I've heard a million people say what is and isn't Rockabilly and where it did and didn't start, I've met windbags who said they invented it like it was velcro or something, I know tons of guys who cut records now called Rockabilly who didn't hear the term until 1989. While electric guitar isn't a must, Hank and Cash have never been in the equation from anyone I've talked to or anything I have read. Usually the feeling that a greater influx of Blues is required, but usually not enough to, you know, look into it enough to buy a Howlin' Wolf record. A big thing in Europe and with some record geeks is that there must be one guitar, one bass, one vocalist, no drum, and that only the Burnettes, Warren Smith, and Charlie Feathers would qualify. The purists of that stripe even discount Carl Perkins, only because one of his brothers played drums, even as just a timekeeper. Those who embrace that theory usually feel that the whole thing is extinct and aren't the kind of people who leave the house much, anyway, so you don't get to debate OR argue with those squares too often.

More often, the term is expanded to include Sun Records, Meteor Records, and a few others from that bunch. It's been stretched to include more Northern guys like Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent, 2 of my most favorite. Gene especially is a stretch; by the time his Blue Caps reached Full Force there were 6 or 7 of them, including 2 backup singers, a sax, and an electric bass. Today if an electric bass comes out at a Rockabilly show people hit the door like Great White took the stage. Jerry Lee Lewis is considered Rockabilly. As I said, still nobody brings up Chuck Berry.

The only record of the word "Rockabilly" coming up in the actual period usually comes as more a descriptive phrase than as a genre. There's only 2 examples I can think of off hand: Johnny Burnette's "Rockabilly Boogie" which details a party at a juke joint, and a bit of Gene Vincent promotional material that referred to him as "The RockBilly Man." The theory is that it was obscure and rarely used at the time but has now become popular with the people obsessed with it as it is very pre-1960. I can't tell you how many times I've read or heard "Back then, we just called it Rock'n'Roll." Alot of the guys who cut those records hated them, released them under aliases, didn't want to do them. George Jones to this day denies that he was Thumper Jones, performer of "Oak Tree Rock."

So I said all that to say this; Throw the genre rulebook out the fucking window. Hair splitting is for nobody, and if the guys at Sun had been so concerned with what constituted what and what they were gonna name what, they sure wouldn't have come up with anything.

No Psychobilly tune I've ever heard matches the Burnettes stuff, or Link Wray, it usually strikes me as just "Argh, I'm a monster!" Punk Rock tantrum meets the more Real Deal. That's not to say I don't like any of it, there was a Three Bad Jacks show I was at that ended in a mini-riot that was the Rock'n'Roll Dream. Whatever gets you off, I just wish that everybody with a Horton Heat album would then buy a Burnette album. It would be like watching the Untouchables and then watching Goodfellas, watching Titanic and then watching Citizen Kane. Matt will probably actually look into it, he's that kinda guy, I think.

There's quite a few things that have come from the last 50 or so years that maintain the tradition but add something new. The Blasters, Big Sandy, High Noon, Restless, to name a few. The ones that I liked the best also happened to be the most divisive to the scene, like the "progressive" Atomics who commited the ultimate sin of making songs longer than 3 minutes. I got mad at the scene for a couple years for ignoring them until they died on the vine, for refusing to acknowledge Soul and Blues, for talking shit cuz I shaved my Pompadour. The scene is full of re-enactors who consider themselves removed from society; the joke is all you non-Rockabilly people are "civilians." I made a bunch of good friends from all over the country thanks to a love of the junk, but I didn't make any new friends in that world for awhile. I came back around, though, much like with politics you gotta accept certain things that might not sit well with you. (The analogy just slapped you in the mouth in case you missed it all along) As I've always lived in another town my approach has been unique, anyway. One day I'll make a documentry about the scene, I'm the only one who could do it because I'm trusted by those people but still the kinda cat who's gonna talk to you guys and buy Outkast CDs and shit. It would be a big hit movie so long as I could make it interesting to someone who whould never consider putting pomade on their dome, which I'm not certain I could do.

here lately I've aligned myself with a guy called MC Bootyslappa (www.bootyslappa.com) who is going to either make a zillion dollars or be murdered by the Rockabilly Puritan Extremist Mafia.

As for politics, iy'll happen with or without us, but I think the Democratic Party is going to be "closed for repairs" until the midterm in 2006, at which time maybe they'll be talking something I wanna hear. Wether or not they can get me and still keep you, however, might be a different story. Wouldn't it be irobic if I find myself voting for Democratic Nominee John McCain (You know he just can't fucking wait to switch over) while you vote for Ian McKay or somebody based on principle, and all the votes go approximately as they did tuesday. All I can tell ya for sure is, I've voted for the winner every time I've voted for president, and I've voted in 3 elections.

