LOCK DOWN THEATER NIGHT 6

You know when I said that I'd cut out the posting of movies? I lied. Not entirely. I just forgot I'd bookmarked Rock, Rock, Rock! the 1957 rock-sploitation flick with clips of Chuck Berry, Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio, and LaVern Baker. Spoiler alert: Rock 'n' roll does not die. Considering I haven't even watched the whole thing and don't know what the plot is, that's still a safe assumption. I've watched enough of it to see that it's not far off from the other early rock 'n' roll movies. You get a couple bona fide rockers, a solo female singer and a couple doo wop groups, throw in a dash of an elder pro-rock 'n' roll suit (businessman, MC or promoter) and a pretty young woman in the starring or co-starring role, and put at least one "rock" or "shake" in the title. Voila! Still, a relative hoot. As a bonus, links to three posts, one for each Baker, Burnette and Berry (Note: some of the Berry mp3 links are dead but there are at least five that are still good. Hunt and peck rock.)

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

Visit:
La Vern Baker post with six songs
Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio post with six songs
Chuck Berry post with at least five songs

KNOW THEM

When it comes to rockabilly, there's that first tier. A lot of Sun Records acts there. Elvis (at the beginning), Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Billy Lee Riley and so on. Come to think of it, Riley's more of a second tier in terms of recognition. And that's not saying that recognition equals quality. It rarely does in music. The wild shit doesn't get noticed by the masses. Ask most fiends of any particular genre, the first tier is littered with "safe" musicians, in the mold bank-able acts (Jerry Lee Lewis being an exception in regards to "safe"). So, there is the second tier, where Riley resides. But he's in good wild company. A few second tier acts would include Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps (the first three LPs anyway) Eddie Cochran and Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio. And Burnette's what tonight is about. Someone you should know.

Class act: The trio with Gene Vincent (second from right)

Burnette and trio had some minor hits but none big enough to keep in print, not for a few decades. It wasn't until the late seventies that their stuff started to get reissued, Bear Records out of Germany if I remember correctly. For anyone into rockabilly enough, who had a bunch of Charly's Sun reissues, and the French reissues of Gene Vincent's, the Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio reissue was a revelation, the first inkling that all the first tier and second tier stuff might be just the tip of the iceberg. Of course, I'm speaking of rockabilly fans, not the hard hardcore rockabilly freaks. They likely had valued copies of the originals, rolling their eyes right into their fucking pompadours. They had third tier stuff, Mac Curtis, Ray Campi, Ronnie Self. Fourth tier stuff and so on. The rest of the iceberg.

I well remember when the Johnny Burnette virus crept through the people I knew. It was essential stuff. It still is. Rather than sit here even longer I'll just leave these here. If you know nothing about Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio, for crying out loud, you can find a lot if you look. I'm tapped out for the night. Just remember: Essential.

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

Listen:

Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio - Train Kept A-Rollin' mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio - Tear It Up mp3 at Internet Archive
Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio - Honey Hush mp3 at Rockn Dog
Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio - Rockabilly Boogie mp3 at Rocky 52
Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio - All By Myself mp3 at Internet Archive
Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio - Oh Baby Babe mp3 at Internet Archive

LEAVE ME OUTTA THIS

Roughly seven years ago I posted a thing about the origin of the fuzz on Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio's cover of Tiny Bradshaw's "Train Kept a Rollin'", and the debate over who actually played lead on it. Some people claim it was Paul Burlison, Burnette's regular guitar player, and the fuzz was a serendipitous accident, the result of a loose tube in his amp. Others claim it was Grady Martin, a Nashville session musician, having found fuzz on a previous recording session through different accidental means, a faulty channel in a mixing board.

I'm not trying to further the debate. Actually, that's not really the case. A little innocent shit stirring never hurt anyone. But, to be honest, I don't care who was playing on it or who invented fuzz.  It's killer song no matter who played the lead guitar. But after seeing the debate occurring again at Rubber City Review (which is an excellent blog by the way), I figured I'd post some other stuff Grady Martin did play on, because there is no debating that he was hot shit. The bonus, the feel good moment if you will, is that one common thread that Burlison and Martin share. Regardless of who played lead on "Train Kept a Rollin'", the fuzz was found by accidental means. Fuck ups rule.

Martin was on a hell of a lot of other stuff, and a lot of it you're heard. He's the only guitarist to play with both Hank Williams and Elvis Presley (I read that somewhere, but, yeah, citation needed). He played on Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman", Willie Nelson's "On The Road Again", and sides by Lefty Frizzell, Brenda Lee, Marty Robbins, Johnny Horton. Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty, Kris Kristofferson, and on and on. Here's a handful.

