While the liner notes for Duane Eddy`s Lee Hazlewood-produced album The Biggest Twang of Them All manage to compare Eddy and his sound to both Willy Mays and a car fender, it’s hard not to notice the apparent innuendo barely hidden in the title’s reference to Eddy’s “big twang.” Was this all just a coincidence? It’s hard to think it could have been, especially when you take into consideration the other references in the liner notes to “early labor pains” and to twang just being “an impotent label for the life inside his virile sound.” Are … are they suggesting that Duane Eddy’s music can make you pregnant with its definitely-not-impotent “virile sound?” Was his guitar some sort of magical conduit for his superhuman virility? Read the notes and decide for yourself:
It’s a sound that’s bigger than that of the Columbia Calliope Co. in flagrant assembly. It’s the sound of Duane Eddy, the handsome, soft-spoken young gentleman from around Phoenix way. Duane hit the big league of music a few years back with a thing called Twang. The word sounds like a cross between a late stage of motor knock and early labor pains. But the word’s just an impotent label for the life inside his virile sound. An elemental, raw, unrefined musical sound. One electronically built into Duane’s guitar. One that comes out with a walk-into-a-solid-wall impact.
It’s a sound that’s as American as a ’40 Ford fender.
It’s a sound that’s sold nearly 12,000,000 records, and spread the excitingness of Eddy around the world. Imitators have come, but went. For some reason, the Twang is 100% Eddy’s. Like Willy Mays, nobody does it half as well.
It`s a sound that makes this album a muscular monster in its field. Backed by two drummers, four more guitars, organ, piano, bass, saxes, and that`s just the beginning, Duane goes unafraid at the kind of tunes that normally are one person songs. Like “Ballad of the Green Berets,” which becomes a twang-bang march under Duane`s banner. Like “Monday, Monday,” which was “The Mamas and Papas,” and now has the wild newness of Duane Eddy. And on and on.
It’s a sound that’s alive and kicky. It’s today. Ask any 12,000,000, they’ll tell you. Duane Eddy’s the biggest twang of them all.
