Carl Perkins

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For other persons named Carl Perkins, see Carl Perkins (disambiguation).
Carl Perkins
Birth name Carl Lee Perkins
Also known as Carl Perkins
Born April 9 1932(1932-04-09)
Origin Tiptonville, Tennessee, USA
Died January 19 1998 (aged 65)
Genre(s) Rock
Country
Rockabilly
Occupation(s) Singer
Songwriter
Years active 1955 – 1998

Carl Lee Perkins (April 9, 1932 – January 19, 1998) was an American pioneer of rockabilly music, a mix of rhythm and blues and country music, recorded most notably at Sun Records in Memphis, beginning in 1954. An outstanding performer, his touch on rock and roll music is still heard to this day, especially through his fine compositions and guitar playing. His best known song is "Blue Suede Shoes".

According to Charlie Daniels, "Carl Perkins' songs personified the Rockabilly Era, and Carl Perkins' sound personifies the Rockabilly Sound more so than anybody involved in it, because he never changed." [1] Perkins's songs have been recorded by artists as influential as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and Johnny Cash, which further cemented his place in the history of popular music.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Perkins was the son of poor sharecroppers near Tiptonville, Tennessee. [2] He grew up hearing Southern gospel music sung by whites in church and by black field workers when he started working in the cotton fields at age six. On Saturday nights he would listen to the radio along with his father and hear music from the Grand Ole Opry. Roy Acuff's broadcast performances on the Opry inspired Perkins to ask his parents for a guitar. [3] By age seven, he was playing a guitar made by his father from a cigar box, broomstick and baling wire. Carl learned to play the guitar from an old black friend he called "Uncle John" Westbrook. [4]At age thirteen, he won a talent contest with a song he wrote called "Movie Magg". (Ten years later, the same song convinced Sam Phillips to sign Perkins to his Sun Records label.)

Perkins formed a group with brothers Jay and Clayton, the Perkins Brothers (soon joined by drummer W. S. Holland), and began to perform at a local honkytonk known as the El Rancho Club in 1947 and 1948. They appeared on WDXT radio in his hometown of Jackson, Tennessee from 1950 to 1952. Meanwhile, Carl spent many years working during the day at Colonial Baking Company in Jackson, Tennessee, as a baker. [5]

[edit] Sun Records

Perkins successfully auditioned for Sam Phillips at Sun Records early in October of 1954. his original song "Movie Magg" having interested Phillips. "Movie Magg" and "Turn Around" were released on the Phillips owned Flip label (151) March 19, 1955.[6] In late 1955, Perkins wrote the song "Blue Suede Shoes" on an old potato sack. On December 19, 1955, Phillips, who had begun recording Perkins in late 1954, told Perkins, "Carl Perkins, you're my rockabilly cat now". [7] The record was a massive chart success. In the United States, it went to #1 on Billboard magazine's country music charts (the only #1 hit he would have), to #2 on Billboard's Best Sellers pop music chart, and to #3 on the rhythm & blues charts. In the United Kingdom, it became a Top Ten hit. It was the first record by a Sun label artist to sell a million copies. [8]

On March 21, 1956, as the song neared its peak on the charts, Perkins was involved in a serious automobile accident while on the way to New York City to appear on the nationally broadcast Perry Como Show. He suffered a fractured skull and broken shoulder in the crash; brother Jay Perkins fractured his neck (he died in 1958). [9] Perkins could only watch as his friend Elvis Presley also had success with a cover version of "Blue Suede Shoes", the follow-up to Presley's first hit, "Heartbreak Hotel". Presley's version became far more famous than the original, although it only reached #20 on Billboard's pop chart.[10]

[edit] Life after Sun

In 1958, Perkins moved to Columbia Records, where he unsuccessfully embraced the Nashville Sound and developed a dependency on alcohol. However, his earlier Sun songs were kept in the public eye by such groups as The Beatles, who covered "Matchbox", "Honey Don't", and "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby". Perkins felt that Sam Phillips owed him royalties for the songs that the Beatles had recorded, plus the reissues of "Blue Suede Shoes". Perkins was in an unusually dark mood.[citation needed] At the studio meeting, Sam said he no longer owned the copyrights. T.L. Meade, aka Franz Douskey, a mutual friend of both Perkins and Phillips, tried to ease the situation by telling Perkins that if it wasn't for Sam Phillips, Perkins would still be behind a plow following a jackass in Tiptonville instead of driving a Cadillac.[citation needed] Perkins finally started to receive his royalties in 1982.[citation needed]

In 1968, Johnny Cash took the Perkins-written "Daddy Sang Bass" (based upon the American standard "Will the Circle Be Unbroken") to #1 on the country music charts. "Daddy Sang Bass" was also a Country Music Association nominee for Song of the Year. At Cash's behest, Perkins defeated his alcoholism[citation needed], and spent a decade in the singer's touring revue. One of his TV appearances with Cash was on the popular country series Hee Haw in an episode aired February 16, 1974.

