Dorsey Burnette
The Rockabilly Years: The Singles & Albums Collection 1955 - 1962
(Acrobat Music)
As one-third of Johnny Burnette and the Rock'n'Roll Trio, Dorsey was a powerhouse. His doghouse negotiations lent rock-ribbed substance to the combo's abandon, which also featured Johnny's acoustic flailings and grained-throat emotings as well as Paul Burlison's influential Telecaster sparks.
Logically, then, much of the first disc offers smoldering Trio waxings. But once Dorsey had departed the group and musical fashions changed -- wildcat Rockabilly was replaced by smooth, commodified sounds that featured satiny backing choruses and sterile strings -- many of his efforts seemed placid.
(Identical defanging was witnessed in the late 1970s and 1980s. Grassroots-generated Punk -- a surly rejection of corporate-processed Rock product in which interminable opuses included meandering guitar noodling and boring drum solos -- was reinvented by major record companies as fun-for-the-whole-family New Wave.)
To be sure, Dorsey was possessed of a full and booming voice that commanded center spotlight on even listless material. And there certainly are remarkable moments among his post-Trio endeavors. One hears Country Music evolution, and sometimes quite clever songcraft.
Burnette completists who don't already harbor these sides will pursue purchase. But those interested in Rockabilly's gestational period, when primitive Hillbilly and uptempo Blues found one another on nighttime stages and tore the roof off the joint, are advised to concentrate attentions on the Trio.
Recommended, disc one: "You're Undecided," "Go Mule Go," "Tear It Up," "Midnight Train," "Oh Baby Babe," "Train Kept A-Rollin'," "Honey Hush," "Let's Fall In Love," "Lonesome Train (On a Lonesome Track)," "I Just Found Out," "At a Distance," "Eager Beaver Baby," "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee," "Rock Billy Boogie," "Til the Law Says Stop," "Misery," "Way In the Middle Of the Night," "Your Love," "Blues Stay Away From Me," "House With a Tin Roof Top," "Circle Rock"
Recommended, disc two: "(There Was a) Tall Oak Tree," "Hey Little One," "This Hotel," "Hard Rock Mine," "Great Shakin' Fever," "That's Me Without You," "Rainin' In My Heart," "Back To Nature," "The Boys Kept Hangin' Around," "Hard Working Man," "That Lucky Old Sun," "I Got the Sun In the Morning," "Don't Let Go"
Videos: "Go Mule Go," "I Got the Sun In the Morning"
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