Tweet
The last couple of years I have been trying to trace the origins of rock and roll and gathering up the "essential" albums while they can still be found.
Mostly I had worked my way back through the roots in the blues and gospel. The past few months I have been working my way back to the country roots and especially the Rockabilly years that started in 1954 and pretty much ended in 1960 for a variety of reasons. When I listen to what was going on during those years, both in Rockabilly and in Blues, it is hard not to get frustrated that rock and roll came to such a early demise. Only to be "revived" in the mid-60's with the insipid English version that to me was about as interesting as Pat Boone's versions of Little Richard's hard rocking tunes. But, that is another story.
I would suggest that anybody that has even a mild intrest in rock and roll but, doesn't know its history to give a bit of a listen to www.rockabillyradio.net the next time you are working on your computer.
Although most of the Rockabilly artists are obvious, Elvis, Conway Twitty, Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly, the real find for me has been Wanda Jackson.
How it could be that I didn't know her is a real mystery to me. She toured with all the greats and is a lot like a female Elvis or Carl Perkins. One of her songs has the lines " ...it was called rockabilly fever way before it was rock and roll..." and in the same song "...we just took a little bit of country and mixed it with a little bit of blues...".
Wanda Jackson is her name, check her out.
Mostly I had worked my way back through the roots in the blues and gospel. The past few months I have been working my way back to the country roots and especially the Rockabilly years that started in 1954 and pretty much ended in 1960 for a variety of reasons. When I listen to what was going on during those years, both in Rockabilly and in Blues, it is hard not to get frustrated that rock and roll came to such a early demise. Only to be "revived" in the mid-60's with the insipid English version that to me was about as interesting as Pat Boone's versions of Little Richard's hard rocking tunes. But, that is another story.
I would suggest that anybody that has even a mild intrest in rock and roll but, doesn't know its history to give a bit of a listen to www.rockabillyradio.net the next time you are working on your computer.
Although most of the Rockabilly artists are obvious, Elvis, Conway Twitty, Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly, the real find for me has been Wanda Jackson.
How it could be that I didn't know her is a real mystery to me. She toured with all the greats and is a lot like a female Elvis or Carl Perkins. One of her songs has the lines " ...it was called rockabilly fever way before it was rock and roll..." and in the same song "...we just took a little bit of country and mixed it with a little bit of blues...".
Wanda Jackson is her name, check her out.
Comment