Any homo erectus from Earth and the surrounding planetoids appreciates Carl Perkins as a man whose musicality bordered on genius. The agrarian South of the United States remained impoverished even after the Depression, the cotton fields of Tennessee did not see combines, descendants of black slaves and white barefoot people worked on the land, who had more than a dollar to avoid going to work camps, but less than two to buy new shoes for children. The bank pocketed the surpluses. Bosota thought she was incredibly lucky. The Perkins family was one of those who, among other lucky people, found themselves outside the brackets of Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath,” they had shoe-mending wire, fishhook wire, and homemade string wire. Dad made Carl a simple guitar out of a cigar box and a broken broom.
Negro holler songs helped to spiritually detach oneself from picking cotton boxes under the heat of the afternoon sun, the sunset coolness was met with Negro blues, the arrival of the stars was accompanied by an exquisite nocturne of crickets. On other days, the Perkins brothers managed to escape to take a nap at school and go fishing after school. On Saturday nights, the entire brood would listen to the radio, listening to country music from Nashville. Carl’s heroes were Bill Monroe, the inventor of the bluegrass style, and Roy Ekaff, whose “The Wabash Cannonball” he was among the first to learn. One day, Daddy Buck bailed out a neighbor for a dead rat and an alabaster ball, a pretty battered guitar signed by Gene Autry himself, and things went briskly. Having no funds to purchase a new set of strings, the young neophyte tied the torn strings in knots, the knots cut his fingers when changing chords, so he learned how to make bands – suspending strings not along, but across the neck.
In the second half of the 1940s, Carl recruited his brother Jay on the second guitar, so that in the evenings after hard shifts he could please the ears of the same day laborers who filled themselves with self-pity and righteous anger in cheap eateries. Often the gatherings ended with bottles of piggy and heavy boots in the area of butchery. The Perkins brothers did not shy away from the scuffles, forcing them to respect themselves and the inviolability of their instruments. Having earned a double bass with screams and slaps, the elders handed it to Brother Clayton. Soon, the Perkins Brothers became famous all over Jackson, Tennessee, and one of the local radio stations gave them a fifteen-minute morning broadcast with funding from the company “Mama’s Best Flour.”
In 1953, Karl married Walda Krider and recruited V. S. Holland, known by the nickname Fluke, into the band for the role of drummer. Walda had no experience in marriage, Fluke had no experience in making music, but both had a great sense of rhythm. After recording demo versions of his repertoire on a rented reel-to-reel tape recorder, Carl sent them to several major studios, incorrectly specifying the addresses (a rare school visit affected), of course, there were no answers. But in 1954, the radio vibrated with Elvis Presley‘s version of Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon Of Kentucky.” In the original waltz, Carl had been playing it for a long time at the same tempo as Elvis. Deciding that Sun Records understood something about music, Perkins grabbed his guitar and brothers under his arm and went to Memphis.
The Sun period is known even to the lazy, and the fact that Carl Perkins, beloved by most truly significant musicians, turned out to be absolutely not in demand by the public (except for the brief hype around “Blue Suede Shoes” in 1956) is a phenomenon that requires a separate, not at all entertaining study. Therefore, here and now we turn to Karl’s last lifetime album, which vividly depicts both the talent of the musician and the author, and the love of colleagues from different generations, and the immense humanity that makes its way through the fervent rhythm. Go, cat, go!
02 One More Shot
03 Rockabilly Music
04 Distance Makes No Difference With Love
05 Give Me Back My Job
06 Blue Suede Shoes
07 Quarter Horse
08 Don’t Stop The Music
09 Matchbox
10 Go Cat Go
11 Two Old Army Pals
12 Honey Don’t
13 Wild Texas Wind
14 Restless
15 A Mile Out Of Memphis
16 My Old Friend
17 Blue Suede Shoes
Listen online or download Carl Perkins – Go Cat Go (1996) (mp3, 63 MB)
All Mama’s Children was co-written by Perkins and Johnny Cash. Here Carl was accompanied by John Fogerty, the two of them bark like two cracked Jericho pipes, equally cheerful and with a barely noticeable taste of “swamp rock”. All mom’s kids are dancing like they’re possessed. There’s a certain Lee Rocker on the double bass.
