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Harry Hepcat is a first generation rock and roll artist, performing rock, blues, doo-wop and rockabilly within seven decades. He is noted as a singer, guitarist, band leader, songwriter, radio disc-jockey, writer and media personality; a 1981 review stated, "His honest sense of fun distinguishes him from humorless idol-worshipers and from slapstick cretins..." He was frequent guest on WCBS-FM in New York City (The Doo-Wop Shop) and, on the other end of the rock spectrum, was one of the first listed in the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 1998〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Article at Rockabilly Hall of Fame )〕 and featured on the organization's first CD. Elvis Presley once said of him, to George Anderson, "Harry Hepcat is like a brother, not by blood, but by what he does." ==Biography== The early 1940s found Harry Hepcat's family living in Columbia, South Carolina. His grandfather had played trumpet in a band before World War 1. His mother Irene was a music lover who sang around the house and played her 78 rpm records often. Her dream of being a chorus line dancer ended when she became pregnant. Hepcat's father went off to fight in France and never returned. Television arrived in the early fifties. Harry enjoyed science fiction, a wide variety of comedians and, of course, the music. That kind of taste led right to Les Paul. "I really dug his sound and his records. I would never miss his fifteen minute TV show that was on in the early fifties." By 1955, it was adolescence and girls and that new thing, rock & roll. Harry lived in New York City and then moved to Long Island. As such, he developed a love of the rock bands he encountered on the Island and the group harmony of the city. His radio was tuned to WINS and Alan Freed's ''"Rock & Roll Party"'' and to Jocko's ''"Rocketship Show"'' on WADO. He even was seen as one of the dancers on Alan Freed's TV show. Seeing Bo Diddley at Freed's stage reviews and Elvis on television led to Harry's first guitar in February 1956. "Hepcat, like many teenagers of that era, had fallen in love with rock and roll and by 1958 was playing the guitar, performing live with bands (The Royal Sultans) and even recording rock and roll." Harry played in half a dozen bands through the early 1960s. He kept up with the latest music, but always saw fit to preserve older material. The shows were primarily in the northeastern United States, with some tours of the mid- west and southern border states. There were recordings for several small labels and then on to Old Town and Ace records. Soon there were LPs released in Germany and a release in England and Japan. The reviews were positive. Wayne Robbins of Newsday wrote that, "Hepcat's 'Boppin' the Blues' is fine!" Good Times Magazine referred to Harry Hepcat as "a true practitioner of rockabilly and good old rock and roll since the music first appeared." Rockabilly magazine, in reviewing Hepcat's "Real to Reel" album, wrote that he "developed uninhibited" and his remastered early cuts "illustrate an unbridled classic-form rock'n'roller deserving of wider acclaim than was his." "The Sunrise Special" EP "displayed Hepcat as the living, breathing, guitar strumming artifact of 1950s rockabilly that he undoubtedly was." In commenting on "Harry Hepcat's Stories of the 50s" CD, WCBS-FM disc jockey Don K. Reed describes Hepcat as "a rockabilly rocker from way back who's lost nothing over the years and can tell a story in song with the best of them." The album songs and stories are Hepcat originals. Rock critic Darren Paltrowitz calls the CD "the real deal...listening to it will show you just how similar the story-telling of 'the Boss' Springsteen is to that of Hepcat. Harry Hepcat is a visionary indeed." As for the many Harry Hepcat releases in Europe, Harry was quoted as saying of the Europeans, "The appreciation for American rockabilly and 50s rock and roll is because they know it's our music and it's the real thing when we do it. When they do it, they're imitating an American art form and they know that deep down." In 1967, Harry Hepcat decided on preserving the music and styles of the fifties and early sixties. In an age of acid rock, hippies and protest movements, most agents and venues considered that idea insane. At one of the early concerts at Hofstra University, on Long Island, the over enthusiastic students rioted, turning over slide show equipment and destroying band signs and a poster photo of Alan Freed. In spite of this, the times finally caught up with Harry and the fifties revival was on. Harry Hepcat started off in the fifties playing house parties and school auditoriums. In the decades to follow, he was playing for some of the biggest hotels in New York City (Roosevelt Hotel, Hotel Pierre), the Westbury Music Fair, Tavern on the Green in Central Park, Manhattan, the Neville and the Concord in the Catskills and before 10,000 people at The Long Island Arena and similarly massive crowds in a series of concerts at Yonkers Raceway. The New York City club scene featured Harry and his band at clubs like Malachy's, Dangerfield's and Brandy's II. After performing for the Broadway cast of "Grease," they commented, "We only act it: it's such a pleasure to hear the real thing." Preserving the cultural story of the 1950s also led to Harry Hepcat's ideas being published in several newspapers and magazines. He soon expanded the public's exposure to fifties music by becoming one of the first rock musicians to open up new outdoor venues to the material. Harry Hepcat & The Boogie Woogie Band now added rock music to parks and arenas that had previously only featured light classical, pop, dixieland and march music. Harry rocked the out-of-doors at The Garden State Arts Center in New Jersey, the Levitt Pavilion in Westport, Connecticut and dozens of city and town parks. His music programs soon appeared in another unheard of location for rock music, various library systems. Hepcat's program soon became approved by the Board of Co-operative Educational Services (BOCES) in 1975 and school performances soon followed as part of music appreciation programs. "Hepcat has not only opened the ears of the MTV generation through his speeches, he has reminded everyone of rock and roll's history through his writings." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Harry Hepcat」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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