{"id":101432,"date":"2022-10-19T06:32:03","date_gmt":"2022-10-19T06:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/robert-gordon-rockabilly-revivalist-singer-dies-at-75\/"},"modified":"2022-10-19T06:32:03","modified_gmt":"2022-10-19T06:32:03","slug":"robert-gordon-rockabilly-revivalist-singer-dies-at-75","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/robert-gordon-rockabilly-revivalist-singer-dies-at-75\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Gordon, Rockabilly-Revivalist Singer, Dies at 75"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\tRobert Gordon, one of rockabilly’s earliest revivalists and a familiar presence on the 1970s New York City punk rock scene, died Tuesday at the age of 75, his record label confirms to variety.<\/em> No cause of death was cited, although his family recently launched a GoFundMe campaign to assist with his battle with acute myeloid leukemia.<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cCleopatra Records would like to offer our deepest condolences to his family and friends. We liked working with Robert and will miss his powerful baritone vocal as well as his focused dedication to his music, \u201dwrote label VP Matt Green.<\/p>\n

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\tGordon’s final album, \u201cHellafied,\u201d which again teams him with British guitarist Chris Spedding, is being released by the label on Nov. 25.<\/p>\n

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\tWith his swept-up DA haircut and predilection for 1950s clothing, it would have been easy in the 1970s to consider Gordon a \u201cHappy Days\u201d-style throwback. But with a deeply resonant and romantic voice, curatorial precision and excellent taste in guitarist collaborators such as Spedding, Link Wray and Danny Gatton, Gordon was unique among neo-rockabilly revivalists. His work pre-dated that of Brian Setzer’s Stray Cats, who took the sound he embraced to the top of the charts in the early 1980s.<\/p>\n

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\tBorn on March 29, 1947 in Bethesda, Maryland, Gordon was a voracious radio listener and record aficionado with a taste for Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent and, of course, Elvis Presley. After singing in various local bands such as the Confidentials and the Newports in his teens, Gordon joined the National Guard to avoid the Vietnam draft, got married when he was 19, and had two children. By 1970, Gordon and his family moved to New York City to open a clothing boutique, but changed his focus to that city’s bourgeoning punk scene when the likes of Blondie, Television and the Ramones began to storm CBGB. Gordon became part of the NYC pop-punk act Tuff Darts, and recorded part of 1976’s Atlantic label compilation \u201cLive at CBGB\u201d with that band, singing lyrics such as \u201cI’d rather slash my wrist and cut my throat than spend the night with you,\u201d on \u201cSlash.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cI was doing the rockabilly thing which always seemed to get people off, but I was an angry young man,\u201d Gordon told this writer in 2014. \u201cI had split from my first wife and punk worked for me. But I wasn’t really into punk. I missed singing those old songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tWhen Richard Gottehrer \u2014 a producer\/songwriter from the celebrated Brill Building, responsible for hits such as \u201cMy Boyfriend’s Back\u201d and \u201cI Want Candy\u201d \u2014 heard Tuff Darts do a cover of Presley’s \u201cOne Night,\u201d he convinced Gordon to go back to his roots and make a rock & roll album. Gordon split Tuff Darts, hooked up with Gottehrer and convinced original rockabilly legend Link Wray to record with them. The team debuted with 1977’s \u201cRobert Gordon with Link Wray\u201d and quickly followed with \u201cFresh Fish Special,\u201d an album that not only featured Elvis Presley’s background vocalists, the Jordanaires, but Bruce Springsteen, who contributed the song \u201cFire\u201d to the sessions (later a hit for the Pointer Sisters) along with playing keyboards on the track.<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cBruce used to hang out at my fourth-floor walk-up when I broke up with my wife,\u201d Gordon told this writer. \u201cWe became close friends. If the Pointer Sisters hadn’t come along with their version of ‘Fire,’ we could’ve had something there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tNot long after the critically-acclaimed \u201cFresh Fish Special\u201d dropped, Gordon got signed to Presley’s precious RCA label, and made his debut with the flashy \u201cRock Billy Boogie\u201d in 1979, followed by \u201cBad Boy.\u201d \u201cGottehrer was instrumental in hooking me up with Link, first, then this cat I heard in London, [Chris] Spedding,\u201d Gordon told me. \u201cGottehrer got things done. He found Spedding a green card, and he was instrumental in getting me signed to RCA. \u201d<\/p>\n

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\tWith firebrand guitarist Danny Gatton and for RCA, Gordon shifted some of his emphasis away from rockabilly and toward pop, R&B and country for 1981’s \u201cAre You Gonna Be the One\u201d and its MTV-favored hit single \u201cSomeday, Someway,\u201d penned by power-pop hero, Marshall Crenshaw. Not long after the release of that album, Gordon contributed songs to the soundtrack of the low-budget movie, \u201cThe Loveless,\u201d the first directorial effort from Kathryn Bigelow.<\/p>\n

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\tAfter parting ways with RCA, Gordon continued to record accomplished rockabilly and blues-based albums for labels such as Viceroy (1994’s \u201cAll for The Love of Rock ‘N’ Roll\u201d), Jungle (2004’s \u201cSatisfied Mind\u201d), Rykodisc (2007’s Elvis Presley tribute \u201cIt’s Now or Never\u201d with Spedding), Lanark (2014’s \u201cI’m Coming Home\u201d) and Cleopatra for his most recent studio recording, 2020’s aptly-titled \u201cRockabilly for Life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tGordon prided himself on the production of his more recent recordings. \u201cIt’s pretty raw but also pretty clean,\u201d he told this writer, \u201cas opposed to many pseudo-rockabilly things that sound like trash.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tTo that end, Gordon’s upcoming album \u201cHellafied\u201d with Spedding and longtime collaborator Albert Bouchard, former drummer for Blue Oyster Cult, features new original songs from the singer alone (\u201cOne Day Left\u201d), along with several others co-penned with Bouchard and Mark Barkan.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n