Johnny Cash With His Hot and Blue Guitar ! (1957)

They used to call me Rockabilly

all of us ran through

When Elvis opened up the door 

with a pup-and-pup-and-boo
I didn't ever play much rock and roll 

cause I got so much country in my soul

 Johnny Cash

This will ease us out of Rockabilly mode for a while. As Johnny himself said, he was never anything other than Country, but the Country and Rockabilly sounds got pretty close in Memphis back then.  

This was the first ever LP on Sun Records, and a lot of the characteristics of the early Rockabilly sound are strongly in evidence.
 

Johnny Cash - Guitar, Vocals

Luther Perkins - Electric Guitar

Marshall Grant - Bass

Rockabilly Stars, Volume 1

The following is lifted from a review of the 1982 compilation LP Rockabilly Stars, Volume 1:

With hindsight and experience we now can recognise how the foundations of rock n roll were to be found all over the thirties forties and fifties...
Rockabilly, as a musical genre, corresponds emotionally and, for the most part, geographically and temporally to that segment of Elvis’ career that stretched from (That’s Alright Mama) until his induction into the army in 1958.
The early rockabilly artists, raised on a diet of White Country and Hillbilly music, began, at the urging of Elvis’ mentor, Sam Phillips, of Sun Records, to listen to Black Blues and jazz, and affect black vocal styles…
And they made extensive use of the instrument that became literally and metaphorically the voice of a generation- the amplified electric guitar.
Though recorded electric guitar solos date back to the thirties…by the fifties Les Paul had ‘whitened’ and began to popularise the sound. The Rockabillies’ more forthrightly sensual lyrics grafted perfectly onto the guitar sound that was raw, aggressive and devoid of soft sentimentality. It was a sound that established the existence if a generation. Young peoples feelings and fantasies were codified and publicly expressed. The artists spoke for as well as to their audience. And when the slithering, sensuous music was universally condemned, it took on still greater meaning as a challenge to the morals and aesthetics of the older generation.

Tom Bentkowski New York Magazine 25 Jan 1982

So am I posting the record? Nope. The curious thing about the album is that it's not really Rockabilly! Throughout there's lashings of fiddles, slide guitar, honky tonk pianos, even saxophones and chorus backing singers.  Generally speaking what we have is a lot of 1950's (ish) country-pop and straight Rock n Roll with all the trimmings. I'm sure loads of Rockabillies in the 80's must have been mightily frustrated on hearing this selection.  Look elsewhere if you want a slice of the authentic music that the review refers to but which is curiously absent from this particular disc.

If you want to check it out for yourselves it's posted here: http://avaxhome.ws/music/rock/rnr_rock_n_roll_roots/rockabilly/va__rockabilly_stars1.html

Original Seeds: Songs that inspired Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds -. Volume 1 (1998), Volume 2 (2004).

I am always pleased to be able to respond to requests, and this is for regular correspondent Mona.
I mentioned these two compilations in last week's posting on Kicking Against The Pricks. If you already downloaded that, don’t worry, there are only 2 repeats on here.

Volume One:



1. Tim Rose - Long Time Man
2. Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps - Cat Man
3. Leonard Cohen - Avalanche
4. Karen Dalton - Katie Cruel
5. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Hammer Song
6. Tom Jones - Weeping Annaleah
7. The Loved Ones - Sad Dark Eyes
8. Scott Walker - The Big Hurt
9. John Lee Hooker - Tupelo Blues
10. Lefty Frizzell - The Long Black Veil
11. Johnny Cash - The Folk Singer
12. Odetta - Another Man Done Gone
13. Blind Willie Johnson - I'm Gonna Run to the City of Refuge
14. Edwin Hawkins Singers - Oh Happy Day
15. Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin - Je t'aime... moi non plus
16. Isaac Hayes - By the Time I Get to Phoenix




Volume Two:



1. Harry Belafonte - Did You Hear About Jerry?
2. Tom Waits - Way Down in the Hole
3. Fred Neil - A Little Bit of Rain
4. Gang of Four - Love Like Anthrax
5. Bob Dylan - Sara
6. Tim Rose - Hey Joe
7. The First Edition - Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was in)
8. Elvis Presley - In the Ghetto
9. Nina Simone - Plain Gold Ring
10. The Stooges - Loose
11. Leadbelly - Looky Looky Yonder/Black Betty/Yellow Women's Door Bells
12. Hoyt Axton - Double Dare
13. Lou Reed - Perfect Day
14. Alice Cooper - Street Fight

Earlier takes of songs featured on Kicking Against The Pricks by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds

In 1986, for their, third studio album, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, looking like the house band from a David Lynch dream sequence, released a selection of cover versions- Kicking Against The Pricks.
What we have here are earlier versions of the songs featured on that LP.
I’m not saying that these are the original or even definitive versions of the songs- just earlier versions.
Not to be confused with Original Seeds (vol 1&2) or The Roots of Nick Cave- I ploughed/ plowed through /thru my collection to put this one together, so the br is extremely v. I was going to post The Bad Seeds versions as well, but the album was re issued back in April.

Let’s see:
Muddy Waters- Johnny Cash
I’m Gonna Kill That Woman- John Lee Hooker
Sleeping Anneleah- Tom Jones
The Long Black Veil- Johnny Cash
Hey Joe- The Leaves
The Folk Singer- Johnny Cash
Black Betty- James Ironhead Baker
Running Scared- Roy Orbison
All Tomorrow’s Parties- The Velvet Underground and Nico
By The Time I Get To Phoenix- Glenn Campbell
The Hammer Song- Alex Harvey
Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart- Gene Pitney
Jesus Met The Woman At The Well- Mahalia Jackson
The Carnival Is Over- The Seekers