Go, Cat, Go! The Life and Times of Carl Perkins: The King of Rockabilly
Perkins, Carl ; McGee, David
(1996)
Hyperion Press ,
New York (NY)
ISBN 0-7868-8237-9 ,
437 pages
softcover
,
23.3 x
15.7 x
3.2 cm
, 0.696 kg
Category: Carl Perkins
Description:
Biography of Carl Perkins
Review:
From the back cover:
One of the last living pioneers of rock, Carl Perkins is best known as the man who wrote
'Blue Suede Shoes', the song that galvanized a generation of teenagers and redefined the
honky-tonk music of his native South for the pop mainstream. His story, though, is much
more than the saga of a megahit.
Born in a three-room shack in rural Tennessee, Carl Perkins was the son of a sharecropper
whose family worked the cotton fiels. The stirring music of his black co-workers struck a
chord in the young perkins, and while practicing his guitar to the music of the Grand Ole
Opry on the radio, Carl realized that 'country music needed the black man's rhythms'.
When he finally formed a band with his brothers, the music they played was equal parts
blues, bluegrass, and country - and it drew crowds of white workers to the 'tonks where they
let loose after a hard day's work. Eventually, though, Perkins realized he had to light out
for Memphis to make his name. It was there - at Sam Phillips's Sun Records - that Carl and
Elvis Presley became friends, and they were joined on the road by Johnny Cash for
history-making tours of the South. Perkins's life then alternated between musical
success and personal misfortune, but lessons learned in a life lived full measure gave him the
strength to overcome his own trials with alcoholism, cancer, and family tragedy, and to carry
on with songwriting and performing even in his darkest hours.
Go, Cat, Go! is a heartbreaking and exhilarating testament to a living legend, a country boy
who played a pivotal role in a musical revolution.
