Big Blonde

The incredible Ronnie Dawson shares his Bad Habits

by David Ritchie

Just short of 60 years old, Ronnie Dawson seems to be at the highest point of his career since its beginning. Coming full circle from a promising start in the mid-'50s, the Blonde Bomber's triumphant Worcester return is next Thursday at the Plantation Club. The occasion is More Bad Habits, his first US studio recording since the '60s, and the first ever in stereo. Ask around. The last time he appeared here was two years ago; and a sweaty, exhausted, and elated crowd was stunned when Dawson finally stepped down from the stage and hugged everyone in the room. What a guy.

Dawson remembers his starting point, though he's a little unsure of the date (1956 or '57). He appeared on the "search for talent" portion of the Big D Jamboree in Dallas (a radio show in the style of the Louisiana Hayride or the Grand Ole Opry), during which bands attempted to win 10 weeks in a row in hopes of securing a management contract and a record release. "We won our 10 times and became pretty much favorites. We were one of the few that had been rock and roll. It was basically a country show."

The management deal he signed put him in the hands of Ed MacLemore, then Gene Vincent's manager. Dawson's earliest recordings are now legendary: a skinny kid with a blond flattop who sounded like an angry Cub Scout when he belted out some of the rockinest tunes in history. Two of those first singles were penned by Jack Rhodes, an old Western swing musician better-known today for his country song "Silver Threads and Golden Needles" and for Porter Wagoner's hit "Satisfied Mind." By the time Dawson met Rhodes, he had retired and was living in a motel in Mineola, Texas. "He looked like everything in the world but the kind of person who would write these kind of songs. . . . He looked like a truck driver, y'know, big old guy with his belly hangin' over his belt. He was a delightful guy. Really nice. He said, `Well, I'll write you a cat song.'"

Rhodes wrote two, "Action Packed" and "Rockin' Bones," which led to an offer from Dick Clark to record on Swan Records and to appear on American Bandstand. Unfortunately, the payola scandal hit -- and Clark was prohibited from pushing anything on his show with which he was associated -- and the recordings never took place.

Dawson then toured the school circuit for a time with the Light Crust Doughboys, a regional Western swing band who had, in the 1930s, contained Milton Brown and Bob Wills. By the late '50s, however, the Doughboys and other "fiddle bands" had fallen out of favor, so Dawson was recruited to spruce up their image. "I was basically doing rock and roll with them. They carried me along to be their teenage singing star. . . . At that point, fiddle bands were very low on the totem pole for kids . . . if they saw a fiddle they'd start hollerin' and makin' fun. So they kinda took me along to do `Johnny B. Goode' and stuff like that, `Mack the Knife,'" he laughs. "I'd do those things. But I played guitar with them, too."

At the time, Dawson had no idea how influential the Doughboys were (Brown and Wills were the progenitors of Western swing). "So now, everybody's goin', `Oh man, you played with them?' But at the time, I really didn't tell everybody. I didn't tell my friends I was playing in a fiddle band."

In subsequent years, he had session work. He played with other bands and wrote commercial jingles. But things really began to take off in the '80s, when a British record collector named Barney Koumis contacted Dawson to see if there were any more recordings like those first singles. That conversation led to several trips to England where Dawson discovered a legion of rockabilly fans. Koumis released Rockin' Bones, a collection of much of the early material, on his own indie label, No Hit Records. Dawson then recorded three studio albums in England: Monkey Beat, Rockinitis, and Just Rockin' and Rollin' (all were eventually made available in the States on Crystal Clear Sound and Upstart Records).

Last year, Dawson recorded a live album at the Continental Club in Austin (available only at his shows). Then he went to Portland, Maine, to record More Bad Habits, also in stereo. His British albums were recorded for a highly critical vintage-oriented crowd, most of which was still buying vinyl. The new stereo tracks were recorded specifically for a CD. It's twangy, loud, fun, and it's apparent he's not slowing down his guitar attack.

His songs are tongue-in-cheek takes on the usual themes: cars, girls, and fast living (one of Dawson's best new songs is his own: the phenomenal "Waxahachie Drag Race"). Basically, these are the same themes from 40 years earlier. In "Rockin' Bones," Dawson proclaimed, "I wanna leave a happy memory when I go/I wanna leave somethin' to let the whole world know/The rock-and-roll daddy has done passed on/But the bones keep rockin' long after I'm gone." Today, two months short of turning 60, a healthy Ronnie Dawson laments that too many of his contemporaries succumbed to that kind of image. "I tell you what, I've seen Gene Vincent go down. I've seen several people that tried to live up to their bad-boy image that are not alive. And you have to understand, when you die, that's it. You'll probably become a bigger star, but you won't be here to enjoy it. I think that escapes some people."

So, okay, the rock-and-roll lifestyle is a myth. Still, nothing's better than hearing the opening strains of "Action Packed," when the teenage Blonde Bomber screams "Gimme the downbeat Mast-ro!" and "If you chicks are timid you just better turn back/Cause when I take a ride in my car it's gotta be action packed." Forty years later, on "Waxahachie Drag Race," he tells us, "Well losin' that fight was a big disgrace/I challenged that sucker to a big drag race/If I lose this race, I'm gonna dump this car/I'm gonna trade it in for a Fender guitar." Myth or no, this is the shit.

Ronnie Dawson appears on July 22 at the Plantation Club. Call 752-4666.