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Gotta
Start Somewhere Davie
Allan and the Arrows The
Ventures Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys The Cramps The Sun Label Rockabilly Legends of Rock - 1950s Surf Instrumentals Django Reinhardt The
Yazoo Label The Rolling Stones The
Chess Label Soundtracks Television
Theme Songs Screaming Lord Sutch First Generation Punk Rock The Swing Years
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These
guys were legendary in their time and the might have
not been the first to do western swing but they sure
did popularize the genre with wicked live shows plus
the bandmembers were completely out of their minds musically.
I have 4 or 5 tapes/cd's by Bob Wills and he is classic
on vocals and his fiddle playing is not to shabby either.
He's on quite a few compilations and his greatest hits
package usually has a few of his most popular like San
Antonio Rose. But beware of any greatest hits package
from any artist from the past because there is usually
3 to 4 of the same songs re-arranged to look different
with a few scattered gems here and there. Lots of country
and blues artists have this happen after they passed.
But the best Bob Wills l.p. in my view is the Tiffany
Sessions recorded in San Francisco during 1946 and 1947
when the Playboys were at the top of their game. Look
for the Tiffany Sessions on Kaleidoscope Records out
of El Cerrito, p.o. box 0. Calif. 94530
One
of my all time faves along with the Clash. I saw the
Cramps for the 1st time in San Francisco during the
Winchester contest weekend at some huge hall where Jim
Jones held his pep rallies. The Cramps opened the show
for with the Clash and the Dead Kennedys in 1978. Talk
about impact. Lux interior was insane doing the Iggy
routine but punker if you can imagine that. Switchblade
knife slashes written into his arm said "kill hippies."
Carved like a halloween pumpkin and then he X's his
chest in a similar fashion. Then he drank wine from
his shoe, and smashed the bottle on the stage then dove
into the broken glass with glass getting embedded in
his side and back bleeding all over the place with only
black leather low cut pants and pubes hanging out all
over. Plus, he was wearing womens high heel shoes. Just
think what I thought seeing this stuff when I was 15-16
years old. Anyway Ivy plays some simple yet beautiful
riffs against Bryan Gregorys' fuzzed out bass/guitar
lines tuned to open chords which produced some of the
most hypnotic songs I've ever heard. Talk about primal
energy. The Cramps best work is their early stuff...
singles, 1st and 2nd l.p.'s, plus the live Peppermint
Lounge stuff rules. B-movies, horror flicks, trashcan
rock, thriftshop kitsch, 50's rockabilly and 60's pyschedelia,
and mad mad rock-n-roll make the Cramps one of the best
ever.
Sam
Phillips had a recording studio where black r&b
guys recorded blues found by Ike Turner who was then
a talent scout. Lots of classic blues came out of the
studio like Rocket 88, Tiger Man, and many other classics.
Howling Wolf, Big Mama Thorton, Roscoe and many others
hung there and made records distributed throughout the
south. Sam Phillips is quoted as saying,"If I could
only find a white guy who sings like a black guy I'd
make a million bucks." Well about a month later
Elvis walks through the Sun studios door looking to
record a single for his mothers' birthday. History was
made that day that set the pace for the rock-n roll
format combining blues and r&b mixed with the country
sounds of the south hence rockabilly. Jerry Lee Lewis,
Roy Orbinson, Charlie Rich, Sonny Burgess, Billy Lee
Riley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins formed the nucleus
of atomic power that Sun produced and basically everyone
who started at Sun went on to become very famous. Their
back up bands who played seesions for everybody were
red hot also. Guys like Roland James rocked hard! Anything
on the Sun Label rules... a must for everyone.
The
50's produced a shitload of first wave performers who
influence can still be felt today. Eddie Cochran, Gene
Vincent, Duane Eddy, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Ritchie
Valens, Screaming Jay Hawkins, Santos and Johnny, Joe
Maphis, Fats Dominoe, Little Richard, Bill Justis, Clifton
Cheiner, Johnny Burnette and the rock -n -roll trio,
the Collins Kids and my favorite of all time - Link
Wray. Everyone of these artists are completely insane
in their respective careers and these guys are a must
for listening and learning about rock-n-roll. Alot of
their stuff is still available on imports or oldies
catalogs. Look for the Rhino label out of L.A. for some
of this stuff. Rhinos' reissues are packaged nicely
and have killer liner notes about interesting stuff
that makes good reading. Also Norton records out of
N.Y.C. has tons of hard to find gems plus the whole
complete recordings from Link Wray.
Surf
bands filled the void after 50's rock died and succumbed
to the times. The surf sound was founded on Fender guitars
and amps with Dick Dale setting the pace of staccato
picking while the Bel-Airs, Challengers, Sentinals,
The Rumblers, The Revels, Nevegans, Hustlers, Pyramids,
Chantys, Lively Ones, Surfaris, and countless others
who lived for fun in the sun. I love this type of music
because I was born in 1963, right during this phase
of American music. Surf music was a huge success and
it was the genre that was exploited heavily by record
producers, film makers, and the business man wanting
to cash in on the surf culture experience meaning mainly
teenagers. A must for learning guitar players, surf
music is simple yet mysterious in it's musical content
and melody. Surf music transponded the world with many
other bands like The Shadows from the U.K., and generally
brought forth Hot Rod rock, Trash rock, and gararge
rock. Look for these labels to help find some of this
stuff... Dolton records, Bob Keanes' Del-Fi label out
of Downey, Buffalo Bop out Hamburg, Germany has a shitload
of crazy comps featuring surf, instrumentals, trashrock,and
other fun stuff, Crypt records also from Germany. Look
for the Las Vegas Grind series, theres' 3 of them.
