Carl Perkins

Charles, ist es ok, wenn ich eine um ein paar Links gekürzte Rezension zu "Jet propelled" in englisch poste? Die habe ich neulich mal für ein anderes Forum geschrieben.



Ok, here's my review of what certainly is one of the very best "archive"-releases by Carl Perkins. Make sure to check out the sound samples on the above link.
After Carl toured years as part of the Johnny Cash show and along the way wrote the hits "Long legged guitar pickin' man" and "Daddy sang bass" for Johnny, Carl went back on his own touring with his sons Greg and Stan. In 1978 he signed with Jet Records and recorded an album called "Ol' Blue Suede's back" that features his interpretations of classic Rock'n'Roll songs from the 50s (plus one new composition, "Rock on around the world", which would later be rewritten as "Birth of Rock'n'Roll"), matching the nostalgia craze at that time. Jet Records put a lot of promotion behind the album and it turned out to be Carl's best (and only) charting album in the UK. A follow up album with original material was not released in it's original form.

Producer was Felton Jarvis who of course was Elvis Presley's personal producer until the King's death the year before. Musicians included David Briggs and Mike Leech, while Carl's guitar was of course everywhere to be found. To get an idea of the sound, just imagine something like Elvis' Jungle Room recordings but without the orchestra overdubs and more rocking and in your face. Don't let the oldie-concept shadow your opinion, these are real performances of those songs not just covers. Some work better ("That's allright", "Rock around the clock") some not ("Whole lotta shakin' goin' on") but it's a fun listen through and through.



A lot of promotion was done for the album and Carl did a lot of appearances in the UK. One was on BBC Radio. The second disc of this set features a detailed 45 mins.-interview with Charlie Gillett, followed by an on-fire-performance by Carl with a band that featured Dave Edmunds. These couple of recordings are some of the best stuff of Perkins you will find, and that is saying a lot. If you know the '86 TV special, again featuring Edmunds but also Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, George Harrison and Rosanne Cash, this one is even better. The highlight is "That's allright" which rips the whole place apart. As Carl noted at the end "That's Rock'n'Roll, right there".

Now, as mentioned, there was a second album recorded with the same musicians and Jarvis as producer. That probably led to the song "Let me on" being included which was supposed by Elvis to record in his planned early '77 Nashville sessions which didn't happen to take place. The song sounds like a bona fide hit of the times. It was later recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis in a imo nice but subpar version.
A single was released of the song "Miss Misunderstood", written by David Bellamy and Carl played it in his live shows in the coming years.



Other songs included "Why you been gone so long?" by Mickey Newbury and "Mustang wine" by Steve Earle as well as one of my favorite Perkins compositions, "The hurt put on by you" which he released later in a different version which you can hear if you click on this link*. Carl's Elvis-tribute "The whole world misses you" was also featured as it was a favorite among his audiences around that time.


*





The album was never released in it's intended form but the songs were scattered on different releases. This release now collects all on two CDs and what a great release it is. The liner notes are very detailled and give you more info than I did with my review.

Make no mistake, Carl was back and rocking! Please give it a thought if you might wanna get this. It's not a hidden masterpiece, but a very good and solid effort in Perkins style- The BBC session on the other hand is a masterpiece.

Hier eine zeitgenössische Darbietung von "The whole world misses you":

Der Text treibt einem die Tränen in die Augen

Das dürfte super werden:


Carl Perkins: Live In Paris (2-LP+Flexi Disc, Limited Edition)
(Culture Factory) 20 Tracks, Double Blue Vinyl plus Flexi with Unreleased Track, Limited Edition (1.000)

Carl Perkins' last European concert in one of Paris' legendary venues, the Elysée Montmartre.

The concert was recorded on 30.03.1996 and will be released twenty-four years later to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the song 'Blue Suede Shoes'.

• Double Blue Vinyl LP's
• Flexi Blue Vinyl With Never Released Bonus Track
• Die-Cut Gatefold Jacket With Printed Inner Sleeves
• 12 Page Booklet







www.bear-family.com/perkins-carl-live-in...limited-edition.html

Wohooo!!!


Another great Sun artist doing special live sessions for British radio in 1964, backed by The Dominoes. From  Top Gear 16th June and Saturday Club 9th May, 1964.


Fantastic singing and guitar playing from a giant of rockabilly in his prime. Songs include:


The Right String But The Wrong Yo-Yo
Matchbox
Mean Woman Blues
Help Me Find My Baby
Brian Mathew interviews Carl
I Can't Help It If I'm Still In Love With You

Ich habe vor einer Weile eine Art Rezension zu Carls Album "Country Boy's Dream" in einem englischsprachigen Beach Boys Forum geschrieben. Wenn es jemanden interessiert, poste ich es hier auch.


