Thursday, April 9, 2009

The flip side that changed the world

You know how I hate to send you to another link and lose my captive audience, but there's just no better way to introduce this blog. Don't be lazy now, I promise won't be disappointed. Click:

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/carl/video/x3x2e1_carl-perkins-honey-dont_music

Carl Perkins was one cool cat. He wasn't ahead of his time -- it WAS his time, and he didn't slow down for anybody. But in the early Fifties not everybody else -- particularly traditional country radio -- was ready to embrace the rockabilly sound. What was a dirt-poor boy from rural Tennessee (born on this date in 1932) doing playing guitar and singing like that?

Amazingly, much of America didn't hear "Honey Don't'' until the Beatles covered it in 1964 featuring Ringo's voice and the twangy intro of George Harrison's 1962 Gretsch Tennesseean. Eight years earlier Sun Records had put it on the B side of "Blue Suede Shoes.'' But there was no hiding the beat or the message on the flip side. "Honey Don't'' may have influenced more artists than any other rockabilly song.

Go back and play the video again. I'll make easy for you. Just click here:

The lesson: You didn't need more than a snare drum and a standup bass if you had Carl Perkins in front of a microphone with an electric guitar.

1 comment:

  1. If Mr. Phillips was the only man that Jerry Lee still would call sir
    Then I guess Mr. Phillips did all of Y'all about as good as you deserve
    He did just what he said he was gonna do and the money came in sacks
    New contracts and Carl Perkins' Cadillac

    I got friends in Nashville, or at least they're folks I know
    Nashville is where you go to see if what they said is so
    Carl drove his brand new Cadillac to Nashville and he went downtown
    This time they promised him a Grammy
    He turned his Cadillac around

    ReplyDelete