Sixty Year Old Shoes: Remembering Carl Perkins and Blue Suede Shoes

Abstract

Carl Perkins and Ron Rendleman. Disciple in Blue Suede Shoes. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1978.Carl Perkins and David McGee. Go, Cat, Go!: Life and Times of Carl Perkins, the King of Rockabilly. New York: Hyperion, 1996.Stephanie Bennett (Producer) and Tom Gutteridge (Director). Carl Perkins and Friends - Blue Suede Shoes: A Rockabilly Session (DVD). London: Snapper Music, 1986. www.snappermusic. com.Jorgen de Mylius (Producer). Carl Perkins: Rock 'n' Roll Legend (DVD). West Long Beach, New Jersey: Kultur International Films, 2001. www.kultur.com.To the pop music aficionado, there are certain songs that are canon, that are anthems, that are part of the pop culture fabric. Blue Suede Shoes by Carl Perkins (1932-1998) is one of those songs. Recorded in December of 1955, and released on January 1, 1956, the song will mark its sixtieth anniversary in 2016. Written on a brown paper sack in Perkins' rentsubsidized apartment in Jackson, Tennessee, Blue Suede Shoes went on to become Sun Records' first million-selling record, as well as the first single to top the pop, country, and rhythm and blues charts. But that's not all. Perkins' biographer, David McGee, explained in a personal e-mail (June 16, 2015) that,Blue Suede Shoes captured the energy and the optimistic fervor of post-war America and of an emerging teen culture replete with its own slang, fashions and symbols. No other early rock 'n' roll song spoke so directly to the new dawn in American popular culture and to its pride in having some distinguishing, colorful symbol to call its own-blue suede shoes.The song has since been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame (1986), ranked 95th on Rolling Stone's (2004) list of The Greatest Songs of all Time, and added to the Library of Congress National Recording Registry (2006). Perkins, himself, was in the second class of inductees for the Rock and Roll of Fame (1987).As popular as Blue Suede Shoes may be, the composer, Carl Perkins, might be less known (most people seem to associate Elvis Presley with the song). There are two books solely about him, and two particular DVDs that can shed light on the man and his music.Published in 1978 by Zondervan-a world-leading provider of Christian communications-Disciple in Blue Suede Shoes is Perkins' autobiographical telling of his spiritual journey. book begins with two touching forwards-one by his daughter, Debbie Perkins-Swift, and the other by his former labelmate and lifelong friend, Johnny Cash. These forwards set the tone for the rest of the book. At 146 pages, the book includes information about his upbringing in Lake County, Tennessee, and other familiar stories in Perkins' lore, including the story regarding the inspiration for Blue Suede Shoes, an account of his infamous car accident that nearly killed him and his career, and meeting the Beatles. focus of the book, though, is Perkins' telling of his struggles with alcohol and how his faith helped him overcome that temptation. Readers who are spiritually minded may appreciate how he discusses the influence of his family, his local church and its minister, and even how Johnny Cash played a role in encouraging Perkins to put down the bottle and pick up the Bible.At more than twice the pages of Disciple in Blue Suede Shoes, Perkins' biography with David McGee, Go, Cat, Go!: Life and Times of Carl Perkins, the King of Rockabilly, presents many of the same stories in the previous book, but with more detail. McGee supplements the accounts with historical details, vivid word pictures, and in a somewhat unusual format for a biography, McGee ...constructed 'The Voice of Carl Perkins' sections as a way for Carl, in the first person, to step outside the linear chronology... and speak directly to events that shaped him. biography includes the eighteen years of Perkins' life since Disciple in Blue Suede Shoes with accounts of performing with his sons, recording projects, reactions to the deaths of his labelmates (Presley, Orbison), and settling a prolonged royalty dispute with Sam Phillips. …