2005年 09月 14日 水曜日 13:58

http://image.com.com/mp3/images/artist/pic200/drp100/p133/p13315cnb66.jpg

there are only like 450 people on last who have ever listened to robert gordon? that's totally the most depressing shame i've run across yet.

robert gordon is a uniquely talented rockabilly performer… a rockabilly god for rockabilly purists and a great rock'n'roll entertainer for people who aren't nutz about rockabilly.

according to web biographies, he was in NYC punk band tuff darts before teaming up with
link wray (and later chris spedding), befriending and performing with (and songs given by) marshall crenshaw and Bruce Springsteen and making a pile of first rate records - some boasting appearances by the awesome jordanaires.

the following is excerpted from allmusic.

In 1976, Gordon started singing again, and this time he decided to push in the direction that he wanted, toward the rockabilly sounds that he loved. He soon hooked up with Private Stock Records and producer Richard Gottehrer, the ex-member of the Strangeloves ("I Want Candy"), and the two of them got Gordon working with guitarist Link Wray, a rock & roll veteran from the 1950s.

The two discovered that they got on well. Gordon wasn't aping rockabilly music – rather, he was a true believer, approaching it as the authentic music of rebellion. He lived it and breathed it in his performances, and the result was a pair of albums, Robert Gordon With Link Wray and Fresh Fish Special, that almost succeeded in putting rockabilly music back in the mainstream rock vocabulary for the first time since 1956.

Gordon's credibility was enhanced by the presence of Bruce Springsteen – then near the peak of his superstar status – at one New York gig, jamming with the band, and his contribution of a song called "Fire" to the second Gordon/Wray album only added to the mystique of the man and the band. The presence on the same album of the Jordanaires, the gospel trio best remembered as the back-up singers of many of Elvis' RCA recordings, seemed to pull several strands out of rock & roll history together at once. Among the other classics out of the past that Gordon restored to the popular culture in new, riveting versions was "Black Slacks," an old hit by the Sparkletones, and "Sea Cruise" and "Bad Boy." Even if the record sales weren't what anyone hoped for, Gordon's work was sufficiently popular (especially in Europe) to help secure reissues of the original recordings by many of the artists that influenced him.

The association with Link Wray ended in 1978, and he was replaced by British guitarist Chris Spedding, an adequate successor. Private Stock had been distributed by RCA, but with the recording of his third album, Rock-Billy Boy, Gordon was signed directly to RCA. He released two subsequent albums, Bad Boy and Are You Gonna Be the One, on RCA.