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Hasil Adkins | |
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![]() Adkins near his home in West Virginia in 1993 | |
Background information | |
Born | Boone County, West Virginia, U.S. | April 29, 1937
Died | April 26, 2005 67) Boone County, West Virginia | (aged
Genres | |
Occupations |
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Instruments |
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Years active | 1957–2005 |
Labels |
Hasil Adkins /ˈhæsəl/ [1] (April 29, 1937 – April 26, 2005) was an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His genres include rock and roll, country, blues and more commonly rockabilly, and because of his unusual playing and singing style, he is often cited as an example of outsider music. He generally performed as a one-man band, playing guitar and drums at the same time.
Adkins was born during the Great Depression and grew up in poverty. His spirited, unusual lifestyle is reflected in his music. His songs, which he began recording and distributing locally in the mid-1950s, explored an affinity for chicken, sexual intercourse, and decapitation, and were obscure outside of West Virginia until the 1980s. The newfound popularity secured him a cult following, spawned the Norton Records label, and helped usher in the genre known as psychobilly.
Adkins was born in Boone County, West Virginia on April 29, 1937, [2] where he spent his entire life. [3] He was the youngest of ten children of Wid Adkins, a coal miner, [4] and Alice Hale, [5] raised in a tarpaper shack on property rented from a local coal company. [6] Born at the time of the Great Depression, Adkins' early life was stricken by poverty. [7] His parents were unable to provide him shoes until he was four or five years old. [5] Some reports say he attended school for a very brief time, as few as two days of first grade. [8]
Adkins' given name, Hasil, pronounced "Hassel", was often mispronounced. [9] One of his brothers was named Basil, similarly pronounced "Bassel". [10] Hasil dated a girl named Hazel, and was later given the nickname The Haze. [11] As he explained it, the nickname came about "'cause Starlight records wanted something catchy and I didn't have no middle name." [11]
Hasil Adkins loved to eat meat, specifically poultry, the subject of many of his songs. [2] [9] Following the release of 2000's Poultry in Motion, Adkins toured with "dancing go-go chicken" dancers. [11] [12] His diet also reportedly consisted of as much as two gallons of coffee a day, and copious amounts of liquor and cigarettes. [2] [13]
Aside from his fondness for meat, Adkins claimed to have but three loves in life, "girls, guitars, and cars. All three of [which] got me into trouble over the years." [8] One such incident occurred in 1957 when he and three friends drove a car off a mountain. A local newspaper reported the car tumbled 70 feet into nearby Pond Fork. While the driver died at the scene, Adkins survived, although he sustained a permanent back injury. [8] [14] [15]
In the 1980s Adkins again found himself in trouble with the law. In 1983 he was living with his girlfriend who was still a minor. [8] Her mother reported to police that she had been raped, and Adkins was subsequently charged with third-degree sexual assault, or statutory rape of a minor less than 16 years old. [8] [16] [17] In October the same year, another relationship ended with jail time, when a shootout occurred between Adkins and a jealous husband. [18] No one was hurt, but Adkins was charged with felony illegal possession of a shotgun and spent five months in jail. [8] [16] [17] [19]
Adkins was said to have manic depression and insomnia among other mental illnesses. [8] He never married. [18]
On April 15, 2005, Adkins was run over in his front yard by a teenager [20] riding an ATV. [6] [21] [22] Eleven days later, on April 26, Adkins was found dead in his home, three days before his 68th birthday. [4] [6]
Nicknamed "The Haze", Adkins career began in the mid-1950s in an improvised studio in his home near Madison, West Virginia. [2] There he put his vibrant Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis influences to work by recording scores of songs, beginning with the track "I'm Happy". [8] [23] In a later interview he exclaimed "I couldn't afford no drums so I just stomped my feet." [8] He eventually learned to use percussive instruments to accompany his guitar and vocals, which would become his hallmark sound. [4] [6]
In 1961 Adkins headed to California in search of fame, auditioning with talent agencies in and around Los Angeles. [2] With little to go on, he returned to West Virginia, though claimed he missed a callback from an agency a single day after departing for his home. [8] Back at home, Adkins began performing at local nightclubs, behind a store-bought sign that read One of the Greatest Shows on Earth, the One Man Band Haze Adkins and his Happy Guitar. [14]
