{"id":441,"date":"2019-03-20T00:44:49","date_gmt":"2019-03-20T00:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/?page_id=441"},"modified":"2019-03-21T21:44:17","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T21:44:17","slug":"carl-perkins-saturday-night","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/carl-perkins-saturday-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Carl Perkins: &#8220;Saturday Night&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-441-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/03\/Saturday-Night.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/03\/Saturday-Night.mp3\">http:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/03\/Saturday-Night.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mainstreetragbookstore.com\/product\/ticket-stubs-liner-notes-tim-hunt\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"262\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/home\/my-ding-a-ling-chuck-berry-at-the-roadhouse-ithaca-ny-november-1970\/top_banner_flat\/#main\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/12\/top_banner_flat.png?fit=1020%2C80&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1020,80\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/12\/top_banner_flat.png?fit=1020%2C80&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-262\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/12\/top_banner_flat.png?resize=940%2C74\" alt=\"Available now from Main Street Rag\" width=\"940\" height=\"74\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/12\/top_banner_flat.png?w=1020&amp;ssl=1 1020w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/12\/top_banner_flat.png?resize=300%2C24&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/12\/top_banner_flat.png?resize=768%2C60&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"443\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/carl-perkins-saturday-night\/bluesuedeshoes\/#main\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/03\/Bluesuedeshoes.jpg?fit=272%2C366&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"272,366\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Bluesuedeshoes\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/03\/Bluesuedeshoes.jpg?fit=272%2C366&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-443 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/03\/Bluesuedeshoes.jpg?resize=223%2C300\" alt=\"\" width=\"223\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/03\/Bluesuedeshoes.jpg?resize=223%2C300&amp;ssl=1 223w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/03\/Bluesuedeshoes.jpg?w=272&amp;ssl=1 272w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 223px) 100vw, 223px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Carl Perkins\u2019 run as a rockabilly hit maker in the mid-1950s was brief, marked primarily by his recording of his song \u201cBlue Suede Shoes,\u201d which Elvis Presley would make into an even bigger hit.\u00a0 Yet, he was an architect of the style, perhaps even an influence on Elvis, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aaronkrerowicz.com\/beatles-blog\/the-influence-of-carl-perkins-on-the-beatles\">and certainly an influence (less than a decade later) on The Beatles, whose early repertoire featured a number of Perkins\u2019 songs<\/a>.\u00a0 Whether, as Paul McCartney is reputed to have said, there\u2019d be no Beatles without Perkins, Perkins\u2019 guitar style is a key building block of George Harrison\u2019s playing.\u00a0 \u201cBoppin\u2019 the Blues,\u201d \u201cHoney Don\u2019t,\u201d \u201cEverybody\u2019s Trying to Be My Baby,\u201d \u201cDixie Fried,\u201d and other songs that Perkins wrote and recorded while at Sun Records in the mid-1950s are chapter and verse of the Gospel of Rockabilly.<\/p>\n<p>But why wasn\u2019t Carl Perkins an even bigger star.\u00a0 The usual explanation is that he wasn\u2019t as sexy as Elvis.\u00a0 When he and Elvis would share a stage in the era when they were local draws and not yet national stars, the boys in the audience were watching Carl\u2019s hands for the chords and bends, while the girls were watching Elvis\u2019s hips or fixated on that sweet come-hither sneer that seemed to come so naturally to him.\u00a0 But there\u2019s another factor to consider: Perkins was, for better and for worse, more country, more rural than Elvis.\u00a0 Listen to his first few Sun singles (the first actually on Flip).\u00a0 They\u2019re not rockabilly but a continuation of late 1940s, early 1950s country music right down to the fiddle, instead of guitar, taking the instrumental breaks.\u00a0 For Perkins, blue suede shoes were Saturday night\u2014and then came Sunday morning church and Monday was back into the field working the cotton or tobacco.\u00a0 <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"447\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/carl-perkins-saturday-night\/carl_perkins-1955\/#main\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/03\/carl_perkins-1955.jpg?fit=1351%2C1012&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1351,1012\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;2.7&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon PowerShot S3 IS&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1204625900&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;6&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.016666666666667&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"carl_perkins-1955\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/03\/carl_perkins-1955.jpg?fit=1024%2C767&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-447 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/03\/carl_perkins-1955.jpg?resize=300%2C225\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/03\/carl_perkins-1955.jpg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/03\/carl_perkins-1955.jpg?resize=768%2C575&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/03\/carl_perkins-1955.jpg?resize=1024%2C767&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/03\/carl_perkins-1955.jpg?w=1351&amp;ssl=1 1351w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>\u00a0 In Presley\u2019s rockabilly, Saturday night is all week long and all night long, too, and blue suede shoes are a matter of style\u2014a declaration of an identity, an imagined world where no hip teen will spend his years plowing behind a mule.\u00a0 One might even say that Presley\u2019s recording of \u201cBlue Suede Shoes\u201d is Presley transforming rockabilly from folk to pop.\u00a0 In Presley\u2019s rockabilly world, any trace of \u201chillbilly\u201d (that pejorative term for being Southern, white, and poor) is so completely expunged that rockabilly could take its country energy even into the teen scene of white suburbia.