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

Listen:

Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio - Train Kept a Rollin' mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Don Woody - Bird Dog mp3 at Rockabilly Bash
Wayne Walker - All I Can Do Is Cry mp3 at Rocky 52
Inman Autry - It Would Be a Doggone Lie mp3 at Rocky 52

Johnny Carrol - Crazy, Crazy Lovin' mp3 at Rocky 52

Marty Robbins - Don't Worry mp3 at Beware  of the Blog Extreme country fuzz, wait for it.

Visit:
Grady Martin: Roughneck Blues at Rubber City Review Excellent, with sound snippets and three videos with Grady shredding.
Here Come Da Fuzz - The old post here. Bulison's son chimes in, in the comments.

Did Paul Burlison or Grady Martin play guitar for Johnny Burnette & The Rock'n'Roll Trio? Long dissertation by Victor Gordon & Peter Dijkema at the Rockabilly Guitar Page

Grady Martin at Wikipedia

PRE-FUZZ TRAIN

It's a song you've no doubt heard more than a few times. "Train Kept A-Rollin'" has been covered by everybody; Johnny Burnette and his Rock 'n' Roll Trio, Scotty McKay, Screaming Lord Sutch, the Yardbirds, Aerosmith, and your mother. A lot of people assume that Burnette's was the original, because it is the most celebrated, due in no small part to the early use of fuzz. But the original was done by Tiny Bradshaw, and it doesn't get mentioned often, so what the hell.

Jeff Beck attempts the Burlison method

Speaking of fuzz, the fuzz on Burnette's version that is, it's the subject of wide debate by Train Kept A-holics. One story has that it was the accidental result of a loose tube in the amp of Burnette's guitarist Paul Burlison. Another version credits studio guitarist Grady Martin, who was an early fuzzianado. You can read a long debate in this post, including comments from Burlison's son. One last thing before you go: It just occurred to me that the footage in the Michelangelo Antonioni film Blow Up (above), featuring the Yardbirds playing the song in a club, may be paying homage to the Burlison version of the story, with Jeff Beck banging the shit of his amp when it starts shorting out. Remote possibility, I know, but I like the Burlison version too much not to throw that out there. 

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

Listen:
Tiny Bradshaw - Train Kept A-Rollin' mp3 (via DivShare*) at On The Flip-Side
Johnny Burnette and  the Rock 'n' Roll Trio - Train Kept A-Rollin' mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Scotty McKay - Train Kept A-Rollin mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Yardbirds - Train Kept A-Rollin' mp3 (via DivShare*) at On The Flip-Side
Screaming Lord Sutch - Train Kept A-Rollin' mp3 (via DivShare*) at On The Flip-Side
*Once you get to DivShare, click on the green Download" button, and scratch your head for fifteen seconds. When the button reappears, you're good to go.

TAKE THAT KEVIN BACON

Paul Burlison, Johnny Burnette, Gene Vincent, Johnny Black

I was honored today to receive a comment on one of my earlier posts, from David Burlison, a name I instantly recognized; half of it anyways, the last name Burlison. He is the son of rockabilly great, Paul Burlison, the former guitarist for Johnny Burnette and the Rock n' Roll Trio. While this is not a big deal to most of you, it made my day for a couple of reasons; not the least of which is that I feel like it's some sort of "six degrees of separation" type thing that links this blog to the son of Paul Burlison, which links to someone who played on some of the greatest rockabilly cuts of all time, which also links to not only Johnny Burnette, but Gene Vincent, who was one of his acquaintances. That's three degrees, if you're counting. With the fourth degree, you get Cliff Gallup, another amazing rockabilly guitarist who played with Vincent, and Eddie Cochran, who was good friends with Vincent.

Eddie Cochran and Sharon Sheely

By the fifth degree, you get Sharon Sheely, Cochran's girlfriend, who wrote Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool," Ritchie Valens' "Hurry Up," and co-wrote Cochran's "Something Else" (with Cochran's brother Bob). So, Ricky Nelson and Richie Valens are at six degrees of separation, if you're still counting. Now, all of this doesn't really mean shit to anybody but me, especially when I remind myself that David Burlison is one degree closer to all of those people up there. It did give me something to write about, trivial as it is.

