Eddie Bond (July 1, 1933 – March 20, 2013) was an American rockabilly singer and guitarist. Despite never becoming a major national figure, Eddie Bond carved out a place as a rockabilly and country star, as well as a radio personality, for 50 years. A contemporary of Elvis Presley and a fixture in Memphis and on the Louisiana Hayride in the mid-'50s, Bond was one of the best singers of the period.
Born Eddie James Bond in Memphis, he was originally drawn
into music by the work of Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff. By age eight, Bond had
saved enough to buy his first guitar, and as a teenager he played at beer
joints around Memphis. He drifted through various jobs after finishing school,
including furniture factory worker and truck driver, before serving an 18-month
hitch in the Navy.
After returning to civilian life, he began putting
together his band, the Stompers, whose membership at various times in the years
1952-1954 included Jody Chastain and Curtis Lee Anderson. By 1955, the group's
mainstays included Reggie Young on lead guitar, John Hughey on the pedal steel,
and Johnny Fine at the drums. Bond led the Stompers on tours across the South
and Southwest, billed alongside Roy Orbison, among other future country and
rock & roll stars. They failed in auditions for Sam Phillips at Sun and the
Bihari brothers' Meteor label.
In1955 he signed with tiny Ekko Records, which resulted
in a pair of singles issued late in the year, "Double Duty
Lovin'"/"Talking Off the Wall" and "Love Makes a Fool
(Everyday)"/"Your Eyes." These were pleasant, well-played
country numbers, but they didn't include the band, only Bond as singer. With
Hank Garland on lead guitar, Jerry Byrd on steel guitar, and Marvin Hughes at
the ivories, they were OK records and then some, but not representative of
Bond's real
sound -- "Talking Off the Wall" was a rocker, with a solid beat and
lots of tension in the lead and rhythm guitar parts, but it was the B-side to the milder "Double Duty Lovin'." In any case, neither record attracted any notice from the public or the musical world.
sound -- "Talking Off the Wall" was a rocker, with a solid beat and
lots of tension in the lead and rhythm guitar parts, but it was the B-side to the milder "Double Duty Lovin'." In any case, neither record attracted any notice from the public or the musical world.
Bond and his band managed to get signed to Mercury
Records in 1956, and this was where they came into their own. From their first
Mercury session in February of 1956, Eddie Bond & the Stompers cooked, with
a lean, hard rockabilly sound that rocked with the best of them. The band in
those days featured Young, Hughey, and Fine, with Bond playing rhythm. The
single "I Got a Woman"/"Rockin' Daddy" from that session is
testimony to the excitement they could generate.
That Mercury debut sold well
in the spring of 1956, and they were getting lots of gigs and broadcast
exposure at the time. Bond played the Louisiana Hayride alongside Elvis
Presley, Johnny Cash, and Johnny Horton, and it was around this time that he
started his own radio show, an activity that was to loom ever larger in his
career. His second Mercury session produced still more rockabilly gold,
including "Slip, Slip, Slippin' In" and "Flip, Flop Mama,"
and they sold respectably, if not spectacularly.
Bond didn't stay with rockabilly music, however, and his
later Mercury sessions produced country sides, although "Love Love
Love" rocks pretty well. His Mercury contract ended in 1957, and for his
next sessions, Bond was back doing rockabilly again, followed by more country
music and even a foray into gospel in the early '60s. Bond's biggest success in
the years that followed came on radio, where his show achieved huge ratings;
this, in turn, helped sustain his record sales, as he recorded or licensed
various songs to different labels, mostly in a country vein.
Eddie Bond was never going to be another Elvis Presley --
he wasn't going to be turned into a movie star as easily, or branch into other,
heavily produced sounds, and he was too successful early on as a radio
personality to abandon that activity. But he made a more than fair rival to
Conway Twitty (whom he played with around 1955, when the latter was still known
as Harold Jenkins), with a pleasing tenor voice, understated in its sweetness
and dramatic nuance, and a good sense of how to deliver a song, whether ballad,
rocker, or gospel number.
Gradually he divested himself of his various professional
interests. During his retirement his health started to decline after a fall in
2011 and he died of complications from Alzheimer's disease at his home in Bolivar,
Tennessee on 20 March, 2013.He was 79.
(Edited mainly from Bruce Eder @, All Music Guide)
4 comments:
For “Eddie Bond - Memphis Country Music King (2015)” go here;
https://www.upload.ee/files/10161176/Eddie_Bond_-_MCMK.rar.html
01. Behave, Be Quiet or Be Gone (1:40)
02. Tank Town Boogie (2:14)
03. Won't You Ride My Little Red Wagon (2:34)
04. Gamblin' Man (2:05)
05. The Devil Is a Woman (2:45)
06. Love Love Love (2:14)
07. Fool About You (1:40)
08. Feel Like I'm Catching the Blues (2:19)
09. Winners Circle (1:40)
10. I Just Found Out (2:14)
11. This Cold War with You (2:31)
12. Running Drunk (1:45)
13. One More Memory (2:01)
14. Someday I'll Sober Up (2:27)
15. High Stepppin' Woman (1:45)
16. I Got a Hole in My Pirogue (2:14)
17. Caution (2:30)
18. I'll Step Aside (1:48)
19. Now and Then (2:30)
20. Your Woman May Have Been Here (2:22)
21. Time (2:20)
22. Whatever Makes You Happy (1:58)
23. Double Duty Lovin' (Re-Cut) (2:02)
24. I Can't Fight This Much Longer (2:17)
25. They Say We're Too Young (2:10)
26. When the Jukebox Plays (2:41)
27. Satisfied (1:41)
28. Sweet Marie (3:08)
29. That Glass (2:33)
30. Here Comes the Train (1:34)
31. There She Goes (2:35)
32. I Turned and Walked Slowly Away (2:43)
33. Another Man's Shoes (2:57)
34. Cold Dark Waters (2:48)
Eddie Bond staked his claim to rockabilly immortality with a series of hot cuts for Mercury in 1956 and his constant touring with the likes of Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison. At heart, though, Eddie was a country music man. This is the first compilation dedicated to Bond's country recordings from the 1950s to the 1990s. There are at least 15 tracks here that will appeal to his hardcore rockabilly fans, as they are laced with a western boogie beat and some hot guitar work.
A big thank you to C@tbyte for original post
Thank You.
Wow, what a fantastic collection! Could you provide me with a scan of the booklet?
Hello Mark, Sorry but there were no scans included when I got this from a now defunct forum many moons ago. I had a quick Google search but found nothing. Still glad you enjoyed the album. If you want the real thing I spotted a few going at a reasonable price on the web. Regards, Bob
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