ROBERT GORDON: "IT'S NOW OR NEVER"

Robert Gordon broke out with his hit "Red Hot" in 1977, knocking down disco queens, would-be punks, and new wave wannabes with his no-holds-barred take on hot-rodded rockabilly. Since then he has been like a turbo jet, and is often credited for lighting up the roots-rock revival and paving the way for real rock'n'rollers to find their niche among the overblown dance music and arena rock that dominated the airwaves.

Robert's legacy has been fueled by his partnership with some of the greatest guitar players in history — Link Wray, Danny Gatton, and Chris Spedding. Robert first saw Link Wray at an amusement park in Glenn Echo Park, Maryland, in 1962, and knew he had to play with him. Together they recorded a successful string of records, which included the song "Fire," a gift from Bruce Springsteen. Although he is best known for being a tough-as-nails rockabilly artist, Robert is always quick to point out "I'm not trying to recreate something. This is how I feel." That feeling continues to glow red hot on his latest release with his old partner Chris Spedding, It's Now or Never, a collection of mostly lesser-known Elvis Presley songs.

INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT GORDON

Why Elvis, why now?

It's been talked about for years, but we figured the 30th anniversary of his death was the perfect time. We went down to Nashville, did the whole album in a week. We didn't pick the obvious tunes… maybe a couple, but the rest are from movies, not the obvious choices.

Must be good getting back with Chris Spedding

The band with Chris is the band. We just did two tours of Europe, for the first time in thirteen years. We sort of went through a bad divorce. We worked together for ten years and took it as far as we could. We were bad boys. We were nuts. Everything was really frantic. Then he moved to the West Coast… and we just sort of did our own thing.

Let's talk about your other guitar players — you've played with some of the greats.

Danny Gatton is a real country and jazz guy, but Chris comes from everyplace. He puts a real twist to it. He takes rockabilly things and stretches it. I don't want to say avant-garde, but… and Link Wray was great. He played like he looked, if you know what I mean. Real raunchy. But his solos on his ballads are real beautiful, ferocious, but beautiful. Live it was difficult, though. The volume! He was loud.

You came up in New York, at CBGBs, with the Tuff Darts. That was not a quiet band…

The Tuff Darts were a good way for me to vent, but I wanted to go in a different direction. Getting signed to RCA was huge— that was Elvis' label of course. But it was right before MTV. Springsteen gave me "Fire"… It was unbelievable how much airplay I got, but it could have been huge.

How do you feel now?

We're getting smarter. I'm singing better than I ever have. Everything was crazy back then. The whole nine yards. We were bad boys. It took me a long time to live it down.

CHRIS SPEDDING

Chris Spedding is one of the most spectacular, versatile, and menacing guitar players to ever come out of the British music scene. He has lit up sessions for everyone from Dusty Springfield to Paul McCartney to Elton John, and is fully entrenched in the legend of rock'n'roll for having produced the Sex Pistols demos that launched a revolution. More recently he has been seen sharing the stage with Roxy Music. Chris' long relationship with Robert Gordon began in the late 70s and they spent the next ten years tearing up America with a particularly vicious version of rockabilly, greased by a good-time lifestyle that left audiences in awe. Newly re-united with Robert for It's Now or Never, Chris is at the top of his form.

INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS SPEDDING

It's been a long time since you and Robert have played together. How was it working with him again — and why a record of Elvis covers?

It was a great experience. I had often thought that Robert did Presley stuff very well and should do more. He had always avoided doing Elvis but Robert is established enough with his own style to be able to pull it off. When I mentioned this to him he agreed, he was finally ready to do it. After we realized we were of like mind, everything went very smoothly.

What are your best memories of working with him over the years?

I think we are well suited. We both have very strong, direct styles. Robert needs a certain type of guitarist to match his powerful vocals and I'm the man for the job! It was always fun to play with Robert. This music is about having a good time.

Robert said that you guys went through a tough "divorce." What happened? Everything is cool again?

