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Wednesday, March 14th 2007

10:52 AM

Rockabilly Roundup

 
Think of Sun Records and who comes to mind?  Elvis?  Perhaps Jerry Lee Lewis? Carl Perkins? Roy Orbison? Johnny Cash?  The truth is that, of all the musicians Sam Phillips recorded at Sun in ten short years, the number of obscure musicians far outweighs the handful that became household names.  One of the lesser-known names to emerge from Sun, yet one who is just as good as those mentioned above, is a man named Sonny Burgess - a wild rockabilly singer, guitarist, and songwriter of great talent.
       One online review I read stated that Sonny is a cross between jump blues master Louis Jordan and the Delmore Brothers, a hillbilly act consisting of Alton and Ramon Delmore whose close harmony singing style pre-dated that of the Everly Brothers by some twenty years, and in the 1940s were pioneers of hillbilly boogie, sounding very much like Sun Records-era Elvis - at least musically.
       Today, Sonny Burgess is best remembered for his composition "Red Headed Woman," recorded at his debut session on May 2, 1956.  My personal favorite is "Sadie's Back In Town" from 1960, a driving rocker complete with a hilarious Donald Duck voice-over supplied by drummer Raymond Thompson. 
       What set Sonny's music apart from other rockabilly artists of the era was the fact that, during his first two recordings sessions, he recorded with a trumpet player named Jack Nance, who also doubled as a drummer (Russell Smith was the drummer when Nance's trumpet was required).
       In addition to "Red Headed Woman," some of the other tracks from Sonny's pen include "We Wanna Boogie," "Daddy Blues," "Gone," "Truckin' Down The Avenue", and "Find My Baby For Me," but if you were a musician in the 1950s, it was hard not to be affected by black music.  Hell, even Pat Boone got in on the deal,  if only to clean up rock 'n' roll's "dirty" image.  But don't worry, I have no intention of going down the Pat Boone path - it's too neat.  What follows is a run through of some of the black music covered by Sonny Burgess, truly one of rock 'n' roll's greatest and most original artists.
       "My Bucket's Got A Hole In It" was written by New Orleans jazz and blues pianist, publisher, composer, agent, record producer, and vocalist Clarence Williams.  Williams had accompanied a number of female blues singers in the 1920s, most notably Bessie Smith in 1923.  He also composed Bessie's "Gulf Coast Blues," "Baby, Won't You Please Come Home" and "T'aint Nobody's Bizness If I Do".  "My Bucket's Got A Hole In It," however, was recorded by countless artists, including Louis Armstrong, Lefty Frizzell, Bill Haley, Ricky Nelson, Mr. Acker Bilk, Johnny Carroll, Dwight Yoakum, and, included on the CD Good Rockin' Tonight - The Legacy Of Sun Records, Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.  Sonny Burgess recorded his version on August 15, 1957, for Sun, most likely learning the tune through Hank Williams' 1950 version, a #2 smash on the C&W charts that year.
       "My Babe" comes from the pen of Willie Dixon.  Well, at least lyrically.  Recorded by Sonny at the same session that produced "My Bucket's Got A Hole In It," the song has its roots in black gospel, recorded in early September 1922, by the Florida Normal and Industrial Institute Quartet as "Dis Train" ("Dis train don't carry no liars, dis train").  On January 10, 1939, gospel singer and guitar wizard Sister Rosetta Tharpe recorded the song as "This Train" for Decca Records.  In August 1943, with the recording ban in full swing thanks to the war, she performed the song in Hollywood for a live broadcast backed by Louis Jordan and The Tympani Five for the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS), which served as one form of entertainment for the men and women overseas.  The performance was later issued to military bases and short-wave radio stations in the U.S. and overseas as Jubilee 41: a 15-inch, 33 rpm "Jubilee" transcription.  She recorded the song two more times in July 1947, where it was recorded for Downbeat and made a second time for Decca.  The song was first recorded under the title "My Babe" seven and a half years later, on January 25, 1955, by Chicago blues harmonica genius Little Walter Jacobs ("My babe don't stand no cheatin', my babe").  Little Walter's version features Willie Dixon himself on bass and, on guitar, Robert Jr. Lockwood, stepson of 1930s Delta blues legend Robert Johnson.  In the hands of Little Walter, the song became a standard in both the blues and pop fields, covered by Bo Diddley, the Coasters, the Animals, Ricky Nelson, the Everly Brothers, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Elvis Presley, Ike and Tina Turner, and the Tornados, just to name a few.
