Benny Bunter
Well-known member
I read mystery train and those two massive biographies of Elvis he did a long time ago, thought they were amazing. The second volume of the Elvis one was just too sad though
Benny B's Nursing Home Gramaphone Listening Club
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mvuent
Void Dweller
for sure. my favorite era of his is the early 70s.
at that point he'd basically retired to be a farmer, but, after hearing the country/roots rock that was getting popular at the time, thought "hey i used to play stuff like that" and started recording new music a chicken shack on his brother’s property. a lot of anecdotes about that era give you a sense of the sound link and co. were going for: all the instruments getting tuned down to match the out of tune piano they had, putting the amp for link’s guitar like 30m away from the shack so it wasn’t deafeningly loud, and so on. family members of various skill levels hanging out and joining in (as used to be normal before the 20th century). saw a youtube comment from someone who said that, as a small child, they'd been sitting right next to drum set you can hear in one of these songs during its recording.
the results were critically panned, viewed as a disingenuous, character-breaking attempt to cash in on the hippie movement. but really wray had a stronger connection to the music he was playing than the hippies did. wray said of it, "In a way I couldn't care less if the [self-titled] album didn't sell a single copy. We're happy with it and we've done it our way."
the three albums from this period are really great imo. like a missing step between anthology of american folk music and d'angelo - voodoo, somehow. admittedly an eccentric way to frame it—but at any rate, these songs are about groove and atmosphere/attitude over all else. there’s a very backwoods quality to them, and you get that style that only people born a long time ago in the american south could play in, where the timing in each repetition of a phrase is slightly different. but to me, the punchier, more modern kick-and-snare-centric feel that eventually evolves into hip hop is also there. sometimes described as “mellow”or “soft” compared to his usual sound, but i don’t think that’s quite right. to me this music sounds hungry and focused. the songs get better and better the more attention you pay to them.
tbh i think wray himself was on his highest vibrational frequency during this era too. in the decades before and after he comes across as a complete teenager in spirit, for good and bad, but in some of these songs he seems almost like a wise old patriarch.
this is the best one. the only lyrics over like 6 minutes are “i can see the water boy… coming down the road”. evokes a long, hot day of manual work in a way.
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mvuent
Void Dweller
anyways sorry for the rambling, tangentially related post. but i do think it's interesting to note what some of these figures associated with the pre-60s history of popular music were up to after their day in the spotlight, because sometimes they evolved more impressively than they get credit for.
IdleRich
IdleRich
In fact, I remember the details now. I was at a friend's house and they received a copy of a new unknown garage version of this track on a white-label seven inch, we had an argument about whether it was as tough as the version by the Precious Few
I wonder what it means?
IdleRich
IdleRich
Yeah, when the Kinks did that it was often said to be the first with that kind of distortion (one of their girlfriend's famously heard the original version without the distortion and say "it's good but it doesn't make me want to drop my knickers") and I always think - what about Link Wray?
Dick Dale also used to play very hard though, didn't Fender or something send him their new guitars to test them? If they weren't really strong then they would break them with his aggressive style.
IdleRich
IdleRich
Surf sound in general owes a lot to the near East stuff.... Lebanon I guess (Dale was of Lebanese descent) and probably Turkey (Third knows more on this I'm sure) etc I think we talked before about that website that has the evolution of Misirlou with different versions throughout the 20th century from Israel and so on, sounding more and more like the one that we now all know from Pulp Fiction.
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
It was a great post. I also really like these later Link Wray albums, though not quite as much as the early stuff. They really remind of the late 60s Rolling Stones in terms of groove.
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
I think the blues and early rock n roll are good contenders for @Corpsey music that needs rescuing thread.
The word "boogie" sounds extremely cringe now, and as with the elvis thing I mentioned earlier, its hard for us to get a perspective now on how revolutionary these records must have sounded at the time, but this record was very radical and modern for 1948 with its one-chord hypnotic boogie rhythm.
John Lee Hooker - Boogie Chillen (1948)
The word "boogie" sounds extremely cringe now, and as with the elvis thing I mentioned earlier, its hard for us to get a perspective now on how revolutionary these records must have sounded at the time, but this record was very radical and modern for 1948 with its one-chord hypnotic boogie rhythm.
John Lee Hooker - Boogie Chillen (1948)
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
Elvis needs rescued from Mancunians
jenks
thread death
Those Guralnick biogs of Elvis are amazing - watching him just unravel in the second one is hideous.
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
The first big hit for a black "girl group" and a precursor to all the 60s girl groups like your shirelles, marvelletes etc.
The Chantels - Maybe (1958)
The Chantels - Maybe (1958)
Ah they're the ones I've read, I got Greil Marcus mixed up with Guralnick. Yeah, but a really devastating story, such a horrible waste.
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
Landmark record for 1957 and kind of like Link Wray, years ahead of its time. The rockabilly craze had already peaked by then, and though it's still quite rockabilly, the sound now has a thick low end and there's a louisiana swamp flavour. The drums are thunderous but groovy with cowbells and handclaps, electric bass replaces acoustic, and there's a fierce distorted guitar solo to top it off - all pointing forward to the Rock (without the 'n'roll) of the 60s. Banger for the ages.
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
Yeah I read that rocket 88 was the first as well. Ike Turner was a massively influential figure mostly behind the scenes in the 50s. He played on that howlin wolf tune I posted earlier, and millions of others
IdleRich
IdleRich
I always liked this curiosity (albeit not that relevant here) with moog... slightly bluesy feel (not on youtube though apparently)
Ike Turner Presents The Family Vibes - Strange Fruit
Explore songs, recommendations, and other album details for Strange Fruit by Ike Turner Presents The Family Vibes. Compare different versions and buy them all on Discogs.
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IdleRich
IdleRich
I mentioned it in the books thread, but recently I read White Tears by Kunzru which is about these hipsters getting into collecting obscure blues stuff - black patties and vocalion and all that - really enjoyed the novel. I'm sure he lifted various bits of it from factual reports cos I really feel I've read some bits before almost verbatim, but... whatever, it's good.