Rockabilly

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Rockabilly

• The First Wave
• of Rock and Roll

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Introduction

• Artistic System
• Creators Sam Phillips Elvis Sun Stars Others
• Listeners Teen audience
• Distributors Independents TV/Radio
• Critics Backlash
• Economic Framework/Social Network
• Style The Sun Template
• Influences in UK
• Representative Song.

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Introduction

• Rockabilly The First Wave of Rock and Roll
• Began in Memphis July 7, 1954 Thats All
  Right, Mama
• Ended on Feb 3, 1959 Deaths of Buddy
  Holly/Richie Valens
• This genre begins with Sam Phillips visionIf
  I could find a white boy who had the Negro sound
  and the Negro feel, I could make a billion
  dollars
• He only made 35,000
• Rockabilly Revival in the late 70s
• NY Robert Gordon The Cramps
• UK Shakin Stevens The Stray Cats.

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Artistic System A. Creators

• Sam Phillips engineer entrepreneur
• Radio background built Memphis Recording Service
  in 1950. Recorded black/local artists for other
  labels (Chess, RPM/Modern)
• Rufus Thomas BB King Ike Turner Howlin Wolf
• 18 x 32 studio
• 1952 established Sun Records.

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Artistic System A. Creators

• Sam Phillips engineer entrepreneur

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Artistic System A. Creators

• Sam Phillips engineer entrepreneur

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Artistic System A. Creators

• Sam Phillips engineer entrepreneur
• Unique Slap-back echo
• 5 microphones
• 2 Mono-track reel-2-reel Ampex recorders
• We didnt havenothing to overdubwith 99.

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Artistic System A. Creators

• Elvis Presley ½ black, ½ country, all pop
• Mirrored the eclecticism of Memphis
• Blues, RB, Boogie-woogie, Gospel (BW), Pop,
  Western Swing Hillbilly, Bluegrass Honky-tonk
• Shaped by events and managers
• Phillips Elvis probably innately was the most
  introverted person that came into that studio.
  Because he didnt play with bands. He didnt go
  to this little club and pick and grin. All he did
  was set with his guitar on the side of his bed at
  home. I dont think he even played on the front
  porch.So I had to try to establish direction for
  him. 96.

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Artistic System A. Creators

• Elvis Presley ½ black, ½ country, all pop
• Sun recordings encased in myth
• Thats All Right, Mama Sessions
• Scotty Moore rhythmically oriented lead guitar
• Bill Black slapped standing bass
• Presley great range. changing timbre from a
  croon to a growl instantaneously
• Not synthesizing pre-existing styles, but
  juxtaposing them, sometimes within the course of
  a single phrase 94
• Based on Arthur Crudups 1946 RB song
• Backed by Blue Moon of Kentucky (Bill Monroe).

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Thats All Right, Mama July 6, 1954
Elvis
Bill
Sam
Scotty
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Artistic System A. Creators

• Elvis Presley The first Superstar
• untouchable total charisma 99
• Colonel Tom Parker engineered move to RCA
• Heartbreak Hotel (Nashville Chet Atkins)-
  worst
• Blue Suede Shoes (covered Perkins hit)
• Hound Dog (covered Thornton and Leiber/Stoller)
• backed by Dont Be Cruel (Ottis Blackwell)
• Best selling single before the Beatles
• Songs become progressively more poppish.

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Artistic System A. Creators

• Other Sun Stars
• Carl Perkins Blue Suede Shoes
• Jerry Lee Lewis Whole Lotta Shakin
• Johnny Cash I Walk the Line
• Roy Orbison Oobey Doobey
• Billy Lee Riley, Charlie Rich,and lesser stars.

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Artistic System A. Creators

• Other Stars Beyond Sun
• Independent, creative bands
• Eddie Cochran (Jerry Capehart)Summertime Blues
• Gene Vincent Blue Caps Be-Bop-a-Lula
• Buddy Holly CricketsPeggy Sue Thatll be
  theDay
• Taking rockabilly in new directions.

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Artistic System B. Listeners

• In Elviss wake, the popularity of Rockabilly
  exploded across N.A.
• Eclectic, tolerant, affluent teens breakdown
  divisions between Pop, RB and C/W, but widen
  generation gap chart 1 chart 2
• Music industry driven into reinventing itself
• New music symbolizes rebellion and change
• As teen audience matures, seeks new genres.

