V.A. Saturday

Years ago, when this blog was but a babe, there was a long running Friday night feature called Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night, a weekly event which ran well into triple figures. I drank from the rockabilly pool for several years and then had to retire it- I'd got to the bottom of the glass. In some ways rockabilly is responsible for me beginning to blog in the first place. Way back in the 00s, probably 2007 or 2008 (a period now referred to as The Golden Age Of Music Blogs) I wrote a guest post at The Vinyl Villain for JC who had put out the call for guest writers. I dipped my toe in the blogging pond with this song by Wayne Walker from waaaay back in 1956...

All I Can Do Is Cry

Slapback echo, shuffling railway rhythms, single lead line and Wayne's love lorn vocal, 'Left my girl in Kansas City/ Left her standing in the rain...'

I'd first heard the song on an Andrew Weatherall BBC6 radio show and then tracked it down to a double CD various artists compilation put together by Keb Darge and Cut Chemist, Lost And Found (Rockabilly and Jump Blues). I already had a couple of rockabilly comps at this point, some early Elvis, a Johnny Burnette Trio album but from this point on I went in deeper. In 2010 Ace Records, a label who really know their stuff, put out a  VA compilation called A Rocket In My Pocket: The Soundtrack To A Hipster's Guide To Rockabilly Music, compiled by Max Decharne (writer, journalist, singer in The Flaming Stars and rockabilly aficionado). A Rocket In My Pocket is a goldmine of rock 'n' roll and rockabilly, twenty eight songs that showcase everything that is great about it. There are some well known names- Elvis, Wanda Jackson, Johnny Burnette and Charlie Feathers all feature- but there are some one offs here, some deep cuts, that once heard you'll never forget. It opens with this, How Can You Be Mean To Me, by Dale Vaughan from 1958, Memphis rockabilly with a unique vocal.

How Can You Be Mean To Me

There's also this, a truly deranged record by Jimmy And Johnny also from 1958, a song about missing out. 'My baby's in there and it's makin' me sad/ I hear her laughin' and it's makin' me mad'

I Can't Find The Door Knob

And there's the title track, another 1958 cut, this time from Jimmy Lloyd with barrel house piano, echo, a wonderfully gnarly guitar break in the middle, and Jimmy's promise of having a rocket in his pocket 'and the fuse is lit', not to mention' a rocket in my pocket and a roll in my jean'.  

I Got A Rocket In My Pocket

Isolation Mix Fourteen

Isolation Mix 14 or Songs The Lord Sabre Taught Us. Fourteen songs, an hour and a quarter mix of records played by Andrew Weatherall. Most of them, not quite all but most, I heard first because he included them in a set or a mix on the internet or one of his radio shows, for 6 Mix or Music's Not For Everyone, or he referred to them in an interview. The quality of the songs and the breadth of genres and styles tells you everything you need to know about his taste and ear for a tune. The selection of songs here spans 1956 to 2019 and covers rockabilly, blues, 60s modbeat, post- punk, weird southern blues/ rock/ gumbo, 80s dance and proto- house, krautrock, Paisley Underground guitar heroics, 21st century fuzz rockers and electro- cosmische funkers, ambient- drone, avant- disco and a 70s country tinged ballad. Something for everyone.



Tracklist-
Cowboys International: The ‘No’ Tune

James Luther Dickinson: O How She Dances

Wayne Walker: All I Can Do Is Cry

The Animals: Outcast

Johnny Jenkins: Walk On Gilded Splinters

The Dream Syndicate: John Coltrane Stereo Blues

Crocodiles: Foolin’ Around

Liaisons Dangereuses: Los Ninos Del Parque

Fujiya & Miyagi: Extended Dance Mix

La Dusseldorf: Rheinita

AMOR: Paradise

Piano Fantasia: Song For Denise (Maxi Version)

Rich Ruth: Coming Down

Donnie Fritts: We Had It All

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 105

I said to Drew in the pub on Tuesday night (during our top level blog summit) that I didn't know how much longer I can keep this Friday night series going. I think I'm close to exhausting my rockabilly goldmine. This song featured here before, three years ago, in the original Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night series (number 3 fact fans). It is the greatest rockabilly song in the world. It is just over two minutes of 1950s perfection. It is about leaving a girl in Kansas City and not being able to eat or sleep. It has a stupendously great riff. It is Wayne Walker and frankly, when it is playing, it is all you need.

All I Can Do Is Cry

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 57

Wayne Walker's All I Can Do Is Cry is pretty much my favourite ever rockabilly record, and it was one of the first rockabilly postings I did in this Friday night slot. This is another of Wayne's songs from 1957, here to get your Bank Holiday weekend off to a flyer.

Bo-Bo Ska Diddle Daddle

Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 4

This is the daddy- Wayne Walker's All I Can Do Is Cry. Little known as a recording artist, but a widely recorded song-writer, including songs for Elvis, Johnny Burnette and Waylon Jennings, this is pure rockabilly gold. Driving rhythm and guitar, love lorn lyric, killer chorus. This song appeared when I guested at The Vinyl Villain during his Merry Month Of May series of guest-posts last year, but it's too good not to be done again. As the legendary series of rockabilly cd's claims 'this'll flat git ya'.

All I Can Do Is Cry.mp3