LUBBOCK MUSIC FESTIVAL

Click on the Title Above to Get to the LUBBOCK MUSIC FESTIVAL LINK!

JOHNNY RIVERS 2008 UPDATE POOR SIDE OF TOWN

We're posting two versions, one to get to by clicking the title above which has better sound quality and this one which is the full song, thanks to those Johnny Rivers fans on YouTube...

See our previous posts on Johnny using the search feature of this Google blog including "Johnny Rivers Would Not Quit."

http://www.johnnyrivers.com/jr/index.php Johnny Rivers Official Web Site

(192) FIRST JERRY LEE LEWIS and THEN THE BEATLES MONEY!

JERRY LEE LEWIS VERSION OF "MONEY"




THE BEATLES' VERSION OF "MONEY"

THE AMERICAN INVASION OF BRITAIN CONTINUES ON WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC

We'll keep covering the influence of American Rock and Rollers and Rockabilly artists on the bands of Britain here at Wes Bryan - My Life in Music!

Wes and Christine

(191) LITTLE RICHARD'S LONG LONG CAREER AND LONG TALL SALLY

Little Richard wrote this one and it's been covered a thousand times by now. Here's some of the more famous artists covering LONG TALL SALLY.

LITTLE RICHARD, the Original....



THE BEATLES....


ELVIS PRESLEY from about 1956



You can use the search feature of our Google blog for our previous posts that include him.

Here's a link to his Induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...

http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/little-richard

Now friends there is a number of web sites dedicated to Little Richard courtesy of his fans but we picked this one because we think it's the one Little Richard has had his hand in...

http://www.kolumbus.fi/timrei/lre.htm

BILLBOARD MAGAZINE 50 YEARS OF TOP 100 HITS !

BILLBOARD Magazine is celebrating 1958-2008, that's 50 YEARS of the TOP 100 HIT LIST!
CLICK ON THE TITLE ABOVE TO GET TO THE SITE!

Billboard started out in the mid 1940's as a rather informal list of top selling albums but about the time that I was discovered as "The Next James Dean," and recorded "Lonesome Love" and "Tiny Spaceman" the magazine had begun to take itself seriously and started keeping weekly tabs on singles as well as albums. Later we'll also talk about Cashbox magazine...

(190) NOT FADE AWAY BUDDY HOLLY - THE ROLLING STONES

This YouTube video features the Rock and Roll Classic "Not Fade Away" which has been covered by so many artists!



And here's the Rolling Stones (with Brian Jones),who covered it circa 1964.

(189) BUDDY HOLLY'S WORDS OF LOVE - THE BEATLES

The Paramount Theatre in New York; big Rock and Roll shows were put on there and they were so exciting! Here's a preserved performance of Buddy Holly and the Crickets doing "Peggy Sue" thanks to a YouTube contributor at the Paramount, and it appears to us that might be Kitty Carlisle doing the introductions with a bevy of prim debutants behind her! Now, earlier in this blog (use the search feature to locate other postings that include Buddy Holly and the Crickets!)I mentioned meeting Buddy in New York and recording myself with the Crickets left behind when Buddy went on the tour that he died in a plane crash in 1959. And we've been saying that before the British Invasion of America the Americans invaded Britain.


VIDEO REPLACED JANUARY 2012

So though on our time line here we are still in the very early 1960's let's take a look at some Buddy Holly covers by the Beatles...

And now here's the Beatles...



VIDEO REPACED JANUARY 2012

THE EARLIEST FILM EVER TAKEN OF ELVIS? WITH BUDDY HOLLY, CARL PERKINS, and JOHNNY CASH?

Lubbock Texas, 1955... This YouTube presentation states this clip taken by a fan may be one of the earliest films ever taken of Elvis.

October 6, 2007 update: Wes has identified the following people in this film clip:
Elvis, with Bill Black, his stand up bassist, to the right as you see the video, Scotty Moore "The Guitar That Changed The World," to the left, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash (both appeariing dark), FERLIN HUSKY - a country singer who played on the Grande Ol Opry, and Buddy Holly. Bill Black was the first cousin of Bonnie Bosley (Underwood), one of Elvis' first girlfriends. Don't know who the person in the flowered shirt is.

