Sleepy LaBeef Obituary
Rockabilly legend Sleepy LaBeef who began his career in the mid-’50s and whose concerts continued to be a draw for the rockabilly community well into this year, died on December 26, 2019 at age 84. No cause of death has been given.
Although LaBeef never had great chart success, his legend loomed almost as large as he did - the singer was around six-and-a-a-half feet tall - at festivals where he was often the lone remaining original 1950s rocker. He earned his own chapter in one of the essential books about rock’s pioneers, Peter Guralnick’s “Lost Highway: Journeys and Arrivals of American Musicians.”
Rockabilly legend Sleepy LaBeef who began his career in the mid-’50s and whose concerts continued to be a draw for the rockabilly community well into this year, died on December 26, 2019 at age 84. No cause of death has been given.
Although LaBeef never had great chart success, his legend loomed almost as large as he did - the singer was around six-and-a-a-half feet tall - at festivals where he was often the lone remaining original 1950s rocker. He earned his own chapter in one of the essential books about rock’s pioneers, Peter Guralnick’s “Lost Highway: Journeys and Arrivals of American Musicians.”
Presse Archiv - Yulesville! - 33 Rockin' Rollin' Christmas Blasters For The Cool Season - UK Rock & Roll Magazine
VARIOUS ARTISTS `YULESVILLE' (Bear Family)
Here 33 Festive tunes you probably won't have many of. It's that time of year again, Bear Family have been rummaging where others haven't when it comes to compiling festive compilations.
Unless you have an extensive collection of rarities it's unlikely many of these have featured in your previous playlists, in some cases that's a tragedy, Three Aces And A Joker's uber rare 'Sleigh Bell Rock' disproves any theory that Christmas songs have to be cheesy, this cracker rocks but only 600 people got a copy back in 1960.
Rarity is the feature of the album, it's impossible to list the merits of all the tracks in a short review, yes there are some jingle belled contrived numbers, well it's Christmas after all.
There's some ear-popping good stuff too the earliest from 1950, jazz but so near rock n roll, add some quirky, do-wop and rockabilly bopping and you have a tremendous compilation The booklet is packed with artist information too as you'd expect coming from this label, ideal if you're an anorak like me
Simon Nott
VARIOUS ARTISTS `YULESVILLE' (Bear Family)
Here 33 Festive tunes you probably won't have many of. It's that time of year again, Bear Family have been rummaging where others haven't when it comes to compiling festive compilations.
Unless you have an extensive collection of rarities it's unlikely many of these have featured in your previous playlists, in some cases that's a tragedy, Three Aces And A Joker's uber rare 'Sleigh Bell Rock' disproves any theory that Christmas songs have to be cheesy, this cracker rocks but only 600 people got a copy back in 1960.
Rarity is the feature of the album, it's impossible to list the merits of all the tracks in a short review, yes there are some jingle belled contrived numbers, well it's Christmas after all.
There's some ear-popping good stuff too the earliest from 1950, jazz but so near rock n roll, add some quirky, do-wop and rockabilly bopping and you have a tremendous compilation The booklet is packed with artist information too as you'd expect coming from this label, ideal if you're an anorak like me
Simon Nott
Presse Archiv - Link Wray Rocks - UK Rock & Roll Magazine
LINK WRAY `ROCKS' (Bear Family)
Aficionados of music of the 50's and 60's will almost certainly have some of guitarist Link Wray's tunes in their collection, that's going to include 'Rumble' which hit the top 20 in the USA and UK in 1958. Apparently, the disc was shunned by some radio stations because it was considered to be inciting violence amongst teen gangs, some achievement for an instrumental. It's here but you have to wait until the 34th and final track for the hit. What you glean listening getting that far is the rich musical legacy this hugely influential guitarist left. There's none of the earliest Western Swing because this collection includes just tracks from 1958 to 1966 over several labels. They feature some lesser known gems including 'Big City After Dark' backing his brother Ray plus two tracks where Link provides the vocals. This is a fascinating collection easily illustrates why artists diverse as Neil Young and the Cramps were huge fans.
Simon Nott
LINK WRAY `ROCKS' (Bear Family)
Aficionados of music of the 50's and 60's will almost certainly have some of guitarist Link Wray's tunes in their collection, that's going to include 'Rumble' which hit the top 20 in the USA and UK in 1958. Apparently, the disc was shunned by some radio stations because it was considered to be inciting violence amongst teen gangs, some achievement for an instrumental. It's here but you have to wait until the 34th and final track for the hit. What you glean listening getting that far is the rich musical legacy this hugely influential guitarist left. There's none of the earliest Western Swing because this collection includes just tracks from 1958 to 1966 over several labels. They feature some lesser known gems including 'Big City After Dark' backing his brother Ray plus two tracks where Link provides the vocals. This is a fascinating collection easily illustrates why artists diverse as Neil Young and the Cramps were huge fans.
Simon Nott
Presse Archiv - Billy Fury Wondrous Place - The Brits Are Rocking - UK Rock & Roll Magazine
BILLY FURY `WONDEROUS PLACE' (Bear Family)
Billy Fury is on one hand considered up there with the best of the best of the breed of British rockers. His 1960 album 'The Sound Of Fury' thought of by some with a respect usually reserved for recordings that came out of Sun. True, that 10" is the nearest thing to authentic rockabilly that a UK artist recorded back in the day. On the other hand the conversation then tends to be that Billy Fury turned his back on rock n roll to concentrate on ballads, hits and money. The facts, like them or not is that the sort of music Billy was laying down in 1960 was almost half a decade out of date back in the States, their own brand of fabricated teen idols were flooding the charts while the originators of rock n roll were either in the army, out of vogue, hitting the bottle or both. Worst still, dead, Eddie and Buddy had already started looking beyond rock n roll before their untimely deaths. As far as record company bosses were concerned there was nowhere else commercially to go with Billy but ballads, mostly penned by someone else, they were proved right too, his ballads were much bigger hits than his early rockers. This goes some way to show that despite being know for ballads at the height of his career, when Billy was off the leash he was still rocking, here's the proof.
Simon Nott
BILLY FURY `WONDEROUS PLACE' (Bear Family)
Billy Fury is on one hand considered up there with the best of the best of the breed of British rockers. His 1960 album 'The Sound Of Fury' thought of by some with a respect usually reserved for recordings that came out of Sun. True, that 10" is the nearest thing to authentic rockabilly that a UK artist recorded back in the day. On the other hand the conversation then tends to be that Billy Fury turned his back on rock n roll to concentrate on ballads, hits and money. The facts, like them or not is that the sort of music Billy was laying down in 1960 was almost half a decade out of date back in the States, their own brand of fabricated teen idols were flooding the charts while the originators of rock n roll were either in the army, out of vogue, hitting the bottle or both. Worst still, dead, Eddie and Buddy had already started looking beyond rock n roll before their untimely deaths. As far as record company bosses were concerned there was nowhere else commercially to go with Billy but ballads, mostly penned by someone else, they were proved right too, his ballads were much bigger hits than his early rockers. This goes some way to show that despite being know for ballads at the height of his career, when Billy was off the leash he was still rocking, here's the proof.
Simon Nott