Yes, we had our differences over the years. We lost contact when I left New York to live in Los Angeles. I was going through some changes and needed a new start in a new city. Once that situation was dealt with, I think we both missed playing with each other. The fans didn't forget us either and now I believe we are closer than ever.

Robert said you guys used to get pretty wild —off stage. What kind of trouble did you used to get in?

Everything you heard is true.

How have you changed as a player since the early days with Robert?

I hope I got better! It would be difficult to play with him and not improve.

How do you feel about switching styles — from Roxy and Bryan Ferry to roots Rockabilly?

I've always played with artists with many different styles. But Robert's show was always a great showcase for a guitar player. It keeps me on my toes.

"IT'S NOW OR NEVER" PRESS RELEASE

ROBERT GORDON AND CHRIS SPEDDING ARE BACK WITH "IT'S NOW OR NEVER."

New album features 15 Elvis Presley songs as performed by Robert Gordon, Chris Spedding and the legendary Jordanaires in honor of the 30th anniversary of Elvis' death

New York, NY (April 23, 2007) Back in the disco and arena rock era, Robert Gordon put a fist through the heart of the music industry with his first on-fire rockabilly hit, "Red Hot." Now reunited with legendary guitar ace Chris Spedding for the first time in twenty years, Robert is back to spread the gospel and shake things up again.

This time they are taking it to a higher level, fortifying their sound with Elvis Presley's own mighty Jordanaires, who return to their own roots, pumping up songs by the King on the 30th anniversary of his death.

"It's Now or Never," scheduled for release on July 31st via Rykodisc, is a no-joke salvo from the heated depths of rock'n'roll. Fifteen tracks, a riveting combination of favorites and lesser-known Presley tunes, and no slouching. Recorded in Nashville and produced by Gordon himself, this adult-sized dose of fun is the return to roots that the world has been waiting for.

"I'm singing better than I ever have," Gordon says with the confidence of a man who ruled the airwaves with his iconoclastic blast of good-time music including the hit song, "Fire," a gift from Bruce Springsteen and "Someday, Someway."

From rippers like "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" and "My Baby Left Me" through a stirring reading of "Peace In the Valley," "It's Now or Never" mines the depths of Elvis' oeuvre without the smack of ironic revisionism that has been the hallmark of lesser talents.

Robert Gordon and Chris Spedding will be playing select dates, picking up where they left off twenty years ago. Together they are nothing short of explosive. "This music is not a museum piece," Gordon declares. "I'm not trying to recreate something. This is how I feel."

ROBERT GORDON BIO

The first major rockabilly artist to emerge after the death of Elvis Presley, Robert Gordon became the hard-edged antidote to nostalgia-based oldies acts such as Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids and Sha Na Na. Moreover, by reviving their songs Gordon created fresh interest in several 1950s cult rockers both at home and abroad. Less eccentric than the Cramps, far tougher than Chris Isaak, his work embraced 1960s garage rock, rockabilly noir, screaming R&B, and country heartache. Gordon has also shown a knack for building his recordings around some of the finest guitarists of his era, including Link Wray, Chris Spedding, Danny Gatton, and Eddie Angel.

Born on March 29, 1946, Gordon was thrilled when he first heard Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel." "It was like the first teen rebel movies. It just changed things, man," he told Country Standard Time. "When you look back on it, there wasn't anything threatening about it at all. But at the time, it was just amazing." He was born and raised just outside of Washington, D.C., in Montgomery County, where he was able to absorb many different musical cultures.

"Washington was more of a crossroads for everything," recalled Gordon. "It was right near Virginia and real close to New York. So, I was exposed to everything, man. Of course rhythm and blues was a big influence too. During the early '60s, I went to the Howard Theater down there, which was really like the Apollo in New York. ... At the same time, you could get a lot of radio stations in Washington that were primarily country."

Gordon recalled how, at age 15, he began to get ideas about performing. "I was at summer camp with my brother," he told Arjan Delan, who runs his European website, "and he wanted me to sing for his pals. So, I sang Jackie Wilson's 'Lonely Teardrops,' and they really liked it." The following year he began singing with local garage rock groups, including the Confidentials, who later transformed into the Newtons.

