Over the years, everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Prefab Sprout’s Paddy McAloon has told us that cars and girls are the driving force behind the greatest Rock’n’Roll songs.
This humble scribe’s no intention of quibbling with such wisdom, especially when presented with provocative evidence like the 20 blasts of quivering sonic excitement barrelling from the traps on The Viper Label’s latest compilation ‘What’s Her Name?’
As the sub-title ‘1950s Songs about American Girls’ suggests, this is yet another timely raid on the early Rock’n’Roll years from our favourite Liverpool label. It instantly transports us back to a time of innocence where newly-independent teenagers were actually living the American Dream and a future involving everything from Vietnam to the Moon Landing was still some way from being written.
Nothing’s ever quite that simple in real time, of course, but certainly the tunes comprising ‘What’s Her Name?’ were laid down by would-be rebels whose main cause at the time was trying to date the prettiest gal in the neighbourhood. Hell, even the normally world-weary JOHNNY CASH submits the playing-the-field fun of ‘Katy Too’ with a spring in his step and romance in his heart.
This celebratory feel does nothing to neuter the power of many of these seismic songs five decades down the line, however. Some of ‘em feel like part of the furniture these days ( not least BUDDY HOLLY’S ‘Peggy Sue’, CHUCK BERRY’S ‘Oh Carol’ and LITLE RICHARD’S wild screamer ‘Lucille’) but the timeless brilliance of such songs is beyond question at this stage. And besides, in true Viper style, ‘What’s Her Name?’ digs way deeper than the usual surface scratchers.
DALE HAWKINS kicks us off in fine style. His ‘Susie Q’ (1957) – as later faithfully referenced by Creedence Clearwater Revival – has swampy, snaky guitars and drums sounding like they were recorded in a cave pitted against a vocal dripping with lust. In terms of carnal Rock’n’Roll it takes some beating, though the smokin’, Link Wray-style guitar playing on DARELL RHODES’ ‘Lou Lou’(1959) and the KIDS FROM TEXAS’ rubber-burnin’ ‘Long-Legged Linda’ (1958) are soon jostling for position in its’ slipstream.
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Elsewhere, ‘What’s Her Name?’ not only showcases the best of the visceral Rock’n’Roll sounds around at the time, but it delves into both the immediate past and future of music. To this end, check out tracks like CHUCK WILLIS’S ‘Caldonia’ (1952) and DUB DICKERSON’S ‘My Girl Gertie’ from 1954. The former (probably inadvertently) bridges the gap from the Big Band sounds of the ‘40s and the new Rock’n’Roll sounds with its’ boundless energy and ‘Batman’-style horn motifs while Dickerson’s Country/Hawaiian-tinged ode mirrors the kind of sound that would make Burl Ives a household name. Both were recorded just prior to Elvis wiping all comers from the board and remind us that Rock’n’Roll always can owe as well as seek payment for its stylistic debts.
At the other end of the spectrum, a couple of cuts from 1959 - notably THE MANN BROTHERS’ ‘Hot Rod Susie’ and KENNY LOREN’S ‘Brenda’- have Doo-Wop style vocal arrangements and remind us (whether we like it or not) that many record companies were keen to follow-up on the more clean-cut likes of Pat Boone who were by then usurping the original Rock’n’Roll rebel rousers. At least on the sales graphs.
Throw in a great oddball moment or two (SONNY BURGESS’S ‘Sadie’s Back in Town’ appears to have Donald Duck MC-ing over the intro) and you have yet another fascinating archival document from The Viper Label. Even fifty years on, many of these perennially beautiful girls have names that should be entered in any self-respecting Rock’n’Roll fan’s little black book.
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