THE COLLINS KIDS AT TOWN HALL PARTY – The DVD Review

Review by Sam Moffitt

I love finding new things.

Writers I never heard of, music I’m not familiar with, a movie recommended by a friend I trust. Even better than finding something new is discovering that the material in question is a lot better than expected. I like to be surprised, I enjoy the professional output of talented people, writers, film makers, musicians, artists in general.

But nothing, and I mean nothing, could have prepared me for the atom bomb blast the Collins Kids have put on me.

A little back ground first. I recently went on vacation and drove to Missouri from my home in St. Petersburg, Florida to visit my family at our reunion over Labor Day weekend. I drove there through Mississippi and took my time, visited places that interested me. Stopped in Indianola, MS and visited the B.B. King Museum (I highly recommend it by the way). Stopped in Yazoo City, Mississippi in search of Jerry Clower memorabilia, and bought a great t-shirt from a nice lady who knew Mr. Clower personally. Spent one night in Clarksdale, Mississippi and made it a point to hear some live blues music. And, yes, I went to Graceland in Memphis, not that I’m a big Elvis Fan but I thought I really should go at least once. Also visited the Alabama Memorial in Mobile (I love that Battleship!). Visited the Catfish Capital of the World in Belzoni, Mississippi.

After leaving Memphis I stopped in Conway, Arkansas, for two reasons, to see my good friend Mike Gunter who teaches film and video production at the University of Central Arkansas and meet his wife Kathy and daughter Sarah for the first time. And I wanted to visit the offices of Oxford American magazine, a publication devoted to all things Southern in these United States. They used to be in Oxford, Mississippi by the way, hence the name.

I wanted to thank them for a particular issue, the 2011 all music issue which came with a free cd of all Mississippi music. I also wanted to volunteer my services to write an article for Oxford American, two birds in the hand so to speak.

Assistant Editor Maxwell George made me feel welcome and was interested in the article I proposed. And he gave me some back issues of the magazine, one of which was the 2003 all music issue, with another free cd. I listened to that cd on my way to Missouri, and on the way home to St. Petersburg, and I’m still listening to it. Like all of Oxford American’s cds there are quite a few artists I was not familiar with, I love the whole cd but one stand out was a rock and roll song called Hot Rod by the Collins Kids, someone I had never heard of.

On first hearing I thought this was a brand new song by someone trying for and achieving a retro feel for a new song. The song is so tight, so well timed, played and recorded I thought it was brand new. Wrong, so wrong, I found out when I got a chance to read the magazine which has articles about all the featured artists on the cd. The Collins Kids were from the 1950s, they really were kids when the song was recorded, and their talent is incredible. Hot Rod is a damn near perfect 1950s Rock and Roll song, why had I never heard of the song, or the Collins Kids before?

I’m not a musicologist by any means, but I know what I like and that is damn near every kind of American popular music you can name, Blues, Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, Rock and Roll, Country and Western, Gospel. Big Band Swing, Jump Boogie. I have read several histories of American Rock and Roll and watched countless documentaries on the history of Rock and Roll, again, no mention of the Collins Kids, none that I remember anyway.

And so, me being who I am, I searched on Netflix, found a dvd of the Collins Kids on Town Hall Party, a live country and western music television series from the 1950s, put it at the head of my queue, got it a few days ago and now (finally!), I’m going to tell you all about it!

You’ve never seen anything like this, I never have any way. These shows are from 1958, the Collins Kids, Lorie and Larry, were regulars on the show, appeared every week unless they were touring, which was often. Lorie was 16 and Larry was 14 and what they could do was incredible, especially for two such young people.

They do a variety of then current Rock and Roll hits, in fact because it was a weekly show there are multiple versions of some songs, you get three different versions of Chantilly Lace for instance, more than one version of Great Balls of Fire.

Lorie has an incredible voice, especially for a 16 year old. It helps that she was drop dead beautiful, she looks a lot like Shelley Fabares, quite appropriate since both of the Collins look like they stepped right off the Donna Reed Show or Father Knows Best. Which makes it all the more startlingly when they slam into a revved up rock and roll song without so much as a “by your leave!”

Both Collins Kids play guitar but it is Larry who is astonishing. The Collins Kids were no novelty act, this kid really could play the guitar, as fast as the Ramones, and his stage moves are amazing. Think of the most hyperactive 12 year old you ever knew (or were!) after eating 3 boxes of Coco Puffs with coffee instead of milk. This kid is insane! Like any 12 to 14 year old he has just got to be the center of attention, the only difference being he really is talented, where he got his chops I have no idea. He mostly plays a custom made double neck Mosrite with his name inlaid on the neck.

Together the two of them don’t really play a song, they function more like a musical tag team. They tackle a song on the run, wrestle it to the ground, pummel it into submission, beat the piss out of it and hold the remains up for their audience to enjoy! Watching and listening to them is exhausting. The dvd runs only a little over an hour but I have yet to watch it all the way through in one viewing.

