Earlier this year, I had the great pleasure of seeing the “Queen of Rockabilly” Wanda Jackson live in concert at the Hollywood Casino in Bay St. Louis, MS. One of the first songs she played was “Funnel of Love” which dates from 1961; Wanda said that the song had gotten a lot more attention in the last 10 years. I first heard the song on one of the overpriced but essential Born Bad CD’s back in the 1990’s, and the song thrilled me to the core of my being; it immediately became one of my all-time favorite songs.
It is difficult to describe “Funnel of Love”; it is not a traditional rockabilly song, that’s for sure, and I have heard Roy Clark’s innovative guitar technique that more or less mimics a sitar on at least one other track of hers. The mood is spooky and almost psychedelic – all the more so for having several kinds of background singers and a strategically placed “ting” of a triangle from time to time. It is definitely a one-of-a-kind record: Wanda Jackson never recorded another song quite like this one, and no one else ever did either.
Wanda Jackson played “Funnel of Love” on Late Night with Conan O'Brien that a friend found for me on her phone. It’s a great song played live, but nothing can touch the original.
That is not a misprint: The song came out in 1961. Who knows where rockabilly might have gone if Wanda Jackson would have continued down the path that “Funnel of Love” was pointing to.
In any case, “Funnel of Love” never appeared on any of Wanda Jackson’s studio albums; it was the “B” side of “Right or Wrong”, more of a pure country song that became Wanda’s first Top Ten country single. Her remarkable rockabilly singles didn’t chart very high for the most part; “I Gotta Know” – with several tempo changes and a great line in the chorus, “If your love’s the real thing / Where is my wedding ring” – was Jackson’s sole hit in its original release. I had thought that “Funnel of Love” appears on her 2011 comeback album, The Party Ain’t Over that was produced by Jack White of the White Stripes.and the Raconteurs, but that ain’t true either.
Wanda Jackson went on to have a long and successful career as a country music star. But the concert that I saw in Bay St. Louis was all rockabilly.
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Actually, I take that back. At one point in all of her concerts, Wanda Jackson speaks of her becoming a born-again Christian in 1971. She also sang a gospel song – I forget which one, and I haven’t been able to find out online – but it also rocked.
(June 2013/2)
