Rockin' rebels

It's funny how certain memories never fade
I can clearly remember from 28 years ago walking into a small local record store to browse through the racks and the guy behind the counter asking me why I was wearing a Sun records t-shirt.
I had hair down to my arse at the time, a leather motorcycle jacket on and red baseball boots.
To him I must have looked like one of the run of the mill heavy metal kids that would hang about, but the Sun t-shirt would have been at odds with everything else.
I mean this was 1982.
These classic Sun logo t-shirts are everywhere now, but back then they were far from common.
Anyway, we got to talking and he was sort of surprised that I was into a fair bit of rockabilly as well as rock bands, punk bands, blues, country and some jazz.
So after shooting the breeze for a few hours and setting the world to rights he mentioned that a new Johnny Cash album had came in the day before.
I told him that I was really only into his earlier material as I thought that over the last decade he wasn't really putting the effort in and was a shadow of his former self.
He just laughed. Said he didn't disagree, but this was something a bit different and he went and got me a copy of “The Survivors”.
It turned out that the previous year Johnny had been touring Germany, and at the same time Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins were also doing their own thing nearby and on a night when Jerry and Carl weren't doing much they turned up and joined Johnny for an impromptu gig.
It was one of those “you had to be there” moment. Not a tour or anything arranged by labels, just three old friends getting together and enjoying themselves on stage.
Best of all is that it wasn't lost, but instead was recorded and was now in my grubby little hands.
There was only one problem.
I didn't have any money and it was his only copy.
So the low came crashing in immediately after the high. What the hell was I to do?
I needn't have worried though as the guy in the store told me just to keep it.
He said that if I took it he knew it would get played and wouldn't be left to gather dust by someone who didn't really give a fuck.
He was right.
It did get played and played and played.
I've never seen it reissued, although that doesn't mean it hasn't been, but if it's not then it should be. It's too good to be lost in the mists of time.
Thankfully this is the era that allows us to plunder at the click of a button and it's rare not to find what you want somewhere. So check the comments my good friends and enjoy.