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Robert Gordon Robert Gordon Is Red Hot (CD)

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1-CD with 12-page booklet, 25 tracks. Playing time approx. 63 mns. Every now and again, there's... more

Robert Gordon: Robert Gordon Is Red Hot (CD)

1-CD with 12-page booklet, 25 tracks. Playing time approx. 63 mns.

Every now and again, there's a rockabilly revival. In 1977 the man of the hour was Robert Gordon. He surrounded himself with great pickers including Link Wray, Danny Gatton, and Chris Spedding and cut a mix of old and new songs that was rockabilly with a punk attitude. The 25 cuts here include The Way I Walk, Catman, Flyin' Saucer Rock'n Roll, and Red Hot. Three tracks were only ever available on a promo LP.

Robert Gordon is a paradoxical artist. 
When asked how he related to the '60s, he replied tersely that he did not. However, he also refused to be branded as a '50s revival act, pouring scorn on Sha-Na-Na and others who played music for those who simply wanted to Remember When. Robert Gordon saw himself - perhaps with some jus-tification - as a contemporary performer whose style was rooted in '50s music. 

Robert Gordon's reference points from the '50s were not the popular acts from the period but rather the proto-punk rockabillies such as Johnny Burnette, Billy Riley and Gene Vincent. It was the raw, visceral energy of a blind drunk Billy Riley hollering into the Arkansas night that Robert Gordon sought to emulate. Gordon was a product of the thriving Washington, D.C. scene that drew much of its energy from the hills of Virginia. He was born in 1947 and clearly remembers hearing Heartbreak Hotel at the tender age of nine. 

By the age of 15 he had formed a group that played in and around D.C. and suburban Maryland. After a stint in the National Guard (that saved him from a stint in Vietnam) Gordon married and went to New York in 1970. From that point the details become fuzzy as they touch on a period that Gordon obviously wants to forget. The upshot was that Gordon found himself in one of New York's first punk outfits, the Tuff Darts. "I had dropped out of music for about four years," he recalled. "I was supporting a family and when that broke up I warn' tin a very good frame of mind. The Tuff Darts were a negative kind of band and reflected the way I felt at that time. I couldn't stay with them because they weren't really play-ing the music I wanted. I didn' t want to scream my brains out. I wanted to play music." Gordon began discussions with Larry Uttal at Private Stock Records in early 1977. 

After signing with the label he was paired with Richard Gottehrer whom some will remember as the producer of Blondie, others for his role in the Strangeloves and yet others for having co-written Jerry Lee Lewis's l' m On Fire. Together, Gottehrer and Gordon came up with the idea of bringing Link Wray into the picture. Wray had also made his living playing the D.C. area for years before he struck paydirt with Rumble. Robert Gordon had counted himself among those in the audience more than once. Wray's style was grounded in the essential weirdness of southern music. "My mother was a preacher ," he recalled. "We used to sing on the street corners in Benson, North Carolina. We sang at brush meetings when they'd take trees and brush and make a house out of it. Everybody would come from all around, sing and pray all day, eat dinner on the ground. 

Then my brother had a western swing band that went under various names. We played withLash LaRue at drive-in theatres and all over." Wray served in Korea where he lost a lung to tuberculosis. He also underwent a variety of religious experiences including one in which he was hurled fifteen feet across the room by the Holy Ghost. All this before he c utR umble . By the early '70s, Wray had resurfaced in San Francisco, cutting some commendably underproduced music for Polydor and Virgin that demonstrated his continuing evolu-tion and eclec tism. It was Richard Gottehrer who brought Wray and Gordon together. "I was at Richard's house," recalled Gordon "and I was thinking about changing my name to Ray Vernon. Richard and I started talking about Vernon and Link Wray. 

He knew that Link was living in San Francisco and contacted him." Armed with Gottehrer's plane ticket, Wray arrived in New York, suspicious that he would be paired with a '50s revival act (to that point - and to this day - he had studious-ly avoided Ralph Nader styled revival shows). However, Wray found that "Robert had the rawness and freshness about him like Elvis on Sun Records. It was a new sparkfor me. I said,' Let' s do it.' " The first album was cut at Plaza Sound, New York during April 1977. It featured a cover shot of Gordon, his mouth agape like a moron time had forgotten. His music too struck a wonderful pose, especially when compared with the relentless dreariness of the then-current pop music scene. 

