Saturday 7 January 2012

Elvis and Chuck get the Fulminators treatment - lucky them!

          

The weird thing about "I Got Stung" is that I can't actually hear an electric guitar part on the original - just a bass guitar. I expect it's in there somewhere, buried deep in the mix. I added rhythm guitar just to beef up the sound. This was one of the records we had at home when I was a nipper - "One Night" was on the other side: what a single! "I Got Stung" was the last track Elvis recorded before heading for West Germany with the US Army - and the last track he recorded in the 1950s. I always find it enormously cheering.

          

I have spent more time trying to create an acceptable version of Chuck Berry's "Run, Run, Rudolph" than any other track. For me, the original  has the most irresistible beat of any pop record - but how Berry and his band achieved it remains a mystery. His drummer, Ebby Hardy (I presume he was playing on the session) is in utterly brilliant form. The effect he gets from the hi-hat cymbal (at least, that's what I presume it is) is wonderful, and I couldn't come anywhere close to recreating it. As always, Johnnie Johnson tinkles away on his piano in the background, adding magic to the mix in his own unique way. As for Berry's guitar playing, it has never been more rhythmically propulsive, and his high, clear, almost harsh voice cuts through everything, driving proceedings along. The whole thing just bounces.

I know our version is almost an insult to the original (which is basically "Little Queenie" with a sprig of holly on the top) - but the other Fulminators had to return to The Priory to get their substance abuse sorted out, so we had to settle for what we'd managed to produce by the time the ambulances arrived.

3 comments:

  1. The solo on Run Rudolph is a stonker of which Scotty Moore would have been proud.

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  2. I agree with ex-KCS.

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