Note: The person is Ferlin Husky...

(188) DIVERSITY ON THE CHARTS and COVER TUNES YESTERDAY AND TODAY

So far you've seen the diversity of hit records on the charts in the early 1960's, 1960-1961 (and we'll be heading for 1962 in the near future).

Doo Wop, Rockabilly, Novelty Tunes, an emerging surf music sound, harmonies that the Everly Brothers performed as well as opera-inspired songs like Elvis' "It's Now or Never," and so many other sounds, including the "Girl Groups" of Motown are represented on those charts as big sellers.

Because we live in 2008 and know about the history of Rock and Roll from the long view, we know that it's a matter of a couple years before what's been termed "The British Invasion" though in our opinion there was an American Invasion of Britian first. American artists like Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran toured England, Buddy Knox and I almost got there, and it's well known that the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and so many other British originated bands that come along into fame mid to late 1960's are inspired by those early Rock and Rollers. Many of the hits of the late 1950's to early 1960's have become classics that have been recorded "Covered" time and time again.

Christine and I are really fascinated by what's been happening as some of the most famous Rock and Rollers are aging, and beginning to look to "standards" from the 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's. Linda Ronstadt's been doing it, Rod Stewart's been doing it... mining the classics from the Big Band Sound.

So before we go on with our Wes Bryan narrative, we're going to take a bit of a departure here on Wes Bryan -My Life in Music and we're going to post some of those "Oldies" and their "Covers."

We'll be depending on YouTube of course, and we want to thank again all those contributors that make a history of music oriented blog like ours more interesting.

(187) JOHN FOGERTY'S EARLY ROCK N ROLL - THE BLUE VELVETS

John Fogerty? Well friends, I loved what John did with his band Creedence Clearwater Revival, but I want to tell you about John as an early rock and roller. Earlier in this blog I talked about Jimmy Seals of Seals and Crofts being a member of the "Tequila" song band, the Champs, a band that was named after Gene Autry's horse when they were on his lable. John had a band called The Blue Velvets. They had a career that spanned from about 1959 to the early 1960's.Here is "Have You Ever Been Lonely" on a YouTube video presentation. I'll be talking about John Fogerty again later in this blog.  (Video removed 2012)

VIDEO REPLACED SEPTEMBER 2013 with different song.  Tommy is John's Brother who eventually left Creedence.

(186) GENE PITNEY : ONLY LOVE CAN BREAK A HEART

Gene Pitney: this blog wouldn't be complete without including him.

On one website we noticed that someone had confused me and Gene, probably because he recorded under the name Billy Bryan prior to 1960.

Gene was a songwriter who went into performance. As you may realize from reading this blog, in the Cover Tune Era the singer-songwriter was the exception. A good number of us went from performance into songwriting but Gene did both. It's difficult to do both with success and hold onto that success. A good songwriter can last past a good performer if, for instance, his looks aren't with him. And in the case of the Big Bopper - J.P Richardson and Gene Pitney, some say sadly, that it wasn't their sound or their talent but their looks that failed them on the music scene - they just weren't the idol type. Just like today Abe Lincoln probably wouldn't have had the looks and personality to make it through a Presidential campaign and to the White House.

But Gene was so talented! He co-wrote a number of hit songs for my peers including "Hello Mary Lou" for Ricky Nelson.

Here's the 1961 hit Gene is known for "Only Love Can Break A Heart."






This web site has a comprehensive biography of Gene and mentions a number of his songwriting successes.

And here's a BBC report of Gene's last concert before he passed into Eternal Life.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4879846.stm

Search our blog for The Crystals! Earlier we posted them singing "Little Boy" that was written by Gene!

UPDATED AUGUST 2012

CHARLES SCHULZ Quote on Life

"Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed."

