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| I Put Away My Idols-1983 |
What comes to your mind when you think of
rockabilly?
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| Yo Frankie- 1989 |
There’s a lot of people getting into rockabilly. It’s my heart. When Carl Perkins plays those guitar riffs
they’re like a horn section. He must have
picked up on horns like I did. That’s
the way I see rockabilly. I know it
seems really guitar oriented but he’s playing horn parts. To me he was the best. Nobody swung like he did. He was the king of boogie woogie. It was so organic. I never gave “Blue Suede Shoes” by Elvis
Presley much thought. To me, there’s the
authentic genuine article and then there’s the counterfeit. But, I'm not taking
anything away from Presley. That guy was
just mammoth…just off the charts great.
Carl had a big influence on The Beatles!
Oh sure. He was a
big influence on me. He was a great
groove guitar player. You’ll find guys
like The Edge. They have a very specific
sound like maybe Luther Perkins had for Johnny Cash. It was simple and potent. A little style goes a
long way. You could play all the notes
in the world and not be as popular as Luther Perkins or Norman Blake for Johnny
Cash. That groove they had was
unbelievably off the charts. The beauty
of rock and roll is repetition.
You had a part in a recent movie called A
Little Help. How did that come about?
I never saw the whole film. I knew Michael Weithorn from doing
sitcoms. We were out in Brooklyn and
they were shooting and said, “you wanna do something?” I jumped right in. I had my guitar in the trunk and just did it. He grew up to my music. We did it one day. We sat in the disc jockey scene. It was fun.
The kid (Zach Page) was nice. It
was a nice afternoon….friends, music and trying to make a movie.
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| New Masters- 2003 |
My favorite part was when this mom found out her husband took
their son to the radio station to see you instead of taking him to school so he
could take a math test. The mom was
furious to which the dad replied “Dion’s a legend! His music will be around a lot longer than
math!”
(laughs) that’s cool.
Was that a new version of “Runaround Sue” in
the movie?
They used the version I had on an album called New Masters.
I know of your love for Hank Williams from a
really early age. Do you remember the
first Hank record you bought?
Oh yeah…”Honky Tonk Blues”. Oh man, I heard “Honky Tonk Blues” and I went
out of my mind. That changed my
life. After that…”Lovesick Blues”…loved
it! And then “I Can’t Help It If I’m
Still In Love With You” and “Kaw-Liga”.
But I knew songs people never knew Hank wrote. I knew about 50 songs of his by the time I
was 15. I used to sing in a Saloon right
across from the Bronx Zoo. It was called
Armando’s. I used to sing “Cold, Cold
Heart”. In fact, did you ever see the
picture of me and Tony Bennett? I was
singing “Cold, Cold Heart” to him. He had
a hit with it and I was thinking, “this guy doesn’t sing it as good as me or
Hank Williams”. I love Tony
Bennett…don’t get me wrong. When it came
down to that song, nobody sang it like Hank.
To me it wasn’t a pop record. I
was a new person that had very specific tastes.
What was the first rock & roll record
you bought?
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| Runaround Sue- 1961 |
The first rock and roll record might have been “Lawdy
Miss Clawdy”. Then probably “Long Tall
Sally” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On”…those kinds of songs. They were right before I got into it. I had my guitar and was doing Jimmy Reed
stuff. I loved the stuff that was
happening. Carl Perkins’ “Boppin’ The
Blues”…wow. Then you got Fats Domino…my
God help me! What I grew up to was
“Shake Rattle & Roll” by Big Joe Turner.
I had this country blues thing going too. It’s what I was listening to.
Let’s talk about the Winter Dance Party from
1959. Do you remember which tunes stuck
out in your set?
I know we opened up with “All By Myself” by Fats
Domino.
You’ve sparked some controversy talking
about those times.
People got to arguing with me on my Facebook page. There’s a bunch of people that meet in Clear
Lake, IA. Year after year they tell each
other stories and nobody’s asked me anything.
I was the only other guy in the room that lived...who tossed the coin
with those guys. I was the only guy that
didn’t get on the plane that lived past February 3, 1959. They’ve made movies, written plays, books,
blogs, articles…nobody’s ever talked to me.
When the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame came to me and said “Dion, we’d
like you to give us your account because nothing makes sense. We went out to the 50th
anniversary in Clear Lake, IA and nothing makes sense.” If as many people who have said they’ve
flipped a coin with Buddy Holly was true, they’d need a 747. They came down and took my account. Last year, they played it out there and they
went nuts. They started accusing me of
all kinds of stuff. Why didn’t you do
this and why didn’t you do that? It’s
crazy. I don’t even know how to
respond. They were accusing me of coming
up with a story. I told this stuff 50
years ago. When I was 19, I lost 3
friends. I grew up in a little family in
New York. You grieved privately. You didn’t capitalize on anybody’s death or
exploit it. You didn’t make a public big
thing over it to make a name for yourself.
It was something you did privately.
