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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Rocking the retro rockabilly
Ryan Heinz
Of the Suburban Journals
O'Fallon Mo Journal,St. Charles Journal,St. Peters Journal
07/21/2006
The standup bass is hardly a conventional instrument in 21st century rock ‘n' roll. But then again, Lee Rocker is anything but your typical musician.
Growing up in the Long Island home where the former Stay Cat was raised by a Grammy-nominated clarinetist father and a university music professor mother, Rocker initially started his musical upbringing with classical cello lessons. With his teenage years upon him and taking to his parents' fondness of jazz, blues and rock music, Rocker gravitated to mastering the electric bass.
But that was short lived when his aural tastes veered to such artists as Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Willie Dixon and Carl Perkins, Rocker's long-time hero and future collaborator.
"So many of those records had upright bass on it and I just couldn't get that sound out of an electric," recalls Rocker, calling from his Southern California home. "So I switched over and then never really turned back."
His instrument of choice went on to provide the primary rhythmic backbone in rockabilly revivalists the Stray Cats. The band rose up from playing legendary New York establishments like CBGB's and Max's Kansas City to becoming a British buzz band to being early MTV stars and having one of the biggest albums of 1982, perhaps behind only Michael Jackson's "Thriller."
The Stray Cats phenomenon ultimately faded with the band's lead vocalist, Brian Setzer eventually resurfacing for a successful run at another revival, big band swing. Rocker, meanwhile, has found his own voice, returning this year with an album of haunting rockabilly sneer. Titled "Racin' the Devil," the articulate album of garage rockers and retro roots anthems is perhaps the best studio effort produced during Rocker's solo career, which has since easily eclipsed his Stray Cat Stint in terms of longevity.
With "Racin' the Devil," Rocker spent a considerable amount of time in the studio over a single-year period to created what he said was the record he always wanted to make.
Among the nine originals recorded by Rocker and his tight four-piece band are three covers. Naturally, one is a Perkins original. But the other two – "Rock This Town" and "Runnin' From the Devil" – are unique choices, simply because Rocker already recorded the songs with the Stray Cats and the short-lived ‘80s band Phantom, Rocker & Slick, respectively.
"I had no intention of going back and doing a Stray Cats song – especially ‘Rock This Town' – when I went in to do this record," Rocker insists.
In fact, he believed the album to be finished. That was until one day when Rocker and his drummer, Jimmy Sage, were in the studio messing around with a riff from "Rock This Town." Rocker began to sing and it just clicked, he remembers.
The main difference from Cat's classic was that Rocker's variation was recorded in a minor key, giving the cover a distinctively fresh flavor.
"I don't want to tread the same ground and do the same stuff over and over," Rocker explains. "But to me, this one definitely took it to a whole new place."
Rocker himself is in a new place for "Racin' the Devil," namely Chicago-based blues label Alligator Records. Since the album maintains Rocker's rockabilly roots, the record label choice might come off as a head-scratcher to some. Rocker, on the other hand, decries musical typecasting.
"They're one of the few labels that really care about music," he says." I mean, these guys know the lyrics and they know the songs; it's pretty amazing."
Between now and his time with the Stray Cats, Rocker kept busy with a number of solo projects and collaborations. The latter included Elvis Presley guitarist Scotty Moore, another personal hero. Also, through Perkins, Rocker worked with John Fogerty, Paul Simon and a pair of Beatles, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
While Rocker maintains an affinity for waxing nostalgic on retro rock, he is not as keen on the idea of visiting his past for a full-on Stray Cats comeback, bigger in scale than the band's 2004-reunion tour of Europe. However, he did not completely rule it out.
"I guess it's the cliche, we're like brothers," Rocker says of the Cats' most recent performances together. "It was great, it was fun and it was like going to your high school reunion, but doing it day after day. It was fun throughout, but it was the past."
Still, as Rocker proves on "Racin' the Devil," the past never sounded so good.
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| Taptrick |
Some prime words for a Suburban Jornals writer. Wonder if they actually purchased it and it ran in other papers. I used to sell for the Suburban Journals. I do miss St. Louis.
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