The other reason I was excited to receive the comment from Burlison, was because it added to the discussion about the origin of fuzz guitar (fuzzgate) and it's use on some of Johnny Burnette and the Rock n' Roll Trio's best sides. His comment can be seen on this post, admittedly of interest only to Burnette, Burlison, rockabilly and guitar fiends. But, I know you're out there.

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

Johnny Burnette & the Rock n' Roll Trio - Train Kept A Rollin' at LexJansen.com
Johnny Burnette & the Rock n' Roll Trio - Honey Hush mp3 at RocknDog.com
Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps - Cat Man mp3 at MoteldeMoka
Eddie Cochran - Nervous Breakdown mp3 at Uusikaupunki.fi
Ricky Nelson - Hello Mary Lou mp3 at smu.edu
Ritchie Valens - Little Girl mp3 at Fileden
Here Come Da Fuzz - post about Burlison's fuzz (posted 8/2/2008)

HERE COME DA FUZZ

While the definitive version of "Train Kept A Rollin" is open for debate, the distortion-laden version by Johnny Burnette and the Rock n' Roll Trio [sic] has gotta be the most groundbreaking. It's a general consensus that it was the first rock n' roll record with fuzz on it. What's more significant is that it set the template for just about all future interpretations.

Almost without exception, subsequent rock n' roll versions of the song all ape the Trio's treatment, itself a cover of the original by Tiny Bradshaw. But the treatment and the fuzz was all theirs. Just whose fuzz in particular, though, remains a question.

In this corner, we have the accident, according to guitarist Paul Burlison, "Just before a show, the leather strap on my blond fender amp broke, and the amp fell to the floor. When I plugged the guitar in, it had a real fuzzy sound. I looked in the back of the amp, and one of the tubes was barely sticking in the prongs -- It was acting like rheostat. The guitar sounded pretty good, so I left the tube the way it was. From then on, whenever I wanted to get that sound, I'd just reach back there and loosen the tube. It sounded real funky."

In the other corner, we've got studio whiz Grady Martin. WFMU's Beware of the Blog cites session player Martin as the guitarist. I thought that possibly a slip-up, because it also says Martin invented the fuzz guitar sound in 1960, four years after the Trio cut "Train Kept A Rollin'" and "Honey Hush", another fuzzed-out rocker. (See Country Fuzz Spectacular link below for more on Martin and other country fuzzers.)

In the process of fact checking online, I found the writing of a true fuzz-orgin fiend, and it opened up a real can of worms. It's a lengthy dissertation on the origin of the fuzz on "Train Kept A Rollin'." When I say lengthy, I mean that I spent over a half hour on a single page. It comes up with some hard-to-ague points about said fuzz, including an argument that it probably wasn't fuzz at all.

Though the still-debated fuzz was a big part of what made the Trio's version memorable, it was the overall treatment and sound, and Burnette's manic, panting, vocals, that made it theirs and a Rockabilly milestone.

I'd like to believe Burlison's version, if only to contemplate the possible power of a mistake. Either way, the lineage of the song is something remarkable and comforting. Whether a dropped amp or a song three ex-boxers made their own, I marvel at how it fed through the Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin, and on through Aerosmith, and continues today in the bedrooms of future shredders with big dreams.

Johnny Burnette and the Rock n' Roll Trio - Train Kept A Rollin' at LexJansen.com
Johnny Burnette and the Rock n' Roll Trio - Honey Hush mp3 at RockinDog.com

Johnny Burnette & the Rock n' Roll Trio - Rockabilly Boogie (streaming) at Walk Between the Lines

Country Fuzz Spectacular at WFMU's Beware of the Blog (28 country fuzzers)

Did Paul Burlison or Grady Martin play guitar for Johnny Burnette & The Rock'n'Roll Trio? Long-ass dissertation by Victor Gordon & Peter Dijkema at the Rockabilly Guitar Page

NOTE: These next three links were added 11/30/10, for reference (see comment from Paul Burlison's son in "Comments" below.)
Howlin' Wolf - I'm the Wolf mp3 at hic1.kazserv.com/~khabs(?)
Jackie Brenston - Rocket 88 mp3 at NYNetResources
Marty Robbins - Don't Worry (w/Grady Martin) mp3 at Beware of the Blog

Yardbirds -Train Kept A Rollin' from Blow Up (1966), video on YouTube
Aerosmith - Train Kept A Rollin', (Midnight Special 1974) video on You Tube
Rafterman - Train Kept A Rollin (live from the future shredder bedroom), video on YouTube