The history of modern music has its fair share of giants—men and women who redefined the power of music, pushed the envelope, or became the first to modify established theories of what constitutes a proper single or an album. Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Ray Charles, Paul McCartney, Elvis Presley, Diana Ross, John Lennon, and Bo Diddley are just a handful of examples. In my mind, one of the most overlooked giants of modern music is Carl Perkins.
Perkins grew up dirt poor in Tiptonville, Tennessee but, luckily for us, he had access to listen to the broadcasts of Roy Acuff and The Grand Ole Opry. He wound up making his own guitar as a kid and he eventually wrote and produced one of the most iconic American songs ever made, “Blue Suede Shoes.” Most people know Carl Perkins as the writer of “Blue Suede Shoes” and as one of the reasons why (Sun Records founder and producer) Sam Phillips sold Elvis Presley’s contract to RCA for $35,000 in 1955.[1] Elvis would eventually record his own version of “Shoes” but in my opinion Perkins’ version is head and shoulders above everyone else’s version; it thoroughly murders Presley’s cover.
I believe “Blue Suede Shoes” is an indescribably important and fantastic song but to me Perkins’ masterpiece is “Dixie Fried,” a song so perfect and energetic that it is by itself ample reason as to why Carl Perkins was known as “The King of Rockabilly.” And it also is one of the greatest songs to be recorded in Memphis during the ’50′s in general.
Above everything else, for art to really matter—for its audience to care at all about it—it must always be entertaining. Always. Whether you are someone who enjoys hip hop, death metal, ethereal soundscapes, classical music, or plain old pop, the songs that you love had to reach you at some basic level when you first listened to it. You have to be entertained by them. “Dixie Fried” is entertainment par excellence. It is two minutes and twenty seven seconds of rockabilly perfection.
Is this song dated? Sure. Will you like this song if you do not listen to (or like) old country or rockabilly? Probably not. But if it connects with you on any level at all, you will probably be hooked on it. Musically and lyrically, “Dixie Fried” is all about elasticity—the desire and the ability of Carl Perkins to bend and twist and expand the limits of rockabilly in under two and a half minutes.
“Dixie Fried” starts out with a guitar intro before shifting into a rhythm anchored by a da-da-da-dum piano sprinkling and a solid and steady drum beat. Perkins’ vocals range from standard fare rockabilly to local slang and accent to wild vocalizations that almost rise to the level of over the top (but it never reaches it). Just listen to the first set of lyrics—they look like:
“Well, on the outskirts of town, there’s a little night spot
Dan dropped in about five o’clock
Pulled off his coat, said ‘The night is short’
He reached in his pocket and he flashed a quart”
But Perkins sings them with a mastery that bleeds and feels like (and encompasses) ’50′s Memphis. Listen to how he strings along the “well” and coolly melts in to the rest of the lyric. Or how “quart” is sung like “KWAUGHT.” Listen to how he effortlessly breaks out rockabilly solos on his guitar with an energy that can practically project the image for you of kids dancing around a jukebox with unabashed youthfulness.
History dictates that Sam Phillips made the wrong deal. His decision to sell Elvis’s contract is the music equivalent of the Red Sox trading Babe Ruth, or the Cubs trading Lou Brock. But when you hear “Dixie Fried”[2] and you allow yourself to let it live inside of you, you can’t really blame Phillips for taking that chance.
This is one of the ten greatest songs ever made.
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[1] First and foremost, Phillips sold Elvis’s contract to alleviate some financial stress that the studio was going through. But he also used some of that money to better promote Perkins after his first singles were cut.
[2] Or the original “Blue Suede Shoes,” or “Matchbox”