They’ve always invited me out there but I’ve always found it distasteful...selling coins and frames. I never went
out there. Now that I’ve got a computer, I’m dangerous. I can talk. Buddy Holly did charter a plane. He was an extraordinary man. I just did it for the archival, historical
reason. I really told the story
accurately. You know...what the contract
was booked for. And just what was going
on the bus and where we broke down.
Buddy was extraordinary at 22.
You can understand that yourself…at 22 to charter to plane. People today at 22 very rarely charter a
plane. He was taking flying lessons out
of Teterboro Airport. I was just
learning how to hail a cab! You know
what I mean? He come from Texas…very
decisive, elegant, formal, very structured, deliberate, fearless business man
kind of guy. But on stage he was a free
abandoned rock and roller. The guy rocked
out as well as anybody. But off stage he
had another persona. He was every
elegant, stately guy. I remember him
that way.
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| You're Not Alone- 1971 |
What has always struck me about this is that
you’ve never had to use this story to make your career more popular.
I was busy trying to make him proud. I had some conversations with Buddy. He would say things like “I don’t know how to
succeed but I know how to fail...try to please everybody” or “Make sure you’re
doing what you want”. If I didn’t have
those conversations I probably never would have made “The Wanderer”, “Runaround
Sue” or “Abraham, Martin and John”. “The
day the music died” never defined that day for me. I call it the “day the music was born”. Jesus says, “unless a seed falls to the ground
and dies, it doesn’t bear fruit”. I
think the day Buddy Holly and those guys died bands popped up everywhere. It was almost like it pollinated. I always looked at it like trying to make him
proud and carrying the music forward. I
never thought of capitalizing on it by winning a coin toss…which I did. But when they told me $36…that was what my
parents were paying for rent. $36 was a
lot of money back then.
What other guitar players from the 50’s do
you remember?
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| Heroes- 2008 |
You had guys like Cliff Gallup (Gene Vincent's lead guitarist) who nobody knows. It’s why I did the Heroes album. Your site to
me champions what I was trying to do with Heroes
with all the guys that played on the Everly Brothers tunes, James Burton,
Scotty Moore and even the guys in Bill Haley’s band like Danny Cedrone and The
Ventures. They were off the charts these
guys. Link Wray was a sonic boom…or
grunge.
A couple of years ago you turned me on to
the early rockabilly of the Burnette brothers (Johnny and Dorsey)with Paul
Burleson in the Rock & Roll Trio.
Now, there you go.
That “Train Kept A Rollin” song they did…they belong in the Rock and
Roll Hall Of Fame just because of that song.
Paul Burleson…are you kidding me?
I met those guys in Arizona. I
don’t know the name of the place. It was
like rock & roll upstairs and down in the bottom of the place there was
another club with sawdust on the floor and they played cowboy music. I went from doing my set and they were on the
show. Johnny Burnette was a cool
guy. He had a lot of hair and was just like
a “dude”. I remember getting along with
him. I told him I was going to go down
there to do some Hank Williams tunes.
So I borrowed somebody’s guitar and I got up there and sang “Your
Cheating Heart”, “Cold Cold Heart”, “Moaning The Blues”, “Hey Good
Lookin”. I would have went through his
whole "Luke The Drifter" series but I was afraid they didn’t know it. That’s what I remember about them. They wrote “Believe What You Say” and played
it for Ricky Nelson. God, what a record
that is. When you listen to it, you
think there’s a train in it or a buzz saw…I don’t know what the hell it
is. There’s stuff that happened on those
records that when you did them live it was
incredible.
I knew of both Johnny and Dorsey’s solo
songs but somehow the trio stuff just didn’t cross my path. I realize now that I had heard some covers by
others and didn’t realize it was them originally. I regret not hearing it until a couple of
years back.
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| photo courtesy of Dion DiMucci |
You could do it now and you have the appreciation. Probably like me…first time around I liked
stuff. But then all of the sudden I
started to find all the little nuances in the stuff. You go a little deeper with it. When I first heard Jimmy Reed or Hank
Williams I just loved it. But who’s
looking at all the little things in it?
I didn’t even know Jimmy Reed had harmonies with him. It just had this feel. Then you start listening to how the drum
sounds. It’s like “The Wanderer”. I get asked by every drummer in every
band…from Aerosmith to The Pretenders to The Rolling Stones…what was the
drummer doing in “The Wanderer”. I
remember either it was Sticks Evans or Panama Francis. I think it was Panama Francis. We did Kansas City and he played a shuffle
and I said “I got a song just like that and I want to do it cause we’re in the
groove. It’s in the key of D…same key
and it’s a shuffle.” He said “well I’ll
reverse it and instead of doing a guitar solo let’s do a sax solo”. That’s the way “The Wanderer” was done. We just kicked it off. People are saying “was he hitting the high
hat underneath?” “Was he doing this…was
he doing that?” Who the hell knows what
he was doing? He was a jazz
drummer. When they did simple stuff it
came out great. But yeah, he was hitting
the high hat underneath. It was like an
upbeat thing. Those things were just
happening in the studio back then. There
was a lot of inspiration. They could
play with one stick tied behind their back.
