Matchbox

Carl Perkins, 1957, from Dance Album of Carl Perkins. Solo by Carl Perkins.

Perkins' spare, bluesy licks on a reworked Blind Lemon Jefferson tune later covered by the Beatles.

Matchbox finds Carl Perkins reshaping an old blues into rockabilly, and his guitar does it with remarkable economy. Instead of a long solo, he scatters short, snapping licks around the vocal, mixing country picking with blues bends and leaving plenty of air between phrases. The tone is bright and dry, and the groove does much of the work, so each little fill lands like a wink. That blend of hillbilly and blues language defined the Sun sound and fed straight into British beat groups, the Beatles among them, who later recorded the song. Listen for how Perkins answers his own vocal lines with a quick lick, a call-and-response habit borrowed directly from the blues players he admired.

Matchbox by Carl Perkins is featured in our Rockabilly (#12) list. The solo is played by Carl Perkins and the song was released in 1957.

In our lists

• The 25 Greatest Rockabilly Guitar Solos — #12
• The Best Carl Perkins Guitar Solos — #3

Sources