       One of the classic blues recordings to come out of Sun Records was "Feelin' Good" by Little Junior's Blue Flames, released in 1953 as Sun single 187.  Partly based on John Lee Hooker's 1948 smash "Boogie Chillen," "Feelin' Good" features guitarist Floyd Murphy.  It is Murphy's tasty half blues/half country guitar licks that Sun owner Sam Phillips played for his rockabilly guitarists and instructed them to sound like.  In 1957 or 1958, Sonny and his band recorded "Feelin' Good," giving the song a stronger backbeat that matched the excitement of the Blue Flames' more laid back original.
       Perhaps recorded at the same session that produced "Feelin' Good" (the discography lists ten titles as if they were recorded in one session, yet the heading reads "Unknown Dates: 1957-1958"), Sonny tackled "So Glad You're Mine," credited to Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, who recorded the tune on February 22, 1946, for Bluebird with Armond Jackson on the drum stool.  Two takes as recorded by Sonny exist, one intro with piano, the other with guitar.  Clearly the latter is the more exciting of the two, with Sonny's enthusiastic shouts of "Oooo, whee!" and "Yeah!" sprinkled over a driving tempo complete with one of Sonny's hottest guitar solos.  The band is really inspired on this take.
       During this same period, Sonny recorded "One Night" as originally recorded by New Orleans singer/guitarist Smiley Lewis on October 25, 1955, for Imperial Records (Lewis sang, "One night of sin... is what I'm now paying for").  The song, "cleaned up" yet still suggestive, was served to the public most famously when recorded by Elvis Presley in February 1957 ("One night with you... is what I'm now prayin' for").  It should be noted that a month earlier, in January of that year, Elvis recorded the song with its original "sin" lyric.  Thankfully, Sonny also sang the song the way it was meant to be heard.
       Sonny Burgess recorded two more tracks originally put down for posterity by Smiley Lewis: "Ain't Gonna Do It" was recorded in New Orleans in October 1952.  Like most of Smiley Lewis' recordings, it was written or co-written by bandleader, trumpeter, songwriter, arranger Dave Barthlomew, who is also responsible for the recordings of Fats Domino.  Like "So Glad You're Mine," two versions exist of Sonny performing "Ain't Gonna Do It," the first from 1956/1957 (unfortunately for collectors, Sam Phillips was not one who took session details to heart) while the second is from early 1957.
       "Please Listen To Me" was first recorded by Smiley Lewis for Imperial on March 20, 1956.  Sonny's Sun version was recorded a year later.  An overdub session was held on May 13, 1957, in which Sonny's versions of "Ain't Gonna Do It" and "Please Listen To Me" received backing vocals.
       "Fannie Brown" is credited to R&B shouter Roy Brown, whose version was released as DeLuxe 1128 as "Miss Fanny Brown" in December 1947 as the flipside of a tune called "Mighty Mighty Man".  All is true - except I don't know if "Fannie Brown" and "Miss Fanny Brown" are two versions of the same song.  According to Nick Tosches' incredible book Unsung Heroes Of Rock 'n' Roll: The Birth Of Rock In The Wild Years Before Elvis, the only other "Fanny Brown" titles listed in Roy Brown's discography are "Miss Fanny Brown Returns" (DeLuxe 1189; September 194 and "Fanny Brown Got Married" (King 4761; December 1954).  Therefore, since we don't have Roy Brown's "Miss Fanny Brown" in order to compare it to Sonny Burgess' "Fannie Brown," I'm going to conclude that they are the same song with slightly different titles - but I could, of course, be wrong.  If so, I will make a note of correction in a future article.  All that matters for now is that you readers know that Sonny got the tune from Roy Brown.
