Joe Clay, "Duck Tail" c/w "Sixteen Chicks," Vik 4X-9211 (rel. 5/1956)
In the spring of 1956, the shock of the new, delivered by rock 'n' roll, ended a decade of dull stasis for popular music in America. The main difference of a 1946 pop record and one from '56 was improved recording quality. Otherwise, the music, performance styles and arrangements were stuck in place. New elements (modern jazz, the mambo, calypso) might flavor the material, but the output remained the same: professional, smooth, pleasing-but-bland middle-of-the-road stuff aimed at an entire social group, from toddlers to elders.
Outside this white mainstream, music exploded post-war: jazz shed its old-school ways and proceeded without caution into the great unknown. Rhythm and blues shed its last vestiges of modern jazz influence and hit harder than it had since the heyday of the 1920s; country music introduced Latin rhythms and (gasp!) drums. Country's most extreme mutation was rockabilly, a volatile fusion of country, bluegrass and r&b that, performed, leaned its shoulder into its singers' rural roots. No Frankie Laine or Four Lads smoothness; these were raw, regional and youthful voices--often teenagers who sang for their peer group.
Teenagers came into their own as a social class, with their own culture, language and attitudes. They were no longer adults-in-training, with bow ties and crisp dresses; they chose a path away from the social templates that beckoned them. America was booming and the future looked bright (except for atomic warfare; y'know, armageddon). If kids wanted to dress like lunatics and speak nonsense, what was the harm? They'd go to college, shed these odd ways and turn into replicas of their parents--house, car, kids, careers.
The music industry, at first defensive and dismissive of this new youth-fueled music, changed course when sales enriched the major labels. The lynchpin was RCA-Victor's acquisition of Elvis Presley in the fall of 1955. Elvis was an earth-shaking cultural sensation in 1956 and his sound became what every record label, wee or vast, craved for their catalog.
With its Nashville studios, RCA was able to get more regional rockabilly talent to the public. They also licensed outlier material, including today's single--the dynamic debut of Joe Clay. This single is one of the rockabilly holy grails, and a record I never thought I'd have in my collection. Last Saturday, a beautiful copy of the single's Hollywood pressing was mine for five dollars. I'm still a bit dazed by this turn of events, but happy to share this incredible slice of wild music with you.
RCA sent staff producer Herman Diaz to Houston, Texas, where he cut four sides with Joe Clay, stage name of Claiborne Joseph Cheramie, a Louisiana-born musician who was just 18 when he made this record on April 25, 1956. Within two weeks, the single, issued on the company's Vik imprint, was out in the world. Both songs were composed by local talent--Rudy Grayzell, who would record for Sun Records, and Link Davis, who had a competing single of the B-side, "Sixteen Chicks," on Starday Records.
National stardom wasn't in the cards for young Clay; his manager insisted he remain in the Louisiana/Texas area. Aside from an appearance on Ed Sullivan's Sunday night variety show, where he performed a recent hit by The Platters, "Only You," and a second studio session at RCA's New York facility, Clay was stuck in bayou country. Why his manager felt this was vital for his career isn't known; it was a bad move, as Clay had a boyish charm that teens would have picked up on--had they known he existed.
"Duck Tail", by Rudy Grayzell, celebrates the otherness of rockabilly culture. It's a cousin to Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes." This boppin' blues, with great guitar by Hal Harris and rudimentary-but-effective drumming, throws down a gauntlet to squares who might mock his hip hairstyle or attire.
Any rockabilly record that has two guitar solos is a gift from the heaven, and "Duck Tail" fulfills that golden moment. Clay's stuttering vocal, informed with a playful tease, is ratified by punchy studio reverb, which is used with care, unlike many rockabilly sides that swim in the effect.
As tight and tough as any Sun Records rockabilly, "Duck Tail" was a potential hit that bad management and an eager but clueless record label threw into the abyss. Those teens who heard it no doubt flipped, but the majority of its intended audience didn't know it was in the stores. Victor couldn't help shooting its own foot over and over during the first wave of rock 'n' roll. They didn't need to worry: with Elvis in their pocket they ruled the roost.
One suspects they signed so many other early rockers to keep them out of circulation. Their contracts were hard to wriggle out of and they didn't care if the records failed. All this prevented rival record companies from out-Elvising them with some beguiling newcomer. They seem, in hindsight, the major enemy of rock 'n' roll.
"Sixteen Chicks," by Link Davis and Wayne Walker, is better yet. This sinister-sounding piece is one of the great rockabilly records. Few capture the deep feeling of Elvis' Sun Records sides with such accuracy. The torrid, menacing crawl, similar to Elvis' "Baby, Let's Play House," couldn't be bettered, with the rhythm section (which may include co-composer Davis on second guitar) is hard-edged, tense and full of atmosphere.
No description can do justice to this superb recording, so give it a go. You'll be glad you did!
Joe Clay's second session, with ace guitarist Mickey Baker and other NYC studio denizens, yielded a fine follow-up single, "Cracker Jack" c/w "Get On the Right Track." RCA again did nothing to support this single, which followed its predecessor into the void. Clay befriended Elvis when he sat in for drummer D. J. Fontana at a live performance in 1955. Clay was invited to later Presley sessions and might have gone far, were it not for his restrictive manager. The young man, for reasons unknown, wasn't willing to break away from this repressive superior--just as Presley couldn't part ways with his nefarious Svengali, "Col." Tom Parker. Polite Southern boys are often their own worst enemies.
Clay drove a school bus in metro New Orleans and didn't record again until 1962, when he issued some local sides as Russ Wayne for the small Samter imprint. These made-in-NOLA sides are a mix of swamp pop and country: a far cry from the 1956 material.
Bear Family Records issued the 11 known RCA-Victor sides on a 1986 LP named after the A-side of today's platter. In America, the Country Music Foundation did the same as part of a 2-LP compilation, Get Hot Or Go Home: Vintage RCA Rockabilly '56-'59, which also features tracks by Ric Cartey, Roy Orbison and other artists affilitated with RCA-Victor in the rock 'n' roll era. This ignited interest in the Louisiana guy, now in his 50s. He spent the remainder of his life celebrated by international rockabilly fans and got back into the studio several times, with a 2005 album of all-new material, The Legend is Now. He passed on in 2016 at age 78,
Tomorrow: more rockabilly via one-record-wonder David Orrell in another regional recording picked up by a big-city label and issued in early 1958 to no acclaim.
Another one of those recordings with a sad story–the "Corporation" didn't give a damn about their artist. These are two cool songs: "Duck Tail" is too on the nose a copy catted beat from "Blue Suede Shoes" (including the iconic 'Go Cat Go') but "Sixteen Chicks" feels new and different and could have been a massive hit.
ReplyDeleteNow I wanna mess with some Duck Tails, but cannot find any around these days. ;-P WhooHoo - Sixteen Chix Rox!
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