Although the title is a little vague,
Running Wild is a unified collection of 30 hard-rocking, country-influenced (if not necessarily rockabilly) numbers dealing with guys who have one thing on their minds and the girls that helped put it there. Starting with
Red Moore's electric version of "Crawdad Song," the sounds are pretty hot and heavy.
The Country G-I's "Go Girl Go" is a pretty hot, raunchy number as well, with a leering mood and a loud guitar solo.
Cliff Nash, who gets three songs on this one volume (maybe a Buffalo Bop first) looked like a greasy sub-
Gene Vincent punk, to judge by his picture, and had a raw rock & roll sound, kind of like a white
Ritchie Valens (think "Ooh My Head") that fails him only on "Cincinnati Rock," which comes off as amateurish. But "Jennie Lou" and "Tell Me Baby" are late '50s punk anthems. One or two of the acts represented tried a little too hard to sound like
Elvis with
the Jordanaires, with that smooth backup chorus, but most are closer in spirit to
Johnnie Fuller on "No More-No More" with sheer reckless abandon on the guitar, vocals, and sax as he complains about life and revels in his own lust.
Ronnie Ray manages to come off a little more like
Johnny Cash than
Elvis on "Mean Mama Blues," and it makes a difference in his effectiveness: he's quieter and more convincing.
Sid Starr's "Bandera Twist" is one of the cooler twist numbers, all guitar-based and pretty hard-textured despite the dance beat it tries for.
Johnny Harris' "Tired of Crawling, Start to Run" puts and acoustic guitar in front of a rock-hard bass and drum rhythm section, all pounding out a
Bo Diddley beat in this predecessor to "Take this Job and Shove It," all pretty impressive for its time and for
Harris' attitude. The sound is surprisingly good for virtually all of this volume, which never lets up in its pace or its passions.