One More Shot means “one more shot (and I’ll come love you)”. Tom Petty accompanied Johnny Cash on the album Unchained/American II in 1996 with his band The Heartbreakers. Both there and there, Petty and his band had excellent rockabilly.
Rockabilly Music has a mystical appeal. Paul Simon, the engine of the legendary duo Simon & Garfunkel, is a co-author here, adding his voice to the feline grace a la the Everly brothers.
Distance Makes No Difference With Love, framed by the slide guitar and backing vocals of George Harrison, Carl Perkins’ main fan in The Beatles, has acquired, if not Beatle-like, then definitely certain Harrison features. It’s a really touching song.
Give Me Back My Job is a rock’n’roll working man. It is loaded with guitars from such diverse artists as Jesse Johnson, Dave Sharp and Charlie Daniels. The vocals feature Petty, Cash, Perkins, Willie Nelson and Bono howling to the giants. The author of the song, Jim Garland, who was born in Kentucky in 1905, fell into a coal mine while still in diapers inherited from his Scottish great-grandfather, participated in the “Harlan County War” when the miners dared to pull Uncle Sam by his gray-haired Mephistopheles, later became a cult folk singer. “I don’t need your millions, mister.”
Blue Suede Shoes performed by Jimi Hendrix is propped against the base material for a well-known purpose, however, it looks like a bull on a cowboy, and obeys like a worn saddle under the onslaught of a worried skunk. A foreign element.
Quarter Horse is a nostalgia for childhood, when sheriffs were more noble and horses were more skillful.
Don’t Stop The Music was written by Perkins’ sons and recorded with their direct participation. An original move for Carl is to duplicate the vocal refrain with a guitar phrase. Lee Rocker is back on the double bass, and Paul Simon is on percussion, which, by the way, is absolutely in its place.
Matchbox is preceded by memories of the country-blues style of playing, which the young Carl was taught by an old black man. Kurguz’s version itself is highlighted by the ridiculous keyboard playing. Willie Nelson is still out there somewhere, but he doesn’t make the weather.
Go Cat Go is charming in its spontaneity. Either hillbilly or rockabilly. Greg Perkins on bass, Stan Perkins on drums, Carl Perkins on guitar. And you don’t need anyone else.
Two Old Army Pals was performed with Johnny Cash. One of the best duets in the history of country music. It should sound in every home, car, refrigerator. And in the damn smartphone too.
Honey Don’t, out of long-standing habit, was sung by Ringo Starr. Everything is as usual, only the recording is live.
Wild Texas Wind is a sumptuous country ballad. Willie Nelson is not making the weather again, because the weather here is a woman, like the Texas wind.
Restless is a slightly chaotic, but nevertheless dashing version of the 1968 hit, recorded at various times by both George Thorogood and Emmylou Harris. Accompanied again by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers.
A Mile Out Of Memphis is reminiscent of family gatherings: there are not enough younger Perkins, even Paul Simon brought his son Harper on lead guitar. And the thing is good, but no more.
My Old Friend is wonderful, especially thanks to the string section led by George Martin. Paul McCartney holds back all the way, carefully singing along, only at the very end giving out a “rooster” in the spirit of crazy Michael Jackson. Apparently, the song was recorded while working on Paul’s album “Tug Of War” in 1981. That record, as you know, included another joint song, “Get It”.
Blue Suede Shoes performed by John Lennon, in the context of the participation of the rest of the Beatles, is undoubtedly much more appropriate than the lysergic funk of Hendrix, but it is not necessary at all.
“Go Cat Go!” is an excellent rockabilly album by one of the greatest and most original rockabilly artists. If you remove a couple of splinters stuck by the blissful producers. Thanks for the music, Carl!
