Wanda Jackson: Rockabilly rebel

BY TOM CARDY

Wanda Jackson switched from country to rockabilly on the advice of the man she was dating – Elvis Presley. Now she's recording with The White Stripes' Jack White, with a little help from Bob Dylan. Ahead of her Wellington show next week, she talks to Tom Cardy.

It's a subject that's difficult to pussyfoot around in an interview with American rockabilly veteran Wanda Jackson. To mention it early may give people the wrong impression that it's the sole reason for the renewed interest in Jackson.

But it's a fact that's hard to ignore: not only did Jackson tour with Elvis Presley, she used to date him.

Better still, it was at the urging of The King, who Jackson worked with for nearly two years in the 1950s, that she switched from country to rockabilly and rock 'n' roll, making her one of the first female rockers.

"I was in my comfort zone and it was just country," she says from her home in Oklahoma, where she grew up.

"The business was changing right before our eyes. He [Presley] was turning the industry upside down. But we got a handle on it pretty quick because we could see the crowds he was drawing and the enthusiasm.

"He explained that the young people were buying records and they had never bought records [before] – they were always aimed at adults. He changed that and he knew it and he explained that to my dad and I."

This was 1955 and Wanda, now 72, was a teenager. While still at high school she won a talent contest that gave her a regular radio show singing country. It then lead to recordings and work with other musicians including country star Hank Thompson.

Her father Tom Jackson was her manager and her mother Nellie designed her stage outfits, which, for the time, were glamorous by country standards, including fringe dresses, high heels and long earrings.

The life changing moment came when she was placed on the same tour bill as the rising Presley.

"He said 'you need to get into this. You need to do the songs for the young people'. I didn't think I could do it and daddy said 'sure you can. Get some songs and try it'.

"They both made me promise to try to do it and I found a part of me that I didn't even know was there. I loved it. It helped me so much and I ended up being the very first girl to do it."

Jackson went on to record rockabilly and rock 'n' roll songs, including Let's Have a Party – a hit in the American Top 40 in 1960 and Fujiyama Mama, which got to No 1 in Japan.

The songs are timeless and scorching rock 'n' roll classics, with Jackson's voice and performance – which can be witnessed in archive footage on YouTube – as edgy and energetic as any of today's young rockers.

But what was it like also dating Presley? Jackson says she can understand why she almost always gets asked.

"He was such an interesting person and such an icon and not too many people were in the inner circle with him. I was one, just for a small window of time. It was right when his career was exploding.

"We did work a few long tours together and my dad, of course, was along with me. I could never ride in the car with him [Presley] and the guys or anything. But dad liked Elvis real well and he knew he was a gentleman, so he would let me go out with him after shows. Just drive around and get a burger.

"Most of the time we had my daddy and [Presley's guitarist] Scotty [Moore] and [bassist] Bill [Black] with us. It was a fun thing. We liked each other a lot. I called it 'dating' because it was the only contact. We would take in a matinee movie once in awhile and things like that."

While Jackson produced some great songs, since covered by the likes of The Go Gos and the Cramps, she says the fact she was one of the few women making rockabilly and rock 'n' roll at the time meant she wasn't taken as seriously.

"America was just barely accepting Elvis and then Jerry Lee [Lewis] came along and they thought it was 'the devil's music'. They had to finally accept Elvis and give him the airplay. But they wouldn't give me airplay. That's where they tied my hands.

"I was recording it. It was being released on Capitol [Records], it had good distribution, everything. But I could not get airplay.

"So that's why by 1960 I'd gone back to just concentrating on country again. But that's [also] when I got my first rock 'n' roll hit in America."

In 1961 Jackson married Wendell Goodman, a former computer programmer, who became her manager and still is. At one point in the interview Jackson stops to have a quick word with her husband.

Jackson would sometimes combine country and rockabilly.

Her 1963 album Two Sides of Wanda, featured one side of each. But by the mid 60s rockabilly fell in popularity and she shifted back to country, with Top 40 hits including Right or Wrong and The Middle of a Heartache.

Jackson still thrived in her own way, with a TV show and a regular spot in Las Vegas. In the early 70s she and her husband became Christians and Jackson recorded a number of gospel albums. In 1972 she even made it to New Zealand, performing as part of a Unicef concert.

Jackson makes the point that she never went away. During the 80s when there was a revival of rockabilly with new bands such as the Stray Cats, she was ironically feted more in Europe than in the United States.

In particular, Scandinavians loved her.

"For 10 years 90 per cent of my work was in Europe. I was travelling across the ocean four and five times a year doing extended tours. America once again thought I'd dropped off the map.

"They [Europeans] aren't so quick to look for the next big thing. If they like it, they hang on to it the rest of their lives."

The work continued through the 90s and the past decade. Last year, after lobbying by musicians including Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, and Bruce Springsteen, Jackson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

It's meant that Jackson is now in a strange position at age 72 – she's now cooler than she's ever been. One barometer of this is that Jack White of The White Stripes – arguably one of the coolest musicians on the planet – has produced her new album, due for release later this year.

The album will include a cover of Dylan's Thunder on the Mountain. One reason she's covering it is because White asked Dylan what songs of his he would like Jackson to sing.

They have already released a single – Jackson covering Amy Winehouse's You Know I'm No Good.

White saw Jackson at her Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and then went to her gigs.

"It was a little bit of a chain of events," Jackson explains.

"We were kicking around ideas for the next album project. We decided we'd do a 'Wanda Jackson and friends' duet album with other artists. That's what we settled on."

Then Jackson was advised "whatever you do, call Jack White. He is a big fan".

White wasn't keen on being on a duet album, but told Jackson he'd love to produce her next album.

"I wasn't real familiar with him," Jackson admits.

"I told him I don't listen to his type of music, I just don't. But that didn't matter to him, he wanted to record me. He started sending me material, I started sending him some.

"I went to Nashville and he has his own studio on his home property. It [was] very private and a most enjoyable experience.

"He also still records in analog so I was familiar with that. I felt very comfortable there. He was very easy to work with, but he stretched me a lot in the material that he picked. But I like that. I kind of thrive on things like that. It was a bit hard, but very enjoyable."

THE DETAILS

Wanda Jackson plays Wellington's San Francisco Bathhouse on June 21

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