Robert Gordon - Robert Gordon
Robert Gordon - American Neo-Rockabilly
1.Last one to know 2.Lonely blue boy 3.Ain't gonna cry 4.Ten cats down 5.Seasons of my heart 6.Hello walls 7.Bertha Lou 8.If I had yesterday over again 9.Butterfly 10.Gonna romp and stomp 11.All for the love of a girl 12.Marylee 13.Pretty girls everywhere 14.Train of loveRobert Gordon
When he was a schoolboy living in Bethesda, Maryland, in the 1950s, Robert Gordon listened to the radio incessantly and his thirst was insatiable. He listened to doo-wop, pop and early rock'n'roll. He heard hillbilly music and country music. He listened to gospel and rhythm & blues.
By the 60s, Gordon was leading his own band. He played around Washington D.C. and the suburbs of Maryland. He attended rhythm & blues and soul shows at the Howard Theater, the D.C. equivalent of the Apollo in New York City, and by the 1970s, he'd moved to New York, where he was the lead singer in the Tuff Darts, an early New York punk band. As it turned out, he had little sympathy for punk rock, and Gordon exited in the early '70s.
In 1976, he started singing again, and this time he decided to push in the direction that he wanted - toward the sounds that he loved. He lived and breathed these sounds in his performances, and the result was a pair of albums on Private Stock, Robert Gordon With Link Wray and Fresh Fish Special. The association with Link Wray ended in 1978, and Wray was replaced by British guitarist Chris Spedding. With the recording of Rock Billy Boogie, his third album, Gordon was signed to RCA. He released two subsequent albums on RCA - Bad Boy and Are You Gonna Be the One, the latter featuring D.C. guitar legend Danny Gatton.
For more than 30 years, Robert Gordon has been one of the defining musical influences of his generation. Delivering his vocals with power and intensity, he's created a unique rock 'n' roll attitude driven by love, hurt, sadness and absolute conviction. He's an authentic American voice, singing authentic American rock'n'roll music.
"All the classic Private Stock/RCA Gordon can be had on three Bear Family CDs and they're worth it if you're hep to Elvis-like rock and roll. Here comes an independent release with a cheesy cover giving no clue as to the origins, but sounding more recent. After Robert Gordon had guitarists like Link Wray, Chris Spedding and Danny Gatton during his heyday, some dude named Quentin Jones (the owner of LList Records) plays the 6 string with so-so results. If yours truly has a gripe with this release it's the amateurish barband sound on a few cuts. The other gripe is with material. At least two thirds is old country like 'Hello Walls'. When you hear Gordon, you wanna ROCK! Them's the gripes, now you still hasta buy it folks. There are enough rockers here to keep your rockabilly party jumpin' Check out 'Bertha Lou' (I wanna conjugate with you) or 'Pretty Girls Everywhere' for the same tasty rockers you expect. The production is sparse which is a shame - heck, can you imagine what a Dave Edmunds could do with this stuff?" George W. Krieger DDS, the rock and roll Dentist