A version of Red Hot, clearly based on Billy Riley's reading of the song, crashed into the Hot 100 and the album went on to sell in excess of 100,000 copies. Gordon, Wray, Gottehrer and Uttal were convinced that they had stumbled upon something. Gordon was brought back into the studio to record a second album, 'Fresh Fish Special' (arcanely named after a line of dialogue in 'Jailhouse Rock'). Bruce Springsteen, who had sat in with the band during a gig at NYU, contributed an atmos-pherically sensual ballad, Fire, on which he made an unbilled guest shot as a pianist. It was released as a single; however, Gordon had the misfortune to see his version scooped by the Pointer Sisters. 'Fresh Fish Special' also featured the Jordanaires to reinforce the hitherto unspoken link to the past greatness of Elvis Presley.

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Gordon, Robert - Robert Gordon Is Red Hot (CD) CD 1
01 Red Hot Robert Gordon
02 The Fool Robert Gordon
03 I Sure Miss You Robert Gordon
04 Flyin' Saucer Rock & Roll Robert Gordon
05 The Way I Walk Robert Gordon
06 Lonesome Train (On A Lonesome Track) Robert Gordon
07 I Want To Be Free Robert Gordon
08 Rock Billy Boogie Robert Gordon
09 All By Myself Robert Gordon
10 The Catman Robert Gordon
11 Wheel Of Fortune Robert Gordon
12 Love My Baby Robert Gordon
13 It's Only Make Believe Robert Gordon
14 Crazy Man Crazy Robert Gordon
15 The Worrying Kind Robert Gordon
16 Nervous Robert Gordon
17 Sweet Love On My Mind Robert Gordon
18 Need You Robert Gordon
19 Someday, Someway Robert Gordon
20 Look Who's Blue Robert Gordon
21 Drivin' Wheel Robert Gordon
22 Something's Gonna Happen Robert Gordon
23 Black Slacks Robert Gordon
24 Fire (live) Robert Gordon
25 Red Hot (live) Robert Gordon
Robert Gordon March 29, 1947 - October 18, 2022 ROBERT GORDON OBITUARY Robert... more
"Robert Gordon"

Robert Gordon
March 29, 1947 - October 18, 2022


ROBERT GORDON OBITUARY

Robert Gordon 

Mainstream interest in rockabilly had ebbed to a disturbingly low level when Robert Gordon helped restore the idiom to international prominence. His vocal style heavily influenced by Gene Vincent, Jack Scott, and Billy Riley, Gordon rendered the classic music of those hallowed ‘50s legends cool to a new generation of fans that in many cases weren’t even aware of their existence prior to Gordon’s emergence. For others, he represented a throwback to the beloved rock and roll of their youth, when pomade and pegged pants were imperative fashion statements.

Gordon, who died October 18, 2022 in Bethesda, Maryland at age 75, had little use for rock music of the ‘60s and beyond. Born in Bethesda, Maryland on March 29, 1947, Gordon heard Elvis’ immortal Heartbreak Hotel on the radio when he was nine and knew what he wanted to do with his life. During the ‘60s, Gordon preferred attending shows at the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C., where James Brown and Otis Redding drove crowds into a sweat-stained frenzy, to listening to the British Invasion crowd.

A 1970 relocation to New York City with his young family preceded Robert Gordon joining what’s been described as a punk rock outfit, The Tuff Darts, as their lead singer. Their All For The Love Of Rock And Roll and two more songs were included on a compilation album, ‘Live At CBGB’s,’ dedicated to New York’s thriving new wave scene. Producer Richard Gottehrer, formerly of The Strangeloves and a longtime successful record producer, caught a Tuff Darts rehearsal and rather than opting to work with the band, suggested teaming a solo Gordon with grizzled guitar legend Link Wray, whose thundering instrumental Rumble was a major 1958 hit and went a long way towards introducing the concept of the crunching power chord. 

