Baby I'm a rocker drive a Coupe d' Ville,
play guita on mainstreet,
make love behind the wheel...
Uppers, downers, Jim Beam, heart attack and sex,
baby I'm a rocker, pretty soon I'll be an 'ex'.
The man who signs that emphatic statement of intent is a genuine rock and roll hobo, of the few that are left. A liver of life, quick-witted, melancholy, sharp, ironic and shrewd — we give you the greatest reprobate in rock and roll, the bastard arpeggiator, the Piggy Dog... Ladies and gentlemen, Sir Arthur Ebeling!
The life of this proletarian of rock is spattered with stormy tales of women, lost children, romances with drugs, one fortunate love affair with his Gretsch and, above all, a lot of road and better rocking as a therapy to exorcise the bad blood going round the world.
Born at some point last century in Ámsterdam, he does not remember when he first picked up a guitar. His instrument has been there at the crucial moments in the life of the boy who becomes a youth and who in turn grows into manhood. Seeing him now, you cannot conceive of this man without the lovely company of his Gretsch Chet Atkins.
Arthur grew as a musician under the influence of Chuck Berry's touch, though his great masters were Chet Atkins, Django Reinhardt and the great Cliff Gallup. Mr Ebeling recognised in the Blue Cap's style and technique the idea of sound he had been looking for, and although he has made the playing his own, creating an "Arthur Ebeling" sound (R & B in a Jazzy sauce), Mr Gallup's mark is still plainly there when his guitar screams. As for his idols, three musicians have marked Arthur, leaving an imprint on him that goes beyond the music itself: Eddie Cochran, whose image led him to take rock and roll in completely as a vital essence, something carried in the blood that brings it to the boil; Tom Waits, from whom he learned a whole art of vaudeville and slapstick comedy in an r'n'r key, filthy and raw but elegant; and Ray Charles, his great and admired Ray Charles, the complete musician who opened up his musical perception to lengths he had never experienced before.
His recording debut came at the start of the 80s, within 'Big Shot and the Rockin' Guns'. Spectacular covers of 'Flying saucers rock & roll', 'Twenty Flight Rock' and 'Three Cool Cats', as well as good numbers of his own such as 'Rock and roll shivers' and 'Army of emotions'. Big Shot was more a band of mates than a serious attempt to make a living in show business, so before long he started looking for the smoked fish elsewhere.
After leaving Big Shot, together with the pianist Jan Robijns, the drummer Anthony Broek and the double bass player Peer Wessenar, he formed 'Jump, Dickie Jump!', an entertaining rockabilly combo in which talent and good humour mixed in an ideal symbiosis. The band gained a certain popularity in Holland, England and Scandinavia, turning out two good LPs on which, apart from a lot of their own material, great covers of classics such as 'Saturday night fish fry', 'Trouble', 'Boom-boom' and 'Pink T-Bird' were cooked up. Robijns and Broek split from 'JDJ' to form 'De Broek', a 'Pop-a-billy' confection with which they became the favourites of every easy girl in the Low Countries, landing several hits in the Dutch charts.
Allied with the faithful Wessenar — a double bass player of great talent, wit and intuition — Arthur took to the road, watching his former bandmates' successes from a distance. For many years he never stopped rolling round half of Europe, gathering experiences, until in 1997 the chance came to shut himself in a studio and record his madnesses. The result is 'Simple man', a record that contained a lively Tex-Mex song called 'María', which became a hit in Holland, entering the top 40 and giving good old Arthur real prominence. The record is a compact batch of well-built songs ranging from twisted Tom Waits-style blues ('Danger zone', 'Simple man', 'Monkey') through swaggering rock and roll ('Victim of love', 'Trouble', 'Brother Joe') and Ray Charles-style gospel ('The Lord has found me') to a resounding tribute to Buddy Holly (Lovely Loretta).
