Rockin' Bones: 1950s Punk & Rockabilly

Rockin' Bones: 1950s Punk & Rockabilly

(Rhino)

God Bless Rhino for their all-encompassing love of the genre. Rockin' Bones, a 4-CD, 101-song box set of punk and rockabilly from 1954-69, is like Nuggets for the ducktail crowd. The packaging, from the back alley knife fight on the front to the 45-shaped CDs and yearbook-style liner notes, is pure kitsch, but the music is damn hollerin'. Texas legend Ronnie Dawson ("Rockin' Bones"), Johnny Cash ("Get Rhythm"), Carl Perkins ("Blue Suede Shoes"), Jerry Lee Lewis ("Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On"), and Elvis ("One Night of Sin") get the familiar names outta the way, leaving room for the bizarre. "Little Girl" by John & Jackie features orgasmic shouts from Jackie; there's the squawking "Chicken Rock" by Fat Daddy Holmes, the Southern scratch of Jeff Daniels' "Switch Blade Sam," and Hasil Adkins' revered "Chicken Walk." Bones also features a good number of female artists in an era when the fairer sex was usually delegated to virgin or hussy. Barbara Pittman, with her smoky voice and sexually liberated lyrics, gets to business on "I Need a Man." There's Wanda Jackson's Armed Forces romp in the hay, "Fujiyama Mama," the teased blonde bomp of Jackie DeShannon's "Trouble," and Joyce Green's "Black Cadillac," on which she threatens to kill her two-timin' man, bury him, and ride to his funeral in the aforementioned car. Hot damn. Between-song snippets of teen-gangs-on-the-loose pulp commentary completes this set, and even at 101 songs, it never feels too long. Rave up.