Rocko,
you probably weren't talking about me, and you'd probably hate me (if you cared to) since I just went to a Social D show in Chicago and had an amazing time, and admire Ness, but, I said all that to ramble on to this:
I'm no partisan. I hate the system, Dems or Reps. Bah piss on it.

Well hell, Happy Birthday Matt!!! 31's been treating me pretty alright. I hope it does right by you too.

If you're interested, for forum code, this ain't too bad:
http://www.phpbb.com/

likewise, as i said, i generally consider myself an independent. i think non-partisanism is a stretch, because, quite frankly, Democrats' social and economic polices tend to sync up with my own personal thoughts about how the world should work more often than the other sides' do. so, i'll go to a Democrats show because i enjoy the music they're playing, not because i think they're necessarily the best in their genre.
if a green, libertarian, or reformer happens to say something i agree with, then by all means, i'll throw my hat on that hook for a while, long enough to get the thought out there and spreading. i happen to agree with conservatives/pro-lifers about the partial-birth abortion thing. so, i'll promote that view because the *facts* support it.

besides, i was a Nader supporter in 2000, and the only reason i wasn't this time was because i knew he couldn't win, and we *needed* someone who could win. so, unfortunately, the baby got thrown out with the bathwater. i try to put my voice where it'll do the most good, in 2000 i felt that was in the third party camp, this time it was with the Dems.

so, what the future holds for my political affiliations, i don't know. what i do know is that my values, hopes, and goals are all still intact, and it is those things that i will be exclusively promoting until the next time we have to try to steer this nation back onto the right path.

what i also know, is that i need to investigate a way to do threaded comments. i don't know though, the chaotic back & forth could be considered part of the charm.

Now, I look at RHH and others as more of a "psychobilly" (just another division, I know) because of their straightforward use of hard rock/metal tactics and riffs.

Johnny Cash is rockabilly. The Meteors, RHH- they are physchobilly. There is a definate difference. Just listen! It's hard to group the two (and others like them) into the same genre. It just wouldn't seem right, there is a world of difference between the styles.

But there is enough similarity that the direct influence of rockabilly on the newer psychobilly is completely obvious. It's an evolution.

I like them both. I REALLY like them both. I admire the creativity of the newer artists to electrify the older style of music: to take tradition, and make it their own.

I could teach a 6 month course on it, but I'll keep it brief: The term "Rockabilly" is used by the modern preactitioners instead of "Rock'n'Roll" like it was called back in the motherfuckin' day because those Johnnys and Betties don't want you to think they're talking about anything called Rock'n'Roll since 1960. Which I'm not really cool with, since alotta hot shit came out since 1960, but you can't go to a chinese restraunt and tell them they gotta eat hot dogs. That scene still has love for me and it's reciprocated.

Anyway, the term "Rock'n'Roll" came up in Blues songs, again back in the motherfuckin' day, and since DJ Alan Freed (the reason the heart of Rock'n'Roll is in Cleveland) had love and money wrapped up in the music, and knew ma and pa honky would fudge their pants if he called Rhythm and Blues by that moniker, he started saying "Rock'n'Roll". Shades of Compassionate Conservatism.

Anyway, "Rockabilly" as a word is just one more step towards trying to seperate the Chocolate from the Peanut Butter, which is pretty lame…Not just to play down Blues, but to play down flat out Black. Gene Vincent can be Rocckabilly but Chuck Berry can't, so it's all flawed out the ass. The whole concept id fucked.

So, I said that to say this; genre classifications aside, Horton Heat is to Johnny Burnette as Blink 182 is to the Clash.

Another political parallel, the real reason I'm annoyed at the Rev when he's just a harmless parlor act is that so many people get snowed by his shit, but think they're in the know. I saw 5 times as many Greasers at that show than at the good shit on the rare occasion the good shit in that vein rolls through the 'Ville. And that's what really bugs me, although I guess it shouldn't. I think you know where I'm going with that.

Arguing and debating are different, aren't they? Debating has a certain calmness to it, a certain artfulness. Dennis Miller, Bill Maher, Dick Morris, Dick Cheney, George Will, these are debators. Rush Limbaugh, Michael Moore, Alan Keyes, Ann Coulter, these are arguers. Bomb throwers, users of Straw Man Arguements, smear tactics. Bayonets! O'reilley switch-hits.

Me, I probably blur the lines without meaning to, ego vs. ego can even turn into id vs. id. The Devil pops up on one shoulder, the Angel on the other…

I hope one day you dudes get into non-partisanism. It's like you get to ride up in a go kart at the party, hose everybody down with a super soaker, get back in the cart and shag ass. That nervous fight of flight feeling you get when somebody knocks who you voted for goes away forever once you decide you don't love'em or hate'em, you just vote. It's a tao all it's own. Sweet Cheeba.

Thus, I hate the ACLU.