GOD SAVE THE QUEEN Wanda Jackson
Jul 28, 2011
This wild woman of rock ain't done with you yet. Jack White's making sure of that.
BY A.D. AMOROSI
It's no secret that despite becoming a Christian in the ‘70s and releasing The Party Ain't Over this year, Wanda Jackson's career didn't commence with giving praise to Jesus or working with Jack White. Jackson, now 73, didn't even start out with rockabilly, the hoot-and-hollering brand of rock ‘n' roll of which she's been the queen of since recording sassy ‘50s and ‘60s sides "Mean, Mean Man," "Fujiyama Mama," "Let's Have A Party" and the self-penned "Right Or Wrong."
Jackson started out with a guitar her father bought her, some costumes her mom made her and the country sounds of the Oklahoma City she came from until she was discovered by Hank Thompson in 1954 and began dating-albeit briefly-Elvis Presley in 1955 while she was on tour with The King. He encouraged her to go with the wild beat and naughty lyrics.
But do not call it the devil's music that Jackson did back then and continues to do now, with the newly recorded raunchiness of "Busted" and "Rip It Up" as two of the revved-up highlights of The Party Ain't Over.
"Now, wasn't that more in the old days that they used that term?" says Jackson, in a gentle voice from the town where she grew up in and continues to live with her husband/manager Wendell Goodman. "I don't have any devilish spirit in me. This is just fun music. The lyrics are innocent. I wouldn't spread any evil message. I am not divided in my allegiance. I am God's vehicle. I let Him lead me."
Jackson says
that devil's notion plagued Elvis as well as her pal Jerry Lee Lewis. Lewis,
she says, was on the verge of becoming a Christian but simply couldn't
reconnoiter singing about sin while worshipping at Jesus' altar. "Elvis was
always upset hearing it called the devil's music. Same with my parents. They
were all for me singing the music of the young people then and saw nothing
wrong with that sound. My parents were contemporary-my mother in particular,
who did happen to be a Christian. They knew that was what the kids wanted.
Still, that charge always hurt Elvis though. The music wasn't hellish and the
thought of it weighed on him."
Along with her choice of Presley's "Like a Baby" for the new album, Jack White, the producer (and now former White Stripe), made several fascinating song selections that ducked back to other parts of past and present. Like the haunting "Dust on the Bible" during which Jackson's swaggering highs sound most comfortable.
"I was surprised at first that Jack picked that for me until it came to pass that he did his homework in regards to me; that gospel music was important to me. He's a spiritual I think. That music is important to him as well. He recognizes God. He's a family man with solid values." Bob Dylan, a self-confessed Wanda fan, must've known, too, about Jackson's gospel singing past, which included hosting a ministry with her husband that landed them on tour throughout the world preaching the Word of God as well as on television and radio throughout the States. When White came to talk to Dylan for a song for Jackson's new album, Bob didn't stall. He chose "Thunder on the Mountain," trembling track whose lyrics straddle Heaven and Earth, without hesitation.
"All the lyrics don't necessarily make too much sense," she explains. "But between Jack rearranging and taking out some lines and me changing lyrics on one verse with Dylan's blessing it worked out fine." She speaks Dylan's line "Standing beside the King/I wouldn't betray that love for any other thing" as if the delicate prose was hers.
Equally touching is how Jackson speaks of being led by God from the testimonies she made and the sacred music she recorded throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s back into the secular sounds of rockabilly; on her first studio album in 20 years, 2003's Heart Trouble where she had help from Elvis Costello and The Cramps ("they were funny people"), to 2011's Party.
"After a lot of prayer, consideration and council, Wendell and I felt comfortable; that God had a different avenue in mind for us," says Jackson. Being sought out by the likes of Poison Ivy and Jack White was God's grand design, especially when you consider that she was hesitant to work with the Stripes/Raconteurs/Dead Weather musician fearing that he'd bring a more contemporary brand of rock to her table. "That wouldn't have been me be me, and nor would that be very believable," she laughs. Luckily the guitarist sought her out and just wanted to embolden Jackson's sound (much as he did in with Loretta Lynn's 2004 album Van Lear Rose which he produced) with raw heft and new fangles. Her fans, like musicians such as White, know that Jackson is the genuine article; the first gal in to rockabilly; the Queen.
"Oh yes, I've been made aware for the last twenty years or so that 'hey this is the girl that started it all'." Jackson speaks with a kind confidence. "That I was out there on the limb doing this wild music right along with the guys. I'm all bunched up in that group of originators who did it first. That's part of the appeal that draws them to me. Then after I have them in my clutches I tell them stories and entertain them and it's all just like new."
Wanda Jackson just kicked off a
weeklong string of U.S.
dates - go to her official website for the itinerary. (A version of this story originally appeared in issue #10 of BLURT.)
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