilly Lone Ranger, the Phantom, encouraged by Pat Boone, summoned forth a primal scream for the Dot label, a bizarre one-shot entitled "Love Me." Beginning with a shriek wrenched from the bottomless pit of hillbilly passion, the song combines a lustful entreaty with musical cacophony, elevating the salacious chaos of sexual desire above all musical virtue.

Rockabillys lyrics made the spiritual removal from its hillbilly roots even more evident; they eschewed countrys "real-life" sobriety in favor of a fantasy world of endless rockin and countless boppin high school babes. If those topics were too conceptual, most rockabillies were not above sinking to total nonsense with regressive gibberish like "Bip Bop Boom," "Bop-A-Dee-Bop-A-Doo,1" "Bop-ALoop," "Bop Bop A Doo Bop," or the more concise "Didi Didi." Most; of the songs celebrated losing ones self to the music ("Lone Gone Daddy," "I Go Into Orbit"), rocking and partying (“Lets Go Boppin Tonight," "Rhythm and Booze"), and especially women. If women were mostly praised ("Red Hot," "Rock Boppin Baby," or "Wild, Wild Women"), rockabillies could occasionally be brytally descriptive ("Snaggle-Tooth Ann," "Tongue-Tied Jill," or "Screamin Mimi Jeanie"). In short, rockabilly couldnt afford to let the real world drag down its redemptive spirit. So it mostly bipped, bopped, and boomed about itself.

If rockabilly had expired by 58 with faint impact on American pop, it echoed across the Atlantic with enough resonance to jar British pop into a rock n roll convulsion. The rockabilly message—that white boys could rock with vengeance on their own terms—was hand-delivered by the appearances of Gene Vincent, Buddy Holly, and Eddie Cochran in England. By 61, during the Beatles Hamburg sojourns, the Fab Four had adopted the black leather, boots, and pompadour hairdo intact, and they were especially gone on Carl Perkins material. Indeed, the Teddy Boy culture had emerged. One can imagine the starship Enterprise landing in its midst while Mr. Spock carefully explains to Capt. Kirk: "Its quite fascinating, Captain. This planet seems to have adopted the habits and conventions of the American Southern culture of approximately the mid-1950s."

The Beat Age produced hundreds of rock bands, and it seemed every one had usurped rockabillys standard line-up: two guitars, bass, and drums. Even the Yardbirds, a band essentially rooted in the blues, made a pilgrimage in 66 to the Sam Phillips Recording Studio in Memphis to attempt their stab at the Johnny Burnette Trios frenzied reworking of "Train Kept A-Rollin." However, only Creedence Clearwater Revival ever succeeded in molding the sound of Sun rockabilly to the formula of AM radio.

In the 70s, rockabilly primarily became the province of European collectors whose mafnia for the music was fixed by an idyllic vision of an authentic and funky South populated by hepcats endlessly cruising in pink Cadillacs. Memphis was mecca, Presley its god, and the hundreds of other hillbillies its rockin saints. In fact, so obsessed with the Sun mythology were the foreign collectors that a Dutch entrepreneur once offered to buy the defunct Sun Studio. His plan was to restore it, brick-by-brick, in downtown Amsterdam! In 76, the fervor of the British fans forced Hank Mizells "Jungle Rock," a 'billy novelty released in 59 by King, into the English charts as a freak hit. When 51-year-old Mizell was informed about his unexpected fame, "Jungle Rock" was played for him, but he couldnt recollect ever recording it. After all, it had only been 17 years.

In addition to the continuing reissue of original rockabilly, England has produced a slew of its own Lirriey-billy bands—Matchbox, Whirlwind, and the Teds fave, Crazy Cavan and the Rhythm Rockers. Internationally, both the contemporary rockabilly synthesis of Dave Edmunds ana the basso profundo of Robert Gordon have brought attention to , the genre. The rockabilly revival has also benefited from the punk upsurge. Both styles have proved too raw, uncom promising, and unrelentingly rhythmic for their times.

In America, Ronnie Weisers Rolling Rock label spearheaded the revival by recording original rockabillies like Ray Campi, Charlie Feathers, and Mac Curtis, and, at the same time, discovering a host of young rockers aspiring to hillbilly fever. As with any long-gone style, the trick is to avoid mere nostalgic mimicry. N.Y.C.s Cramps have invented an outrageous psychobilly by filtering the original sound through the cultural debris of the 60s (surf, sci-fi and monster flicks, psych-and-garage punk). In Washington, D.C., Billy Hancock and the Tennessee Rockets have proven that the Sun style can be revitalized without modernist revisions.

Alas, no matter how intense the current rockabilly revival may become, the Saturnian age of Memphis rockabilly is as irretrievable as a vanished echo. In the early 50s, a man named Ray Butts handmade four amplifiers with the echo built in. Chet Atkins got one, as did Scotty Moore, Roy Orbison, and Carl Perkins. As Carl glumly recalls, "I was a fool and sold that'amplifier in 1963. The first Sun record I used it on was “Lend Me Your Comb. That was a great amplifier. Some little kid and his daddy pulled up in front of my door one day in a new Cadillac. ^ They were from Arkansas. His daddy said to me, “Just how much do you want for it? I hadnt used it for a while so I said Ill take $1,000. He gave me a check. I wish I hadnt sold it. That amp did something those echoplexes cant do. It was a sound of its own. It was the Sun sound in person."

No one story, song, or singer can ever encapsulate the rockabilly mythology. But perhaps Jimmy Lloyd came close when he shouted in 58: "I got a rocket in my pocket and the fuse is lit!" Not only was that a sexual metaphor, but also one for the music itself. The rocket never went off, but the fuse is still lit;

SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY

American

Sun Sessions—Elvis Presley (RCA AFMI1675)

Tear It Up—Johnny Burnette & the Rock n! Roll Trio (Solid Smoke 8001)

King-Federal Rockabillies (King 5016X)

Starday-Dixie Rockabillies Vol. 1 (Starday GD-5017X)

English

Best of Sun Rockabilly Vol. 1 (Charly CR 30123)

Best of Sun Rockabilly Vol. 2 (Charly CR 30124)

CBS Rockabilly Classics Vol. 1 (CBS 82401)

Chess Rockabillies (Chess 9124 213)

Rare Rockabilly (MCA MCFM 2697)

MGM Rockabilly Collection (MGM Super 2315394)

Mercury Rockabillies (Phillips International 6366257)

Imperial Rockabillies (UAS 30101)

The Original Carl Perkins (Charly CR 30110)

Legendary Sun Performer: Billy Lee Riley (Charly CR 30131)

Texas Rockabilly—Sonny Fisher & the Rocking Boys (Ace 10CH14) ^