They say "me oh my"

Black slacks with a cat chain down to my knees

I ain't nothing but a real cool breeze

That's Robert Gordon--a real cool breeze.

Unfortunately the rockabilly energy level dies down for side two, and Gordon resorts to a series of flaccid slow ballads--"It's Only Make Believe," "Wheel of Fortune," "I Just Met a Memory," and "Blue Christmas." It's well-known that slow numbers are totally worthless, except for high school kids who need a cheap feel at the dance Saturday night to get them through the week. Today's high schools are too busy playing the Bee Gees and Donna Summer to waste time on Robert Gordon.

THE QUESTION Gordon poses today's listeners is--how much are your memories worth to you? For people who experienced rockabilly first- hand Gordon must seem at best a throwback, a rock-and-roll neanderthal. Such people would do better to dredge out their old bop records and bop to them than to Gordon's albums, modern engineering notwithstanding.

For the callow youth of today, however, who has never thrilled to a boogie base line or bounced to the irresistible beat, Gordon's musical archaeology is welcome. A living fossil, he single-handedly embodies a way of life and--more important by far--an attitude to living which has all but died out today.

Do you like your life? Pink Thunderbirds, black slacks, nightclubs and six-foot women--that's what makes life worth living. Someone once said rock and roll is the closest art gets to life, and the guy had a point. Buy this album at least for its side one, and join the fun you missed, or miss the fun you never joined.