Music Before the Money

It always interests me how history is re-interpreted by each new generation. For example, a month ago in Russia Vladimir Putin began rattlings that Joseph Stalin was a great leader and wanted to resurrect his memory. What that means is to reinvent the man and ignore him as Hitlers’ bunkmate for the greatest genocide expert of the 20thCentury. In music it’s even sadder because the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has ignored groundbreaking acts in favor of the latest flavor.

Case in point, The Dave Clark 5 and The Ventures just received their inductions this year, an honor that should have been bestowed on them fifteen years ago - or at least around the same time as The Kinks or The Who. This is especially true for The Ventures who, except for Duane Eddie, defined instrumental guitar music and provided a soundtrack for the early 1960’s.

Every band we knew, including us, played the Ventures. We wore the records out trying to capture the sound and even cranked up our amps in the church hall to get the echo right. Pipeline was a right of passage. It was also a good guitar study because a novice learned repetition on different strings and then you had to go up to the B - which was tough. Walk Don’t Run took a lot of practice but it was so satisfying when you finally got it. And I can never forget the long glissandos - sliding notes - in Apache. In fact a who’s who of guitar players learned to play listing to Ventures LP’s: George Harrison, Joe Walsh, Stephen Stills, Roger Glover, Jeff Baxter.

The best thing about The Ventures is that you didn’t have to sing. That is what made their music sell internationally. In Japan they out-sold The Beatles 2 - 1. Whatever was hot at the time the Ventures recreated it on disk. Space, the “Secret Agent” craze, television themes, etc. But their biggest hit was television’s Hawaii 5-0, arguably one of the most popular TV themes of all time.

For pre-Beatles influences of modern music The Ventures take the top prize.

On December 4, 1956, in Sam Phillip’s Sun Records recording studio, Carl Perkins and his brother, Buck, has just finished recording Your True Love with a cocky young session player named Jerry Lee Lewis on the piano. In the control room Sam Phillips was really happy with a tune and piped through the studio speakers, “That’s a hit!” Whereby Lewis rebutted, “that song ain’t worth a damn.” Perkins was taken aback. Here was the guy who had a major hit called Blue Suede Shoes and this upstart smart-aleck made the rookie mistake of opening his mouth “to his betters.” But Perkins held his mouth and as the session went on he saw and heard Lewis reinvent piano playing as they knew it.

After recording the next tune Perkins had grown used to Lewis’ ego and slipped in a few “neck burnin’ solos” of his own. It was right about then Elvis Presley walked into the studio. Perkins hadn’t seen Elvis in a couple of years and the young man had dyed his hair from dirty-blonde to jet black. He also had a striking young woman on his arm.

Lewis walked right over to him and said, “So you’re Elvis Presley, huh?”

Elvis just smiled and replied, “I ain’t nobody but.”

Whereby Lewis went on, ‘Well, I’m Jerry Lee Lewis. I’m playin’ piano with Carl today. I play on everyone’s records down here at Sun.” Lewis, Perkins recalled, wanted to show Elvis that he was really something. Rather than taking offense Presley went along with like he was witnessing the birth of something new.

Presley heard the takes of the day and was really impressed. As he and Carl began harmonizing Phillip signaled his engineer, Jack Clements, to turn the tape on. He knew history was in the making. Johnny Cash had also turned up and sang with Elvis and Carl on a take of Blueberry Hill.

There was almost 70 minutes of tape recorded that day of the four Phillips dubbed as the Million Dollar Quartet. Just like the Mercury astronauts were the first space heroes a few years in the future Cash, Presley, Lewis and Perkins were the first phase of the “Rock and Roll Generation.” They were relaxed in each others’ company. And Jerry Lee, a newcomer so used to having to prove himself with both his mouth as well as the piano was impressed as ebing treated as an equal. They did everything: rockabilly, blues and gospel. The last song they did was Chuck Berry’s Brown Eyed Handsome Man. As Perkins was describing his recent tour with Berry the tape ran out.

Th last song by the boys was Gene Autry’s You’re the Only Star in My Blue Heaven and it was over. jerry bid his goodbyes. Cash was already gone. As Elvis walked Perkins out to his car he vowed that he was going to a big man in Las Vegas. Fifteen years later he proved to the world he was right.

“It was Christmas in prison
and the food was real good
we had turkey and pistols
carved out of wood”

- John Prine

John Prine was one of those singers, like the early Jimmy Buffet, that I would have listened to just because of the sound of his voice. The inflections surrounding his lyrics personalized them like he was speaking directly to me.

Prine was 25 when Kris Kristofferson discovered both he and Steve Goodman in a folk club in Chicago. The song that did the trick was Paradise and John Denver added it to his album, Farewell Andromeda. And although he never became a commercial success until 1975 when Come Back to Us Barbara Lewis charted he had legions off followers who never listened to AM. Steve Goodman remained his friend until Goodman died in 1984, producing Prine’s album Bruised Orange.

What I remember most about John Prine is traveling thousands of miles listening to his cassettes. I guess I could say my favorite song was Hello in There, which becomes more poignant as I get older. It is about an old man and woman who have nothing in common anymore except the loneliness of growing old.

Prine Mixed Funny With Sad

When I used to listen to Donald and Lydia there were so many comical aspects about the song that the sad parts would get buried. That is, until I thought about it after the song was over. And I love how this song begins

“Maureen, Maureen,
I shot a doctor last night on the airplane
Well, they said he wouldn’t hurt us
But he got me real nervous and mean
He was fat and he stank
And God knows that he drank more than we do
So I shot him in the first class
Then I bailed out and ran home to you.”

What a great way to write songs!