On June 13, drummer D.J. Fontana died in his sleep . As his life ebbed away, was he dreaming of invisible limbs working the drums and producing the backbeat from ‘Jailhouse Rock’? There is no way of finding that out. But I would like to believe he did. His backbeat was his calling card. It was integral to the rockabilly style popularised by The Blue Moon Boys (TBMB). Fontana was the last surviving member of TBMB, one of the most successful musical acts of the 1950s and 1960s.
With Elvis Presley as its frontman, TBMB had a big thing going for it straightaway.
“There was something about Presley’s voice. He had a wide vocal range: he could go up and down and stay in-between, with equal ease. There was also a powerful sensuality to his voice. You would know that if you had listened to ‘It’s Now Or Never .’ And, the way he moved on the stage! Besides these winning personal attributes, he had great musicians backing him up,” says Richard Nathan, lead vocalist of The Funk Agenda, which performs covers of popular songs, including Presley’s.
Of course, in the 1960s, Presley was a cultural reference point. As entertainer, he became the benchmark. Back home, Shammi Kapoor was called the “The Elvis Presley of Bollywood”. In India of the 1960s, the twist dance was all the rage, thanks largely to Chubby Checker’s ‘Let us Twist Again .’ And, Presley’s hip-shaking moves were second only to Checker’s twists. In some of the Indian film songs, the Presley influence was unmistakable.
Presley was indeed phenomenal, but TBMB was not just about him. As Nathan points out, the other members of the band also made significant contributions to its sound, identified with rockabilly, which has a wealth of varied influences but primarily combines the key features of rock-and-roll and country music.
Power chord technique
TBMB’s lead guitarist Scotty Moore was accomplished in his own right. Even before TBMB saw the light, Moore and Bill Black, who played the upright bass for TBMB in its early years, had garnered success through live performances. Though the windmill action of The Who’s Peter Townshend is considered the symbol of the deft and probably flamboyant use of the power chord, Moore was one of the early exponents of the power chord technique.
A piece of solo playing by Moore is a grand element of ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, which is set in classic eight-bar blues progression and considered by many western-music lovers as the anthem of the rockabilly genre. Of course, the jury is still out on the matter. There is an equal number of them that believes the honour belongs to ‘Jailhouse Rock’, where again, Moore as well as Fontana are brilliant.
TBMB’s unique sound also derived from the upright bass, which was played by Bill Black. The bassist was with the band only till 1958. However, by then, TBMB had recorded songs like ‘Don’t Be Cruel,’ ‘Hound Dog,’ ‘Jailhouse Rock’ and ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ that are counted among its timeless offerings.
Black is remembered for the sound he produced by violently plucking the strings of the upright bass and releasing them to hit the fret-board. Called the “slap bass”, this technique was around when Black arrived on the scene, but he was one of the finest exponents of it.
Black was an enthusiastic performer on stage and almost matched Presley’s intensity. In TBMB’s performance of ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ on The Milton Berle Show in 1956 (the performance can be watched on YouTube), you will see Black going berserk with excitement towards the fag end of it.
And then there is Sam Philips, record-producer and founder of Sun Records, who was instrumental in the formation of TBMB. The credit for linking the Moore-Black duo with Presley goes to him. And many of the early recordings of TBMB were produced by Sun Records. Philips’ contribution to the rockabilly genre is also immense.
