Peggy Sugarhill – Rockabilly Music Is Bad Bad Bad (2010)

And this story happened not so long ago and it started with a simple request. “Hey, dude, can you listen to this song? I can’t make out the words in the second verse.” Yes, of course I can listen to the song. Oh, shit, now I’m going to have to listen to an entire album. Oh, shit, now I’m going to have to write an article about him. Pancake… What exactly attracted me to this song? I won’t hide it: female vocals. For some reason, there are very few girls at the microphone on the rock and roll scene – even in rap they are much easier to find, and rap is often considered the standard of sexist music. So I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Peggy Sugahill has an entire album – and a very good album indeed. I think as many people as possible should find out about him.

So, Comrade Sugarchill is from Cologne, aka Colon, in Germany. Of course, it’s not as much of a classic rock and roll mecca as in Sweden or Norway, but the Germans gave us at least such a powerful band as Boppin’ B, so Peggy had someone to look up to. Rockabilly Music Is Bad Bad Bad is her debut album, one of only two at the moment. There are eleven tracks on the disc, seven of which are covers.

The album opens with the track Rockabilly Music Is Bad, one of Peggy’s own tracks. From the first seconds, you can hear the canonical sounds of the double bass and appreciate Sugarman’s vocal abilities – they are definitely on the level. She plays with her voice and takes a variety of notes, and the band uses backing vocals to carefully accentuate the right moments. All of this applies to the entire album, so Rockabilly Music Is Bad sets the tone for the entire record and is also one of the best and most comprehensive tracks on the disc.

The second song is Little Richard’s famous Lucille. It’s a good cover, I especially liked the moment in the second minute, where only the double bass and the drum are playing. But the next song, She Don’t Love You, is much more interesting. As far as I understand, this is a response to Lucille. The refrain that says, “Oh! Ooh! She don’t love you anymore! Oh! Ooh! I say wop-bop-a-loo-bop, you never gonna get her! Oh! Ooh! I see you walkin’ out the door! Oh! Ooh! You never gonna get her back!” Yes, maybe I’m wrong, but wop-bop-a-loo-bop and the location is right after Lucille… In general, even if She Doesn’t Love You and didn’t think about how the answer song sounds, it still sounds that way, and I like it. I love it when the story continues, especially decades later.

The next track is Sticks And Stones. Although it was made by the famous Ray Charles, I like the Jerry Lee Lewis version the most, which featured such an infinitely unusual instrument for rockabilly as a synthesizer. Sugahill didn’t interrupt Lewis’ version in terms of sound, although the guitarist gives out a great solo, but Peggy can quite compete with the Killer in terms of incendiary power.

Next comes a cover of the legendary track Money Honey, which was once sung by Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and half a dozen other legendary names. Well, here’s another performance for you. It doesn’t stand out in any special way – in my opinion, it’s the most nondescript track on the album. Nevertheless, everything is done at the same solid average level and listens easily and pleasantly. Sugahill is not a legend yet, but who knows.

Gisele is the third track written by Peggy on the album. It’s one of my favorite tracks on the album, of course, mostly because of the lyrics. The fact is that Gisele concerns such an extremely unpopular topic for songs of any genre as friendship. The words are about breaking up with your best friend, and… I don’t know. There’s something about this song that… it will get into the right places of my mind, carefully touching my subjective principles and views of the world. Plus, there are good verses with a good sound, in which the backing vocals of the band stand out, carefully accentuating the most necessary moments… Anyway, this is my song, and it’s hard for me to criticize it. We drove on.

Next up is That’s Alright (Mama) – as expected, it was on this track that I distinctly heard an acoustic guitar, which was listed among the instruments on the album. I still didn’t understand if the acoustics were somewhere else. Purely in theory, it should have been, since all the other instruments used in only one track are marked accordingly with the exact number of the song in which they are used.

Like, for example, an organ. It was written that he would be in I Won’t Stand In Your Way – and he is here. However, there is little of it, and it hides very carefully behind Peggy’s voice, so you will have to try to hear it. But, overall, it turned out to be a very decent cover. Plus, it’s the only slow track on the album.

Breakaway is perhaps the most classic-sounding track on the album. Probably because of the abundance of vocal music. And I’m not sure how much of a contribution these factors have made, but in sum, Breakaway is one of the best tracks on this record in my opinion.

The penultimate song is a cover of Switchblade 327. At one time, Brian Setzer, without undue modesty, called this particular track his favorite car song. Personally, I was very interested to hear how this song with female vocals would sound – well, I was quite satisfied. Although if I were Peggy, I would still replace ‘he’ with ‘she’ in the text, but this is my only complaint.

And the album closes with the last, fourth track by Sugahill – pure country called Eldorado Lost. To be honest, it feels like this song shouldn’t be here. No, it’s not that I don’t like her, it’s just that she’s very much out of the picture. I think I should have put a ‘bonus track’ note on the cover, or something like that.

But, in general, we have a very neat, well-folded album with three out of five stars, which, according to my personal star meter, corresponds to the rating of “I liked it, I’m taking it to the collection.” However, Rockabilly Music Is Bad Bad Bad stands out strongly due to the already mentioned rarity of female vocals in the field of rock’n’roll. On the other hand, even if we discard these nuances, I can still note three or four tracks that are clearly out of the overall three-star position by several steps higher. What does this mean? And that means I went to listen to Peggy Sugahill’s second album.

1. Rockabilly Music Is Bad
2. Lucille
3. She Don’t Love You
4. Sticks And Stones
5. Money Honey
6. Gisele
7. That’s Alright (Mama)
8. I Won’t Stand In Your Way
9. Breakaway
10. Switchblade 327
11. Eldorado Lost