The Rock and Roll Trio

THE ROCK AND ROLL TRIO

The Rock and Roll Trio were an American rockabilly group formed in Memphis, Tennessee, during the 1950s. They were also known as “Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio” and the “Johnny Burnette Trio”. The members of the Trio were Dorsey Burnette, his younger brother Johnny, and a friend Paul Burlison. Dorsey and Johnny Burnette were both natives of Memphis, having been born there in 1932 and 1934, respectively. Paul Burlison was born in Brownsville, Tennessee, in 1929, but moved to Memphis with his family in 1937. (More from Wikipedia)

“Train Kept A-Rollin’” is a jump blues song that was originally recorded by Tiny Bradshaw in 1951; the 1956 rockabilly recording of “Train Kept A-Rollin’” by the Johnny Burnette Trio is said to be the first rock and roll record to deliberately use distorted guitar. (The trio is also known as the Rock and Roll Trio but are not to be confused with the Johnny Johnson Trio, where Chuck Berry started out). This song even predates Link Wray’s “Rumble” in this regard (that instrumental came out in 1958), though Wray is still the man credited with bringing power chords to rock guitar.

(July 2013)

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In 1956, Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio released “Train Kept A-Rollin’”; a cool video showing them playing the song is available on YouTube. Wikipedia reports: “The Trio’s version features guitar lines in what many historians consider to be the first recorded example of intentionally distorted guitar in rock music.” This record came out 2 years before Link Wray introduced power chords to rock music with his hit instrumental “Rumble”, where he also included considerable distorted guitar.

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The Yardbirds recorded “Train Kept A-Rollin’” while they were on their American tour in 1965. In her biography of Jeff Beck, who was lead guitarist for the band at that time, Annette Carson notes (as quoted in Wikipedia) that their “propulsive, power-driven version, however, deviated radically from the original. . . . [Their] recording plucked the old Rock & Roll Trio number from obscurity and turned it into a classic among classics”. Cub Koda writing for Allmusic notes of the Yardbirds’ version that they made “Train Kept A-Rollin’” a “classic guitar riff song for the ages”.

(June 2015)