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The Pontiacs

Wednesday, 21 January 2009

Among the rockabilly 45’s that I have from the eighties are some that were considered totally wrong back then by some of my friends. You know how narrow minded people can be. I didn’t care much for all the unwritten laws and codes that were used in that scene. A song was already wrong when the bass player played an electric bass. And if a song sounded a bit commercial, poppy or mainstream, it was Verboten for the hard core Dutch rockabilly scene. But now, 25 years later, I am very happy that I have all these records. Some may even end up on the compilation, but many will not.

Although I always hear immediately what is considered (un)cool by the people who consider themselves able to make such judgements, I prefer not make that distinction. I like to listen to what is good about a song, not what is cool about it. Most songs have good aspects.
Here is a 45 from 1973, by Jan Rietman, who played the piano in Long Tall Ernie’s Shakers, but he did this single under the name The Pontiacs. If I would have played this record on a rockabilly party in the eighties, people would have lynched me. But in 1973 there wasn’t much rock’n’roll music being made, and certainly not on record. Jan Rietman should be honoured for making rock’n’roll records in the early seventies! Apart from that, I like the song on the B-side, ”Teenage car crash”. Great lyrics!

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Comments:

Peter

2009-01-29 05:39:45

Ik héb ‘m!