Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Carl Perkins' Cadillac

On this date in rock history, in 1955, Carl Perkins records "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Honey Don't," which Sun releases together as a single on January 1, 1956. During May 1964, Perkins toured England along with Chuck Berry. The Animals backed the two performers. On the last night of the tour, Perkins attended a party that turned out to be for him, and ended up sitting on the floor sharing stories, playing guitar, and singing songs while surrounded by The Beatles. Ringo Starr asked if he could record "Honey Don't." "Man," answered Perkins, "go ahead, have at it." The Beatles would cover "Matchbox," "Honey Don't" and "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby". My connection to Mr. Perkins (besides rootin’ for Ringo every time I hear him sing Perkins’ song) is my band’s cover of the Drive By Truckers song “Carl Perkins’ Cadillac,” a sympathetic account of the early Sun Records days of Perkins, Johnny Cash, Elvis and Jerry Lee. My favorite line? “Dammit Elvis, I swear son I think it's time you came around. Making money you can't spend ain't what being dead's about.” ‘Nuff said… Enjoy the vid, keep on rockin’, and thanks to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Perkins for the info.

2 comments:

Whiskey and Rebellion said...

Such a great tune, this must be from the dirt underneath tour?

Charlie_Mac said...

Apparently so - I was gonna post our version but the video had a little too much of family members situated prominently in it, and I know they don't want to be on the 'Net, so I went with this version instead - kind of like DBT "unplugged"... I like how the pedal steel (wish I could play one of them things!) kind of carries the counter melody in the chord progression...nicely done!