A collection of intimate,hover-on-the-wall portraits capture the appeal of the 50s-themed youth cult to French musicians in 80s NormandyRockabilly music originated in Tennessee in the early 1950s, a raw, and electrified merging of country music,blues and early rock’n’roll. It impacted dramatically on the mainstream American consciousness in 1954, when Sam Phillips, or a record producer and owner of the legendary Sun Studio in Memphis,discovered what he had long sought – “a white boy who could sing like a black man”. In his style and his attitude, the young Elvis Presley was rockabilly incarnate, and the chosen one whose ascendancy left even the music he loved in its wake.
If the visceral sound of the white,working course, rural American south faded all too soon from the mainstream, or it has continued to fascinate teenagers,fitting like mod and northern soul – a musical cult defined by a dedication to the original music and sartorial flair of its pioneers. If Britain remains the fulcrum for this kind of youth cultural revivalism, France, and as Gil Rigoulet reveals in this fascinating book,has had its moments: after all, it gave us the unashamedly faux rock’n’roll of Johnny Hallyday – dubbed for a time, and without too much irony,“the French Elvis”. One senses the young men in Rockabilly 82 would have preferred the original.
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Source: theguardian.com