Here's
a guy who was born a gypsy in Europe, learned to play
beautifully then got almost killed in a fire which badly
damaged his fretting hand. Django is a combo of flamenco,
gypsy melodies, and jazzy/bluesy monstrosities. He recorded
in the 30's and his playing is mindblowing now 70 years
later. One of his best is solos/duets/and trios. There
are hard to find but look for it - it rips!
The
Stones were the first bad boy band who wrote songs about
not getting some pussy. Their blues foundation paid
homage to their heroes and this created a base that
allowed them to explore every possibility that included
rock, blues, soul, r &b, reggae, disco and dub.
The best band in the world status has always intrigued
me but the Stones are un-equaled for their rhythmic
approach to rock. Plus the fact that the Stones were
pretty much the first punks thumbing their noses at
the establishment by having orgies, taking drugs, tax
evasion, and getting the cooks' daughter hooked on coke
and smack during the recording of Exile on Main Street
- one of the best albums put out by anyone. Keef Richards
has always had a special place in my heart for his devote
attention paid to his guitar playing. His playing turned
me on to open tunings and his producing prowness has
recorded the likes of Peter Tosh, Chuck Berry,the Dirty
Strangers,and guested on shitload of projects including
Tom Waits.
Soundtrack
l.p.'s are a very good source of inspiration of feeling
music or music that has a theme to it. Any spaghetti
western is cool.scope out the Good,Bad,and the Ugly
by Sergio Leone. Geogio Moroni did the score I'm pretty
sure. The Pink Panther stuff is super cool check out
Elephant Walk. Joe Strummer from Clash fame did the
soundtrack for Walker an Alex Cox film and he also did
Straight to Hell. They are both great so look for them.
Neil Young does a real sparse soundtrack for Jim Jarmuschs'
Dead Man starring Johnny Dep.Look for those 60's soundtracks
to all the Hell's Angels b-flick movies. Werewolves
on Wheels is a great picture. And you can not forget
Surburbia and Repo Man another Alex Cox film. Scope
out Deliverence starring Burt Reynolds and the Long
Ryders score by Ry Cooder who just rules. Anything by
Ry is worth looking for and if you like latin sounds
go for The Mambo Kings. 
If
you can find anything by this guy you're stoked. He
ran for English parliment in 64' with a motto of giving
the pill to girls, legalizing weed, and having long
hair before anybody. His whole deal was an U.K. take
off on Screaming Jay Hawkins but instead of celebrating
voodoo and juju's, SLS took it the fantasy world of
Jack the Ripper emerging from a coffin looking for Mary
Kelly complete with horror make-up and hair sticking
straight up sprayed with the pink can of aquanet hairspray
for women. His band was killer and Ritchie Blackmore
was one of his first guitarists. He did a studio and
live l.p. with this line up then recorded the best one
called Screaming Lord Sutch and his Heavy Friends/Union
Jack Car... this l.p. features a heavy duty line up
of Hendrixs' rhythym section of Noel Redding and Mitch
Mitchell, Jimmy Page and John Bonham play some very
early Zeppish stuff, Jeff Beck and Nicky Hopkins go
hogwild , Bill Wyman from the Stones and some other
session guys. The record was recorded in 1970 so its'
kinda hard rockish and freakish psychedelia mixed with
heavy drums and Sutch's whacked vocals. It's really
cool and the idea of a supergroup of guys creating one
kinda theme is pretty cool in my book. I've never seen
it on c.d. so look hard.
I
like punk from the first era much better than any of
today's stuff and in the beginning of this piece, I
mentioned loads of killer punk bands. Some of the newer
stuff I like is the Bouncing Souls, the U.S. Bombs,
the Hunns, Rancid, Street Walking Cheetahs, The Stitches,
Swinging Utters, Dropkick Murphys, Nofx and the 169ers.
The newer kids tend to be happy and goofy for me to
take, and punk rock should be angry and pissed off...
not all "la-de-da" happy merry go round music.
Bands like Blink 182, Green Day and the Offspring are
making the homogenized corporate version that kids buy
because it's quirky yet safe for mom and dad to take.
Punk rock once set out to destroy blatant commercialism.
Now it has become what it set out to demolish. This
shit makes me sick, all this polished producer-driven
high budgeted record company crap with some 40-ish power
pony tail fuck trying to tell you whats cool and the
cat doesn't even have his feet in the street or his
ear on the railroad track. It's all numbers, profits
and the brainwashing of youth all over the world, too
dumb enough to open their eyes and see through the lines
and lies the big-headed corporate idiots push down everybody's
throat via the radio. Mtv, the internet and printed
media. Fleetwood Mac has now turned into Blink 182,
Green Day,and Everclear. Hope you kids can raise yourselves'
out of the 6 ft. grave the Big Boys are digging for
ya! 
The
40's rocked because one the war brought out the emotions
of maybe not being seen again... so living for the moment
was a big issue for the youth of that time period and
two most of the dads were at war and mom was at the
plant working for the war effort thus leaving the kids
to fend for themselves unsupervised for long hours everyday.
This meant the loosening of the moral fibers that held
America together with wild new music that parents did
not approve of. Kids were sick of slow waltzs and such
so when swing hit it was primtive, racy and exciting
plus the dances took America by storm like the jitterbug
and contest dance marathons. Teenagers could get a milkshake
at the maltshop and put a dime in the jukebox for 3
selections and rock the night away in a huge old Ford
or Oldsmoblie. It seemed like a good time to grow up
with the likes if the Dorsey Bros., Glenn Miller, Cab
Calloway, Benny Goodman, Andrew Sisters, Artie Shaw,
Eddie Duchin, Les Brown, Louie Prima and too many others
to mention. Swing rocks hard!