Paul Burlison 1929 - 2003: Don't mourn - harmonize! (From 2003)
Brothers and sisters:
Paul Burlison's accomplishments are perhaps more widely known than his name. Yet we cannot appropriately eulogize him without citing both.
Paul's singular impact as lead guitarist with 1950s Memphis cat music legends Johnny Burnette and the Rock'n'Roll Trio endure among the finest produced during Rockabilly's germinal seasons.
How many covers have we all heard of Trio songs? From Robert Gordon, the Cramps, Rod Stewart, Rockats, and Stray Cats. And so very many others, both celebrated and obscure.
How many rockin' bar bands include at least one Trio selection in their repertoires? "Rock Billy Boogie," "Train Kept-A Rollin'," "Your Baby Blue Eyes," "Honey Hush," "Rock Therapy," "Lonesome Train On a Lonesome Track." The catalog is indeed long.
Friends, that is true Rock'n'Roll significance, And Paul was a major part of it.
His seamless, dead-on merging of the Honky Tonk Country picking and Blues phrases he'd grown up with wasn't so much ahead of its time as emphatically of it, so full of changes and evolving unions as those days were.
A good idea of the respect Paul commanded in his autumn years can be got by considering musicians who joined with him for his 1997 solo CD, Train Kept A-Rollin': Mavis Staples, Fabulous Thunderbird Kim Wilson, David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos, Levon Helm, and so many others.
But as wonderful as the Trio and ensuant solo efforts were, they alone don't convey the full weight of Paul's imprint on modern American music. In ways, his story is Rockabilly's own.
Paul entered the picture not long before the Great Depression, on February 4, 1929, and in Brownsville, Tennessee. Considering the time and place, his was doubtless a hardscrabble upbringing.
Soon after came days of national suffering. Of widespread despair, joblessness, want, and hunger. That dismal condition bonded city and country folk. But surely, already impoverished rural families suffered particularly.
In later interviews, Paul recalled a Burlison family tradition-of-necessity: As soon as a child grew old enough, they joined in the cotton-picking labor available in their region.
In life's lowest moments, we look for and appreciate causes to keep on keeping on. Paul had family and friends. And he also found salvation through the musics he heard throughout his world.
Rockabilly historian Colin Escott chronicled the Rock'n'Roll Trio's history for a 1989 Bear Family Records compilation. "I loved the Blues," Escott quoted Paul as saying. "Cotton patch Blues. That's what I listened to. I'd go all the way across town to hear that. And I'd listen to the Opry every Saturday night, 'til it went off the air."
Following stints as a Golden Gloves boxer (during which time Paul befriended Johnny and Dorsey Burnette) and khakied soldier, he found a place in the Memphis area Country scene. And it was while appearing as a regular picker on KWEM radio that Paul began blending the Hillbilly and Blues idioms he so loved.
During an early 1980s phone interview with me, Paul recalled that his instincts and ability drew the notice of a fellow KWEM performer -- local bluesman Chester Arthur Burnett, aka Howlin' Wolf.
The KWEM Country show on which Paul played was taped about an hour before Wolf's Blues program. And it wasn't long before the two jammed together on Wolf's show. Sadly, no tapes documenting the historic sessions survive.
I interviewed Paul for a Goldmine piece, published in January, 2000. Rockabilly history became actual to me in a manner I hadn't experienced before. (During our talks, he did not mention claims that guitarists other than himself appeared on certain Trio recordings. So we will not consider them, here.)
Paul recalled of the KWEM radio sessions that, such was the odious racial custom of that day, Wolf could not credit him by name on the air.
Nor was that the only practical manifestation of racism that made impossible open musical union. Paul recounted to me that public performance together just was not feasible. Wolf was forced to enter Country bars' rear doors to hear Paul play. And Paul was likewise limited, when going to hear Wolf in Blues club settings.
It was but a short time after this that Paul allied forces with the Burlisons. And the rest is Rockabilly history.
As was observed earlier, Paul's story mirrors Rockabilly's own. I'll expand on that.
1950s America was marred by prejudices and racial divisions contrary to its ideals. Ones whose detestable effects impeded realization of noble national potential.
As a young Memphis musician, Paul knew that first hand. But such is the humanity-binding nature of art, creative souls connect despite arbitrary social dictates. Witness Paul's collaborative work with Wolf, their mutual appreciation of each others' talents, and Rockabilly's exultant, cannot-be-denied mixing of musical and cultural experiences.
Opprobrious 1950s hectors who decried emergent Rock'n'Roll as threatening to established mores were entirely correct -- and ours is a far better culture for the bold reshaping. Rock'n'Roll represented shoe-movement overthrow of earlier generations' cramped segregationism. Its world-toppling impact was indeed a refreshing and positive one.
Do not hang your heads in sorrow, then at brother Paul's passing. Be instead joyful! STRIKE UP THE BAND!
PAUL BURLISON stood in the center of that glorious 1950s upheaval and stoked it higher with electrifying soloing that JOINED! The music he created helped bring about a new and exciting American society!
No one who lived through that golden Rock'n'Roll era, or reaped its joyful reward, was unmoved by it.
The good news -- the best possible news -- is that we haven't lost Paul, or any original not standing among us, today. They live, still, as near as any record machine. And it is testament to their lasting vitality that so many who've learned lessons they taught are today carrying on in the spirit first forged through sweat, trials, and joys in unspectacular, uncelebrated surroundings.
SO, BREAK OUT THAT OLD VINYL! CRANK THE VOLUME! NO ONE EVER REALLY LEAVES THE BUILDING! REJOICE THAT WE KNEW PAUL'S VOICE, AND THAT IT ECHOES, STILL!
And in honor of his example, PICK UP A GUITAR!
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