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Stray Cats claim the ’50s as their stalking groundsBy Lynn Van MatreChicago TribuneTo most of the people who have shelled out for the Stray Cats’ “Built for Speed” and turned the New York retro-rock trio into one of the hottest new bands around, the name Eddie Cochran probably rings few musical bells.A Midwestern-born singer who originally took most of his vocal cues from Elvis Presley, Cochran made the U.S. Top 10 in 1958 with “Summertime Blues” and soon made a name for himself in England as well. Two years later, after taking his last bows at the concluding concert of a 13-week British tour, Cochran and fellow singer Gene (“Be-Bop-A-Lula”) Vincent were en route to the London airport to catch a plane back to Los Angeles when their hired car crashed into a lamppost.Vincent was injured; Cochran died shortly after being taken to a hospital that day. “April 17, 1960,” said Stray Cats guitarist Brian Setzer, supplying the date of Cochran’s death with more than a touch of reverence. “The ’50s ended real quick. Eddie died, Buddy Holly died; Chuck Berry got thrown in jail; Elvis Presley went into the Army; Jerry Lee Lewis went out of favor because he married that young cousin of his. All those guys down the drain. Then theLimeys moved in.”Setzer, who was 1 year old when Cochran died (the other two Cats, drummer Slim Jim Phantom and stand-up bass player Lee Rocker, weren’t around at all), sees the singers of the 1950s as epitomizing Original Cool. “The first wave of cool, if you know what I mean. Style wise, it all goes back to what they did in the ’50s — that rock-and-roll attitude.”Setzer’s appreciation of vintage rock sounds and styles is hardly unique. The 1950s, which saw the birth of rock ’n’ roll and the beginnings of a true youth cult of teen-age consumers with styles and music (and, more important, mon^y) of their own,were indeed also marked — in their finer moments — by a wealth of attitude as distinctive as Elvis Presley’s gyrating pelvis, Buddy Holly’s hiccupping vocals or the sound of Memphis’ Sun Studios.The punk and new wave movements of the latter half of the 1970s borrowed heavily from basic approaches forged in the 1950s, when raw energy often outstripped technical expertise; the sartorial styles still favored by a number of new bands pay obvious tribute to the days of baggy suits, pink and black shirts and black leather jackets.But Setzer and the Stray Cats have struck the Original Cool pose harder and heavier than about any revivalist-based band since Sha Na Na, and it has paid off far better than the pop the trio played on the New York club circuit in the late 1970s before catching a jumbo jet for England and overseas success as a neo-rockabilly band.While the rockabilly tag has stuck with them, the Stray Cats cover a bit moreterritory than that, although their roots are obviously in the narrowly defined and highly distinctive mix of blues, rock and hillbilly associated with such Southern white singers as Presley, Lewis and Carl Perkins, and a few West Coast types such as Cochran.But the 1950s are clearly where these Cats are coming from. Led by lyricist and lead singer Setzer, the trio serves up both a vintage-inspired sound and vintage style with an ’80s edge and enthusiasm that has captivated (for the most part) U.S. audiences too young to be familiar with the original ’50s fare, and British fans who traditionally have revered American rock ’n’ roll and rockabilly of the 1950s.It was, in fact, in Britain that the band was signed to a record contract shortly after arriving in London two years ago last June.“We went over to England for an adventure, really,” Setzer said. “We figured that the climate for rockabilly would be better over there because over there it never died. And we did have an edge in the beginning,See STRAY, Page B15
Newspaper Details
Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph
Colorado Springs, Colorado, US
Sat, Dec 18, 1982
Page 36
Full Page
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USA 12 Mar 2019
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