This is rockabilly as it was done back in the early days, when it truly was a fusion of country sounds filtered through the harder cadences of black rhythm & blues. This is the music of very early
Elvis,
Johnny Cash,
Jerry Lee Lewis, and all those others who helped create the music of today. These are the people who created the lifestyles that we come to expect from outlaw rock & rollers. These are the people for whom the music was truly their way of living. Speaking of one without the other is like trying to separate the hide of a tiger from the tiger himself while he is still enjoying the use of it. This is the music of having an exceptional time, be it exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. This roots music is given to us by one of those who was a part of that explosion that changed every facet of life in America. This is the music of raw emotions, primal needs, and love and loss. The music has a frenetic urgency that pounds into us and makes us aware of the now. Yet it can at times be soft and full of tenderness. Listen to the emotion on "If You Want to See Me Cry" and then catch the feeling on "Do the Rudy 'Tutti'" or "There's Gonna Be a Ball." There's the young-lovers classic by
Doug Sahm, "Why Why Why."
Sahm played with
Rudy when he was an 11-year-old living in San Antonio, and in 1952, he was considered a musical genius but was so young that
Grayzell had to pretend to be his guardian to pull him out of school. There is that wonderful slice of life from that time containing the humorous but also serious ideas of the importance of a man's hair, "Duck Tail." These were indeed wild times in America. Just read his biography as he writes it in the liner notes, Rudy "Tutti" Grayzell: The Myths Behind the Legend. It alone is worth the price of the disc. ~ Bob Gottlieb