Gene Vincent at Town Hall Party

Rating:
Summary: The Legend is Justified
Review: GENE VINCENT
'The Town Hall Party TV Shows 1958/1959'

Introduction (Jay Stewart)/Be-Bop-a-Lula/High Blood Pressure/Rip It Up/Introduction (Jay Stewart)/Dance To the Bop/You Win Again/For Your Precious Love/Introduction (Jay Stewart)/Rocky Road Blues/Pretty Pearly/Be-Bop-a-Lula/Introduction (Jay Stewart)/High School Confidential/Over The Rainbow/Introduction (Jay Stewart)/Roll Over Beethoven/Over The Rainbow/She She Little Sheila
Approximate Viewing Time: 45 minutes

Hot on the heels of the Eddie Cochran 'Town Hall Party TV Shows 1959' DVD comes a follow up starring one of the greatest rock 'n' roll originators, Gene Vincent. Our thanks have to go to the good people at Rockstar and Bear Family Records for their considerable effort in overcoming the numerous obstacles and making this video available to us, the panting rock 'n' roll fraternity.

This issue contains three performances by Gene on the famous Town Hall Party television show broadcast from Los Angeles, and the first is oh so historically important as it features Vincent with one of the line-ups of the famous Blue Caps. First broadcast on 25th October 1958, it has Johnny Meeks on lead guitar, Grady Owen on electric bass, Clyde Pennington on drums and Cliff Simmons on piano and they rock out well on a selection of six numbers, two of which were not normally associated with Gene. These are 'You Win Again' (performed a la Jerry lee Lewis style) and Vincent's hair tingling vocalising on 'For Your Precious Love', a vocal group classic which was originally by The Impressions featuring an 18 year old Jerry Butler. The other songs comprise two of the more obscure songs from Vincent's catalogue, 'High Blood pressure' and ''Rip It Up' (obscure as they are better known by versions from Huey Smith and Bill Haley/Little Richard respectively) and two of Gene's classics in 'Be-Bop-A-Lula' and 'Dance To The Bop'. The sound and vision are a trifle dodgy on this set but it does not hardly detract from the electictyfying performance being played out before our eyes as frontmen Vincent, Meek and Owen bop away with Messrs. Simmons and Pennington providing the beat. The video is worth it for this set alone.

The last mentioned numbers were all included on the CD issue 'The Town Hall Party TV Shows' (Rockstar RSRCD 016) but that is not the case with the second performance from 25th July 1959. On this occasion, Gene was backed up by Town Hall Party regulars such as Merle Travis on lead guitar, Jimmy Pruitt on piano, Harold Hensly on fiddle and saxophone, Cliff Crawford on trumpet, Johnny Bond on rhythm guitar, Skeets McDonald on electric bass, Pee Wee Adams on drums and Rose Maphis providing the hand claps. From the performance, it can be assumed that little or no rehearsal took place as the backing musicians are somewhat all over the place. That is apart from

Jimmy Pruitt who on more than one occasion holds the song together with some masterful pounding of the 88 keys, especially outstanding on 'Rocky Road Blues'. Again a mixture of numbers , some well associated with Vincent such as the aforementioned and a further 'Be-Bop-A-Lula' workout whilst 'Over The Rainbow and 'Pretty Little Pearly' are lesser known. That does not detract from Gene's performance and indeed it is good to see such numbers, especially the former which suits Vincent's ballad styling oh so well. Regrettably 'High School Confidential' does not really work.

For the third set, which was shown on 7th November 1959, Jimmy Pruitt and Pee Wee Adams are retained but Gene's friend Jerry Merritt takes over on lead guitar whilst the bass guitar is played by Pat Patterson and the hand clapping is provided by Fiddlin' Kate and Jeannie Sterling. Of the three shows, this is probably the most satisfying with both Gene's vocals and Merritt's guitar playing being absolutely spot on. All three numbers, 'Roll Over Beethoven/Over The Rainbow/She She Little Sheila', are excellently performed by all concerned, a real joy to watch and listen to.