Rocker still on a roll

It's not every day you get to chat with a rock 'n' roll pioneer and legend who played with Elvis Presley in 1955 and Bruce Springsteen in 2001.

John Brummett is blogging daily online.

But Wednesday was that day at the Central Arkansas Main Library in downtown Little Rock.

The library's Legacies and Lunch program launched a book written by Marvin Schwartz and published by the library-affiliated Butler Center Books. It's called We Wanna Boogie: The Rockabilly Roots of Sonny Burgess and the Pacers.


A study of a rich time and raucous place, the story is drawn from Burgess' musical exploits in the genres of hillbilly, then rockabilly, then rock 'n' roll. It dates from the early 1950s and the vibrant and sometimes rough-and-tumble roadhouse culture along U.S. 67 in and around Burgess' river-town home of Newport.

An early-teen Mike Beebe lived in that culture. High school kids could walk right on in to some of those honky-tonks, where fistfights broke out in the front and gambling took place in the back.

Perhaps there is some connection between formative-year exposure to sin--with Beebe in Newport, Bill Clinton in Hot Springs--and adult political accomplishment.

Burgess is 85 now. The remaining Pacers are in their 70s and 80s. But they still rock--vigorously, and right on time--at seven shows a month on average.

They regaled a crowd at the Ron Robinson Theater in the River Market in late May to celebrate Burgess' birthday. And author Schwartz regaled the lunch audience Wednesday with his presentation of their story.

In the fall of 1955, Elvis--a Sun Records phenomenon but not yet the legend he would soon commence becoming with RCA--wound up somehow doing a fundraising concert at Swifton High School next to Newport.

That night, Presley joined Burgess and his band at Newport's famous Silver Moon Club. (A young Arkie named Johnny Cash also played.) From that jam session, Elvis recommended Burgess and his band to Sun Records, which put out five of their records.

"Just as nice and polite a young man as he could be," Burgess told me when I inquired as to the kind of guy Elvis was in his early years.

He said Elvis played 260 shows a year in those days because it was better than driving a truck.

Did Burgess know at the time that Elvis was ... well, better than the rest of them, the likeliest to achieve epic fame?

"Oh, yeah."

How?

"Talent. He had a great voice. He had that presence on stage. And he was pretty."

Burgess split from the Pacers to try a solo career, eventually winding up back in Newport where he and the guys reunited to become Arkansas festival-playing mainstays.

If you're old enough, you might remember that the Razorbacks beat Texas, 27-24, in October 1965 on their way to an undefeated regular season. And you might remember the ensuing smash hit on local radio station KAAY, the "Mighty 1090," called "The Short Squashed Texan." That's a Pacers' original.

In 1996, Burgess landed a record deal in Nashville. His album was produced by a then-resident of Nashville by the name of Garry W. Tallent.

As it happens, Tallent is a founding member and longtime bass player in Springsteen's E Street Band.

And as it happens, Springsteen always has great songs strewn about that he has chosen never to record. And he is usually perfectly willing to give them away--"Blinded by the Light," to Manfred Mann; "Fire," which he wrote for Elvis but gave to the Pointer Sisters; "Because the Night," given unfinished to Patti Smith.

Tallent told Burgess that there was a song Bruce had written but wasn't doing anything with. He said it would be great for the album.

Called "Tiger Rose," it was a hauntingly catchy ditty laced in a country style and telling the story of a hard-luck guy dealing with his wife's infidelity. It went like this: "Tiger Rose, let me read some prose to you. Just as long as it shows my love, any verse will do. Honey, I could make you happy if you'd only let me, heaven knows. Why, why, Tiger Rose?"

"I said, 'Well, OK," Burgess told me with a shrug.

"I remember Garry got on the phone with Bruce, and Bruce dictated the song to him over the phone. And then we got up and did it."

You can hear it on that album, simply named Sonny Burgess. Or you can go on YouTube and search out Burgess and Springsteen performing the song together at a 9/11 benefit concert in 2001 at the legendary Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, N.J.

Springsteen comes in at the wrong time and Sonny sets him right.

"One of the good guys of the business," Burgess said of Springsteen.

As is, it's safe to say, Sonny Burgess, still living in Newport; still celebrating the music with a weekly show from 5 to 7 p.m. Sundays on Arkansas State University's public radio station in Jonesboro; still rockin' with the spry Pacers--most recently that very Wednesday night at Stickyz in the River Market.

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John Brummett's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at jbrummett@arkansasonline.com. Read his blog at brummett.arkansasonline.com, or his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.

Editorial on 09/07/2014

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