Thoughts on Rockabilly

**christianm77** · 01-03-2021, 09:57 AM

Unfortunately I was
thinking of Footloose

**ruger9** · 01-03-2021, 10:38 AM

Originally Posted by christianm77

Unfortunately I was
thinking of Footloose

HAHAHAHAHAHHA good one!

**sasquatch** · 01-03-2021, 10:39 AM

I played rockabilly in the early 80's. Pretty good fun up until the leader tried to force us into uniforms...not my bag
Pretty sure it was called rockabilly in the 70's 'cos you had those great compilation albums like 'Imperial Rockabilly' etc

This was my rig for the rockabilly band, no pedals, echo or reverb...not even a vibrato arm!

**MarkRhodes** · 01-03-2021, 04:57 PM

Originally Posted by Littlemark

It's just marketing. Bad marketing at that. Your don't need anything fancy to get that sound. I'm sure the pedal is actual fine. Just superfluous. And it's not going to help you hit the right notes.
What is actually more helpful would be single coils. No rockabilly players at that time would have had those new fancy hum bucking pickups. It a Gretsch. Aside from Cliff Gallup, I don't think anyone played a Gretsch. (See Eddie Cochrane and the e bass above).

But gear isn't overly important in rockabilly. Not like surf music. A single coil guitar into a tube amp (yes with flatwounds) will get you most of the way there.

But hey Mark make sure you use an analogue (style) delay. You don't want to end up sounding like the edge with those clean repeats.

Marketing, yes. I don't object to that.
Gretsch is a popular guitar among those who play this style (and related styles) of music nowadays. "Psychobilly" is a genre now but wasn't when I was young. It is not '50s rockabilly but heavily influenced by it. Reverend Horton Heat's Jim Heath plays a signature model Gretsch .

I'm a single coil guy but Scotty Moore played a Super 400 with Elvis---not a single coil. Duane Eddy also played a Gretsch. Duane wasn't a rockabilly guy per se but a VERY popular and influential guitar player. (When Tommy Tedesco met Duane Eddy, he asked him, "Hey, did anyone ever ask you to play like me? I get asked---in the studio--to play like you every day!") Chet Atkins also played a Gretsch and he too was a very influential guitarist. Les Paul was also a hugely influential guitarist and he played with humbucker pickups.

I don't think people who liked and played rockabilly early on heard ONLY that. They heard everything else that was on the radio. I think period authenticity is a bigger concern of people who want to re-create it for its own sake. (Like some people do with swing bands of the pre-bebop era where dancers happily Lindy Hop the night away.) Nothing wrong with that but it's not the only way to absorb and reflect an influence.

Then there are bands who want to take the vibe (as they hear / feel it) and put their own spin on it. I think of the Stray Cats in this way. (Though they did start out with the double bass and only a snare and cymbal for drums.) The Flat Duo Jets also come to mind. "Neo Rockabilly" is sometimes used to refer to them. Obviously, Setzer is a Gretsch guy.

I don't see myself as "neo rockabilly." Rockabilly is not a hallmark of my playing. In part because of the genre's greatest weakness: everything's a revved-up 12-bar blues. I love a revved-up 12-bar blues as much as anyone but I don't want several in a row.

George Harrison had been playing a '57 Gretsch Duo Jet but switched in 1963 to the Country Gentleman because of Chet Atkins . George was long associated with Gretsch guitars. The Beatles weren't a rockabilly band but EVERYONE heard them and most young people liked them and many a young guitar player wanted to play a guitar like George played. I think The Beatles recorded more songs by Carl Perkins---who was rockabilly--- than any other single songwriter: Honey Don't, Everybody's Tryin' To Be My Baby, Matchbox, Lend Me Your Comb. Carl was one of George's heroes and the whole band thought he was great. (Carl said they cut a version of Blue Suede Shoes but never released it.)

Like I said, I'm a single coil guy. But that's me. I don't have any objection to someone playing what they call rockabilly (or roots rock, whatever)
on a Gretsch or a Gibson. And my delay pedal is analog.

Still think that Rumble Seat pedal provides a variety of nice tones. Too rich for my blood, as I said before, I sure wouldn't turn up my nose if one came my way. ;o)

**Lobomov** · 01-03-2021, 05:39 PM

Originally Posted by MarkRhodes

I'm a single coil guy but Scotty Moore played a Super 400 with Elvis---not a single coil.

OK? .. When I think of Scotty with Elvis I always think P90s especially that gold ES295

**AllanAllen** · 01-03-2021, 07:29 PM

Elvis playing Scotty's humbucker equipped guitar. A little later, but whatever, I like the song.