Larry’s stage moves are uncanny, he could duck walk better than Chuck Berry (of course, he was a little kid!) and I seriously believe that both James Brown and Jim Morrison saw this kid on television and copped some of his moves for later use in the 60s. I’m not kidding, watch the dvd and you’ll see what I mean. And Lorie’s voice is so incredible, a husky, throaty contralto (don’t hold me to that, I could be wrong here, I did say I’m not a musicologist!) she puts her own personal stamp on every song she sings. Lorie’s phrasing and timing, well both their sense of timing, are so damn good, and Lorie’s voice put me in mind of both Patsy Cline and Etta James, again I’m not kidding, she was that good.

And any good Rock and Roll act has to have an edge, some hint of danger. With Black artists the edge was obvious, especially in the 50s. Elvis and Eddie Cochran and other early White singers were seen as little better than hoodlums and motorcycle gang members. Later on it was sex, drugs and violence that haunted a lot of Rock acts and made them all the more fascinating to each successive wave of fans.

With the Collins Kids the air of danger, and I’m not trying to be negative here, is a real sense of incestuous longing. From what we see here little Larry loved his big sister, he kisses her during almost every song. They had a charming habit of singing into one microphone, often back to back, and at key moments swinging around and singing while looking into each other’s eyes. I’m sorry, there is something weird and strange about a 14 year old kid singing Chantilly Lace while his eyes are looking deep into on his 16 year old sister’s while screaming at a fever pitch “Oh you sweet thang, you know what I like!” During Great Balls of Fire Larry gives her a kiss and sings “that sure feels good!” He does a change up and sings ”that sure feels terrible!” during one version and gets big laughs and a very funny reaction from Lorie. She literally smacks him upside the head at that point. They do one song that fit them perfectly, Make Him Behave, all about a teenage girl’s problems with a pesky kid brother.

Which is a whole other aspect, this being live television anything could happen, most of their performance footage is pretty smooth. But Lorie loses a shoe during one of their choreographed dance routines, a stage hand comes out to put it back on and Lorie never misses a beat. Despite any hint of weirdness going on the chemistry between brother and sister is undeniable and irresistible.

Rock and Roll was always supposed to about one major thing, fun! Rock songs by their very nature were simple little poems about girlfriends, boyfriends, hot rods, school, summer vacation, what have you. The Collins Kids were all about fun, they both obviously are having the time of their lives and their energy level can match or exceed anything Elvis, Mick Jagger or Bruce Springsteen or, hell, name any Rock singer you can think of, could put out. But under all that these were innocent kids, just having a good time doing what they loved to do.

Artists as important and diverse as Elvis Costello, Tom Petty and Chris Isaak name them as influences and major players in early Rock and Roll.

Why had I never heard of them before? Some of the answers are in Oxford American’s wonderful article about them written by Alex Halberstadt. They were from Oklahoma, a very small town. Their Mother thought Lorie could be a singer, entered her in amateur talent contests, Larry taught himself to play guitar and fought to be in the spotlight, their Father thought they should play together. After one audition they were brought on as regulars on Town Hall Party, a West Coast version of the Grand Ole Opry. All four family members are credited with writing Hot Rod.

Audiences loved them, both were able to buy cars before they were old enough to legally drive them. Rick Nelson (yes that Rick Nelson!) had a serious crush on Lorie and wanted to marry her. She appeared on an episode of Ozzie and Harriett and sang a duet with Rick. I would love to see that episode! Fan magazines were touting them as Rock music’s dream couple.

Shortly after these shows were captured on kinescope Lorie torpedoed their entire career by running off and marrying Johnny Cash’ road manager, a man several years older than her. It was a major scandal at the time and a seriously bad career move. Lorie took time off to have children, Lorie and Larry played minor gigs right up until the 80’s. Larry kept in the music business by song writing, remember Delta Dawn? Larry Collins helped write it, and several other hit songs for various artists.

In 1993 they played a Rockabilly festival in England and got standing ovations from a very young audience. They are both still around and occasionally play gigs together . I would dearly love to see them in concert.

While they are both still with us can somebody write a book about these two? And how about a documentary? I would love to hear their entire story, and see more concert footage of them. If you want to see them right away You Tube has several of these songs.

And how about a movie of these two? Yes, Hollywood, hey, I’m talking to you! (Yeah right, like anybody in Hollywood reads my ranting and raving!) But it’s nice to dream anyway, because these two kids lived the dream and saw it come crashing down around them, the classic show business story, but what talents! And at such a young age. You can also see recent photos and read more about the Collins Kids on the Rockabilly Hall of Fame website http://www.rockabillyhall.com/CollinsKids1.html.

Bear Family Records, a German company, produced this dvd. The footage is made up entirely of kinescopes, 16 MM film of live television broadcasts, so picture and audio quality is kind of primitive, but that talent and joy and energy still come through. The only extras are some brief clips of other artists who appeared on Town Hall Party like Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins and Gene Vincent, and an explanation of what kinescopes are and how they were made.

Now I have to comb my hair, get in my hot rod and pick up my girlfriend, I am out of here!