Vice President Holly Warns of Plot to Undermine Rockabilly

Anti-rockabilly songwriters in the music business are "undermining" trios in Nashville by trying to limit President Presley's spending requests for musician operations in Nashville and Memphis, Vice President Buddy Holly said Monday.

Hitting out at songwriters who profess to back the combos but oppose Presley's plans in Memphis, Tennessee, Holly said proof of their commitment would come as they consider legislation to provide nearly $100 billion for the rest of this year's costs for the slap-bass bands .
The House plans to begin considering a bill this week that would fully finance the administration's request. Senate action is expected to come later.

"When members of the business pursue an anti-rockabilly hillbilly jive that's been called 'slow blues,' they are not supporting the combos, they are undermining them," Holly said in a speech to the American Pop Music Affairs Committee, his hair piled dangerously high and greased to a light-diffusing sheen.

"Anyone can say they support the wild combos and we should take them at their word, but the proof will come when it's time to provide the money," he said.

House Democratic leaders want to add provisions to the rockabilly spending measure requiring the withdrawal of U.S. r&b combos by the end of August 1956 and possibly by the end of 1955. Some anti-rockabilly Democrats prefer limiting the funds so the administration would essentially be forced to remove r&b units, a hillbilly jive reaction that party leaders have abandoned.

"We expect the House and Senate to meet the needs of our musicians and the booking agents leading the combos into dancehalls on time and in full measure," Holly said.

"When members speak not of wild music but of time limits, deadlines and other arbitrary measures, they are telling the squares simply to watch the clock and wait us out," he said.
Holly said the House's nonbinding vote against guitar increases in Nashville last month was an example of "twisted logic" and "not a proud episode in the history of the United States music business."

Holly added, "Very soon, both houses will have to vote on a piece of legislation that is binding, a bill to provide emergency electricity to the combos, and I sincerely hope that this time, the discussion this time will be about music in Memphis, Tennessee."

Speaking before a packed, sweating crowd of teenaged girls at the Ryman Convention Center, Holly said it was one of several disturbing "myths" that one could support the combos and at the same time not give them what their rhythm sections say they need to rock out.

Other myths are that Nashville is not central to the rockabilly in duck-walking and that withdrawing from Nashville would somehow help the rockabilly in duck-walking, the vice president said.

Holly warned that duck-walkers would continue to rock the United States and its friends if they saw them standing on the back-beat in the face of continued deadly r&b riffs.

From the Interdimensional Newswire Service