\u00a0 While in Carl\u2019s rockabilly world, getting \u201cDixie Fried\u201d on a Saturday night is only a moment of ecstatic escape from an adult world of consequences and always leads to an actual hangover and, often as not, to waking up in the local jail.\u00a0 In the rockabilly of Elvis, the word \u201chillbilly,\u201d a marker of class and region, would never occur.\u00a0 He would never record \u201cPut Your Cat Clothes On\u201d\u2014a song Perkins seems to have written and recorded hoping (and failing) to repeat the chart success of \u201cBlue Suede Shoes.\u201d\u00a0 Check out the lyrics of the first two verses:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Well, they took my blue suede shoes down to ol&#8217; Mobile<br \/>\nGot to rockin&#8217; with the rhythm, run &#8217;em over at the heel<br \/>\nPut you cat clothes on<br \/>\nCause tonight we&#8217;re gonna really rock it right<br \/>\nYeah Kitty, put your cat clothes on<br \/>\nCause tonight we&#8217;re gonna really bop it right<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Well I slicked up myself till I looked like a dilly<br \/>\nI run down town to get my female hillbilly<br \/>\nPut you cat clothes on<br \/>\nCause tonight we&#8217;re gonna really rock it right<br \/>\nKitty, put your cat clothes on<br \/>\nCause tonight we&#8217;re gonna really bop it right<\/p>\n<p>In Presley\u2019s rockabilly, the last line of the verses would be \u201cCause we\u2019re gonna really bop it right.\u201d\u00a0 And symbolic shoes wouldn\u2019t ever be \u201crun\u2026over at the heel.\u201d\u00a0 And Ms. Kitty would never be designated a \u201chillbilly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 1956, New Orleans singer Smiley Lewis hit #11 on the R&amp;B charts with \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lokGEUz0mEg\">One Night (Of Sin)<\/a>,\u201d which opens \u201cOne night of sin is what I\u2019m now paying for.\u201d\u00a0 In late 1958 Elvis Presley released his version, with the opening line altered to \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8o74j7t1tKs\">One night with you is what I\u2019m now praying for<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 Even though RCA execs, not Presley, pushed for changing the lyrics, presumably because the notion of a \u201cnight of sin\u201d wasn\u2019t appropriate for white teen record buyers (especially, it seems, for white teen girls up North who might buy the 45), the shift is telling.\u00a0 In the Lewis version, one-night stands happen, even though \u201ca sin,\u201d and they have consequences.\u00a0 In the Presley version, the lyrics offer &#8220;one night&#8221; as if the dreamy fulfillment would be the happily ever after of a technicolor Doris Day movie (even as the vocal inflections evoke a different sort of night in a kind of have your cake and eat it too fantasy).\u00a0 In Lewis\u2019s \u201cOne Night,\u201d the action is sex.\u00a0 In Presley\u2019s, there is the pretend of no action. Sex\/Love (with maybe sex). \u00a0Blues\/Pop (teened up as rock &amp; roll). \u00a0Reality\/Fantasy.\u00a0 Black\/White (the 1950s cultural divide by which \u201cWork With Me Annie\u201d leading to \u201cAnnie Had a Baby\u201d is recast for white teens as \u201cDance With Me Henry\u201d and, thank you, no follow up needed).<\/p>\n<p>And what might this have to do with Carl Perkins\u2019 rockabilly?\u00a0 Like the rhythm &amp; blues of the late 1940s and early 1950s, country music in that same era was a commercial music anchored in the reality-oriented world of folk culture, and that reality includes the consequences and limitations of adult life.\u00a0 Perkins projects, in his rockabilly, moments of escape, breaking through the country-base of his music.\u00a0 In Perkins\u2019 music, a Saturday night rockabilly cat is still a hillbilly when Monday morning rolls around.\u00a0 Even blue suede shoes run over at the heel.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Contextual Material:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The internet is replete with material on Carl Perkins.\u00a0 Cub Koda&#8217;s <em>All-Music Guide<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.allmusic.com\/artist\/carl-perkins-mn0000792953\/biography\">Carl Perkins<\/a> entry is a good place to start.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Recommended Listening:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Bear Family label&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.allmusic.com\/album\/carl-rocks-mw0000190950\"><em>Carl Rocks<\/em><\/a> supplements the core of his Sun Records achievement with a smattering of his best later rocking tracks for other labels.\u00a0 Neither this set nor this entry touches on Perkins&#8217; later career as a country song writer or his time as part of the Johnny Cash Show.<\/p>\n<p>The following four links are to YouTube clips of Perkins playing a few of his rockabilly classics on TV in the later 1950s.\u00a0 The sound quality varies, but this was how many of us first encountered Perkins and rockabilly.\u00a0 Think of it as <em>American Idol<\/em> sans facade:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a id=\"LPlnk161857\" class=\"OWAAutoLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DRNyvO4QouY\">&#8220;Blue Suede Shoes&#8221;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XiZiYOKQLbI\">&#8220;Dixie Fried&#8221;\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xZwCkyTL9E8\">&#8220;Boppin&#8217; the Blues&#8221;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=GMmu1NE7WTQ\">&#8220;Matchbox&#8221;<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What these performances lack in production value is offset by the way they demonstrate the synthesis of Perkins as guitarist, vocalist, and writer (or, in the case of &#8220;Matchbox,&#8221; adapter).<\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/mainstreetragbookstore.com\/product\/ticket-stubs-liner-notes-tim-hunt\/\"><em>Ticket Stubs &amp; Liner Notes<\/em> is available from Main Street Rag Publishing<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carl Perkins\u2019 run as a rockabilly hit maker in the mid-1950s was brief, marked primarily by his recording of his song \u201cBlue Suede Shoes,\u201d which Elvis Presley would make into an even bigger hit.\u00a0 Yet, he was an architect of the style, perhaps even an influence on Elvis, and certainly an influence (less than a &#8230; <a title=\"Carl Perkins: &#8220;Saturday Night&#8221;\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/carl-perkins-saturday-night\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Carl Perkins: &#8220;Saturday Night&#8221;\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-441","page","type-page","status-publish"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PapaTS-77","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":494,"href":"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/441\/revisions\/494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}