Mandy Martin, Puritjarra 2, 2005. For further information on MANDY MARTIN, refer here: http://www.mandy-martin.com/
If there are diverse kinds of knowledge and ways of knowing place, then we need to learn to value the different ways each of us sees a single place that is significant, but differently so, for each perspective.
adrift on a sea of information at a time when the world's night is a destitute time. In the age of the world's night, the abyss of the world must be endured.
--Adelaide is home. Relaxation is Victor Harbor. I'm a frustrated photographer who has lost his way in life.I have trouble coping in the technological mode of being of our complex digital world.
We watched Elvis Presley's "1968 Comeback Special" on ABC1 last night. This was a comeback after Presley had seemingly abandoned live performing in favor of a career making awful movies, and it revitalised his musical career.
By 1968, the British Invasion had largely chased the older American rock artists off the charts and rockabilly as a commercial genre was put away for good by the arrival of the Beatles So a lot depended on this comeback. In it Presley showed that he had combined the rockingest current urban sounds with the most backwoods country to create a new sound that had more edge than either of its sources.
The '68 Comeback Special was an intimate show, with Elvis singing his old songs on a small stage, often alone, surrounded on all sides by small audience. The show's numbers fall into three general categories: the black leather stand-up shows, in which Elvis performs solo on stage; the black leather sit-down shows, in which Elvis jams with former bandmates Scotty Moore and D.J. Fontana and others; and big production numbers, often overdone and now looking as dated as any other 1960s variety show.
My preference was the black leather sit-down show where he sang some of the rawest rock and blues he had ever recorded. This was rockabilly ---section, with its uptempo fusion of country and rhythm and blues with a strong back beat.
This verison of 'That's All Right' is neither blues or country, even though it's roots is a 1946 blues song by Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup. This interpretation reaches back to Sun Recordings in 1953/4.
The rockabilly look or fashion is definitely black leather. Presley was arguably at his strongest when he was singing rockabilly, that rock and roll prototype he virtually invented along with Carl Perkins. Milk Cow Blues is a good example of this classic style:
This was recorded December 1954 at Sun Records with Scotty Moore on guitar and Bill Black on standup bass, and Elvis on guitar. It was originally recorded as Milk Cow Blues Boogie in the 1930s by Kokomo Arnold, and adapted by Robert Johnson as Milk Cow Calfs Blues.
| Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at 3:12 PM | Permalink
FXH,
I didn't know about the Hawaiian Special. I have a vague image of Elvis, decked out in a white sequined suit and covered with leis. It was in the early to mid-70's wasn't it? Rockabilly was well and truely forgotten.
Good to see Elvis on JFC but I feel that a few distinctions should be made.
"...rockabilly as a commercial genre was put away for good by the arrival of the Beatles."
In fact, rockabilly had been a dead issue for YEARS by the time the Beatles hit the American charts in '64. It barely survived the 1950s. Anyone who was alive and listening at the time or a glance at the Billboard charts can confirm that.
In the early 60s, Brill Building pop, Roy Orbison, Del Shannon, Bob Crewe's dazzling Four Seasons productions, surf music, Frank Guida's Norfolk Sound, Snuff Garrett's work for the Liberty label, Gene Pitney, the Girl Group genre, Brian Wilson & the Beach Boys, Motown, and Phil Spector's unprecedented production techniques, to name just a few, dominated the charts and were already making anything marginally resembling rockabilly seem hopelessly dated and irrelevant.
Rockabilly was never a widespread commercial success in America. Elvis' Sun recordings were only a regional phenomena and Presley did not generate any national enthusiasm until he appeared on CBS-TV's Dorsey Bros. Stage Show in January of '56.
In reality, many of the classic, highly-regarded, rockabilly classics that contemporary collectors celebrate barely dented the charts or were ever heard outside the locale they were produced. Like 60s garage rock, these records are more widely known today and better appreciated than they were at the time.
By the time "The Hillbilly Cat" (as he was sometimes billed) arrived at RCA in '55, his style, under the direction of Col. Tom Parker and the RCA brass, was already being streamlined for mainstream pop success. Just compare the 1955 Sun recording of "Milkcow Blues Boogie" to his big hits of 1957 on RCA and you can see how short-lived the rockabilly phenomenon lasted.
