Rockabilly

The Twang Heard 'Round the World: The Illustrated History

Greil Marcus, Peter Guralnick, Luc Sante, Robert Gordon, Michael Dregni

• Publisher: Voyageur Press
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781610602532
• Topic: Medien & darstellende Kunst
• Subtopic: Rockmusik

It was the twang heard 'round the world: Rockabilly was born out of country, bluegrass, jazz, and the blues in the 1950s, becoming rock 'n' roll and ruling the world. Here's the story of Elvis Presley's first Sun records that inspired all. And here's Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and many more rockabillies from the golden years of 1955–1959, in a book chock full of photos, collectible memorabilia, movie posters, rare records, fashion, and rebel lifestyle. Includes contributions from noted music journalists Greil Marcus, Peter Guralnick, Luc Sante, Robert Gordon, and more.

The story continues today, with a rockabilly revival that began with stars, such as the Stray Cats and Robert Gordon, spreading around the globe from Europe to Japan. Today, rockabilly is better than ever, with bands like Rev. Horton Heat and others playing the music and living the life from Memphis to Helsinki to Tokyo. There's still good rockin' tonight!

ELVIS’ “THAT’S ALL RIGHT” WAS A HARMONIC CONVERGENCE.

There was Sam Phillips with his open eyes and ears seeking something special in music and with the means to go with it if and when he found it. There was Scotty Moore and Bill Black—part of the traditional Starlite Wranglers country band—who were willing, eager, and able to make a new music. And there was of course Elvis himself.

It was more than mere symbolism that “That’s All Right” would not have been possible without five previous years of Sun Studios. Sam Phillips had been shocking listeners with his recordings, from Howlin’ Wolf to B. B. King, Bobby Bland to Junior Parker, Jackie Brenston and Ike Turner, and many more. These past records were more than just inspirations and influences. They were revolutionary in their own right.

THEY ALSO SET THE STAGE FOR THE FUTURE, FOR ROCKABILLY.

ELVIS PRESLEY AT THE DAWN OF ROCKABILLY
With Scotty Moore on guitar and bassist Bill Black just out of the picture to the right, the trio performs at Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa, Florida, on July 31, 1955. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Young Elvis Presley poses for a family portrait with his parents Vernon Presley and Gladys Presley in Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1937. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Born Tupelo, Mississippi, on January 8, 1935; died August 16, 1977

Elvis’ birthplace in Tupelo, Mississippi.

FROM THE VERY BEGINNING, the need to label Elvis spoke of his fans and critics’ urgent need to understand and define the power of his music, which itself lacked a name. On the heels of his first Sun singles, newspapermen and radio disc jockeys were seeking labels, scrounging through what they knew to define this new blast.

In 1954 and 1955, they began calling him The Memphis Flash, which denoted some sort of sense of civic pride.

Or they termed him The Boppin’ Hillbilly. “Hillbilly” was a popular description, as it spoke of something backwoods and unknown, a mysterious force brewed out there in the beyond, like potent white lightning moonshine, unleashed on the unsuspecting good citizens of the civilized city.

Others labeled him The Hillbilly Cat. Or simply The Cat, as at that time there was only one. Soon, they were writing about him as The Pied Piper of Rock ’n’ Roll. And as his music seemed the perfect soundtrack for the dawn of the atomic age, he was billed as The Nation’s Only Atomic Powered Singer. His early manager, Bob Neal, hung the moniker of The King of Western Bop around his neck. From there, it was little stretch to simply regal him as The King.

They struggled as well to find a name for the music—a label to denigrate it for do-gooders and moral watchdogs; a code name for the adherents to recognize each other. Elvis’ audience in the early days was mostly country fans—albeit a younger country fan and, more and more, a female one as well. His music was labeled country bop or hillbilly bebop, blending that sense of backwoods mysticism with the hottest and wildest jazz then making the rounds.

Some few newspaper and magazine writers called it “rockabilly,” but it was not common coin back then. Still, it proved a fine term, distinguishing this Southern white country music from the rock ’n’ roll perpetrated by Little Richard and Fats Domino in New Orleans, Ike Turner and Jackie Brenston, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley laid down in Chicago, and even the Tin Pan Alley rock ’n’ roll of Bill Haley and His Comets.

Others simply called it vulgar, animalistic, jungle music—and worse.

Elvis’ rags to riches story is so perfectly American, it’s almost pure cliché.

He was born in a two-room shotgun house in the poor white section of Tupelo, Mississippi, to Gladys Love and Vernon Elvis Presley. His identical twin brother, Jesse Garon Presley, was delivered stillborn 35 minutes before him—a fact that would haunt Elvis throughout his life.