       Having said all that, "Fannie Brown," as spelled in the hands of Sun, was recorded during the 1956-1957 time frame and also exists in two takes.  The song, judging from Sonny's version, is clearly molded on Louis Jordan's "Caldonia Boogie" from 1945 "Caldonia! Caldonia! What makes your big head so hard?").  Fannie Brown "Fannie! Fannie! Fannie! Fannie! What makes me love you so much?").
       The Drifters, one of the greatest vocal groups of all-time, had countless hits beginning in 1953, with sixteen Top 40 hits between 1959 and 1964.  The songs, all recorded for Atlantic Records, featured several lead vocalists who passed through the ranks of the great group throughout the years, including Ben E. King.  The first, and arguably the greatest, of their lead singers, however, was a man named Clyde McPhatter, formerly of Billy Ward and the Dominoes (on December 30, 1950, the Dominoes, featuring McPhatter, recorded "Sixty Minute Man" for Federal, a song about "Lovin' Dan" who could please a woman for an hour without missing a beat.  "Sixty Minute Man" became a #1 R&B smash for fourteen weeks in 1951, and even reached #17 on the pop charts, a significant accomplishment considering it was the era of harmless pop singers such as Patti Page and Rosemary Clooney).  In 1953, upon McPhatter's departure from the Dominoes to form the Drifters, Ward hired Clyde's replacement: the great Jackie Wilson.
       Considering the fact that the Drifters were popular from 1953 until well into the 1960s, McPhatter's stay with the group was incredibly short, lasting only from June 1953 to October 1954, before being drafted and embarking on a successful solo career upon his release.  His two biggest hits were "A Lover's Question" (1959) and "Lover Please" (1962).
       A song entitled "What'Cha Gonna Do," written by Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun, who, it should be noted, gleaned the song from a spiritual by gospel group the Radio Four, was recorded by the Drifters on three separate occasions: at their debut session, held on June 28, 1953; their second session on August 9th of that year, and again at their fourth session, held on February 4, 1954.  They finally got it right on the third attempt as it became a #2 R&B smash.
       Two versions of "What'Cha Gonna Do" as recorded by Sonny Burgess were included on the 2-CD compilation The Classic Recordings: 1956-1959, released in 1991 by Bear Family, though neither were released at the time: the first, recorded in Memphis possibly on August 14, 1957; the second sometime in 1957 or 1958.  Both takes are fine, with the only chief difference being that the first features a nicely-picked acoustic guitar throughout while the second does not.
       Sonny Burgess promoted black music in a small yet significant way.  Small because Sonny is a fish in an endless sea of white musicians inspired by their black counterparts. Significant because his sound was exciting, made during a highly creative period in history, and  recorded under the right conditions, as Sun Records valued feeling over technical expertise and didn't have a clock in the studio, therefore eliminating pressure on the musicians to finish within a certain time frame.  Do yourselves a favor and check out Sonny's music and the music that inspired him.  You'll be glad you did.


Copyright 2006 JacoFan Music.  All Rights Reserved.
      



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Friday, March 9th 2007

5:49 AM

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones have churned out so many classics over the past several decades that they, in my opinion, epitomize the very essence of rock 'n' roll and the rock 'n' roll attitude more than any other band.  Just about anyone, regardless of age, can name at least one of their songs or name at least one band member.
       The Stones began in 1962 as a rhythm and blues outfit, taking their name from a Muddy Waters song, the two-part "Rolling Stone" from 1950, itself a remake of "Catfish Blues," recorded in 1941 by Robert Petway. 
       Two years later in 1964, the band came to the USA, putting the British beat on American blues and R&B, thus introducing the music to American audiences; young people who, at that time, were completely unaware of the blues musicians from their own country.
       Their first album, 1964's The Rolling Stones, aka England's Newest Hit Makers, consists largely of blues and R&B classics, with the exception of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away". 