After a stint in the National Guard, Gordon married his childhood sweetheart, started a family and moved to New York, where he opened a clothing store. After his first marriage ended, Gordon's thoughts of a singing career resurfaced. His dark good looks and street-tough demeanor made him a perfect fit in the Big Apple's growing punk scene of the 1970s. With his persona already formed, Gordon began playing clubs with a contingent known as the Tuff Darts.

Mainstream Americans first became aware of Gordon via his 1977 album on Private Stock, titled Robert Gordon and Link Wray. Wray, who recorded such instrumental hits as "Rumble" (1958) and "Raw-Hide" (1959), provided the newcomer with genre credibility. In return, the album single-handedly revived Wray's nearly forgotten career of the 1950s and 1960s. Musically, Gordon mined a series of oldies and rockabilly cult favorites, such as Billy Lee Riley's "Red Hot," Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock," Sanford Clark's "The Fool," and Gene Vincent's "Five Days, Five Days." Sounding rawer and wilder than any current act, Gordon's first album for Private Stock was a groundbreaker for the neo-rockabilly trend. "Then all of a sudden, a lot of cats started doing it again," Gordon recalled. "So, it did start a movement, I have to admit."

Gordon's versions of the old songs were also appreciated by many of the surviving original artists. One former Sun Records artist of the 1950's, Sonny Burgess, proclaimed that "Robert Gordon is one of the best singers I ever heard." However, Gordon was never comfortable being strictly typecast as a rockabilly performer. "It's not what I set out to do," he explained to Country Standard Time. "In fact, I always try to put a tougher edge on the songs than traditional rockabilly has." Part of that edge comes from traditional country music, which provided the stark, emotional underpinning for rockabilly and early rock 'n' roll. The singer added, "I have used [pedal] steel before. I've always done at least a couple of country things on my records. It's always been important to me."

Gordon's second LP for Private Stock, Fresh Fish Special, was named after the haircut foisted upon Elvis Presley's character in the 1957 film Jailhouse Rock. Songwise it was more of the same, with the exception of a song written especially for Gordon by rock icon Bruce Springsteen. "Fire," with its brooding sexuality and passionate hook, received pockets of airplay in the northeastern United States. Unfortunately for Gordon, the Pointer Sisters appropriated the tune and beat him to the hit.

Although artistically successful, the two LPs with Wray posed something of a dilemma for Gordon, who recalled, "He did some brilliant stuff in the studio, man. He can play a sensitive solo on a ballad that is so ferocious at the same time." But Gordon also felt that Wray "doesn't play live like he played on those records. I must say, he's a sweet guy, but it was difficult live." As a result, when Gordon decided to make the 1979 move to RCA, he dropped Wray.

More productive was the collaboration with British session ace Chris Spedding. "Chris was in London when we contacted him, and he was tired of doing session work for all the biggest names in the business," Gordon told Country Standard Time. "So, it was a perfect way to get him over here at the time. Rock Billy Boogie was our first album and we were together for ten years." Another great guitarist in his clique was Danny Gatton, who was so good that other musicians referred to him as "The Humbler." Gatton recorded and played live dates with Gordon sporadically until his death in 1994.

The RCA albums contained some of Gordon's finest work and took in shades of 1950s Nashville country as well as hyper-kinetic rockabilly. Boasting a far better promotional set-up and radio contacts, the label was able to get a few singles, notably the Marshall Crenshaw-penned "Someday, Someway," onto the charts.

The American rockabilly revival lasted only a little longer than the original movement. After his last album for RCA in 1982, Gordon began cutting sides for such European labels as New Rose and Bear Family. Live albums appeared on New Rose, King Biscuit, and others.

After three-plus decades in the business, can he still possibly get a kick out of all this? "Performing the music is just as joyful as it ever was," he stated. "But I think more so now, because I'm not as crazy as I once was and I finally know what the hell I'm doing."