MetaFilter posts tagged with Blues and rockabilly

Love, Rockabilly Style

andihazelwood — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:03:12 -0800

How to best show your love if you're a rockabilly singer in the 50's? First, claim you might cry. Or die. Or commit suicide. If that doesn't work, you can threaten her vaguely, threaten her with a baseball bat, or even threaten her with death. Oh, you're female? Try the gun/sex metaphor (NSFW images) or just go hog wild and claim you'll blow his head off with nitro. Touched on previously. Can't be bothered with multiple YouTube links? Here are the songs and pertinent lyrics in order: Everly Brothers, Bye Bye Love: "Bye bye, happiness // Hello, loneliness // I think I'm a-gonna cry." Elvis Presley, Heartbreak Hotel: "I get so lonely I could die." Johnny Burnette Trio, Sweet Love on My Mind: "The river looks cold and the bottom is a long way down // If you're really leavin' baby that's where I'm gonna be found // When the mailman comes in the mornin', there's a note upon my door // Bring my mail to the bottom of the river I don't live here no more." Eddie Cochran, Mean When I'm Mad: "I need your lovin' and I need it bad // Watch it now baby if you make me mad... But don't resist me, a-baby // 'Cause I'm mighty, mighty mean when I'm mad." Big Joe Turner, Honey Hush: "Come in here woman, stop all that yackety yack // Don't make me nervous, 'cause I'm holdin' a baseball bat." (It's not rockabilly but it has been covered by several rockabilly bands including Johnny Burnette.) Elvis Presley, Baby Let's Play House: "I'd rather see you dead, little girl // Than to be with another man." Janis Martin, Bang Bang: "Cock your pistol and rooty-toot-toot // Bang-bang-bang, bang-bang-bang (etc)." Wanda Jackson, Fujiyama Mama: "Well you can talk about me, say that I'm mean // I'll blow your head off baby with nitroglycerine."

BPDG

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:06:50 -0800

Baby please don't go, baby please don't go, baby please don't go down to New Orleans, I love you so, baby please don't go.

Rockabilly Rundown

Miko — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 13:24:09 -0800

Whole Lotta Shakin' - a PRI documentary series on the history of rockabilly, hosted by Rosie Flores.

It was raining the day mama picked me up from prison

Miko — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 07:11:16 -0800

So You Think You Hate Country Music? Then listen to this. The roots of American country music may surprise you. In this series of NPR programs, trace the gradual development of real country music through the first half of the 20th century. Learn how a woman's instrument of the late 1800s, the parlor guitar, became the the central symbol of country and rock; see how African-American musical forms like gospel and blues meshed with the development of country and early rock and influenced the traditional forms in turn; listen to German-Mexican hybrids of accordian style; find out why women had so many honky-tonk torch songs to sing in the late 40s. The series contains hours of content (narrative, interviews, music tracks), and a multitude of excellent links for deeper digging.