Don't: Beatles songs with Don't

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When it appears at the start of a sentence, don’t is a command - as opposed to its use mid-sentence, where it is more of a negation of a condition. Compare: <Don't love me> as opposed to <You don't love me> or <Don't do that> vs. <You don't do that>.

Of the <don't> songs in the Beatles' repertoire, it was "Why Don't We Do It in the Road" that got me started.

The “White Album” is quirky in a number of ways. Loudersound.com actually lists 50 things you need to know about it. Let me count a few. The minimalist cover was in itself a statement, particularly since it came on the heels of the rather gaudy cover to the Sgt Peppers album. Many of the songs were not recorded with all members of the band playing. Check out the link to loudersound for 48 more trivia about the album (I don’t want to appropriate their work, so click here)

Why Don’t We Do It in the Road (now there’s a title to test your knowledge of the rules of English capitalization!) seems to me to be quite representative of their mindset, again, in a number of ways. It is basically Paul and Ringo. The idea came to Paul in India, as did a number of the inspirations for the album. The “theme” (if said term is appropriate to a single line of lyrics) is as flippant as anything else on the album: Bungalow Bill, Rocky Raccoon, Warm Gun … It is also one of 2 songs on the album that have Don’t in the title. The song is an impressive example of how to expand something simple into something more: there is an argument to make about whether “it” could be more than what Paul saw that gave him the idea; there is the amusement that someone can “get away with” singing about “it”; there is the vocal expression that kinda culminates in the “from-the-soul” screaming line; there is the creative, abrupt ending 

Don’t Pass Me By, the other <don’t> song from the White Album is another McCartney/Starr recording without the other two, but with “crazy” violin from Jack Fallon (a one-off?)   is apparently a song Ringo wrote back in the early 60s.

Other Beatles’ don’ts include 

Don't let me down

Honey Don’t (Carl Perkins)

Don’t Bother Me (Them Beatles)

I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party (Acoustic Beatles Band)

May/Might - Carl Perkins: The Rain Might Wash Your Love Away

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I don't 'specially follow Carl Perkins. It's a name I know, but I couldn't - before today - provide much background.

That's one of the side benefits of writing for SMM - you might learn something new: in this case, how is Carl Perkins associated with May/Might.

May/Might is a theme so open as to include <the month of May>, <any songs including May/Might in the title or lyrics> and most anything in between.
I went for the chance to learn something new by looking for songs with May/Might in the title: and there are many.

Carl Perkins - y'all know the name, but ... can you correctly associate it to:
a) Rockabilliy
b) Blue Suede Shoes
c) The Beatles' <Honey Don't>
d) May/Might
e) All of the above!!!

Correct Answer: e) - Carl Perkins did it all. RIP 1998. Age ~ 62

Perkins should rightly get credit for helping establish/define the rockabilly sound - a melange of hillbilly, boogie, honkey-tonk and the evolving musical styles of the early 1950's.
He wrote Blue Suede Shoes. According to Paul McCartney, he influenced the Beatles. And of course he wrote the May/Might song featured here.

Lots of other names come into play in defining the Rockabilly sound, but Sam Phillips, James Cotton, and a guy named Elvis Presley make the list of those most of us know. Most of them would note the influence that Carl Perkins had on their style and the genre.

Carl Perkins ... Chet Atkins ... anyone who can pick a guitar that way (and that includes Mark Knopfler with Chet Atkins and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and so many more of the same ilk) - folks that display a form of country pickin' with a jazz edge, if you please. I'll gladly listen. And wish I could come close.

While I also like the sax style of Spyro Gyra (and for me, the sax just rolls and the guitar picks the way I like to hear it), it's the roots of the style - the essential I-IV-V format with a significant variation that turns me on, and Carl Perkins does the job.

Elvis Covers Part I: Blue Suede Shoes

Carl Perkins: Blue Suede Shoes

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Here's a cover of a cover: Carl Perkins redoing "Blue Suede Shoes," which was an Elvis Presley cover of an original...by Carl Perkins.

"Blue Suede Shoes" was the opening track on Elvis's 1956 RCA debut record, which, despite its reputation as the record that launched commercial rock and roll, is actually mostly a collection of cover songs. Legend has it that Elvis never intended to release "Blue Suede Shoes" as a single. But, things don't always turn out the way they're planned.

As Carl Perkins could attest. Sun Record founder Sam Phillips was convinced Perkins was going to be as big as Elvis. Though Perkins wasn't as photogenic (he was already balding at age 23), he could sing the same type of blues-infused rockabilly as Presley, and could write and play lead guitar too.

