Trauma's Old School Artist Of The Week - Week 4 12-26-05

[Trauma-san]

Week 1: Merle Haggard
Week 2: Jerry Butler
Week 3: Jose Feliciano


and this week's old school artist is..........










..........






Del Shannon.

Del Shannon was born Charles Westover but hit it big under his stage name in 1961.  He got the name Del from seeing a Cadillac Sedan DeVille and thinking it was a great name.  I agree.

Anyways, Del was one of the first 'guitar gods'.  He wasn't all virtuoso like Jose Feliciano, but he had a really original style kind of like Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, and George Harrison did.  It's the first thing you notice on his records, the great guitar line. 

His first big hit was "Runaway", which showed off his crazy out of nowhere falsetto voice.  His career was dominated by excellently produced tracks, and a great gift for songwriting and arranging.  He wrote most of his hits himself, including Runaway.

Another great song was "Hats Off to Larry" again really cleverly written, where he's bragging about how some girl who dumped him just got her heart broke by a guy named Larry.  Great song.

"Little Town Flirt" was another great song of his in the early 60's.  crazy voice, great guitar. 

Another excellent one is "Keep Searchin' ".  That's my recommendation for this week, download "Keep Searchin' " AWESOME fucking track. 

He has dozens of great songs you've never heard of.  Most of his stuff is good, he had a very unique sound and put a lot of heart into his music.  It's a shame most people have never heard of him. 

Shannon spent YEARS doing amazing things behind the scenes in the music business.  For instance, he helped discover Bob Seger.  He paid to have Bob Seger's first track recorded way back in the 60's.

A few years later, he helped launch Smith.  If you've never heard of Smith, that's another band I ought to do on here... a great lead singer named Gayle McCormick.  They had this unbelievable cover of "Baby It's You" the old Shirelles song... where the girl sings it all low the whole time, then in the chorus, just screams "DONNNNT WANNT NOBODY!!! NOBOODY!!!! BABY ITS YOU!!!!!" awesome song he had a big hand in (he arranged it).

Del spent the 70's inside a bottle, and basically nobody would work with him.  In the 80's, Tom Petty produced Del's comeback record, which did alright.

In 1990, plagued with demons, Del shot himself in the head with a 22 rifle. 

Download "keep Searchin".  What a shame this guy had to take the easy way out, incredible songwriter. 

[Mindless Minority]

Not heard of any of your suggestions so far, will have to check this guy out.

Week Ones artist was much appreciated, absolutely loving "Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down" and "That's The Way Love Goes" plus a few others.

[Trauma-san]

Glad you liked it!

[spencer10]

props