In 1982, Perkins made a guest appearance on Paul McCartney's chart-topping album Tug Of War, singing a duet with the former Beatle on the song "Get It".[citation needed]

The rockabilly revival of the 1980s helped bring Perkins back into the limelight. In 1985, he re-recorded "Blue Suede Shoes" with two members of the Stray Cats, as part of the soundtrack for the movie, Porky's Revenge. That same year, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Ringo Starr appeared with him on a television special taped in London, England, called Blue Suede Shoes: A Rockabilly Session. Perkins and his friends ended the session by singing his signature song, 30 years after its writing, which brought Perkins to tears.

[edit] 1980s

In 1985, Perkins was inducted to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and in 1987, wider recognition of his contribution to music came with his induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition, "Blue Suede Shoes" was chosen as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll, and as a Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipient. His pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. In 1989, he co-wrote and played guitar on The Judd's #1 country hit, "Let Me Tell You About Love".

In 1986, he returned to the Sun Studios in Memphis, joining Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison on the album Class of '55. The record was a tribute to their early years at Sun and, specifically, the Million Dollar Quartet jam session involving Perkins, Presley, Cash, and Lewis on December 4, 1956.

[edit] Last years

In 1989 Perkins signed a record deal for an album with the title Friends, Family, and Legends, featuring performances by Chet Atkins, Travis Tritt, Steve Warner, Joan Jett, Charlie Daniels, along with Paul Shaffer and Will Lee. In 1992 Perkins developed throat cancer during the production of this CD. Perkins returned to Sun Studio in Memphis to record with Scotty Moore, Presley's first guitar player. The CD was called 706 ReUNION, released on Belle Meade Records, and featured D.J. Fontana, Marcus Van Storey and The Jordanaires. Perkins' last album, Go Cat Go!, was released in 1996, and featured new collaborations with many of the above artists, as well as George Harrison, Paul Simon, John Fogerty, Tom Petty, and Bono. It was released by the independent label Dinosaur Records, and distributed by BMG.

Perkins' only notable film performance as an actor was in John Landis' 1985 film Into the Night, a cameo-laden film that includes a scene where characters played by Carl and David Bowie die at each other's hand.

His last major concert appearance was the "Music for Montserrat" all-star charity concert at Royal Albert Hall on September 15, 1997.

[edit] Death and legacy

Two months later at Jackson-Madison County Hospital, Jackson, Tennessee, Carl Perkins died at the age of 65 from throat cancer after suffering several strokes. Among those in attendance at the funeral at Lambuth University in 1998 were ex-Beatle George Harrison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Wynonna Judd, Garth Brooks, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. He is interred at Ridgecrest Cemetery in Jackson, Tennessee.

In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him #69 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[11]

Carl Perkins' wife, Valda deVere Perkins, died November 15, 2005 in Jackson, Tennessee.

The Drive-By Truckers, on their album The Dirty South, recorded a song "Carl Perkins' Cadillac" that gives a poignant history of the artist and his relationships.

Perkins is the subject of an acclaimed biography, Go, Cat, Go, by noted New York-based music writer David McGee.

Plans for a biographical film about Perkins have been announced by Santa Monica-based production company Fastlane Entertainment. The Carl Perkins Story[12] is slated for release in 2009.

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Rockabilly Legends; They Called It Rockabilly Long Before they Called It Rock and Roll by Jerry Naylor and Steve Halliday page 118 ISBN-10: I-4234-2042-x
  2. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/carlperkins/biography
  3. ^ The Rockabilly Legends; They Called It Rockabilly Long Before they Called It Rock and Roll by Jerry Naylor and Steve Halliday ISBN-13;: 978-I-4234-2042-2
  4. ^ The Rockabilly Legends; They Called It Rockabilly Long Before they Called It Rock and Roll by Jerry Naylor and Steve Halliday page 118 ISBN-13;: 978-I-4234-2042-2
  5. ^ http://rockabillytennessee.com/legend_carl_perkins.htm
  6. ^ http://rcs.law.emory.edu/rcs/labels/f/f461.htm
  7. ^ The Rockabilly Legends; They Called It Rockabilly Long Before they Called It Rock and Roll by Jerry Naylor and Steve Halliday page 135 ISBN-13;: 978-I-4234-2042-2
  8. ^ Rockabilly Legends by Jerry Naylor page 137 ISBN-13:978-I-4234-2042-2
  9. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/carlperkins/biography
  10. ^ http://www.elvis.com/elvisology/billboard/elvis_singles.asp
  11. ^ The Immortals: The First Fifty. Rolling Stone Issue 946. Rolling Stone.
  12. ^ Rock 'N Roll Legend Carl Perkins' Much Anticipated Story To Come To The Big Screen. Billboard Publicity Wire.
  • Guterman, Jimmy. (1998.) "Carl Perkins." In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Ed. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 412-413.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

et:Carl Perkins es:Carl Perkins fr:Carl Perkins io:Carl Perkins hu:Carl Perkins nl:Carl Perkins no:Carl Perkins oc:Carl Perkins pl:Carl Perkins pt:Carl Perkins fi:Carl Perkins sv:Carl Perkins uk:Карл Перкінс

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