DAVID BOX - ONE OF ROCK `N` ROLL`S BEST KEPT SECRETS
In my eyes, to be comparable to the late great Buddy Holly means you are up there with the greats of rock`n`roll.
Too often Holly himself is overlooked by the rock connoisseurs in favour of Elvis, the Beatles and all the other mainstream acts which followed the Abbey Roaders artistic watershed`Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band` in 1967.
I am not writing this blog about the Beatles, but while I am mentioning them, let me just say that I think that apart from inspiring a lot of copycat psychedelia and Ozzy Osbourne and a lot of drug induced heavy metal theatrics, Sgt. Peppers did absolutely nothing for popular music.
I know I am not going to make a lot of friends in saying the most famous Beatle album sucks, but really, it does suck.
Anyhow getting back to Holly, of course he died a very untimely death at the age of
22 on the 3rd February, 1959, in a plane crash in Iowa with the Big Bopper and Richie Valens also perishing.
Holly was a musical freak, a genius in the art of downward strum electric guitar. The electrified `acoustic` masterpiece `Well All Right`is Holly at his intensely grainy best.
I never thought I`d ever discover an artist who you could say was `almost as good` as
Holly as far as escapulating the Texas rockabilly sound which he was so good at in his short life and career.
Well eventually I did, and his name is David Box. The two most ironic things about David Box is (1) he also died in a plane crash as a very young man on the 23rd October, 1964, before his own musical genius was given a chance to be discovered, and secondly, he recorded two songs with the Crickets (Buddy Holly`s band) in the early 60`s, after Buddy had died.
Those songs were a re-recording of Holly`s `Peggy Sue Got Married` and Box`s own tune `Don`t Cha Know`. His rendition of Peggy Sue Got Married is enough to give you goose bumps, far superior to the two versions which Holly himself recorded and
the combined musicianship of Box and the Crickets ensures that Don`t Cha Know gets the treatment that Box couldn`t have given it on his own. Two totally magical recordings, in fact, the double greatest hits collection of Buddy Holly that used to be available with a gold and brown cover in Australia actually featured David Box`s version of Peggy Sue Got Married and not either of Holly`s inferior overdubbed versions of the song.
But there is not one mention of David Box in the album liner notes. Box lived long enough to record 32 songs, all very obscure outside the south-west of the United States, with his band the Ravens.
`Little Lonely Summer Girl` is the most well
known single of David Box, it was a minor hit in a number of states in the US.
known single of David Box, it was a minor hit in a number of states in the US.
Up until 2002, there was no album release of his music that had all the songs he ever recorded on it.
Rollercoaster Records came to the rescue. `The David Box Story` does have all 32 tunes on it, I wont bother trying to break down the heart warming synopsis provided inside the album cover by Crickets drummer Jerry Allison or the epic story of his life articulated exquisitely by John Davison-White, because it would take up about
10000 words so the challenge for you is to hunt down the album so you can read all about it yourself.
10000 words so the challenge for you is to hunt down the album so you can read all about it yourself.
Box was an extraordinary talent, not quite up there with Holly in the guitar playing stakes, but if you are going to be honest, he was a better singer than Buddy Holly, even if not as versatile.
He was kind of like a ragtime version of Buddy Holly instrumentally speaking, but his falsetto and vocal range was as crisp as Roy Orbison at his peak.
His version of Little Richard`s `Slippin and Slidin`, which Buddy done a superb job of as well, is brilliant stuff.
Box turned it into more of a souped up soul tune with a bit more distortion than the crystal clear skiffle interpretation which
Holly put to the song.
Box didn`t quite match Holly with his go at doing `Ready Teddy`, but my oath he gave the song his best shot with his less impressive but comparable guitar attack.
Look, just try and get a hold of the David Box Story, you wont be disappointed. But I do warn you, it wont be easy getting a hold of it.
To sum up the rest of the compilation, lets just say that its 32 songs of classic texmex influenced rockabilly, David Box was essentially a cross between Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison, with a bit of Buddy Knox chucked in as well.
I believe he would have become one of the great rock vocalists in the late 60`s had he not met with the same tragic fate which
befell his childhood hero, Buddy Holly.
David Box was up there with the best of them. Somehow or another I think him and Buddy are the best of mates up in rock heaven.
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