The Sun Records label, based in Memphis, Tennessee, put rock ‘n’ roll on the map in the 1950s and launched a musical, artistic, and cultural explosion that resonated around the world and can still be felt today. While rock ‘n’ roll and its many permeations are virtually absent from popular music these days, their place in American culture remains.
The key artists of the Sun rock ‘n’ roll explosion—Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and others—arrived at their sound by a gradual and organic mixing of American roots music, primarily country and blues, but also R&B, jazz, and folk. Other Sun artists, while considered part of Sun’s seminal and groundbreaking rock ‘n’ roll stable, made a sound rooted in country. For Sam Phillips, who launched the company, labels meant very little.
Which brings us to two original and important Sun releases. One from Johnny Cash, Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar, which might be deemed strictly country, and one from Carl Perkins, Dance Album of Carl Perkins, which was a rock ‘n’ roll hybrid (rockabilly) that added a pinch of country to rock ‘n’ roll. The descriptions, categorizations, and assigning of labels are debatable and ultimately pointless.
Reissues of important recordings can serve many purposes, but often the big questions are: how do they sound and how faithful are they to the originals? Although these two Sun recordings from Cash and Perkins are revolutionary, the original pressings of the albums just don’t sound very good. Poor tape transfers, inferior vinyl record quality, and primitive means of producing records and getting them out to market in the mid- to late-’50s resulted in great music of historical significance.
However, given how quickly every step of the record-making process evolved through the late ’50s and particularly ’60s and ’70s, even mint copies of original and later vinyl pressings just didn’t sound very good. Of course, various CD reissues and deluxe packages of Sun recordings have been released over the years, preserving the music for generations and expanding on the knowledge, significance, and understanding of this important music. However, it would appear that these new Intervention Records releases are not only the best reissues of these albums, but maybe the best recordings of them to ever be released.
These reissues are 45-RPM, mono all-analog flat transfers from the original analog tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio and were pressed at Gotta Groove Records. The original album artwork is faithfully duplicated. The vinyl comes in archival sleeves, and the album jackets are housed in a plastic outer sleeve. The cherry on the cake is an insert with photos and recording, production, and reissue information, which includes liner notes by the undisputed expert on early rock, Colin Escott. Both of these albums are essentially collections of singles. Only three of the original twelve Sun albums were conceived as full-length albums.
There’s no way to fully express the enormous influence Johnny Cash’s music has had on country music, and maybe to a lesser degree on rock ‘n’ roll. This Cash collection includes such classics of his as “I Walk the Line” and “Folsom Prison Blues,” perhaps his two signature songs, but also “I Heard That Lonesome Whistle” and “The Rock Island Line.” Cash took the original folk song, “Rock Island Line” and changed some of the lyrics. His version came after the versions by Lead Belly, George Melly, and Lonnie Donegan, which saw “Rock Island Line” become the song that launched the skiffle explosion in England, which led directly to the eventual popular success of The Beatles and the British Invasion.
Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar was released in 1957, and Cash wasn’t even in his mid-20s yet. Along with his singing and guitar playing, the only other accompaniment is electric guitar and bass.
Carl Perkins is one of the foundational musicians of rock ‘n’ roll. While he may not always receive the same kind of attention afforded Cash, Presley, Lewis, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Bo Diddley, Roy Orbison, and maybe even Fats Domino, his singular place in the creation of rockabilly and almost peerless influence on The Beatles are formidable.
“Blue Suede Shoes” is probably the most important song on Dance Album of Carl Perkins, which was released in 1957. However, fans of The Beatles know that “Honey Don’t,” “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby,” and “Matchbox” were all recorded by the group and were significant cover songs in the early recording days of the band.
The influence extends beyond The Beatles, in that Ringo Starr took “Only You,” made it into his own and turned it into a hit. And, several other songs here were live staples of The Beatles, and some appeared on their Anthology, Live at the Hollywood Bowl, BBC, and Star Club recordings.
One of the most welcome aspects of these two reissues is how natural they sound. The slap-back echo effect, which is one of the most emblematic studio sounds of these recordings, has been dissected, beloved, and imitated, and does not sound exaggerated like it has sometimes come across on reissues, particularly on CD. Such CD reissues have often featured an annoying, distracting, transparent sibilance that marred one of the most important sonic qualities of the Sun recordings.
These new releases are not so much mere reissues as living, breathing cultural treasures. They are also two more releases in the ever-growing catalog of reissues of Intervention Records, which is one of the independent reissue labels setting the standard for the way iconic recordings should be released.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
Johnny Cash, Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar
A
Carl Perkins, Dance Album of Carl Perkins
B+
