ROCK • A • RAMA
EDDIE COCHRAN — Legendary Masters Series (United Artists UA 9959, 2 LPs):: One of the most evocative covers in re-issue history, intriguing liner notes by Lenny Kaye, an intelligent selection of cuts, and mostly secondrate, lifeless music.
ROCK-A-RAMA
EDDIE COCHRAN — Legendary Masters Series (United Artists UA 9959, 2 LPs):: One of the most evocative covers in re-issue history, intriguing liner notes by Lenny Kaye, an intelligent selection of cuts, and mostly secondrate, lifeless music. Charlie Gillette was right about Eddie — his music is almost wholly contrived and ten years after his death he�s a lot less fun to hear than, say, Gene .Vincent or Ricky Nelson, who were roughly parallel figures and not that great either. Cochran�s influence on rock and roll, through the Who and virtually every other British rock group of note except the Stones (Beatles, Move, Small Faces, etc.), was extraordinary — because he alone of all rockers did a full-scale tour of Britain, because he gave the English a style they could both dig and easily master, because he was great on stage (his performance in The Girl Can�t Help It has all the verve his music here lacks), and finally because he died in England and was therefore perfect cult material. So he was a direct physical link to the real thing, just what John and Pete needed at that moment in time. In the end, though, the three pages Nik Cohn devotes to Cochran in Rock From the Beginning are more exciting than this set. You can still get �Summertime Blues� on a single anyway.
