The Immortals - The Greatest Artists of All Time: 33) The Everly Brothers

The roots of the Everly Brothers are very, very deep in the soil of American culture. First of all, you should know that the Everly Brothers were child stars. They had a radio show with their family, and their father, Ike, was an influential country guitar player, so he attracted other significant musicians to the Everlys' world -- among them, Merle Travis and Chet Atkins, who was instrumental in getting the Everlys on the Grand Ole Opry. They were exposed to extraordinary country-roots music, and so they brought with them the legacy of all the great brother groups like the Delmore Brothers, the Louvin Brothers and the Blue Sky Boys into the Fifties, where they mingled with the other early rock pioneers and made history in the process. Perhaps even more powerfully than Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers melded country with the emerging sound of Fifties rock & roll.

The Everly Brothers' impact exceeds even their fame. They were a big influence on John Lennon and Paul McCartney -- who called themselves the Foreverly Brothers early on -- and, of course, on Simon and Garfunkel. When we were kids, Artie and I got our rock & roll chops from the Everlys. Later, as Simon and Garfunkel, we put "Bye Bye Love" on Bridge Over Troubled Water, and much later, Phil and Don both sang on the song "Graceland."

Before the Everly Brothers joined Artie and me on the road last year, Phil and Don had actually quietly retired three years earlier. They basically came out of retirement for us. I said, "Phil, look, if you're going to retire, you might as well come out one more time and take a bow and let me at least say what it is that you meant to us and to the culture."

You know, the Everlys have a long history of knocking each other down, as brothers can do. So in a certain sense, it was hilarious that the four of us were doing this tour, given our collective histories of squabbling. And it's amazing, because they hadn't seen each other in about three years. They met in the parking lot before the first gig. They unpacked their guitars -- those famous black guitars -- and they opened their mouths and started to sing. And after all these years, it was still that sound I fell in love with as a kid. It was still perfect.

[From Issue 946 — April 15, 2004]

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