They were from the Apollo. They didn’t read music, they just played.
They didn’t know how to do it wrong.
They didn’t know how to do it any other way but the right way. You give them a beat and they were right
there. It was just all intuitive. The rest of it is all heart and feel. That’s like all the records you got up there
on your rockabilly site. I love it. To me, I love that site you put up. It kind of looks like the music sounds. It’s very exciting and brilliant and
bright. It captures it.
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| photo courtesy of Dion DiMucci |
Let’s talk about this new album Tank
Full Of Blues (available January 24th,
2012). What made you decide to do
another blues album now?
I was talking to a friend of mine, Jay Sieleman, who runs
the Blues Foundation. He was talking
about how blues is so guitar driven, which it should be. A lot of people toss the words off and not
pay attention to it too much. It’s not
like Robert Johnson and his brilliant lyrics.
I recorded Bronx In Blue and Son Of Skip James and I’m going to do the
trilogy and complete it. I’m going to show
people who I am. I did songs from the
30’s and 40’s and 50’s on the first 2. I started
writing blues songs and unbelievable songs started coming out of me. I wrote lines that when I wrote them I
thought, “how come nobody wrote these before?”
I got a tank full
of blues and I’m out at the break of dawn
I got my guitar in
the back with a new set of strings on
I got a woman who
really wants me and another who wants me gone
That should have been written a long time ago. I continually ran into lines like that. I wrote a song called “My Baby’s Cryin” and
I’m wondering how come nobody ever wrote this song?
My baby’s crying, I think it’s something
that I said
I wasn’t really thinking it just shot off the top of my dumb head
I should have shut my mouth, I’ve got to learn to think before I talk
I’m like
a little baby, I’ve got to learn to crawl before I walk
Every song’s like that. I wrote a song on this album called “Ride’s
Blues”. I got this vision of me driving
Robert Johnson to the Crossroads because he was looking for a ride from the
Crossroads. He went down to the
crossroads, fell down on his knees and asked the Lord above “have mercy, save
poor Bob if you please”. He tried to
flag a ride. “I went down to the
crossroads/tried to flag a ride/ nobody seemed to know me…”. But I drove him from town to the
crossroads. I have this whole
conversation with him.
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| Robert Johnson painting by Dion DiMucci |
Hitcher on the
back road
man with his guitar
Said take me to
the Crossroads
The Crossroads
ain’t that far
Said he come up
from the Delta said he liked my car
He told me on the
way there he was born in sin
I said I ride that
road yeah I know just where you been
I don’t know where
I’m heading he said
I can’t go back
again
You tell me what
you got now
I tell you what
you lost
Tell me what you
bought now
I’ll tell you what
it cost
Look out of your
window it’s gone like morning frost
It goes on and what he told me and what people back in
town are saying about him. It’s a
narrative but to me I feel like I painted a masterpiece. I got this other one “I Read It (In The
Rolling Stone)”…
Well I’ve been
shaking down the newsstand for a word to ease my soul
Pleading with the
newsman I need a read to rock my roll
Nights are hard
but I know I’m not alone
Hey, I know it’s
true I read it in the Rolling Stone
It’s kind of a tribute to Rolling Stone. It’s been around for so long. I really wrote a blues album that leans
heavily on lyrics and feel. It’s a
little different.
After listening to this project, I understand why you say you feel more
relevant now than you ever have!
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| Bronx In Blue- 2006 |
I know. That’s an
important thing right there. It's what I was
telling you about Jay Sieleman wanting to concentrate a little more on the
lyrics. Dave Marsh said to me “you’re
the only guy from the 50’s that’s remained relevant and creative”. With both of those guys giving me that direction…yeah
I want to show people who I am. The 3rd
album should be me...who I am in this
form of music. I did it with the bass,
drums and 2 guitars. Actually, I played
all the guitars because I couldn’t get somebody to play what I was hearing.
Looking over the years you keep reinventing
yourself with doo-wop, rock, blues, folk, gospel, back to rock, back to blues
again, etc. What is your secret to
continually reinventing yourself and staying relevant?
I hate to sound trite but I think it’s having God in your
life. Without God in your life, people
die very broken. Or they could have God
in their life, but they don’t appropriate His power in their life.
Do
you have some dates coming up in 2012?
I do plan on working.
I got the Blues Cruise January 22-29 (http://www.maltshopcruise.com),
“The Cutting Room” in New York on February 18th
and 92Y on February 19th (http://www.92y.org/Uptown/Event/An-Evening-with-Dion.aspx)
"Runaround Sue"
"The Wanderer"
"Ruby Baby"
"Donna The Prima Donna"
"Written On The Subway Wall"
"Written On The Subway Wall" live
"Ride's Blues"
