A lot of times, in web correspondence, I sign off with “Rave On!” or “Rave On Children!”. I have been asked; “What is that, what do you mean by that?”
What I mean by that is, I like what you’re doing, keep doing it.
It comes from a Carl Perkins song, “Dixie Fried”, that has a great hook and also talks about a razor fight-two things that made me pay attention.
Now Dan got happy and he started ravin’
He jerked out his razor , but he wasn’t shavin’
And all the cats knew to jump and hop
‘Cause he was born an’ raised in a butcher shopChorus
He hollered, rave on children I’m with ya
Rave on cats, he cried
It’s almost dawn and the cops are gone
And let’s all get dixie fried
It’s funny that, with all of the guitarists I consort with, I don’t hear anybody talking about Carl Perkins these days. It seems like he’s the forgotten man. Here’s a partial list, off the top of my head, of legendary guitar players that have “borrowed” Carl Perkins’ licks, James Burton, Roy Nichols, Roy Buchanan, Albert Lee, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, J.J. Cale, Brian Setzer, Mark Knopfler,…pretty much everybody, even Jimi did a cover of “Blue Suede Shoes” (Hendrix In The West).
He was the first crossover artist. His version of “Blue Suede Shoes” went to #2 on the pop and R&B charts and topped the country chart.
This will give you an idea of how good a songwriter Perkins was; The Beatles recorded five of his songs, more than any other outside writer.
And, he was in Jonny Cash’s band for eight years, that’s pretty neat.
Here’s a link to a very nice NPR interview with Carl that was part of a series about Sam Phillips. Carl talks about how Phillips was trying to push Perkins as a country singer because, he already had a good rockabilly guy. When Phillips sold Elvis’ contract to RCA he told Carl; “Now you can rock”. I love that. You should go listen to the interview.
And give it up for Carl Perkins.
And…
Rave On Children!
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Tags: Beatles, carl perkins, cats, Dixie Fried, elvis, eric clapton, Guitar, Rock, Roy Buchanan
Pat Darnell and Tweezers wrote,
Listened, liked, remembered… all good.
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Link | June 6th, 2008 at 2:33 am