Jimmie John: Solid Rock (1959)

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Jimmie John: Solid Rock (1959)

Rockabilly is a genre that seems to enjoy the fact that it doesn't change or grow, develop or move too far from a simple template of a backbeat and the invitation to dance.

It is shamelessly self-referential (in truth it just borrows or steals from itself) and back in the early Fifties when it emerged it didn't take it too long to establish some fundamental principles. Then Elvis -- and others -- arrived and laid down a short, sharp and refined version which was widely adopted.

A lot of rockabilly songs are also shamelessly "country" and here Jimmie John, with his almost hit, comes off the country boy taking his country girl to a dance in town, plays on the whole "dig" and "rock" thing, exaggerates his yokel vocal, and of course of the bass voice coming in was a useful gimmick.

But the real interest here lies in the very cool if brief guitar, banjo and fiddle solos at the mid-point. If you hadn't already got it, this was rockabilly straight from the hills. Two minutes of funny dance music -- with a banjo on speed.

This comes from the collection The Rarest Rockabilly Album in the World Ever!

For more oddities, one-offs or songs with an interesting backstory use the RSS feed for daily updates, and check the massive back-catalogue at From the Vaults.

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