Читать книгу The Mojo Collection - Various Mojo Magazine - Страница 13

Record label: Coral

Produced: Owen Bradley

Recorded: Quonset Studio, 16th Avenue South, Nashville; July 2–5, 1956

Released: Autumn 1956

Chart peaks: None (UK) None (US)

Personnel: Johnny Burnette (v, g); Paul Burlison (g); Dorsey Burnette (b); Buddy Harman Jr (d); Owen Bradley (p); Anita Kerr Singers (bv)

Track listing: Honey Hush; Lonesome Train (On A Lonesome Track) (S); Sweet Love On My Mind; Rock Billy Boogie; Lonesome Tears In My Eyes; All By Myself; The Train Kept A-Rollin’ (S); Just Found Out; Your Baby Blue Eyes; Chains Of Love; I Love You So; Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee, Drinking Wine

Running time: 26.27

Current CD: BGO CD177 adds Tear It Up album: Tear It Up; You’re Undecided; Oh Baby Babe; Eager Beaver Baby; Touch Me; Midnight Train; If You Want It Enough; Blues Stay Away From Me; Shattered Dreams; My Love, You’re a Stranger; Rock Therapy; Please Don’t Leave Me

Further listening: Train Kept A-Rollin’ (1997)

Further reading: www.burnette-rock.com

Download: Not currently legally available

Brothers Johnny and Dorsey Burnette and guitarist Paul Burlison had been cutting up the Memphis area for a good five years before they entered Owen Bradley’s famed Nashville studio in July 1956. A few months previously, former schoolmate and work colleague Elvis Presley had hit Number 1 in both the album and singles charts. The Trio were choking on his exhaust. Over the next few days, however, they laid down a series of tracks that hold their own with a lot of The King’s best.

The Trio had signed to Coral on the strength of a string of wins on The Ted Mack Amateur Show in New York. ‘One of the reasons we signed with Coral instead of Capitol,’ Burlison remembers, ‘was that they gave us a free hand on the material we wanted to record.’ Burlison brought a Tiny Bradshaw track, Train Kept A-Rollin’, to the band’s attention; but more importantly he told Bradley about an accident he’d recently had with his Fender Deluxe amplifier. ‘I dropped it between the band-room and stage one evening. That night I got this weird, fuzzed-up sound from it. After the gig I took the back off and found I’d knocked a tube loose.’ Bradley was wise enough to employ this primitive, ear-grabbing tone on both Train Kept A-Rollin’ and Honey Hush, while Johnny B. let rip over the top with a backwoods, rockabilly shout that made Presley sound positively tame.

‘I played a 1952 Esquire with a treble sound that could kill crabgrass,’ recalls Burlison, ‘but I listened to and played everything. In fact, Latin music is one of my favourites.’ And there, on the self-penned Lonesome Tears In My Eyes, you hear his Hispanic stylings, while Johnny exercises the melodic control that would later serve him as a teen idol – garnering hits with Dreamin’ and You’re Sixteen. Unfortunately, fraternal rows and a lack of will on the record label’s part meant that this 10-incher never got off the ground, and the group would founder only a year later. Nevertheless, Burlison is still revered as a sonic pioneer by players as important as Clapton, Mick Green and Jeff Beck; and many of the riotous numbers included here (Lonesome Train, All By Myself) are staples to this day for any self-respecting roots rock’n’rollers.