LONNIE DONEGAN - “Putting On The Style”/”Gamblin Man”
(28th June 1957)
A double A-Side. “Style” is less obviously radical than “Cumberland Gap”; “Gamblin Man” if anything more so. Recorded in front of a whooping audience, “Gamblin’ Man” is sheer frenzy, a primitive hoedown which speeds up and up and up while Lonnie’s voice accelerates into a howl. Then comes the instrumental break and things get even wilder.
When I was 8 or 9 a friend and I formed a ‘band’ called The Guntzheads. The idea was that we would turn the tape on, repeat a phrase or two slow, then bash or strum whatever came to hand and howl it again and again until we got bored. With its biscuit tin drums, lightning guitars and urgent hollers, “Gamblin Man”’s last minute sounds like that. Except tighter, of course - these are touring pros, jazz band veterans. But that’s what makes it so good - the audible, extreme fun these guys are having just letting go and pushing the song until it blurs.
“Puttin On The Style” isn’t remotely as exciting but that doesn’t make it bad (or even worse). It’s a cute variety show song rocked up a bit, Donegan’s performance an awkward but captivating mix of music hall trickery - comic voices, the whole funny-old-world perspective - and live-wire rockisms. As with “Cumberland Gap”, it’s the spit-and-sellotape arrangement that makes it so immediate, plus Donegan’s clear conviction that laughing and rocking were not exclusive. 8
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rosie on July 23rd, 2008
You know, I think this may be the first pop song I was aware of at the time (though not that it was number one, or that there was such a thing as a chart). My dad used to sing it. I don’t think I knew what the words meant (they are a bit complicated for a three-year-old) but we used to go for family walks on Sunday afternoons which involved crossing something called a ’stile’, so I thought that ‘putting on the stile’ had something to do with that.
wichita lineman on July 25th, 2008
This almost seems like a repudiation of rock ‘n’ roll, I’ve never quite got who Putting On The Style is aimed at or for. It sounds snidey, either way, and a confusing disappointment after Cumberland Gap’s anarchy. Gamblin’ Man seems to have been a double-A in the vein of Connie Francis’ Carolina Moon, meaning that no one remembers it being a double-A. Never heard it but, quite clearly, I really should!