-Charles Schulz

(185) BILLY LEE RILEY AND HIS LITTLE GREEN MEN

Thinking about Jerry Reed, I got to thinking about another Southern musician who made it in Hollywood, Billy Lee Riley, who was also an original Sun label artist as well and who did a bit of harmonica playing for me when I was producing records. Billy Lee, in the spirit of space exploration we've been talking about as well as the spirit of my song "Tiny Spaceman," had a band called Billy Riley and His Little Green Men back in 1957. They had a song called "Flying Saucers Rock and Roll."

Linking to a Discography for Billy Lee Riley. He's got a Rockin Country Style page, just like me and a lot of other early Rockabilly artists. (We love RCS Discography!)

RCS DISCOGRAPHY on BILLY LEE RILEY  updated April 2014

ELVIS INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE SEPT 1962

This is a very rare interview Elvis did with Lloyd Shearer of Parade Magazine in September 1962 while filming "It Happened At The World's Fair." It's available on The Silver Set-Elvis Aron Presley according to the YouTube presenter we are linking to here!



He talks about his touch football team. I played on it!

AUTHOR UNKNOWN Quote on Life

"May you live to be a hundred years with one extra year to repent!"
- Author Unknown

A DISCOGRAPHY FOR ME IN FRANCE?

I know that there are rockabilly fans in Germany, Japan, and the English speaking and singing countries of Great Britian and Australia, Canada and the United States. I was somehow suprised when Christine found this little discography for me on the Internet which is part of a larger project in France... Click on the title above to go to it!

HEART IN MUSIC and RECORDING QUALITY ON CD's

Christine Trzyna here.

Wes and I were talking the other day about the music of the late 1950's and 1960's and the music "now." "The thing about the oldies," Wes said,"is that they had heart."

I agree. In the controversies about Rap music which seem to dwell on the values expressed in raunchy and often woman-hating lyrics, empathy and love - be it the wonder of love or the misery of a break up - seems to be missing. Rap comes off as stone-hearted. Beat and rhythm and poetry are there, as is amazing word play and rhyme. Sometimes a sense of humor is expressed rather than bitterness. Sound sampling is considered to be a new kind of musical rip-off that shows a lack of originality and is offensive to the original songwriters and singers as much as it can be taken as a great compliment that their work was chosen for a rip around the old turn-table.

Warmth too seems to be missing and that has to do with recording quality as transferred on to the music-carrier of the moment - the CD. Recently I read in Rolling Stone magazine about a group of Beatles fans who didn't like the thin, tinny quality of Beatles CD's. They had taken the recording of CD's into their own club, playing the old crackle, snap, and pop LP's and moving that recording onto CD's. To them the sound quality was THE ORIGINAL BEATLES, the way they heard it first and wanted to hear it. Then they posted on the Internet, and by becoming a member of their club, you could download the recordings they did.

I recall the days when the AUDIOPHILE existed. These were people who bought expensive equipment to hear tape or vinyl recordings with a lot of controls on the audio. They gleefully tweaked base and treble, or listened to just one speaker, adjusting the music to the way they wanted to hear it song by song, isolating a voice or an instrument. This is an active participation in the music that is barely possible with the CD players that most people own today.

I suspect that the beauty of original performanc music on YOUTUBE also has to do with the ORIGINAL SOUND of a recording.

COWBOYS WERE MY IDOLS

Dover Free Images

LASH LARUE Quote on Life

Cowboy star Lash told me this one when we were dining out at the Entre Cafeteria across from Capitol records years ago. The Entre was a favorite with character actors - musicians - stars- everybody. We used to meet there and as I mentioned when I blogged on Lash earlier, he was my favorite cowboy, as well as Elvis', and Tommy Smothers.

"I'm from an area of time and space that the human race ain't ready for yet!"
- Lash Larue

Here's a clip from a film Lash did on a YouTube presentation, a cowboy bullwhip contest! Welcome to my childhood!

Lash LaRue vs. El Azote! Lash is the cowboy in black without the mask!