There may be traces of the rockabilly influence in those blockbuster national hits but they are already being intentionally produced and reconfigured to eliminate anything that might alienate widespread success--anything too "regional."
Lastly, Elvis' "comeback" was short-lived to non-existent. When he occasionally hit the charts after the '68 TV special, he did so with predominantly pop offerings--"In the Ghetto," "Don't Cry Daddy," "Kentucky Rain," "Suspicious Minds," etc.
Rocco,
Yeah I accept your account or rock n'roll in the 1960s. What I should have said is that the rockabilly style was one of Presely's musical strengths, and was the Elvis I preferred and remembered.
Yes, Orbison's earliest recordings were rockabilly.
Roy cut some sides for Sun including "Ooby Dooby" and "Rockhouse" in 1956 which are now regarded as rockabilly "standards." And he wrote"Claudette" which the Everly Brothers recorded in 1958--a song with identifiable rockabilly elements. In addition, he penned "Down the Line" for Jerry Lee Lewis during his stint at Sun--another rockabilly evergreen from '58.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWV8WRWZs24
But it was his later recordings with Monument from 1959 until the mid 60s that established him as a star in the USA and the UK. Those records, beginning with "Only the Lonely" in 1960, exploited his remarkable, operatic vocals and, were in sharp contrast to his earlier work.
Yes the Hawaiian Special or more correctly Aloha from Hawaii is not necessarily recommended for sartorial emulation unlike say, the Comeback Leathers.
In many ways Aloha showcase Presley the Entertainer and Synthesiser better with a big band + small combo, whereas Comeback balances Aloha by showcasing him in an intimate setting with minimal backing and a superbly handled set of blues, roots and rock(abilly) and roll.
Yes, it would be criminal to overlook Wanda Jackson who, as you probably know, continues to tour and still turns in great shows. I have seen her in person many times--as recently as two years ago--and she still delivers.
Now that you've included the distaff side of rockabilly, it would be remiss of me to not include the kids:
Rocc
not just early Roy Orbison, who graduated from the Sun Records 50’s school of rock like Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins I saw the excellent Blacck and White Night by Roy Orbison + Friends thatt was made a year before Orbison's death in 1987. It was full of rockabilly as well as his big ballad hits about desertion, loneliness, insecurity, unrequited love and/or paranoia.
The show included such rockabilly/honky tonk classics as “Dream Baby” (1962: US #4; UK #2), “Mean Woman Blues” (1963: US #5: UK #3), “Down the Line”, “Candy Man” (1961: US #25), “Uptown”, “Ooby Dooby” and “Claudette”.The renditions here generally stick close conceptually to the original recordings and the Sun sound per se but add the benefits of modern instrumentation and recording techniques.
Les,
Using the 5,6,7,8s was one of the coolest things Tarantino has done in my opinion. I read somewhere he heard the music coming out of a small dress shop and borrowed the tape from the girl behind the counter. They appeared in Kill Bill exactly as they performed anywhere else. A happy coincidence.
To die-hard rockabilly enthusiasts--the people who collect and archive the recordings and write extensively about the genre--"Dream Baby" "Candy Man" and ESPECIALLY "Uptown" would NEVER be categorized as "rockabilly."
In construction, attitude and performance they do not replicate the defiant, abandoned energy of Gene Vincent, The Johnny Burnette Trio, Ronnie Dawson, Warren Smith, Billy Lee Riley, Eddie Cochran, Sonny Burgess, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Campi, Hasil Adkins, Sleepy La Beef or any of the other iconic masters of the medium.
As for the Black and White Night special, which I've seen numerous times, it may, from time to time, make an acknowledging nod to Roy's musical roots. But, in prevailing tone and presentation, it is more about the unique synthesis of the many musical influences that were peculiarly Roy's.
To coin a neologism, one might say that the special was "Orbisonic."
I didn't notice it was on but I did accidently catch the Hawaiian Special late the other night. Possibly the next best after the Comeback.