The family attended a Pentecostal Assembly of God church. Here, he was schooled in Southern gospel music, which became a love that never left him.

From a pastor at church, as well as some uncles, Elvis received basic guitar lessons. He had been given the guitar for his tenth birthday, but it was not a present he relished; he had been wishing for a bicycle or rifle. As he later recalled, “I took the guitar, and I watched people, and I learned to play a little bit. But I would never sing in public. I was very shy about it.”

In November 1948, the family moved to Memphis, living at first in rooming houses and later in a public housing complex known as the Courts. Here, he began practicing guitar regularly under the tutelage of neighbor Jesse Lee Denson. Two other brothers—Dorsey and Johnny Burnette—also lived in the Courts and played music.

His interest in musical styles was expanding as well. He was a constant presence in record stores, listening to recordings on jukeboxes and in listening booths. He favored the country music of Ernest Tubb, Hank Snow, Roy Acuff, Jimmie Rodgers, and Bob Wills; expanded his love of gospel music, including Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Jake Hess; and had his ears open to the blues and R&B of musicians from Mississippi Delta bluesman Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, Memphis’ own Rufus Thomas, and the up and coming B. B. King. In April 1953, Elvis fought his shyness about performing and competed in a minstrel show talent contest, playing the recent country hit “Till I Waltz Again With You.” He loved the bit of attention the performance brought him among schoolmates.

Elvis was also developing a distinct sense of personal style. He began to stand out among his high school classmates due to his look: He combed back his hair and styled it with rose oil and Vaseline while also growing out his sideburns. And he had an eye for sharp clothes: He visited Lansky Brothers, a tailor’s shop on Beale Street at the heart of Memphis’ African American community to dream about the flashy Saturday-night garb.

In August 1953, Presley strolled into the offices of Sam Phillips’ Memphis Recording Services at 706 Union Avenue on the corner of Marshall. He carried cash in hand to pay for studio time and a single acetate disc of himself as a gift for his beloved mother. He sang two songs, “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin.”

Phillips was not impressed by Elvis’ singing, but there was something about him that did linger in the back of his mind. Receptionist Marion Keisker asked Elvis what kind of singer he was, to which Elvis responded, “I sing all kinds.” When pressed on whom he sounded like, Elvis proudly answered, “I don’t sound like nobody.” Still, on Phillips’ request, she noted next to Elvis’ name, “Good ballad singer. Hold.”

Elvis tried out for several other local groups, but was consistently turned down. He failed an audition for the Song-fellows, a vocal group. He was rejected by Eddie Bond, the bandleader for vocalist Ronnie Smith’s group. His acquaintances, the Burnette brothers, never invited him into their band either.

In June 1954, Phillips called Elvis and invited him back to the studio. He had a balled that he believed would fit Elvis well, a tune called “Without You.” Again, the audition was not fruitful. But still, something intrigued Phillips.

Phillips dialed up a local guitarist, Scotty Moore, who played in a country band called the Starlite Wranglers. The band seemed to be going nowhere, and Moore was always seeking something new, hounding Phillips for projects. Now, Phillips asked Moore to try jamming with Elvis and see if they could work something up.

On the evening of July 5, 1954, Moore rounded up bassist Bill Black and Elvis and set up in the Sun Studio. They had played together at Moore’s house and had a couple ballads, gospel tunes, and country songs they hoped would inspire Phillips. But the session was flat: They went through tune after tune, each one being rejected by Phillips.

As they were taking a break late into the night with their hope mostly gone, Elvis began fooling around, strumming his guitar and clowning his way through an old blues tune, “That’s All Right Mama” that Arthur Crudup had first cut back in 1946.

It was almost as if he were speaking in tongues. When Elvis played “That’s All Right,” he was channeling all of the music he had grown up on—gospel, country, blues, R&B, and more. Given his Pentecostal Assembly of God upbringing, glossolalia—the Biblical “gift of tongues”—was part of his world. Thus, it was not a stretch to speak in musical tongues.

Elvis Presley poses for one of his first promotional portraits in 1954. Memphis Brooks Museum/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

As Scotty Moore remembered in a 1955 interview, the trio was ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction: Opening Riff
• Chapter 1: Sunrise
• Chapter 2: Whole Lotta Shakin’
• Chapter 3: Sun’s Unsung Rockabilly Heroes
• Chapter 4: Rockabilly Far and Wide
• Chapter 5: Gene and Eddie
• Chapter 6: The Dark Ages of the 1960S
• Chapter 7: Rockabilly, European Style
• Chapter 8: Rave On
• Afterword
• Contributors
• Index
• Copyright Page