Paul Burlison

Paul Burlison (born February 4, 1929 in Brownsville , Tennessee , † September 27, 2003 in Horn Lake , Tennessee) was an American rockabilly musician and guitarist . Burlison was a member of the well-known Johnny Burnette Trio .

Life

Childhood and youth

Born in Brownsville, Paul Burlison grew up in Memphis . Burlison learned to play the guitar from his brother-in-law and spent a lot of his youth on Beale Street , famous for its rhythm and blues clubs. After building his own electric guitar, she began performing with Shelby Fallon on KWEM in West Memphis , Arkansas . He also played with Smokey Joe Baugh and Howlin Wolf in the early 1950s ; However, he could not join Wolf's band because he was white. Instead he found musical partners for a short time in the Snearly Ranch Boys .

Career

Burlison started a career as a boxer shortly thereafter. During the Golden Gloves in 1949 he met Dorsey Burnette , who had the same musical interests. Together with Burnette's younger brother Johnny, the two began to play in a band. In 1954, a first single was recorded by Von Records, but not even 200 records were sold. Burlison now took a position at Crown Electric, where the young Elvis Presley also worked.

In the spring of 1956, Burlison and the Burnette brothers, then known as The Rock'n'Roll Trio , traveled to New York City to try their hand at musicians. In fact, they got a recording deal with Coral Records . Here Burlison developed his typical sound, which would influence many later guitarists. First he turned up the pitch on his amplifier. With these settings the first singles were produced. While performing in Philadelphia , Burlison accidentally tore off a cable on his amplifier. Burlison liked the distorted and blurry sound, so all songs were now recorded with this sound. Together with Johnny Burnette's absurd vocals and heavy drums, some of the most famous rockabilly classics in music history were played, such as the Rockbilly Boogie , Honey Hush and the wild The Train Kept A-Rollin ' . The latter was later covered by rock bands like the Yardbirds , Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin , but the Beatles also had the song in their early live program.

However, after none of the singles was successful, Burlison returned to Memphis in early 1957, where he was to build his own business and family. For the next twenty years he retired from the music business; It was not until 1980 that he founded his own record label, where he and other rockabilly artists recorded a tribute album to Johnny and Dorsey Burnette, both of whom had already passed away. In 1986 Burlison became a member of the Sun Rhythm Section , a band made up of former Sun artists . In 1997 Burlison released his first album called Train Kept a-Rollin ' . Burlison died in 2003 of complications from cancer .

Discography

• 1997: Train Kept a-Rollin '

Web links

• Paul Burlison in the All Music Guide
• Entry into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame