Review:

on 2011-04-16 CharlesMartel Said:

It is a sad fact that far too many of the great rock and rollers of the fifties died too early, mostly in accidents of some sort. Eddie Cochran actually recorded a song, Three Stars which features on this album and laments the untimely deaths of three of them - Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper. It is sadly ironic then that Cochran himself should succumb to a fatal accident within a few months of recording it.

This compilation comprises some classic rock and roll from the best of the early rockers (in my humble opinion). Although like many he started out as a clone of Elvis, he went on to become a unique act in his own right. What makes Cochran different in my view, and what earns him the personal accolade of the best, is the sort of act he was becoming. It was what made Eddie Cochran different. What he would have gone on to do had he lived is one of the great unanswered questions. How different would the direction of rock music been had Eddie Cochran continued his particular brand of rebellious rock and roll?

The most notable thing about Eddie Cochran is that, of all the early rockers, he had the propensity to be the most daring in his music. Although he presented the image of the clean cut young man, so necessary to get anywhere at the time, many of his songs portrayed a very different story. It is worth remembering that, at the time, rock and roll was viewed quite widely, especially in the States, as the music of the Devil. It was seen as corrupting and insidious and a threat to law, order and public decency. It drew young kids of both sexes together and that, in the eyes of the still prudish post-war era, was a recipe for fornication and lasciviousness. The UK was not much better, although the religious overtones were not so strong.

Acts of the era found it very difficult to get gigs. Basically, promoters were often denied access to concert halls if they were promoting rock and roll acts lest, on seeing and hearing them, the young people of a town would immediately go out and burn churches and shag each other silly in the shrubbery behind the town hall. Yet, as is so often the case with the establishment, banning something only results in it becoming more popular and less easy to control. Most rockers at least pandered to the prevailing view and did not go out of their way to incite the flames of bigotry and intolerance. Eddie Cochran pushed that boundary further than any other.

So, his songs show a remarkable contempt for adult society - the establishment. "Summertime Blues" is basically an invitation for kids to skive off and do what they want: adults will not help you so go and do what you want and ignore them. "Somethin' Else" is almost risque in its tongue-drooling-out-of-mouth description of the girl of his dreams and how he uses the bribery of the flash car to pull her. The girls in early rock and roll all had their hair in ponytails and chewed bubblegum. In Cochran's world (although he could not say it explicitly) you wanted them to get their knickers off and some were all too willing to do so. "C'mon Everybody" was not simply an invitation to a party.

That alone made him different. Here was a true rebel, someone who threatened the very moral fabric of American society as far as the conservative, bible-quoting self-appointed guardians of that moral fabric would have you believe. After his death, parents could sleep easier all across America safe in the knowledge their daughters' virginity was safe. It was not until the British invasion of a few years later than the same latent-sexual hysteria would break out again. Cochran may well have had the ability to stave off the British invasion, but we will never know.
Rating: 7/10