Good Old Rock N' Roll

Ever since I re-discovered my childhood song, Walk The Line, by Johnny Cash, I realised that the roots of my music taste was based early Rock N’ Roll, Rockabilly and Country. Therefore I started to dig for the roots and re-discover them.

I remember growing up watching the tv sitcom, Happy Days, in the 70s. I always thought the character of Fonzie played by Henry Winkler was cool. When watching the sitcom, I was indirectly exposed to Rock N’ Roll especially “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley & His Comets. The Rock N’ Roll genre eventually grew on me slowly as I discovered Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Wanda Jackson, Buddy Holly, The Beatles, etc, over the period of about 20 years in my life.

At the same time, I heard Country, Rockabilly and Rock N’ Roll stuff from my dad’s or sister’s vinyl records and cassettes when I was a kid. The genre of Country, Rock N’ Roll and Rockabilly often overlap one another and a lot of singers hopped around those genres. The singers I remember listening from my family’s music collection was Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Connie Francis, Wanda Jackson, The Beatles, The Shadows, etc. Some time in the 80s, I discovered Patsy Cline and Brenda Lee on my own. “Crazy” by Patsy Cline and “Rock Around The Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee caught my attention. I believe I heard them in movies initially. What makes these 2 singers and these 2 songs special were the melody and their excellent female vocal.

I believe Wanda Jackson is almost forgotten in today’s music industry. I remember asking my sister about Wanda Jackson when I was about 10 years old about Wanda’s voice. I thought those songs were sung by a kid. Yes, I do agree that Wanda Jackson has a very unique voice that makes her sounds wild and rebellious. Honestly, I had never seen any photo of Wanda Jackson before yesterday. I used to imagine her as a black lady that dressed up in black leather jacket like Joan Jett. Yesterday, I was shock to find out that she was beyond my imagination based on the following photo and she was not wild at all:



Buddy Holly has been an inspiration to a lot of artiste today especially alternative music. He was another rocker that did not look like a rocker. He looked like a nerd with the big old fashion spectacles. I believe a lot of nerd punks today have been greatly influenced by him – making rockers look cool in nerdy spectacles. His hiccup style of vocal is distinctively unique. Today, any singer who sings using this method will automatically be associated to the great Buddy Holly by default. Unlike Wanda Jackson, Buddy did not live very long. It’s a pity that he passed away in a plane crash at such an early age together with the other 2 legends, Richie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson.