Bobby Fuller
El Paso Rock - Norton 1996
Tracks: 1. El Paso Rock (Live) / 2. Shakedown / 3. Guess We'll Fall in Love / 4. Rock House / 5. Unreliable Irresistable Girl / 6. I Fought the Law (El Paso Version) / 7. To Make Love Last / 8. Summertime Blues / 9. Eastwood High Dance Radio Spot / 10. Angel Face (Live) / 11. Bodine / 12. Stringer / 13. Nervous Breakdown / 14. Nancy Jean / 15. Pamela / 16. Keep a Knockin' / 17. You Made Me Cry / 18. Do You Wanna Dance / 19. The Chase / 20. Only for You / 21. Keep on Dancing / 22. You're in Love / 23. King of the Beach / 24. Medley (Live)
Comments:
Bobby Fuller could have become one of the real great stars; some might argue that this has in fact happened, only posthumously. In terms of songwriting, guitar playing and overall musicality, Fuller is very much on par with two of his great inspirations Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran. Fuller, who, like his idols, died quite young in 1966, did live to experince the first part of "The British Invasion" and his later numbers with The Bobby Fuller Four are clearly influenced by this.
This El Paso Rock release is the first of three, all of which are highly recommended. Many tracks have not been released before, but there are also songs Fuller had released on singles in the years 1962-64 at companies like Yucca, Todd and Exeter. Fuller lived and breathed his music and he recorded large numbers of songs in his home studio that had the best quality equipment of that time. Thus, one can enjoy the high quality of the recordings and much of the previously unreleased material is at full level with what was released. Many of his best songs are found in several versions, and it may be difficult to keep track of whether you have found them all and which ones are the best. From this CD 1, tracks like "I Fought the Law", "Only For You", "Keep on Dancing" and "King of the Beach" were re-recorded with The Bobby Fuller Four and officially released on Mustang Records in 1965-66.
Musically, you’ll find fine pop ballads (including "To Make Love Last", "Nancy Jean" "You Made Me Cry", "Only For You" and "You're in Love") with Fuller himself as songwriter to most of them – his way of writing these pop-ballads is very similar to that of Buddy Holly’s. There are Ventures-style instrumentals where he gets the opportunity to show his virtuosity on the electric guitar and there is classic rock 'n' roll / rockabilly recorded ether in the studio or live with an audience – Fuller was locally very popular and he had a great talent for promoting himself and the band.
Fuller's exciting and sad story, too, is nicely and intriguingly told over the three CD booklets; a little frustrating that I have not yet managed to find a CD at a reasonable price.
Part of the music can also be found on the fine boxset “Shakedown! The Texas Tapes Revisited ”from 1996.
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