What is Rockabilly?

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And why does it sound so good?

― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 23:46 (twenty-three years ago)

I like it too. Alex Chilton's Live in London being my favourite (that's not exactly rockabilly I guess but who cares?).
It rocks that's why it's good. Also check out psychobilly which is even better. A must is The Gun Club.

A definition? According to the American Heritage dictionary at dictionary .com:

A form of popular music combining features of rock 'n' roll and bluegrass.

Though I prefer the bluegrass part to be less than 50%.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Thursday, 5 September 2002 11:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Bluegrass?!?!

I always heard CnW but that could just be my hatred of bluegrass. Otherwise its fun to introduce people to Handsome Ned.
But cowpunk has the better name.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 5 September 2002 11:25 (twenty-three years ago)

R&B reinvented by crackers for a 1950s cracker audience (speaking as a cracker myself).

― Lee G, Thursday, 5 September 2002 11:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Then what is bluegrass?

― Mary (Mary), Thursday, 5 September 2002 16:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Old time music + jazz + speed. Something like that.

― Lee G, Thursday, 5 September 2002 16:24 (twenty-three years ago)

I still don't buy this jazz/bluegrass connection.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 5 September 2002 17:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Jazz didn't influence bluegrass overtly in a way that can be easily picked out and isolated, but Bill Monroe and those who followed in his wake did subsume elements of jazz performance such as an emphasis on improvisation; a respect for overmastering instrumental virtuosity, especially at frantic tempos; and a certain sort of expresiveness (I know, dangerous ground here) that was at least partially jazz- or blues-derived. After all, like jazz (for the most part), bluegrass is a 20th-century invention.

A couple of years ago a guy named Richard Smith wrote a pretty good, pretty lively bio of Monroe called Can't You Hear Me Callin'; he makes the case much better than I can.

Oh, and why does rockabilly sound so good? My personal (much less musicological) theory is that it's the perfect soundtrack for strutting.

― Lee G, Thursday, 5 September 2002 18:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Peter Guralnick's essay on rockabilly in 'The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll' is quite helpful - he begins by saying that "Rockabilly is the purest of all rock'n'roll genres. That is because it never went anywhere. It is preserved in perfect isolation within an indistinct time period, bounded on the one hand by the July 1954 release of Elvis's first record on the yellow Sun label and on the other by the decline and fall of Elvis (his 1958 induction into the army), Jerry Lee Lewis (his marriage to his 14-year-old cousin, Myra, at about the same time), Carl Perkins (his 1956 car crash and long period of convalescence just subsequent to the sales takeoff of 'Blue Suede Shoes', the rockabilly's anthem), and Gene Vincent (the 1960 London taxi accident which killed Eddie Cochran and made worse a virtually crippling leg injury he had suffered earlier.)" Guralnick goes on to reccommend rockabilly recs by Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Dale Hawkins AND Ronnie Hawkins. I'd add that the Charlie Feathers dbl compilation CD on Revenant also brings together, for the first time, some of the finest rockabilly recs ever made.

I asked my flatmate, who knows LOTS abt this stuff, how you cld tell what was or wasn't a rockabilly rec. He said that the more countryish the rec is, the more likely it is to be rockabilly - rockabilly recs generally lack r'n'b-type horn sections, 99% of rockabilly acts were white, and if a rock'n'roll 45rpm has 'bop' in the title, it's almost certainly rockabilly!

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Friday, 6 September 2002 07:56 (twenty-three years ago)

"I asked my flatmate, who knows LOTS abt this stuff, how you cld tell what was or wasn't a rockabilly rec. He said that the more countryish the rec is, the more likely it is to be rockabilly - rockabilly recs generally lack r'n'b-type horn sections, 99% of rockabilly acts were white, and if a rock'n'roll 45rpm has 'bop' in the title, it's almost certainly rockabilly! "

Does Chuck Berry's "Maybellene" qualify then?

― Daniel_Rf, Sunday, 8 September 2002 23:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Or the Royal Crown Revue or the Cramps or Man or Astroman????

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 9 September 2002 03:50 (twenty-three years ago)

Nononono, those are Psychobilly

― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 9 September 2002 11:41 (twenty-three years ago)

oh well, carry on

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 9 September 2002 16:59 (twenty-three years ago)

eleven years pass...

Sleepy Labeef, from Arkansas, is touring again at age 78.

― curmudgeon, Thursday, 6 February 2014 21:43 (twelve years ago)

I don't have much to add to this but I love this rockabilly tune

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilJxVz3GViE

― DDD, Thursday, 6 February 2014 22:07 (twelve years ago)

that JD mcpherson guy is getting a lot of play on the radio here

― sXe & the banshees (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 6 February 2014 22:32 (twelve years ago)

Seems to be a more electrified version of hillbilly boogie to some extent. Interesting hearing how close to a less amped r'n'r that stuff sounds actually. & makes it easier to see what the roots are, at least in terms of combo of various other genres.

It was also interesting hearing the early US recordings of Irish musics to hear some influence audible in that.

I really loved the series of Rockabilly/other early r'n't particularly Sun label stuff that Charly reissued a couple of years back. Very interesting to hear things like Billy Riley's take on Baby Please Don't Go which is pretty raw rocking stuff. Seems that Riley & his band became the default Sun house band for a while too.

I thought that book that Tav falco had published last year Ghosts Behind The Sun had a lot of interesting stuff to say about the Memphis rockabilly/r'n'tr players.

Also the Max Decharme book on Rockabily was pretty interesting. A Rocket In My Pocket

― Stevolende, Thursday, 6 February 2014 23:21 (twelve years ago)

I should read that Tav Falco book. Saw him years ago live and liked his albums as well. Plus I saw cool footage of him that writer Robert Gordon (not retro rockabilly guy Robert Gordon) showed at a book reading for his Memphis book.

― curmudgeon, Friday, 7 February 2014 16:11 (twelve years ago)

I have a rockabilly haircut

― waterbabies (waterface), Friday, 7 February 2014 16:17 (twelve years ago)

Thanks for sharing, Elvis

― curmudgeon, Friday, 7 February 2014 16:37 (twelve years ago)

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