Gottehrer produced the young vocalist’s 1977 debut album ‘Robert Gordon with Link Wray’ for the Private Stock imprint, its contents an intriguing mix of ‘50s rockabilly covers from the repertoires of Vincent, Riley, Eddie Cochran, Carl Perkins, and Sanford Clark and three Wray originals. Gordon’s revival of Billy ‘The Kid’ Emerson’s Sun label classic Red Hot, done Riley-style and decorated with Wray’s slashing lead guitar, made inroads on the pop singles charts. Gordon steadfastly dressed the part of a ‘50s rocker, complete with high hair. 

Gottehrer, who shared his production credit with the singer this time, summoned The Jordanaires to handle the backing vocals on Gordon’s ’78 Private Stock encore set ‘Fresh Fish Special,’ Wray again lending his blistering fretwork to the proceedings. Once again, remakes of classic rockers by Vincent, Scott, Cochran, Elvis, Johnny Burnette, Bob Luman, and Frankie Ford were the order of the day, along with a couple more of Link’s originals. But there was a rooker: Fire was the work of prolific rocker Bruce Springsteen (who played piano on the song), and the feel was quite a bit more modern. The Pointer Sisters’ smash version of Fire killed any chance of Gordon enjoying a hit with the theme.

After Private Stock tanked, Robert Gordon switched over to RCA for his ’79 LP ‘Rock Billy Boogie,’ and Wray was gone, replaced on lead guitar by British rocker Chris Spedding. Gottehrer was still in charge and the basic concept survived the move intact, Gordon tearing into classics by Conway Twitty, Hayden Thompson, Burnette, Cochran, Presley, Fats Domino, Leroy Van Dyke, and Joe Bennett and The Sparkletones along with a freshly prepared tribute to Vincent, The Catman. It turned out to be his highest-charting album.

‘Bad Boy,’ produced by Gottehrer and Robert Gordon and issued on RCA in 1980, stayed in the same rockabilly-obsessed groove, with Spedding handling lead guitar as Gordon dug deep into vintage Tommy Sands, Warner Mack. Roy Orbison, Bill Haley, Marty Wilde material, along with more Burnette.

But change was decidedly in the air on ‘Are You Gonna Be The One,’ Gordon’s last RCA long-player in 1981. Instead of Gottehrer ensconced in the driver’s seat, Robert produced the album with Lance Quinn and Scott Litt, and the emphasis was no longer on familiar remakes apart from Don Gibson’s Look Who’s Blue. Originals now dominated the proceedings, including three compositions by young rocker Marshall Crenshaw. One of Crenshaw’s contributions, Someday, Someway, briefly cracked the pop hit parade as a single. Washington, D.C. guitar wizard Danny Gatton was Gordon’s fret foil this time.

The relative success of Someday, Someway wasn’t enough to keep RCA interested in Gordon’s services. He branched into acting in 1982, co-starring with newcomer Willem Dafoe in director Kathryn Bigelow’s first feature, a motorcycle film entitled ‘The Loveless’ that’s taken on cult status. Gordon recorded intermittently after leaving RCA, reuniting with Spedding and The Jordanaires for 2007’s Elvis tribute disc ‘It’s Now Or Never’ on Rykodisc. Lanark released his 2014 set ‘I’m Coming Home.’ 

One thing’s for sure: Robert Gordon’s lifelong love for real deal rockabilly never wavered, defining his career from one end to the other.

 

Read more at: https://www.bear-family.de/gordon-robert-in-concert-march-1979-philadelphia-pa.html
Copyright © Bear Family Records

 

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Tracklist
Gordon, Robert - Robert Gordon Is Red Hot (CD) CD 1
01 Red Hot
02 The Fool
03 I Sure Miss You
04 Flyin' Saucer Rock & Roll
05 The Way I Walk
06 Lonesome Train (On A Lonesome Track)
07 I Want To Be Free
08 Rock Billy Boogie
09 All By Myself
10 The Catman
11 Wheel Of Fortune
12 Love My Baby
13 It's Only Make Believe
14 Crazy Man Crazy
15 The Worrying Kind
16 Nervous
17 Sweet Love On My Mind
18 Need You
19 Someday, Someway
20 Look Who's Blue
21 Drivin' Wheel
22 Something's Gonna Happen
23 Black Slacks
24 Fire (live)
25 Red Hot (live)