The mid-1960s brought Adkins first official release through a local micro-label, with the 45 record Chicken Walk / She's Mine. [8] What followed were the releases of some of his most notable songs, though at the time they received little attention outside of Madison. [23] "She Said" revealed his imaginative tone in writing, in which he compared the woman of a one-night stand he had to "a dying can of that commodity meat." [2] [8] "No More Hot Dogs" was a song about decapitating a girlfriend and keeping her head as a wall mount. [8] [24]
Adkins began to transition from his rockabilly roots to country music by the 1970s, producing several self-released records. [2] It was a tradition of his to mail a copy of each single he released to the sitting President of the United States. In 1970 Richard Nixon wrote back, saying "I am very pleased by your thoughtfulness in bringing these particular selections to my attention." [4] [18]
The early 1980s saw a resurgence in Adkins' fan base when the American punk rock band The Cramps did a remake of Adkins' "She Said". [4] The Cramps having picked up the song from the bootleg compilation Rockabilly Bash during a UK tour. In 1984 UK label Big Beat Records included Hasil's original on the psychobilly compilation Rockabilly Psychosis and the Garage Disease. Having made contact with Big Beat Records, Hasil proceeded to provide them with some of his home recorded tapes, which resulted in the album She Said being released in 1985. [25]
Also in 1985, he was approached by former Cramps drummer Miriam Linna and her husband Billy Miller about releasing some of Adkins' work. Resultantly they created the independent record label Norton Records and released the compilation album Out To Hunch in 1986, which became an underground success. [2] [23] Billy Miller soon was appointed as Adkins' manager, [26] and together with Linna they headed to New York City for Adkins' first professional recording session, yielding 1987's The Wild Man. [2] Upon release, the album was featured as The New York Times "Rock Album of the Week". [27]
By the 1990s Adkins had gained a cult following and began touring regularly, receiving offers from more record labels. In 1994 Miles Copeland III of I.R.S. Records purchased the rights to Adkins' recordings, and although an album was planned for release, it never materialized. [2] [28] Frustrated, Adkins soon gained back rights to some of his songs after a deal with Mississippi blues label Fat Possum, [28] who recorded and released 1999's What The Hell Was I Thinking? and booked him a tour alongside T-Model Ford and Elmo Williams. [2]
In 2000 Norton released a compilation of new and previous recordings about Adkins' devotion to chicken, entitled Poultry in Motion [4] that included such songs as "Chicken Run," "Chicken Hop," "Chicken Flop," "Chicken Wobble," and "Chicken on the Bone." [29] In total, Adkins claimed nearly 7,000 songs to his repertoire. [1] [3] [4]
While music was his true passion, Adkins enjoyed a career in the film and television industry. He played himself as a street musician in 2004's The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things , [30] [31] partially narrated The Red's Breakfast Experience [32] and starred in a comedic horror film entitled Die You Zombie Bastards! . [33] [34] As a composer he helped score Hair High in 2004. [35] Adkins was also the subject of the Julien Nitzberg documentary The Wild World of Hasil Adkins, distributed by Appalshop. [36]
Adkins was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2018. [37]
Adkins is often cited as an important precursor to the psychobilly genre. [13] The Cramps attribute many of their punk-psychobilly traits to Adkins; they covered "She Said" live, and released a studio version as the b-side of "Goo Goo Muck" (1981), which later appeared on their compilation album Bad Music for Bad People (1984). This helped usher Adkins into cult status as an underground musician, [23] and inspired Cramps' drummer Miriam Linna and her husband Billy Miller to found the Norton Records label. [23] North Carolina psychobilly group Flat Duo Jets also covered Adkins with "Let Me Come In" on the 1993 lo-fi compilation Safari, which was released on Norton Records. [38]
Frenetic in progression and explicit in lyrical content, Adkins was known for having an unconventional take on traditional rockabilly. [2] [23] His unpolished sound was a praised by-product of the makeshift studio equipment used for the majority of his career. "I didn't try to be primitive, I just had bad microphones", he wrote. [39] His lyrics explored topics such as eating peanut butter on the moon and the suggestive strut of a chicken. [39] Recurring themes in Adkins' catalogue included sex, heartbreak, decapitation, aliens, hot dogs and poultry. [2] Together with country and honky-tonk, [40] Adkins' assortment of styles helped delineate a genre known as psychobilly. [13]
Adkins performed as a one-man band, using foot pedals to play the drums, [2] or simply stomped his feet on the floor to an often detuned guitar. [21] He once vowed that he would play "twelve to twenty" instruments simultaneously, including playing the piano and organ with his elbows. [1] [9] He noted in interviews that his primary heroes and influences were Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Little Richard, and Col. Harland Sanders, the inventor of Kentucky Fried Chicken. [12] [41] Adkins attributed his desire to perform as a one-man band to these artists, stating that when he was a child, he assumed the only credited musician in the band must have played all the instruments in the recordings. [23] The first time he saw a guitarist in action, he built a guitar of his own. [5]
