THAT LOOK WHEN YOU KNOW YOU'RE THE SHIT

I heard a shitty version of Ray Charles's "Hallelujah I Love Her So" yesterday. When that happens my normal practice is to immediately listen to another version I know is good, usually the original. This time, for whatever reason, I immediately thought of Billy Zoom's version. The version that I was thinking of is from 1981 and, although live, is a near dead ringer of Eddie Cochran's version recorded somewhere around 1957-'58.

Billy Zoom Band

Zoom was the guitarist for X, which I would hope some of you knew. Before that he was a rockabilly guy with as good a credential as you could get. He was Gene Vincent's guitarist towards the end of his career, just before he passed away. Zoom went on to record with his own band for Ronny Reiser's Rollin' Rock Records, a rockabilly label in L.A. It's just insane when you think about it. With all the retro stuff going on in recent decades, roots music, classic cars, cuffed Levis, and such, you'd be forgiven if you thought there's always been a market for rockabilly since the mid-late fifties heydays. Not so, not in the U.S.. The long hairs took care of that. Okay, so there was a market, but it was a tiny market, and consisted of only total fiends, total purest types. The fact that Rollin' Rock existed at all is just crazy. At the time Zoom was recording for them, covering Johnny Carrol's "Crazy Crazy Lovin'", most of what would become L.A.s first generation punk rockers were listening to Bowie.

Okay, we can agree that that's just nuts. But what gets me is that Zoom's cover of "Hallelujah I Love Her So" was recorded in 1981, he'd already been with X, a seminal L.A. punk band, for roughly four years, enough time for three singles and a couple LPs. Yet he retained the straight up rockabilly chops with his side thing.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~ 

Listen:
Billy Zoom Band - Hallelujah, I Love Her So (live) mp3 at Billy Zoom 1981
Billy Zoom Band - Crazy Crazy Lovin' mp3 at  Billy Zoom Rollin' Rock 1975
Billy Zoom Band - Bad Boy mp3 at Billy Zoom Rollin' Rock 1976
Billy Zoom Band - Say When mp3 at Billy Zoom Rollin' Rock 1975
Eddie Cochran - Hallelujah, I Love Her So (streaming) at YouTube
Ray Charles - Hallelujah, I Love Her So (streaming) at YouTube
Johnny Carroll - Crazy, Crazy Lovin' mp3 at Rocky-52.net
Visit:
Billy Zoom interviewed by Buddy Seigal (Buddy Blue) from the OC Weely, 1998
Billy Zoom's Official site
Rollin' Rock Records