Robert Gordon performs at the Park West in Chicago, Illinois, 21 May 1981
PAUL NATKIN/GETTTY IMAGES
Rockabilly came from the rural south, but Robert Gordon gave it a big-city swagger. On his neorockabilly classic The Way I Walk, he sounds like the sort of chain-swinging dude with a greasy black pompadour, long sideburns and black leather jacket that you wouldn’t want to find coming your way in a moonlit alley in the dangerous part of town… unless you were looking for trouble.
He wasn’t alone, either. At his shoulder was 50s original Link Wray, his distorted guitar licks slashing and flashing through the record like a switchblade knife or a ghostly echo from a long-gone era.