I’m a farmer with a mandolin and a high tenor voice.
~Bill Monroe
“To me there’s no difference between Muddy Waters and Bill Monroe.”
~Bob Dylan (to John Pareles, Sept 1997)
William Smith Monroe (September 13, 1911 – September 9, 1996) was an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter, who created the style of music known as bluegrass. Because of this, he is commonly referred to as the “Father of Bluegrass“.
“They were fantastic singers. Lennon, to this day, it’s hard to find a better singer than Lennon was, or than McCartney was and still is.
I mean I’m in awe of McCartney. He’s about the only one that I am in awe of. But I’m in awe of him. He can do it all and he’s never let up, you know. He’s got the gift for melody, he’s got the rhythm. He can play any instrument. He can scream and shout as good as anybody and he can sing the ballad as good as anybody, you know so… And his melodies are, you know, effortless. That’s what you have to be in awe… I’m in awe of him maybe just because he’s just so damn effortless. I mean I just wish he’d quit, you know. [laughs] Just everything and anything that comes out of his mouth is just framed in a melody, you know …”
– Bob Dylan (Rolling Stone Magazine)
Well I’m sitting here wondering, will a matchbox hold my clothes
Yeah I’m sitting here wondering, will a matchbox hold my clothes
I ain’t got no matches, but I got a long way to go
I’m an ol’ poor boy and a long way from home
I’m an ol’ poor boy and a long way from home
Guess I’ll never be happy, eveything I do is wrong, yeah
He [Carl Perkins] really stood for freedom. That whole sound stood for all degrees of freedom. It would just jump off the turntable… we wanted to go where that was happening.
~Bob Dylan (note from Dylan @ Carl Perkins funeral)
Wikipedia:
Released
1957
Format
7″ Vinyl
Recorded
December 4, 1956
Genre
Rockabilly
Length
2:10
Label
Sun Records
Writer(s)
Carl Perkins
Producer
Sam Phillips
“Matchbox” is a rock and roll and rockabilly song written by Carl Perkins and first recorded by him at Sun Records in December 1956 and released on February 11, 1957 as a 45 single on Sun Records as Sun 261. It has become one of Perkins’ best-known recordings. Perkins’ “Matchbox” has been followed by many cover versions, notably by the Beatles.
Carl Perkins & Sam Phillips
After recording “Your True Love”, Carl Perkins’s father Buck suggested that he do “Match Box Blues”. Buck knew only a few lines from the song, either from a 1927 recording by Blind Lemon Jefferson, or from the version by country musicians The Shelton Brothers (who recorded the song twice in the 1930s, and again in 1947). As Perkins sang the few words his father had suggested, Jerry Lee Lewis, who was at that time a session piano player at Sun Studios, began a restrained boogie-woogie riff. Carl began picking out a melody on the guitar and improvised lyrics. On December 4, 1956 Carl Perkins recorded the song called “Matchbox”. Later that day, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and session pianist Jerry Lee Lewis were all in the Sun studio with Sam Phillips. The impromptu group formed at this jam session became known as the Million Dollar Quartet.
Perkins maintained that he had never heard Jefferson’s “Match Box Blues” when he recorded “Matchbox”. Jefferson’s song is about a mean spirited woman; Perkins’ was about a lovelorn “poor boy” with limited prospects.
22 February – 20 August 1969,EMI, Olympic and Trident Studios,London
Genre
Rock
Length
47:23
Label
Apple
Producer
George Martin
Abbey Road is the 11th studio album released by the English rock band The Beatles. It is their last recorded album, although Let It Be was the last album released before the band’s dissolution in 1970. Work on Abbey Roadbegan in April 1969, and the album was released on 26 September 1969 in the United Kingdom, and 1 October 1969 in the United States.
Abbey Road is widely regarded as one of The Beatles’ most tightly constructed albums, although the band was barely operating as a functioning unit at the time. Despite the tensions within the band, Abbey Road was released to near universal acclaim and is considered to be one of the greatest albums of all time. In 2012, Abbey Road was voted 14th on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”. In 2009, readers of the magazine also named Abbey Road the greatest Beatles album.
