(Del-Fi)
An artful, if not 100% convincing, musical chameleon until his untimely (and still unexplainable) death in 1966 at the age of 24, Bobby Fuller was the sum total of a wide variety of musical influences ranging from Elvis to Gene Vincent, Bill Haley, Eddie Cochran, the Everly Brothers, Elvis, the Beatles, the Ventures and, most noticably, fellow Texan Buddy Holly.
Compiled from nearly 100 tapes recorded between 1961 and 1964 in the studio Fuller built in his parents El Paso home - Shakedown! is packaged to resemble the seven-inch reel to reel tapes on which these songs were originally captured.
Disc one runs through four or five decent, early Buddy Holly-type tunes before Fuller's Cochran/Vincent fixation hits full stride on vibrant versions of "Nervous Breakdown" and "Rock House" sandwiched around a great shot at Holly's "Not Fade Away."
"King Of The Beach," "Wine, Wine, Wine" and "Bodine" are proof that Fuller had seen at least one Frankie and Annette movie and had heard at least two Beatle tracks; while "Keep On Dancin'" shows more than a passing familiarity with Ritchie Valens.
While a bright, Beatle-esque, version of "I Fought The Law" - the obscure Crickets B-side that would rocket him to fame when it was re-recorded a few years later - shows early promise, as does "A New Shade Of Blue" and a John Lennon-meets-Jonathan King-like tune called "Nancy Jean"; the bulk of the first disc runs a listenable, if not particularly original, gamut from blatant Elvis, Four Seasons, Rick Nelson, Beatles, and Everly knock-offs and Ventures-inspired surf tunes to generic Mersey Beat sound-alikes from an artist not sure, exactly, where he fits in musically.
The second disc features a few repeat tracks given slightly different treatments as Fuller and his ever-changing band (bassist and brother Randy is the only continuous member) whip through thinly veiled rewrites of "Shakin' All Over," "Peggy Sue," "Everyday," "True Love Ways," "Walk, Don't Run" and "Telestar" - as well as covers of "Summertime Blues," "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "Donna," "Do You Wanna Dance?" and "Keep A Knockin' " - in Fuller's never-ending quest for a signature sound and elusive commercial success.