       "I Just Want To Make Love To You," the third track on the album, was first recorded by Muddy Waters in 1954 for Chess Records.  The Stones take the song at a fast and exciting pace - the opposite of Muddy's slow and seductive version, most likely recorded that way in order to match the song's sexy title.
       Also on the album is "I'm A King Bee," the Slim Harpo swamp blues chestnut from 1957 (its B-side was "Got Love If You Want It," itself covered by countless acts over the years).  To be honest, I'm not crazy about the Stones' performance of "I'm A King Bee".  To me, they sound unsure of themselves, vocally and musically.  Harpo, on the other hand, exerts a menacing cool; a confidence in his abilities to "make honey" with his queen if she lets him "come inside".  As Mick Jagger stated in 1968, "..What's the point in listening to us doing 'I'm A King Bee' when you can hear Slim Harpo do it?"  Bloody well said, Mick!  Check out the Stones' cover of Harpo's "Shake Your Hips" from 1972's Exile On Main Street.  It's just as good as, if not better than, the original.
       Speaking of Exile On Main Street, the album features an excellent version of Robert Johnson's "Stop Breaking Down Blues," recorded on June 20, 1937, for Vocalion.  Mick Jagger's raw vocal delivery fits the song's lyrics perfectly.  "Please stop breakin' down...The stuff I got'll bust your brains out, baby, it'll make you lose your mind".  Simply classic.
       "Confessin' The Blues" was first recorded by Kansas City's own Jay McShann in 1941, featuring the vocals of Walter Brown.  Since then, the song has been recorded countless times over the years, including versions by Chuck Berry and Little Walter.  The Rolling Stones' version is featured on their second LP, 12x5, also released in 1964.  While not a blues cover, the album also features the instrumental "2120 South Michigan Avenue" - then the address for Chess Records, the premier blues label in the '50s and '60s.
       Their cover of "Little Red Rooster," recorded in Chicago at the Chess studio, features Brian Jones on electric slide guitar.  The song became a #1 UK hit when released there in November of '64.  It was released here in the States in April 1965 on the album The Rolling Stones, Now!, where it remained just another album track.  On May 2, 1965, the Stones performed "Little Red Rooster" on The Ed Sullivan Show.  Two and a half weeks later, on May 20th, the Stones taped a performance for the popular music show Shindig, doing so on the condition that they appear with either Howlin' Wolf or Muddy Waters.  Wolf appeared, performing his 1951 classic "How Many More Years" with the Stones sitting at his feet like children in a classroom listening to their teacher - and in a very real sense, he was.
       But getting back to "Little Red Rooster," the song was originally recorded by Howlin' Wolf in June 1961 as "The Red Rooster" and released as Chess single 1804.  Writing credit is given to Willie Dixon, who may have gotten inspiration for the song from Memphis Minnie's "If You See My Rooster (Please Run Him Home)," recorded for Vocalion on May 27, 1936.
       "Down The Road Apiece," also included on The Rolling Stones, Now!, was originally recorded by the Will Bradley Trio on August 12, 1940, for Columbia.  The group consisted of white boogie woogie pianist Freddie Slack; Doc Goldberg on string bass; Ray McKinley on drums/vocal (McKinley was formerly the drummer for Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey); and Don Raye, the song's composer, on vocal. The recording was made under the direction of Will Bradley.  This original version exudes a laid-back cool.  Six years later, on September 12, 1946, the song was kicked into overdrive by boogie master Amos Milburn, who recorded the song at his first session for Aladdin Records.
       Among the tracks on The Rolling Stones' 1968's classic Beggars Banquet can be found a tune called "Prodigal Son".  The song was first recorded under the title "That's No Way To Get Along" by Memphis blues singer and guitarist Robert Wilkins in September 1929 for Brunswick Records.  In 1964, the song was revised by Wilkins himself on the LP Memphis Gospel Singer under the name "Prodigal Son," most likely the source for the Stones version.  Interestingly, on September 7, 1928, Wilkins also recorded a two-part "Rolling Stone" for Victor Records, bearing no resemblance to Muddy's two-parter of the same name.
