Snobbin: Beautiful Trash in the Pop Culture Gutter

When I was in high school, my friends and I used to play pool in my basement. We listened to music and imagined ourselves out of that tiny town, although I do not think any of us had the audacity to picture ourselves as pool sharks, hustling townies for their paychecks. More or less, we imagined ourselves fully grown and living a life that did not include lockers and gym class. The Stray Cats' Built For Speed was one of my favorite albums at the time. I played it countless times during our pool sessions. I vividly remember Brian Setzer's cool vocals rising above the sound of breaks, miscues, and arguments over the kitchen and the granny stick. When I hear the hits, "Rock This Town" and "Stray Cat Strut" on classic rock radio, I always picture that damp basement and group of guys; most of us still hang out from time to time, but I think I'm the only one that regularly spins the Stray Cats. However, my favorite tracks from that album, which were on...

From the very first notes of the Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio's scorcher "You're Undecided," all bets are off. The trio makes rockabilly of the highest order -- raw, primitive, and serious. Burnette's deep voice aches with sincerity as the trio lays down a rudimentary groove. The guitar lines are juxtaposed with yelps that would fit nicely on a Hasil Adkins record or an early raspy Link Wray track. All their sides from this era are not just essential, they are mandatory. A far cry from Burnette's later pop singles, the energy that permeates each track by the trio is long due for reconsideration. Elvis Presley knew these boys and even played with them in the early days, but he never recorded anything so pure. Johnny, his brother Dorsey, and Paul Burlison made music thatwas, perhaps, too raw for Sun records, but each single got to the heart of the matter, and sound fresh even today. They made young, shocking, rock 'n' roll of pure, unad...

Many of Gene Vincent's early rock and roll peers turned to country in the 1970's. Jerry Lee Lewis had number one country hits as he mined the deep vein of country singer-songwriters, and rerecorded old hits in different styles. Johnny and Dorsey Burnette, who recorded some of the wildest rockabilly sides for Coral in the fifties as The Johnny Burnette Trio, became pop singers. Others like Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly, who each had already recorded pop and country songs before they died tragic deaths, would have probably also gone in a much more country direction. Gene Vincent's Self-Titled record, which was later reissued as If Only You Could See Me Today, has a slight country sensibility, but manages to effectively capture the zeitgeist of the time period, while showing Vincent in a much more adventurous light. Recorded in 1970, shortly before Vincent's 1971 death, at the Sound Factory in Hollywood with members of the Sir Douglas Quintet, the record is surprisin...