Many of Adkins' songs were accompanied by a dance of the same name. "The Hunch" was understood to be a dry humping dance craze, [11] although Adkins failed to define it in interviews. [7] [9] He used the term to describe anything of sexual relation, [9] even naming his car the "Hunchin' Wagon". [30] "The Slop" was a song and dance Adkins pioneered for "the drunks", which he made so "you could just go left or right or fall down or anything you ran into". [9] 2000's Poultry in Motion introduced a slew of chicken dances. "The Chicken Walk" involved "quiver[ing] yourself from head to toe" to mimic that of a chicken, [42] while "The Chicken Flop" was simply "flopping all over the place". [27]
Adkins primarily recorded and performed his own songs, although Peanut Butter Rock and Roll included covers of Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes" and Harry Belafonte's "Day-O". [40] Additionally, Achy Breaky Ha Ha Ha, a country album, included covers of songs by Bill Monroe, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Carter Stanley, and A. P. Carter.
The Cramps were an American rock band formed in 1976 and active until 2009. Their lineup rotated frequently during their existence, with the husband-and-wife duo of singer Lux Interior and guitarist Poison Ivy the only ever-present members. The band are credited as progenitors of the psychobilly subgenre, fusing elements of punk rock with rockabilly. The addition of guitarist Bryan Gregory and drummer Pam Balam resulted in the first complete lineup in April 1976. They released their debut album Songs the Lord Taught Us in 1980. The band split after the death of lead singer Interior in 2009.
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western musical styles such as country with that of rhythm and blues, leading to what is considered "classic" rock and roll. Some have also described it as a blend of bluegrass with rock and roll. The term "rockabilly" itself is a portmanteau of "rock" and "hillbilly", the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style. Other important influences on rockabilly include western swing, boogie-woogie, jump blues, and electric blues.
Psychobilly is a rock music fusion genre that fuses elements of rockabilly and punk rock. It's been defined as "loud frantic rockabilly music", it has also been said that it "takes the traditional countrified rock style known as rockabilly, ramp[ing] up its speed to a sweaty pace, and combin[ing] it with punk rock and imagery lifted from horror films and late-night sci-fi schlock,... [creating a] gritty honky tonk punk rock."
The Meteors are an English psychobilly band formed in 1980. Originally from London, England, they are one of the pioneers of the psychobilly subgenre — which fuses punk rock with rockabilly — its distinctive sound and style. "Starting in the neo-rockabilly scene, the Meteors were initially shunned for being too spooky and mean. Excuses for exclusion from rockabilly concerts varied from the band having too extreme of a sound to their drummer having green hair." The Meteors blended elements of punk rock, 1960s garage band surf music, rockabilly, and horror film themes in their music and are thought to be one of the first bands to use the label 'Psychobilly' to define a genre and musical style, though the term is used as a lyrical motif as part of the narrative in the Johnny Cash and The Tennessee Three song, One Piece at a Time.
Horror punk is a music genre that mixes punk rock and 1950s-influenced doo-wop and rockabilly sounds with morbid and violent imagery and lyrics which are often influenced by horror films and science fiction B-movies. The genre was pioneered by the Misfits in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Subsequent bands formed in the Misfits' wake like Mourning Noise, the Undead and Samhain, solidifying horror punk's first wave. In the late 1990s and early 2000s the genre gained attention through the reunion of the Misfits and success of groups like AFI, Son of Sam and the Murderdolls. This popularity continued to the modern day with Blitzkid, Calabrese and Creeper.
The Reverend Horton Heat is the stage name of American musician James C. Heath as well as the name of his Dallas, Texas-based psychobilly trio. Heath is a singer, songwriter and guitarist. A Prick magazine reviewer called Heath the "godfather of modern rockabilly and psychobilly".
The Legendary Shack Shakers are an American rock band from Murray, Kentucky that was formed in 1995 by J.D. Wilkes. The original line-up formed the band out of a shared interest in rockabilly, blues and Western swing. Subsequently, the band gained prominence in the alternative country scene with a sound that encompassed rockabilly, blues, country and punk rock and a lyrical focus on Southern Gothic themes. Over time, the band's sound shifted to emphasize country music.
