The Screaming End

Product Description:

Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps: Gene Vincent (vocals); Cliff Gallup, Johnny Meeks, Willie Williams (guitar); Jack Neal (upright bass); Bobby Jones (bass); Paul Peek (drums, hand claps, background vocals); Dickie Harell (drums); Tommy Facenda (background vocals).

Additional personnel: Buck Owens (guitar).

Compilation producers: Matt Goldman, Dave "Daddy Cool" Booth.

Recorded at Owen Bradley Studio, Nashville, Tennessee and Capitol Tower, Hollywood, California between May 1956 and June 1957. Includes liner notes by Bob Hyde.

THE SCREAMING END is an all but definitive Gene Vincent compilation, cannily programmed with his most real gone (as they used to say) performances. This is rockabilly at its wildest and (paradoxically) most carefully crafted thanks, in no small part, to the Bluecaps. They were arguably the fiercest rock band of their day.

There are two main reasons for the band's precision and power. One is a virtuoso guitarist in the justifiably legendary Cliff Gallup (he of the breathless stream of notes on "Race With the Devil"). The other is a 15 year old (!) drummer Dickie Harrell (that's him screaming on "Be-Bop-a-Lula" and most of the other tracks here) who drove the band relentlessly forward. Vincent himself was an effortlessly expressive singer, and as a result most of the songs here simply reek of sex and violence. Just check out "Lotta Lovin'" and "Who Slapped John" if you doubt it.