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time), Carl Perkins (his 1956 car crash and long period of con- Valescence just subsequent to the sales takeoff ofく地理嚢垂些

細QeS,’’the rockabill立s車), and Gene Vincent (the 1960 London taxi accident which killed Eddie Cochran and made WOrSe a Virtua11y crippling leg injury he had suffered earlier). It 蓮董整輩襲箋 直t, a 塑曲〇一哩e臆臆Me畦s door of?臆am Phillips,s tin The tale of Sun Records is so familiar it hardly needs re-

telling・ How Sam Phillips started out recording the great black blues singers and leasing the results to independents like Chess in Chicago and RPM on the Coast・ How EIvis Presley wandered in and paid $3.98, PreSumably to cut a record for his mother on

Phillips’s custom recording service. How with the release of ’’That’s All Right,,, Presley,s first record and Sun No. 209,

Phillips never looked back, SCarCely recorded another black artist, and put together a roster which at one time or another

included Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny C今sh, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison, and such lesser lights, and rock- abilly luminaries, aS Sonny Burgess, Warren Smith, Onie Wheeler and Malcolm Yelvington.

史聖堂_旦旦uS± o王臆旦Imost classical p証tv and」鉦血j皿」)er- haps that is why, eXCePt for the work of its major practitioners, it holds up so poorly today emulate it in 聖上e上皿出し吐g垂臆臆t旦旦哩皿a血重 [ SOunq WaS 出哩宝止せe上皿しj聾血al臆runS Of Tam is Louisiana- guitarist. It was not just Southem music either, it was つ_ Outhem music a車L蓮th臆the ±lmst」。1 e exce聾inI霊吐_ 葦三豊董艶書誌詰図日 埋坦crmtI±土塁己’It was ”聖旦uSi己臆旦畦J塾_ 寄越範詩誌董董 Of曲and L鉦!里Eizz址-WaS nOt always very staid 襲撃警護聾蓋蓋蓋琵 Every genre has its unique requirements・ Rockabilly・s, how-

ever, Were mOre Stringent than most. Its rhythm was nervously

61 嘩軒選評

u些聖堂Lpented臆Q哩at, and prQp坦重出J適inc_

虫yelY Slapping± Instrumentation took its cue from the Original trio of Elvis, Scotty and Bill (rhythm guitar, lead.guitar and string bass) with drums added later and t睦J皿nk車蝕k 壁琵琶琵董琵彊壁整理堅醒 ′諾詰書誌器蒜話芸器嵩詩誌 整箋諾聾諾慧 acoustics・ Critics charged that echo was employed to cover up a multitude of vocal sins-and it did in fact sometimes render

lyrics indecipherable-but this was of little moment sincej址_

雪空e臆迫ro畦重出y lyrics was i些Pired nonsense an旦也出」 聖r. Children’s games, CIothing trends, nurSery rhymes, Outer-SPaCe Odysseys-all were legitimate subjects for the spon-

taneous bop prosody of artists from Carl Perkins (くくPut Your

Cat CIothes On,,) to Gene Vince虹(くくBe-Bop-a・LuLa・,) to Roy

Orbison (’くOoby Dooby’’) to Charlie Feathers (くくTongue Tied

Ji○l’’) to Billy Lee Riley and the Little Green’Men ("Flyin, Sau- CerS Rock ’n’Ro11’’)・ Even vocal technique was something of a COnStant’With哩tu些SrS,聖旦vi二

ffom EIvis’s 'くBaby Let,s Play House, through Buddy Ho11y, Jlp tO Freddy Fender and Narvel Felts. It WaS indeed a music of"high spirits, Wild rebe11ion, and almost

rlgOrOせS Classicism. Its final quality is one which is not so easily appreciated,

however, eXCept by凪e true devotee of the fom. That quality is

but imitation when

吐at he was its most d

Q±些Very One qf 乾坤1l〇両e出dlr軸臆亀亜 gad且出i玲WaS a COuntry boy working low-Paying gigs and doing a live radio show in Jackson, Tennessee, Playing music much the same as that which EIvis was evoIving at the time. When Perkins heard Elvis,s first record he headed for Memphis and Sam Phi11ips,s studio, Where a little over a year later-after

EIvis’s contract was sold to RCA-he would recordくくBlue Suede Shoes・’’曲1d all the eggs from his father’s fam and camped out on the Sun doorstep until given an audition. 器需嵩蒜霊蕊霊器豊書誌詰 mind・ B排出y-EL㌢first saw EIvis perform in Lubbock, Texas, and it changed his life and singing style forever. The basis for Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, Planting the flag at Iwo Jima. His music was secondhand, his Gene Vincent’s Whole success「deserved though it may have guitar a battered prop. Who cared? been-WaS his uncanny resemblance both vocally and visually to a younger, greaSier EIvis Presley. Even Ricky Nelson, the only suburban rockabilly (unless you want to count Midwest- em_bom Califomian Eddie Cochran), tOOk his sneer, his stance,

and a large part of his repertoire from EIvis Presley・ And I’m only speaking of the better known, and more stylistica11y

formed, Of the rockabi11y artists・

Reidel, Sleepy La Beef, Sanford Clark-these are truly names from obscurity, and ones for which I have great personal affec- tion. They cultivated the look, the stance, the sound, the part of their more celebrated co11eagues. All they lac the most

part was t レ/叢蓋藷諾諾藷諾言

recogmZe the true source behind the legend. It,s a nice mythol-

ogy, and one that has its analogue in every field・ but in the case

of rockabi11y anyway most of the cream rose to the top,皇arl Perkins,s instrumental bri11iance, Jerry Lee’s vocaし軸is:_ 護憲葦薫謹 articulation, and a-kissin, and a-SmOOChin’au the

Ji孤eう-these, tOgether with makeshift studio, are the elements for which rockabilly will be remembered. Today most of the ex-rOCkabi11ies have retumed to the estab- 1ishment fold. Some are pumping gas; SOme, like

Bn唖SSTare traVeling salesmen; SOme are StarS; SOme, like 諾善業霊慧話芸霊露盤誓書 and to country music. The echoes of their achievement stil1

1inger on the radio in nods from Creedence Clearwater・ the various ex-Beatles, Elton John, and the renewed success of Narvel Felts, Gary Stewart, and Freddy Fender. And I wonder iLrOck血止hiself has± if, like the t垣皇室

Recently I went to see Charlie Feathers at a little club on

Lamar Avenue in Memphis, just up the road from the Eagle’s Nest where EIvis started out some 20 years ago. Charlie Feathers,s hair is silver now, and his band consists of his daughter, SOn, SOn-in-1aw, and a friend of his son-in-1aw on 謹蓋塞篭蓋叢 oY鉦皿s」連山hrj ghトeyed血真α甲上知吐血響叩±e中三ee血ng」豊

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