Swinging With Eddie: "Summertime Blues" - Page 3

Teenagers are solipsists. When people say that college broadens, they mean that it widens your field of vision beyond your mirror. You hear a lot of talk about lawsuits from teenagers: "My biology teacher gave me a C+ instead of a B-, I'm going to sue the bastard."

"Gonna take my problem to the United Nations," all they way to the top - the hubris of youth and shock value. If you want to get attention, say something dramatic, extend it all the way out, exaggerate it as far as it will go. At least you will make your point. Even if your point simply is to shock.

Remember: in 1958 the voting age was 21. You could die for your country, you could drink alcohol in most states, but you couldn't vote for congress, school board or dog catcher. The absurdity of these conflicting rights and obligations led to the 26th amendment in 1971 which lowered the voting age to 18. Now politicians have to at least pay lip service to the interests of youth.

Eddie WAS a teenager, he wasn't just pretending to be one. All of the energy of his teenhood is there in "Summertime Blues." But his vision was amazingly perceptive for someone so young. Eddie started young, though. He recorded his first single in 1955 at age 16. One of the reasons that Cochran was so popular in England was that he was one of the first American rock 'n' rollers to tour there. Eddie Cochran died in a car crash on the way to London's Heathrow Airport 1960, at the age of 21.

Somethin' Else is an excellent Cochran collection put out by Razor & Tie in 1998. There are five great songs out of the twenty on the album: "Summertime Blues," "C'Mon Everybody," "Twenty Flight Rock," "Hallelujah, I Love Her So" and "Somethin' Else." Based upon this evidence, Eddie Cochran doesn't belong in the '50s pantheon with Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, or Buddy Holly. But who's to say he wouldn't have made it up there had a taxi cab not slammed into a lamppost in peasoup fog?

Article Author: Eric Olsen

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