Carl Perkins - Country Boy's Dream, 1968





01 Country Boy's Dream
02 If I Could Come Back
03 Sweet Misery
04 Stateside
06 Detroit City
07 Unmitigated Gall
08 Shine, Shine, Shine
09 Dream On Little Dreamer
10 You Can Take The Boy Out Of The Country
11 The Star Of The Show
12 Home (That's Where The Heart Is)
13 Poor Boy Blues



So, it's been a while, but now I wanted to talk a little about this album and it's contents. I'm not gonna do a track-by-track analysis, though.
As you all know, probably thanks to his accident while "Blue Suede Shoes" was on the charts in '56, Carl never gained the popularity he deserved. Though he released strong material, he never got a big follow-up to that song. In 1966 it was eight years since his last charting record on the Country charts, the 1958 Rock'n'Roll song "Pink Pedal Pushers" . It wasn't for lack of great material (that was never for a songwriter of Carl's talents), his records were just not selling. Back in the late 50s, due to his success with "Blue Suede Shoes", he was signed as a top star to Columbia. But after never hitting the big time again, in the mid-60s he signed with Dollie Records and in need of a hit. His first single for Dollie finally put him back on the charts. 1966's "Country Boy's Dream" went all the way to No. 22 on the Country charts. The song was written by Ernie Newton and Carl, though for some reason Carl was not credited. Carl mentioned his authorship on a live performance of that song on "Pop goes the Country" in 1977 .

Once gain though, Carl had bad luck. He accidentally shot himself in the foot (literally), and couldn't promote the song. Yet a follow-up single "Shine, shine, shine" in '67 still reached No. 40. Who knows what could've been had he been able to promote the songs on television.
In 1968, Dollie released Carl's album "Country Boy's Dream". You probably heard about what Country music sounded in Nashville during this time. The "Nashville Sound" did take a lot of the edges out of the music in favor of a smooth, sugary sound. There were great recordings and songs, but after a while it became the norm and lost it's freshness. Carl actually had a hit during these years. In 1962 Patsy Cline recorded "So wrong" which Carl wrote with Danny Dill and Mel Tillis. The single reached No 14 on the Country charts for Cline. This recording is a great example for the beauty of the "Nashville Sound".


=8pt%Carl with Gordon Terry, Luther Perkins, Patsy Cline and George Jones in 1962

So, knowing that, you would think that "Country Boy's Dream" would be a record of that sound, so to heighten the commercial potential. Thankfull you would be wrong. The album's production and instrumentation is actually pretty simple. No orchestras, no choirs, only what sounds like a quartet of backing singers and guitars, pedal steel guitar, bass, drums, piano. This probably shouldn't be misunderstood. When he was on Columbia Carl did record some songs with that big sound. I guess it was due to Carl's commercial losses that his records weren't given the treatment of the top stars.

It's this more or less sparse sound though, that makes this album sound so fresh to my ears. It's straight forward Country music played and sung by one of it's best - forgotten - singers. Indeed Perkins was a great singer and his matured voice only gave more depth to the tunes.
Usually, in Carl's situation at that time you would put your new single on the album and record a pack of cover songs, since he was not in the place where the top songwriters of the day would write material for him. And you got your bunch of covers on here as well. But Carl was also a great songwriter as we all know and so he could strengthen his album with new and strong material. He contributed five songs all in all to this album. His own "Poor Boy Blues" was a Top 40 hit on the Country charts in 1966 in a recording by Bob Luman .

That's not saying that the covers were throwaways. Oh no! Carl's version of "If I could come back" is one of my favorite performances. The interplay between Carl's soulful singing and the pedal steel guitar is beautiful. Plus the stripped sound of the album gives this song just enough room to breathe.
Carl even got to perform his "Lake County Cotton Country" on TV, when he filled in for Johnny Cahs's recently deceased guitarist Luther Perkins (no relation).
The album could be seen as a blueprint for things like "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" a. o. for it's lack of big Nashville production. It is a great album through and through. My only criticism is that Carl's lead on "Shine, shine, shine" is a little weak.
The title song still was popular enough for Carl to perform it in the 70s every now and then. Here's one such example from "Nashville on the Road" .

Bear Family's "Dollie Masters - Country Boy's Dream" is a collection that includes the complete album plus other recordings from those sessions. Some released as singles, some unreleased. You can find more great stuff on there. Perkins' own "Dear Abby" has turned out to be a favorite of mine. Also his song "Valda" about his wife is touching.

Unfortunately Carl would never get the success he deserved. He had other hits like "Restless" which hit No. 20 in 1969, for which Mark O'Connor received a Grammy in the category "Best Country Collaboration with Vocals" in 1991.

All I can say is, check this album out (see the link in the title). If you like authentic Country music you will love it. If you're into Country Rock, you will as well.

Danke , wunderbar. Bei Carl Perkins bin ich nicht sicher, ob Fisch oder Fleisch. Er wirkte insbesondere 1956 sehr unbeholfen auf der Bühne und war optisch nicht unbedingt für die Young Generation geschaffen. Ich schätze ihn als Musiker sehr und seine später Stimme mag ich, aber so richtig warm bin ich mit Perkins nie geworden. 



Seine verzweifelten Tanzschritte zeigte er auch bei "Honey don't"



Es wirkt bei ihm zu konzentriert und mit angezogener Handbremse. Die letzte entscheidende Stufe hat er nie gezündet. Das wirkt auch alles sehr bieder in der Darbietung. Die Combo wirkt auch sehr zögerlich. Perkins war nur 3 Jahre älter als Elvis. 

Hier kann man ein Radiokonzert aus 1978 im Stream hören:


Recorded from a KFAT Fat Fry at the Keystone Palo Alto, CA September 25, 1978.

www.classicaudio.com/stream/CarlPerkins.html