**steve burchfield** · 01-03-2021, 07:50 PM

The BEST rockabilly style solo i have EVER heard is Danny Gattons version of Mystery Train on Austin City Limits now available on YT.

**neatomic** · 01-03-2021, 07:51 PM

george harrisons beatle era self painted strat-rocky...with be bop a lula painted on upper bout

cheers

**Littlemark** · 01-03-2021, 08:07 PM

There are certainly lots of 12 bar Blues based tunes. But also plenty that are not. I should make a play list for myself.

Honey don't
Blue Moon of Kentucky
Long Blonde hair
Love me
Suzy Q
I've got a woman
Rock House
Her love rubbed off
Mona Lisa
Speed limit
Lonesome tears in my eyes

Just off the top of my head. Some new songs written nowadays in that style aren't Blues as well.

**digger** · 01-04-2021, 05:57 AM

Originally Posted by steve burchfield

The BEST rockabilly style solo i have EVER heard is Danny Gattons version of Mystery Train on Austin City Limits now available on YT.

There are so many great ones - and a lot of those are by Danny Gatton! I always liked the solo on The Stray Cats' version of The Race is On - not sure if it wasn't played half by Setzer and half by Dave Edmunds. It's been a long time since I heard it. I'm still quite proud that the first song I ever played live in a band was a Dave Edmunds / Nick Lowe song: I Knew The Bride. It was one of the first singles I ever bought. Spookily, I think the last single I ever bought was also a Nick Lowe (The House on The Hill, IIRC).

Derek

**Doctor Jeff** · 01-04-2021, 09:08 AM

George with Carl and Dave Edmunds:

And with Eric Clapton, Roseanne Cash, Ringo, looks like bass and drums from Stray Cats...

**nopedals** · 01-04-2021, 09:30 AM

Rockabilly goes back to the 1940s. Jimmy Wyble's guitar break in Roly Poly is probably the best rockabilly solo ever recorded.

**Doctor Jeff** · 01-04-2021, 03:41 PM

Originally Posted by nopedals

Rockabilly goes back to the 1940s. Jimmy Wyble's guitar break in Roly Poly is probably the best rockabilly solo ever recorded.

Well it is obviously subjective, and while rock'n'roll derived from country music including Western swing (that's where Bill Haley and Scotty Moore started out), IMO that's not rockabilly. You need the backbeat that came from the blues and black "race records" to have real rock'n'roll, and hence rockabilly, which is after all a more country-oriented rock music.

Plus the guitar playing is very nice but very jazz-oriented, not RNRish to my ears.

I think to have true rockabilly you have to have a slapped bass sound and slapback echo.

Admittedly this is all opinion, but it basically goes back to Sam Phillips and what he did with Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins and their groups.

**Woody Sound** · 01-04-2021, 05:58 PM

Originally Posted by Marinero

However, the tripe by the "Stray Cats" is abominable.

I remember hearing an interview with Benny Carter where he basically said the same thing about what is and isn't jazz. Lambasted groups like Tony Williams' Lifetime, later Miles, etc.

**gcb** · 01-04-2021, 10:05 PM

**gcb** · 01-04-2021, 10:22 PM

**gcb** · 01-04-2021, 10:41 PM

**neatomic** · 01-04-2021, 10:51 PM

one of the best og rockabilly players i ever got to see & meet...the great ronnie dawson...he was just a kid when he started recording way back when, but he developed with many years of seasoning, into a first rate rockabilly singer/player

conan played a little...he knew

rip ronnie D...one of the best

cheers

**AllanAllen** · 01-05-2021, 12:01 PM

Pretty far from his rockabilly material, but this has a ii V I

**MarkRhodes** · 01-05-2021, 12:13 PM

Originally Posted by Woody Sound

I remember hearing an interview with Benny Carter where he basically said the same thing about what is and isn't jazz. Lambasted groups like Tony Williams' Lifetime, later Miles, etc.

I think Barry Harris said something similar about Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock (as well as Miles Davis beyond a certain period) that it wasn't jazz anymore.

**tbone** · 01-05-2021, 06:48 PM

**steve burchfield** · 01-05-2021, 07:04 PM

What about some FEMALE rockabilly like Wanda?

**AllanAllen** · 01-05-2021, 07:47 PM

Nobody's stopping you.

**digger** · 01-06-2021, 04:10 AM

Originally Posted by steve burchfield

What about some FEMALE rockabilly like Wanda?

Rosie Flores is one of my favourites.

Imelda May, too. For a while she was married to Daryl Higham who himself was an exceptional rockabilly picker. I really enjoyed Imelda May's double tracked Mary Ford tunes on the tribute to Les Paul concert. But that's getting away from Rockabilly.