"Blue Suede Shoes" is Perkins masterwork. Inspired by a conversation with his buddy Johnny Cash about the fancy footwear U.S. soldiers in Germany wore when they went into town, "Blue Suede Shoes" was released as a single by Sun on the first day of 1956. With Elvis sold to RCA, Sun was in need of a big hit and Perkins provided it. The song soared to the top of the country charts, and became a pop and R&B hit too, ultimately selling a million records.

In March 1956, with his career in rapid ascent, Perkins was summoned to New York to appear on the influential Ed Sullivan and Perry Como TV shows. En route, the fellow driving Perkins and his brother Jay (who was in Perkins' band) to New York fell asleep at the wheel. The brothers were seriously injured. (Jay eventually died from his injuries.) Carl spent months convalescing. Legend has it that a reluctant Elvis allowed "Blue Suede Shoes" to be released as a single to help out Perkins financially. Elvis's take did not fare as well as Perkins original, reaching only number 20 on the charts. But, due to Perkins's prolonged absence and Evlis's performance of the song on TV and in the movie GI Blues, "Blue Suede Shoes" became an Elvis song.

By the time Perkins was back on his feet, his career momentum was lost. Despite accolades from Elvis and the Beatles, Perkins never came close to matching the success of "Blue Suede Shoes." Perhaps in an attempt to reclaim his best-known song, Perkins re-recorded "Blue Suede Shoes" dozens of times. This take is produced by Dave Edmunds from the soundtrack to Porky's Revenge -- perhaps the greatest soundtrack to a rotten movie ever.

Dance Music: Put Your Cat Clothes On

For these guys, Elvis has never left the building

Carl Perkins: Put Your Cat Clothes On

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One of the highlights of my visit to Tokyo last October was a Sunday in Shinjuku's Yoyogi Park. It's one of Tokyo's largest parks, hosted the 1964 Olympic Village, abuts the gorgeous Meiji Shrine, and is one of the best people-watching venues anywhere. On that Sunday (Halloween, coincidentally) I saw all sorts of groups and clubs coming together for whatever it was that caught their non-work fancy: cosplayers in their Gothic Lolita finery gathered near the entrance, martial arts clubs practiced together in a shady field, adult jump-rope clubs perfected their routines near the pedestrian bridge, teenaged girls worked out synchronized pop dance moves, dogwalkers paraded their pets on the main walkway. The variety of activity was astounding.

The most unusual gathering, though, has to be the Tokyo Rockabilly Club, who set up shop right at the main entrance and have been doing so every Sunday for years. In Japanese fashion, they uniformly dress to conform to a non-conforming greaser standard: leather jackets, massive pompadours and ducktails, sunglasses, and shocking (for Japan) tattoos. They crank up their boom boxes to feature both Japanese and classic American rokabiri (rockabilly) hits. And then they dance. The photo I took doesn't do it justice; you should check them out on YouTube.

Carl Perkins was one of Sun Records' biggest rockabilly stars in the mid-50s, loved and covered by both Elvis and The Beatles. His first hit was the classic Blue Suede Shoes, but the one I'm going with seems to suit the Shinjuku crowd scene better. Rock on!

Footwear: Blue Suede Shoes

Carl Perkins: Blue Suede Shoes

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Blue Suede Shoes is an important song in Rock's history. It's considered one of the first Rockabilly records and simultaneously rose to number one on the R&B, Country and Pop charts its day. Johnny Cash gave Perkins the idea for the tune - Wikipedia has an outstanding write up of the history of Blue Suede Shoes, be sure to check it out. From the History Of Rock website:

Blue Suede Shoes song put 23-year old Carl Perkins in the national spotlight. Appearances were arranged for the Ed Sullivan and Perry Como TV shows, but while traveling to New York for those engagements he was involved in a terrible automobile accident. The driver, Dave Stewart fell asleep at the wheel and the car ran into a pick-up truck near Dover, Delaware. Stewart was killed, Carl suffered a fractured skull and broken arm. His brother Jay's neck was broken from which he would never recover. Eventually Elvis Presley, covered Blue Suede Shoes, which became Elvis' third top forty hit. These events served to steal some of the his thunder and Perkins never quite recovered his momentum in the world of pop, although his place in music history was assured.

Things that you can do instead of stepping on Carl's blue suede shoes:

Knock him down, step on his face

Slander his name all over the place

Burn his house

Steal his car

Drink his liquor from an old fruit jar