Gothabilly is music genre influenced by rockabilly and the goth subculture. The name is a portmanteau word that combines gothic and rockabilly, first used by the Cramps in the late 1970s to describe their somber blend of rockabilly and punk rock. Since then, the term has come to describe a fashion style influenced by gothic fashion, as seen in its use of black silks, satins, lace and velvet, corsets, top hats, antique jewellery, PVC, and leather.
Southern Culture on the Skids, also sometimes known as SCOTS, is an American rock band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Norton Records is an American independent record label founded by musicians Miriam Linna and Billy Miller in 1986. The label concentrates on releasing rock, rockabilly, primitive music, punk, garage rock, and early rhythm and blues. Most of its output, both new releases and reissues, is issued on vinyl.
Flat Duo Jets was an American rock band from Carrboro, North Carolina, and Athens, Georgia. This rockabilly, punk blues, and psychobilly band was a major influence on several bands of the 1990s and 2000s, including The White Stripes. The band's front man Dexter Romweber is considered by many to be the "godfather" of the guitar and drums and 'power duo' revival.
Gravest Hits is the first 12" EP by the American rock band the Cramps, compiling both sides of their first two 1978 Vengeance singles, "Surfin' Bird" and "Human Fly", with an added fifth track, a cover version of "Lonesome Town". It was released in July 1979 on Illegal Records and I.R.S. Records. The tracks were all produced by Alex Chilton and recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis in 1977. The EP's liner notes were credited to "Dr. J.H. Sasfy, Professor of Rockology, American Rock'n'Roll Institute, Washington D.C., U.S.A.". Gravest Hits is one of the first records of both the rockabilly revival and the psychobilly genres. The photograph on the back of the original sleeve, of the band in performance, was taken at the Palladium theater in New York.
"Lonesome Town" is a song written by Baker Knight. A version sung by Ricky Nelson became a hit single in the United States, reaching No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 15 on the R&B chart in 1958. The song was featured on his 1959 album, Ricky Sings Again. Nelson is accompanied on the recording by the vocal quartet The Jordanaires.
The A-Bones was an American garage rock band from Brooklyn, New York. Their name was derived from a 1964 song by The Trashmen. The A-Bones was formed in 1984 by vocalist Billy Miller and his wife, drummer and co-vocalist Miriam Linna, soon after they formed The Zantees. At the time, they were the editors of the rock and roll culture fanzine Kicks and just about to launch Norton Records. Guitarist Bruce Bennett replaced original guitarist Mike Mariconda shortly after the band was formed. Marcus "The Carcass" Natale replaced founding bass player Mike Lewis, prior to recording the A-Bones second E.P. Free Beer For Life in 1988. Tenor sax player Lars Espensen was in the group from 1990 until 2010.
Julien Nitzberg is an American screenwriter, stage writer, lyricist, theater director and film director, best known in the film world as the director of the documentary The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia. In the theater world, Nitzberg is best known for writing the book and lyrics for two musicals. His first musical was "The Beastly Bombing or A Terrible Tale of Terrorists Tamed by the Tangles of True Love." Nitzberg wrote the book and lyrics and directed this musical in Los Angeles and New York. The Beastly Bombing won the LA Weekly Theater Award for Best Musical of the Year. His second musical was "For the Love of a Glove: An Unauthorized Musical Fable About the Life of Michael Jackson As Told By His Glove."
Beat Zeller, better known as Beat-Man or Reverend Beat-Man, is a Swiss musician, DJ and record company owner. He performs as a one-man band, as the leader of psychobilly band The Monsters, and with other bands, in a style described as primitive rock and roll and as "gospel blues trash". He is also the founder and head of Voodoo Rhythm Records, a company based in Bern, Switzerland.
The Sting-rays were a British rock band from Greater London which recorded on Ace Records' garage and psychedelic subsidiary Big Beat and Joe Foster's Kaleidoscope Sound in the 1980s.
William Henry Miller Jr. was an American musician, archivist, and rock 'n' roll collector. His magazine, Kicks, and record label, Norton, championed vintage rockabilly and garage bands.
"No More Hot Dogs" is a rockabilly song by Hasil Adkins. The track was originally recorded around 1955 in mono. Adkins plays all of his own instruments and the track includes his acoustic Gibson guitar and a stripped-down drumkit.