RIP Larry Collins of The Collins Kids

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Larry Collins of the Collins Kids passed away last week. He and his sister were OG rockabillies before it had a name. He was the little kid mentored by Joe Maphis and was boppin’ all over the stage with his double-neck Mosrite guitar

Here he is on the famous Town Hall Party show broadcast from Los Angeles. When I mean boppin’ around, I mean BOPPIN’ around the stage.

His New York Times Obituary can be found here

In a quote from the article - THE KID WHO RECORDED THE FIRST PUNK ROCK RECORD (AND INFLUENCED SURF GUITAR) written by California hillbilly guitar player and historian writes about Collins,

When I was young, we were told the Ramones, or the Sex Pistols invented punk rock. If you got into debates with record collectors, many thumped their chests and insisted that punk was invented by the Dictators, or Iggy and the Stooges, or (in Lester Bangs’ estimation) with the 1960s garage band groups, such as the Count V and their warped “Psychotic Reaction” from 1966. Depending on how you defined ‘punk,’ any of these answers might be correct.

In my opinion, however, the very first punk rock record was a strange little ditty called “Whistle Bait,” recorded by 13-year old Larry Collins in 1958.

“What Larry Collins chewed up in 1958, the Sex Pistols spit out, twenty years later.”

Here he is performing with his sister Lorrie in 1958. It just wouldn’t be fair to not give her a shout out as well.

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Oh that is so sad! I’d heard of him before but your post was a great read… thank you for the links too buddy. Much appreciated. Rest in Peace Larry :pray:t2:

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I’m curious. I shared this info with a roots guitar player in Argentina, and he had never heard of Larry Collins either. Sometimes I wonder if these lesser-known but classic rockabilly acts are known outside of the United States. It might be that country-influenced music has never been extremely popular outside of the United States.

In return, my Argentina friend brought up Argentine swing guitarist Oscar Aleman, who toured with Duke Ellington and played with Django and, by most accounts, is lumped with gypsy jazz. I’m wondering how well-known Aleman is.

Here, he is included in a Manouche compilation. He certainly sounds Django-influenced - Nobody’s Sweetheart

Often associated with Django - I’ve Got Rhythm (Tengo Ritmo)

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Oh man, Oscar Aleman has been a long standing favourite player of mine from that era. Funnily enough I was intending to do a lesson covering his playing at some point soon. I think he’s fairly well known within the gypsy jazz community at least, that’s how I heard about him back in the day. I bet he’s not so well known in other circles though so it’s great that you’ve provided a couple of links there. Thanks for sharing :slight_smile: