Text by David Post / FFanzeen, 1981
Introduction © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2016
Images from the Internet
This article was originally published in FFanzeen, issue #8, dated 1981. It was written by David Post. This Hoboken
resident came to my attention as the bassist of Ronnie and the Jitters, who were the last band to ever play upstairs at Max’s Kansas City (I was there).
He would later be one of the co-owners of the club Maxwell’s, and is now in a
more formal swing band called Swingadelic, using a stand-up bass. He’s also a
great guy.
As for Duane Eddy, who was born in Upstate New York before his family
moved to the Southwest, he is still around and kicking as of this reprinting,
at age 78. Even as late at 2010, he sold out London’s Royal Festival Hall. Along
with numerous awards, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994,
before the Hall became a joke. – RBF, 2016
This year marks the 23rd anniversary
of “Twang.” You say you don’t know what “twang” is? Well, where in God’s name
have you been? Webster’s defines it like
this:
“twang”/n 1: a
harsh quick ringing sound like that of a plucked bowstring 2: nasal speech or
resonance 3: the characteristic speech of a region.”
Everyone else who knows (like Dave
Edmunds, whose new LP is entitled Twangin’,
and New York City’s Rousers, who’ve penned their own tune called “Twanged”)
defines it as the guitar sound that Duane Eddy used as his signature.
Duane Eddy came out of Phoenix in the
mid-Fifties, and didn’t stop churning out instrumental hits until the British
Invasion of the Sixties came along and provided a new sound for America’s rock’n’rollers.
Eddy’s cool guitar style consisted of
flipping on his amp’s tremolo switch and playing simple, bluesy riffs on the
bass strings of his hollow body Gretsch guitar, using the Bigsby “whanger” bar
to get that real lowdown “twang.” His band, the Rebels, would play an easy
rambling beat at a medium tempo while Eddy would alternate verses with a
raunchy tenor sax. Hoots and hollers were always interjected by the band, and
ultimately featured on a number called “Yep!” This formula (along with the help of
Lee Hazelwood, Eddy’s producer and sometimes co-writer) brought Duane Eddy and
the Rebels nearly twenty Top-40 hits.
One of Eddy’s earliest and most
famous singles was “Rebel Rouser.” This simple driving riff really kicked off
his career, reaching number 49 in Cash
Box’s 100 in 1958, the year of Danny and the Juniors’ “At the Hop,” David
Seville and the Chipmunks, and [Sheb Wooley’s] “The Purple People Eater.” More
hits quickly followed, such as the up-tempo “Ramrod” and the toping shuffle of “Forty
Miles of Bad Road,” and Duane Eddy was well on his way to becoming one of
America’s biggest international stars. He was in demand for soundtracks and
parts in movies and television, and made several guest appearances in “Have Gun
Will Travel.”
Soon everything was “twangsville,” especially
the names of Eddy’s albums, which included Have
Twang Guitar Will Travel, Twang’s the Thang, Million Dollars’ Worth of Twang, Twangy
Guitar, Twangsville, Biggest Twang of All, and of course, The Roaring Twangies. Most of Eddy’s
albums and singles were recorded in Phoenix on Philadelphia’s Jamie label, and
RCA has put out several re-issues. A good bulk of the material can still be
obtained through the mail from Jamie.
In the early Sixties, instrumental
artists like Duane Eddy were starting to get quite a bit of competition from
the vocal “girl-group” bands and the oncoming British Invasion. Like everyone
else, Eddy tried to cash in on the various bandwagons. The resulting product
was Twistin’ with Duane Eddy, Surfin’,
Duane a Go Go, and his own band of girl singers, the Rebelettes. Production
qualities started suffering about this time. Gone was the old, raw, raunchy style,
and in was a newer Muzak-like production complete with strings and the
Rebelettes high harmonies. Instrumentalists were a dying breed.
Though he continued recording for
various labels until the mid-Seventies, it’s ironic that the last hit on which
Eddy appeared, he wasn’t the featured artists. Remember back in 1966, Nancy
Sinatra came out with “These Boots Are Made For Walking”? You know that
growling, descending bass line? Yep. That’s Duane Eddy.
"Rebel Rouser":
"Cannonball" live
"These Boots":
Ronnie and the Jitters:
Swingadelic
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