A list of the other songs nominated by Bob within his post-doctorate book, which we have already covered, is given at the end. Each article has at least one recording of the song within it.
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By Tony Attwood
There are many, many songs in the “Philosophy of Modern Song” that I did not know before getting the book and digging around for recordings of the songs on the internet. So working through the volume it was always a relief to come across a track I know perfectly well, and indeed had even bought a copy of as a 78rpm disk. But then, of course, who doesn’t know at least one version of Blue Suede Shoes? Bob nominates the Carl Perkins version, and why not, for he was the composer.
And yet such familiarity brings with it a problem, for “Blue Suede Shoes” is a song that doesn’t seem to lend itself to a particularly wide range of re-interpretation. It is what it is. Of course, one can sing it as a slow blues with a new melody, and that is fun (at least I think it is fun, but then I was the only person in the room), but thus far I have not found anyone who has recorded it as anything but a re-working of what Carl Perkins did originally.
And the point about this song and its place in the history of music is that it was the first hit record that can be said to contain a combination of pop, rock, country and blues, all within the same song. So maybe that is why the music refuses to allow any of its elements to be pushed aside. It demands to stay as Carl Perkins wanted it.
What is also fascinating (at least to a musician) about the original versions of this song is that the opening verse has an extra two beats inserted after each line. Thus, we have, “It’s one for the money,” which takes up four beats, and is then followed by two beats without any singing, and then “two for the show,” which repeats the same extra two-beat pause at its end, before “three to get ready”. This extra two-beat irregularity doesn’t occur in any further verses, and over time, subsequent recording artists have lost it. But the original version has a 10-beat verse at the beginning, which musically really is a bit odd.
The song, however, has always retained its classic original 12-bar blues concept of verse, chorus, verse, chorus and then an instrumental break. The instrumental break, in fact follow the class 12 bar blues approach, and after the second such break, there is a repeat of the first verse followed by a coda of the lyrics “blue blue, blue suede shoes.” It is in every way a classic and it set the scene for millions of songs thereafter.
Elvis Presley recorded “Blue Suede Shoes” in 1956, and it appears as the opening track of his first album. Indeed, it was the song that Elvis performed constantly on TV (although mimed), and it went on to be recorded by everyone from Buddy Holly to Post Malone.
And of course it appears constantly in thevarious lists of the greatest pop and rock songs of all time.
One of the other interesting points about the song is that although it has been recorded by hundreds of artists, virtually no one can find a new arrangement that is truly different from the place where the song started. I am sure there is a version somewhere that really does do something very different with the music, but for the moment, it has evaded me.
So what makes it such an eternal hit? Obviously, the music is dead simple both in terms of performance and message, but the message itself is slightly different from all that has gone before – it asserted the prime importance of fashion. For pop and rock musicians and fans, the way one dressed was an issue – something that subsequently led on to the style differences between the mods and rockers.
Yet although some songs glorified the way the newly affluent teens and 20s dressed, not too many songs found a wider audience. Yet “Blue Suede Shoes” did. It is, of course, a classic piece of rock n roll, but it is also a song that defines and identifies a certain group within society. Those who relished this song in its early days were the people who had been told over and over by their parents to “dress properly” and “look smart” and here at last was a song which in the most simple of terms said, “not in your style – I’ve got my own style now.”
Which is why it remains a classic and probably will do forever.
Previously in this series
- Ball of confusion
- Blue Bayou
- Blue Suede Shoes
- Cheaper to Keep Her
- CIA Man – the Fugs
- Detroit City
- Don’t let me be misunderstood
- Dirty Life and Times
- Detroit City
- Dirty Life and Times
- Don’t let me be misunderstood
- El Paso
- I got a woman
- If you don’t know me by now
- I’ve always been crazy
- Jesse James and Po Boy
- Keep my Skillet Good and Greasy
- Little White Cloud that Cried
- London’s Calling
- Mac the Knife
- Midnight Rider
- Money Honey
- My Generation and Desolation Row
- Nellie was a Lady
- Old Violin by Johnny Paycheck
- On the road again (save a horse)
- On the street where you live
- Pancho and Lefty
- Please don’t let me be misunderstood
- Poor Little Fool
- Poison Love
- Pump it up
- Ruby are you mad
- Saturday night at the movies
- Strangers in the Night
- Truckin
- Take Me from This Garden of Evil
- The Pretender
- The Whiffenpoof Song
- There stands the glass
- Tutti Fruiti (A wap bop a … etc)
- Volare
- Waist Deep in the Big Muddy
- When
- Where or When
- Willy the Wandering Gypsy and Me
- Without a song
- Your cheating heart