Dion Dimucci Information Exchange

Whats that sound - Rocket 88?

Steves rants and raves

By Stephen Islip

In 1992 Dion released a patchy album, Dream on Fire, but perhaps its best Dimucci songs was "Whats that sound" his tour-de-force through rock'n'roll history care of the rich, famous and influential, from the 1930's to 90's.

Whats in a line?

It's a great song and the links are very ingenious, but I have major reservations over 1 line and each time I play that song, the gap becomes a chasm. So whats the line that grates with me:

"Tina Turners wedding on the brink".

Seems innocuous you think?

Where's Ike?

My first reservation is what is Ms. Turner doing in this list; she has a big voice but is her contribution that major(Ed: I always thought her performance at Live Aid where her dress was ripped off her by some rock-non-entity had REAL artistic merit)? But if that's not the problem it's the assumed appendage to this statement: - her ex-husband, Ike Turner who she had great fun demonising in her film as an adulterer, drug abuser and jailbird. Why should Dumicci be concerned about this guys reputation? - Has he not travelled the same road "sharing love with women of all kinds " and "I went on dope it surly changed my life"?

Rocket 88

But what this statement ignores is Ikes major contribution to rock'n'roll history; "Rocket 88" the record Ike Turners Rhythm Kings cut in 1951, at Sam Phillips Studio in Memphis. This record (although labelled as by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Kings)is widely regarded as the first rock'n'roll record, not only because its sound was influential on Lt. Richard and Chuck Berry, taking common themes of women and cars, but because of the waves it created in rock'n'roll history. Not only was it the first hit and RNB number 1 for Chess Records, it helped to finance all the great stars on the label (quite rightly celebrated by Dion). However just as importantly, unknown Country and Western group, Bill Haley and The Saddlemen recorded it as their first RNB cover.

Lets re-write history?

This record was pivotal for rock, and we only have to look at its effects one career. What if we took a time machine and went back to 1951 and blew up Ike and his group travelling to Memphis on that important day. For a start Sam Phillips the producer, without a success might have gone back to Dee-Jay'ing, so there was no Sun studios when Elvis (influenced by Haleys experiments) came looking for a place to make a record for his mum.

Then a teenager from the Bronx with an obsession with Hank Williams would not have been blown off course by the new exciting sounds from the south. If that Bronx boy did make it to the Studios in the 1960's, would he still have released "Be careful of Stones That you Throw" as a single? However instead of it being largely ignored by a public more excited by the recycled rock'n'roll of brit-pop sounds, would "Stones" have gone to number 1? Without a rock'n'roll attitude, would he have been unable to fight the inertia, condemning him forever to MOR country music career?

Time for a change

Perhaps I expect too much from 1 song, but why not get Bill Tuoey (the songs lyricist) to dump "Tina" and insert "Ike Turner and his Rocket 88"? Ike deserves to be there as much as Robert Johnson in the first line. Without Ike, (one of lifes survivors like yourself) that "sound" you're singing about might have been radically different? We've all heard you change songs before Dion, so how about a justified re-write here?