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Artistic System C. Distributors

• Began with small independents
• Sun (Memphis) Presley, Lewis, Cash, Perkins
• Cadence (NY) Everly Brothers
• Liberty (LA) Eddie Cochran
• The Empire strikes back
• RCA buys Presley
• TV and Top 40 Radio become Star-makers
• Ed Sullivan Show 9 Sep 1956, 1st appearance
• 83 of viewers saw Elviss torso.

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Artistic System D. Critics

• Popular Press Reacts Chap 25
• RR is a communicable disease cannibalistic
  and tribalistic
• Compares RR concerts to Hitlers mass meetings
• Sinatra RR smells phony and false. It is sung,
  played and writtenby cretinous goons. By means
  of its imbecilic reiteration and sly, lewd, in
  plain fact dirty lyrics, it manages to be the
  martial music of every sideburned delinquent on
  the face of the earth.
• Racial bigotry Asa Carter (Birmingham AL)
• The NAACP uses RR as a means of pulling the
  white man down to the level of the Negro.

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Artistic System D. Critics

• Private Radio Stations
• Phillips Disc Jockeys broke the hell out of my
  records. Broke em on the air. Slam them over the
  damn microphone. If I hadnt affected people like
  that, I might have been in trouble 97
• Conservative, adult criticism served only to
  increase popularity and widen the generation gap.

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Economic Framework/Social Network

• Rockabilly made the cheap 45 single thekey
  vehicle for new music distribution
• Total record sales 189m (1950) ? 600m (1959)
• 1/3 of 1959 units were 45s (200m)
• Music could be bought/heard everywhere
• Recorded music takes a prominent role in urban
  adolescent society High-School Life
• Teens become the main consumers of music
• Rockabilly provides soundtrack for social
  interaction dancing, cruising, gathering.
  American Graffiti

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Style

• Sun Studio Template
• Simplicity, minimalism
• Vocalist at the centre
• Often muffled singing style suppressed energy
• Sometimes with hiccupping, stuttering vocals
• Framed in high echo slap-back enhanced stutter
• Difference between Sun recordings and Heartbreak
  Hotel
• Melodramatic phrasing (Elvis).

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Style

• Sun Studio Template
• Typical rockabilly group
• 3-4 musicians string bass, rhythm and lead
  guitar, no drum kit like C/W
• lean, economical, rhythm-heavy electric guitar
  often acoustic guitar minimal percussion
• e.g. dollar bill between strings in I Walk the
  Line
• Added to later Crickets set the norm
• Lead and rhythm guitar in tandem.

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Influence

• Particularly strong in UK
• Beatles Gene Vincent look name Matchbox
• Rolling Stones Not Fade Away
• Hollies name
• The Who Summertime Blues
• Rebirth of Rockabilly in late 70s.

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Representative Song

• Dont Be Cruel
• 1 Aug 1956 (11 weeks) RCA
• Also 1 on Country and RB charts
• Backed with Hound Dog (Leiber/Stoller) 1
• Sold 4 million copies
• Written Ottis Blackwell
• Appearance on Ed Sullivan Nov 1956

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Dont Be Cruel

• You know I can be found,
• Sitting home all alone,
• If you can't come around,
• at least please telephone.
• Don't be cruel to a heart that's true.

• Baby, if I made you mad
• for something I might have said,
• Please, let's forget the past,
• the future looks bright ahead,
• Don't be cruel to a heart that's true.
• I don't want no other love,
• Baby it's just you I'm thinking of.

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Dont Be Cruel

• Don't stop thinking of me,
• don't make me feel this way,
• Come on over here and love me,
• you know what I want you to say.
• Don't be cruel to a heart that's true.
• Why should we be apart?
• I really love you baby, cross my heart.

• Let's walk up to the preacher
• and let us say I do,
• Then you'll know you'll have me,
• and I'll know that I'll have you,
• Don't be cruel to a heart that's true.
• I don't want no other love,
• Baby it's just you I'm thinking of.
• Repeat Refrain

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Sources

• Pop, Rock and Soul Reader (Chap 24-25)
• Ennis, Phillip. The Seventh Stream The
  Emergence of RocknRoll.
• Zak, Alban. The Poetics of Rock.
• The Rockabilly Hall of Fame (website)
• Wikipedia articles on Rockabilly and Sam Phillips

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Any Questions?