From his next record, 'Piggy Dog', another hit single was drawn, 'Gardenia', a tortured mid-tempo pop ballad. But apart from the concessions to commercial appeal, the record is full of great moments: dragging blues ('Rhythm of the rain', 'talk to me', 'Beat'), lovely ballads ('you´re so beautiful'), a touch of soul ('Tried it'), hilarious country tunes ('Piggy dog', 'Winter') and magnificent rockabillies such as 'I'm a rocker', with whose chorus, translated, I opened this article.
TV appearances, tours of Holland, Belgium, England, France, Scandinavia, Germany, Russia, Brazil... He is hired for a tour of the USA and turns New Orleans upside down for two weeks. Arthur Ebeling becomes one of the most recognised musicians in his country. A virtuoso touch, fresh and full of technical resources; well-made songs, honest and direct; brilliant lyrics (heavily influenced by Tom Waits in this respect), some of which border on poetry and are full of surrealist shading. At the end of the 90s he is signed by the Gretsch company for its demonstration tour 'Gretsch on the road', showing off his talent in guitar exhibitions across half of Europe. He acts as master of ceremonies before sacred cows of the blues such as Taj Mahal and Buddy Guy, and even shares a table with Scotty Moore himself at the legendary 'Paradiso' in Ámsterdam.
At the best moment of his career, in 1999 Sir Arthur releases his masterpiece 'A rainy night in Paris', which, as tends to be the way, turned out to be a resounding commercial failure. If we set that small detail aside, the record is an impressive tribute to North American popular music. From the aromas of Bourbon Street ('Out of dinner tonight', 'Pass it on', 'Beach'), tributes to Cliff Gallup (Bucket of love), carols of the Bing Crosby school ('Wintertime'), rancid rockabilly ('Chet'), Ray Charles-flavoured inspirations ('All right we´ll play', 'Lap'), good rock and roll ('Big man', 'five million songs') and touches of country ('Three cigarettes in the ashtray'), to the intrusion of the spirit of Edith Piaf into the song that gives the record its title, this work has nothing to waste and should be in the collection of any lover of pre-Beatles sounds. With 'A Rainy...' Art Sharp brings his musical idea to a head and finishes defining that particular style of his which he defines as 'Rhythm and blues in a Jazzy sauce'.
Around this time, and thanks to an old friendship going back to the 80s, Arthur starts visiting Spain regularly, winning over the locals with his cracking touch and his good humour, capable of getting past the language barrier (and you have to see him doing an impression of Van Gaal). Ebeling has played in Barcelona, Soria, Vitoria, Cantabria and in numerous venues in Madrid and nearby towns. At his concerts round these parts he does not use his usual band but is backed by Los Impresentables, who are none other than the rhythm section of King Wolf, a new band we will be talking about...
In 2003 his latest work appeared, 'Dreams', a much more intimate and less ambitious record than his previous ones. Sir Arthur throws himself here into his complex inner world, full of metaphors, images and strange symbols. For the more rock and roll congregation we recommend 'It´s allright' (pure Eddie Cochran), 'Wild Indian', an instrumental on which he leaves Duane Eddy in his underpants, 'Dreams', a resounding crossing of Buddy Holly and Bo Diddley, 'Sway' (when Calypso rhythm starts to play, dance with me, make me sway...) and 'La Gomera', a hilarious song about a holiday in the Canaries which musically sounds like what Bobby Darin should have done with his 'Multiplication'. (with affection, Bobby)
Live, Mr Ebeling, apart from delighting for hours with his own material, floods the place with great covers of classics of yesterday and the day before. We will mention, just to whet the appetite, that on his next tour in February 2004 songs such as 'Trouble', 'Twenty Flight Rock', 'Pretty, pretty baby', 'I got a woman', 'Pink thunderbird', 'Thirty days', 'Jambalaya' and 'Am I blue' may be heard.
This is Arthur Ebeling, a likeable rogue, a virtuoso of rockabilly, blues, country, dixie, soul, rag and whatever else happens to slide between the six strings of his Gretsch, who deserves to be heard by the congregation in this country on a larger scale. He will give you an unforgettable time.
www.arthurebeling.nl
