BOBBY FULLER: I FOUGHT THE LAW (1966)
1) Let Her Dance; 2) Julie; 3)
A New Shade Of Blue; 4) Only When I Dream; 5) You Kiss Me; 6) Little Annie Lou;
7) I Fought The Law; 8) Another Sad And Lonely Night; 9) Saturday Night; 10)
Take My Word; 11) Fool Of Love; 12) Never To Be Forgotten.
ʽI Fought The Lawʼ is quite a cool song,
although it is a bit odd that the original version by the Crickets, with Sonny
Curtis on lead vocals, never managed to have even one dozenth of the impact of
the Bobby Fuller Four version, despite Bobby being quite reverential to the
original: talk about the power of accidence! Or maybe there simply was
something in the song that made it sound so much before its time in 1960, and
so well in line with the garage spirit of 1966. Not that it formally sounds
«garage-like»: the guitar sound is clean and jangly, reflecting the influence
of the Crickets filtered through Merseybeat standards. The message — this is, after all, the unrepentant confession of a
young derelict we're talking about — that's what mattered.
Honestly, I am not even sure if Bobby selected
it for the message: this is pretty much the only song in his catalog that could
be properly called «rebellious». Most likely, he just liked the vibe of the
original and chose to cover it as one of those quirky, catchy, but little-known
non-hits from the past that needed additional popularization. Who knew, back in
1966, that eventually The Clash would roll along a decade later to make it an
integral, well-fitting part of their usual pedigree? Who could, in fact, have
predicted that it would rise into the US Top Ten...? One of those amazing
little mysteries of life that makes exploring musical history so worthwhile.
The record label decided to quickly capitalize
on the success of the single by placing it on the band's second LP — the irony,
of course, being that the band had almost no new material, and thus, about half
of the record simply repeated the songs from the KRLA LP (I assume that the executives logically reasoned that,
since nobody bought that LP in the first place, there'd be no harm in trying to
introduce the population to those songs for a second time). Only four new songs
have been recorded, of which ʽJulieʼ is another upbeat, friendly Buddy Holly
imitation, while the others are rhythmic ballads more in the style of Roy
Orbison — not awful or anything, but nothing to write home about.
Funny enough, the songs from KRLA that do get repeated are restricted to love-themed pop rockers and
ballads — not a single car song is included, which, on the whole, makes I Fought The Law the ultimate Bobby
Fuller LP: ʽAnother Sad And Lonely Nightʼ, ʽLet Her Danceʼ, and ʽI Fought The Lawʼ are all here, and
those ridiculous variations on the theme of ʽLittle Deuce Coupeʼ are not. On the
other hand, the selection does make ʽI Fought The Lawʼ stick out like a sore
thumb — nothing even begins to come close to this song in terms of attitude,
energy, «spiritual fire», if you will.
Since it would only take six months after the success
of ʽI Fought The Lawʼ for Bobby Fuller to have been found asphyxiated in his
mother's car (permanently cementing the legend, so to speak), we have no idea
of what direction he would have chosen; something tells me that, most likely,
he'd probably just fade away like so many others, but who needs guesswork? Other
songs recorded around that time have been since then made available on various
compilations, and none of the ones I have heard seem to yield any more clues.
Additionally, Bobby's legend has so
uncomfortably outgrown his real importance that, among the faithful collectors,
almost every shred of his recording legacy from the early days has been
lovingly assembled and packaged on various archival releases (Bobby Fuller Tapes, El Paso Rock, etc.), with fans often
claiming that his earliest work is rawer, grittier, and more «sincere» than his
Mustang days. Perhaps so, but, judging by what little I have heard, there is no
need to hope for a miracle: it's not as if Bobby Fuller was a genius songwriter
or virtuoso guitar player in 1960. On the whole, his claim to fame can be
measured out in two or three real good singles, a dozen or so reasonably clever
facsimiles, and the most mysterious death of 1966. But then, it was all such a
good time that even a minor footnote like this has its own bit of value. You
just need to disentangle legend, hearsay, and false impression from facts —
sometimes not easy at all, given the existence of scenes like this, where the Bobby
Fuller Four were forced to lip-synch to a non-Bobby Fuller song next to Nancy Sinatra
in a performance worthy of Austin Powers. Oh yes, no need to deny that the
1960s had their fair share of embarrassingly weird ways of earning a buck.
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