Various Artists Rocket In My Pocket / Max Décharné - "A Rocket In My Pocket: The Hipster's Guide to Rockabilly Music"
This includes the CD from Ace and the Book by Max Decharne
Various Artists Rocket In My Pocket
Released : 2010
Label: ACE
Format: [email protected]
The story of rockabilly is largely one of individual recordings, rather than stars. Many great performances were laid down by unknowns whose careers were over almost before the ink dried on their record contracts. Yet the first pure rockabilly record ever made launched its teenage singer on the biggest and most successful career trajectory the music world has ever known. The five singles that Elvis, Scotty and Bill cut in Sam Phillips’ Sun Studios in 1954 and 1955 laid down the blueprint for the worldwide rock explosion of the 1950s, but also defined rockabilly for all time. What you have on this collection is Elvis and a selection of those who were chasing his shadow.
The music came in various styles, from the largely acoustic-flavoured hillbilly strain to the flat-out screamers knocking hell out of any instruments within reach, but the focus with this particular selection is mostly on the wilder cuts: Dale Vaughn’s magnificent one-off for the tiny Von label, ‘How Can You Be Mean To Me’; Gene Maltais in the living room of a soundman in New Hampshire, hollerin’ his way through a berserk rendition of ‘The Raging Sea’; an unissued alternate take of Jackie Morningstar’s much-loved song about the joys of being belted over the head with a rock by a thing from beyond the grave, ‘Rockin’ In The Graveyard’.
Youthful enthusiasm, urgent rhythms and stripped-down arrangements driven along by a slapping upright double bass; these were songs sung mostly by teenagers which dealt with all the essentials of the hepcat lifestyle: girls, cars, booze, dancing. Just like the punk explosion 20 years later, 50s rockabilly was a spontaneous outburst of spirited three-chord songs, in which the major companies had a stake, but there was still plenty of room for tiny record labels, primitive studios, fiercely partisan audiences and wild-eyed, driven performers who weren’t planning much farther ahead than the following week. They were chasing something you couldn’t ever quite catch up with, nail down or explain to your parents.
Lightning in a bottle, a tiger by the tail, a rocket in your pocket
Tracklist:
01. Dale Vaughn - How Can You Be Mean To Me
02. Elvis Presley - Mystery Train
03. Gene Maltais - The Raging Sea
04. Allen Page - She's The One That's Got It
05. Carl Perkins - Put Your Cat Clothes On
06. Bob Boss - Don't Be Gone Long
07. Wanda Jackson - Mean, Mean Man
08. Johnny Burnette - The Train Kept Rollin'
09. Rocky Bill Ford - Mad Dog In Town
10. Hal Harris - Jitterbop Baby
11. Ronnie Self - Bop-A-Lena
12. Jackie Morningstar - Rockin' In The Graveyard
13. The Echo Valley Boys with Bill Browning - Wash Machine Boogie
14. Sonny Fisher - Pink And Black
15. Charlie Feathers - Get With It
16. Ray Harris - Come On Little Mama
17. Rhythm Rockers - The Slide
18. Jimmy Carrol aka Billy Carrol - Big Green Car
19. Benny Ingram - Jello Sal
20. Junior Thompson with the Meteors - Mama's Little Baby
21. Mel Robbins - Save It
22. Jimmy & Johnny - I Can't Find the Door Knob
23. Freddie Franks - Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby
24. Ric Cartey - Scratching On My Screen
25. Roy Burk & the Bell Bottoms - Rock To The Boogie
26. Don Willis - Boppin' High School Baby
27. Don Cole - Snake Eyed Mama
28. Jimmy Lloyd - I Got A Rocket In My Pocket
Max Décharné - "A Rocket In My Pocket: The Hipster's Guide to Rockabilly Music"
Format: Mobi
Publisher: Serpent's Tail (29 July 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1846687217
ISBN-13: 978-1846687211
A Rocket in my Pocket" is the story of rockabilly music, the primal '50s howl of rockin' rage that helped start it all. Rockabilly had its roots in country, blues, folk, hillbilly, R&B, boogie-woogie and most other indigenous Deep South forms of popular song that you could strum three chords along to or howl down a cheap microphone. It was young people's music, made almost entirely by the first wave of teenagers, despised by adults in general and the country music establishment in particular. Its pioneer exponent, Elvis, eventually become respectable in the eyes of straight society but he was the exception. 1950s rockabilly was a spontaneous outburst of spirited three-chord songs, tiny record labels, primitive studios, fiercely partisan audiences and wild-eyed, driven performers who weren't even sure that their musical careers would last the week. The book charts the rise (and fall) of the original '50s wave of rockabillies. It will also follow the progress of the music, in clubs, on radio, TV and film, pinpointing the key record labels and important regional centres, showing how fashions eventually changed and left rockabilly high and dry, far too wild and primitive in an era of smoother sounds. Decharne traces the music to its Memphis roots.
Max Décharné is a rock'n'roll musician, author and journalist, probably best known for his being the drummer for Gallon Drunk and fronting his own band The Flaming Stars.
Décharné started writing short stories in 1989 but in 1986, inspired by the postpunk DIY ethic, Max founded the Malice Aforethought Press with Frank Key Over the next few years they published a large number of short-run pamphlets. Titles by Max included "The Importance Of Being Harnessed" and "The Night They Invented Shampoo". Most of these texts were later collected in paperback. Max also appeared as a guest on Frank Key's weekly Resonance FM Radio show Hooting Yard On The Air in which the former publishing partners discussed their love of unusual literature.
He joined Gallon Drunk in 1991, touring with Morrissey and even gaining critical acclaim. However, the band didn't make any money, even though the tour was successful. After leaving Gallon Drunk, he formed The Flaming Stars, a band indebted to 1960's garage rock, Nick Cave and his love of film noir and exploitation B-movies. As well as a vocalist, Décharné played drums in Gallon Drunk, as well as currently playing piano and Farfisa organ in The Flaming Stars. He is also a member of The Earls of Suave.
His writing career has encompassed short stories, journalism, songwriting, books on hipster slang and cinema. The latter two were an opportunity for Décharné to watch his favourite films and indulge his passion for pulp fiction novels from the 1950s and 1960s. He has written for magazines such Mojo and Bizarre, even writing on his North American tour with Gallon Drunk in the former. He was the last man to interview John Peel before he died (Peel and Décharné were mutual admirers). He has also acted in the film Pervirella, playing the role of the Curator
Max Décharné's Bibliography:
• Beat Your Relatives To A Bloody Pulp & Other Stories, Malice Aforethought Press, 1989
• The Prisoner Of Brenda & Other Stories, Malice Aforethought Press, 1991
• I Was A Teenage Warehouse & Other Stories, Thirst Editions, 1997
• Straight From the Fridge, Dad: A Dictionary of Hipster Slang, No Exit Press, 2000
• Hardboiled Hollywood – The Origins of the Great Crime Films, No Exit Press, 2003
• King's Road: The Rise And Fall of the Hippest Street in the World, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005
• A Rocket In My Pocket: The Hipster's Guide to Rockabilly Music, Serpent's Tail, 2010
