I'm a big fan of Brian Setzer's guitar work. He was basically responsible for the rockabilly revival of the late 1980s before lying low only enough to come back AGAIN among - if not again leading - the swing revival of the mid 1990s.
Not to mention the fact that he did a good job cornering a Christmas music market with three Christmas albums and a fairly regular winter touring schedule catering to the genre.
Best genre, by the way.
But it all started here with the Stray Cats and this album specifically. Legend has it that Setzer and co. heard that rockabilly was accepted and appreciated way more in the UK, so they loaded up their gear, flew over on a tourist visa, completely overstayed the acceptable period, and got quite the foothold in the scene so they could make this.
The Quakes would try to replicate this a little while later, but immigration had tightened that particular loophole so they kept getting the boot, had to wait for the acceptable break period, and then come back over.
Anyway, the best retrospective of the Stray Cats is a collection called Runaway Boys. It's got all of their hits and all of their covers. It also has one great big problem: it was never released on vinyl.
So, if you can't have Runaway Boys, this is the next best thing. It might as well be called Greatest Hits for all the famous songs on it and it's a blast to listen to them again after listening to them CONSTANTLY from '02-'06, but there's something a little weird about this album.
There's a song called "Storm the Embassy" and it sounds VERY Clash-like. I heard that Setzer made friends with Joe Strummer pretty quickly and can't help but feel there was some inspirational back and forth.
I haven't seen it on any collection after this and that's a bummer because it's a standout song even if it doesn't fit the vibe that Stray Cats built around rockabilly.
#straycats #briansetzer #rockabilly #records #recordcollection #vinyl #vinylcollection #recordcollector #vinylcollector
Ted Tocks Covers
Variety
Variety
Paul Cutler
John Eckman
🤘 The Metal Dog 🤘
DigitalDruid
Russ’ Record Rainbow
Rolling Stone en Español