psychobilly, punkabilly (1978)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Tue, 4 Oct 2005 09:49:18 -0400, Erik Hoover wrote:

>Psychobilly, as a word if not a genre, is at least as old as the Johnny
>Cash hit "One Piece at a Time" (1976).

Aha, thanks for that. That's what I get for not checking Wikipedia
first... <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychobilly>

I see the entry also cross-references two other "rockabilly" blends:
"Gothabilly" and "pornobilly".

1989 _Chicago Sun-Times_ 10 Sep. 6 (Factiva) Love and Rockets sounds best
after dark. From that unlikely single, "So Alive," a very sexy exercise in
what can only be described as grunge balladry, to "No Big Deal," a sort of
Gothic rockabilly (Gothabilly?), the band's newest and most successful
album, "Love and Rockets," is an exercise in murk for the synthpop
generation.

1992 _Austin American-Statesman_ 26 May C5 (Factiva) The trio [sc. Buck
Naked and the Bare Bottom Boys] from Omaha, Neb. (sin center of the Great
Plains) dubs its music "pornobilly," with Horny Pig one of its few song
titles that we can dare reprint in a family newspaper.


--Ben Zimmer