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