       Let It Bleed, from 1969, is my wife's favorite Stones album.  It's a terrific piece of work, containing the classics "Midnight Rambler," "Gimme Shelter," and "You Can't Always Get What You Want".  It also includes Robert Johnson's "Love In Vain," originally recorded by Johnson on June 20, 1937, in turn taken from a composition by blues pianist Leroy Carr, who recorded the song on February 25, 1935, for Bluebird Records under the title "When The Sun Goes Down".  Robert Johnson incorporated Carr's "Well, it's hard to tell, hard to tell" and "hey vee oh woe" lyrics, and even threw in a line from Blind Lemon Jefferson's 1926 recording "Dry Southern Blues"  ("The blue light was my blues and the red light was my [worried] mind").  Even our heroes have their heroes.
       The Stones' version of "Love In Vain" is gorgeous, complete with a mandolin plucked by American guitarist Ry Cooder, a man who covered enough blues material to be the subject of a future Blues News article himself.
       A live version of "Love In Vain" was included on their best live LP, Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!, released on September 4, 1970, but recorded late the previous year during their North American tour in support of Let It Bleed, which was released on November 28, 1969 (the album was recorded at New York's Madison Square Garden on November 28th and 29th, roughly one week before the infamous Altamont gig on December 6th in which Stones fan Meredith Hunter was stabbed to death in front of the stage by a member of biker gang the Hell's Angels as the Stones plowed through "Under My Thumb".  The Hell's Angels were hired as "security" for $500 and all the beer they could drink.  The event was filmed and released as Gimme Shelter and is available on DVD). 
       Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! features guitar great Mick Taylor, who left John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (Mayall: "The Godfather Of British Blues") to replace original member Brian Jones, who drowned on July 3, 1969, at age 27.  Jones, the band's blues purist, wanted the Stones to remain true to their blues roots.  He became increasingly overshadowed by Jagger and Richards and more unhappy with the original material they were writing.  Brian Jones does, however, play on two tracks from Let It Bleed: percussion on "Midnight Rambler" and autoharp on "You Got The Silver".  Mick Taylor also plays on two tracks, trading licks with Keith Richards on "Live With Me" and slide guitar on "Country Honk," a reworking of their 1968 single "Honky Tonk Women".      
       The last Stones album to feature Taylor's fretwork is 1974's It's Only Rock 'N Roll.  In 1975, he was replaced by Ron Wood, who remains a member of the Rolling Stones to this day.
       Out of the May 1969 Let It Bleed sessions came the release of an album called Jamming With Edward, a six song informal jam recorded while the band waited for Keith Richards to, as Mick Jagger says in the liner notes, "get out of bed".  The album, released in 1972, features the Stones rhythm section of bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts along with Jagger, Ry Cooder, and the then very in demand session pianist Nicky Hopkins, the "Edward" in the album's title.
       One of those six songs is the blues classic "It Hurts Me Too," often - and mistakenly - credited to Elmore James, the electric slide guitarist who traveled with Robert Johnson in the '30s and recorded in the '50s and early '60s until his death in 1963.  The song is so closely associated with James, however, that not many people realize that the song was composed and first recorded by Tampa Red on May 10, 1940, for Bluebird Records.  Tampa Red re-recorded the song on March 24, 1949, as "When Things Go Wrong With You" for Victor (Bluebird's "parent" company).  While Elmore James didn't write "It Hurts Me Too," he was a major influence on the Rolling Stones.  Bill Wyman: "Elmore James was a major, maybe even the main reason, why the Stones came about."
       In May 1970, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts were among the musicians included on The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions, surrounding the great bluesman with young British musicians.  In addition to Wyman and Watts, the album featured, among others, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Klaus Voorman, Ringo Starr (who plays on one track, "I Ain't Superstitious"), and pianist Ian Stewart, often cited as "The Sixth Stone" due to his having played on countless Stones sessions.  Though he didn't perform, Mick Jagger was also in attendance. The album was released in the summer of 1971.  In 2002, it was reissued as a 2-CD set containing twelve previously unreleased performances.
       It is my opinion that the Rolling Stones' finest hour, or 46 minutes and 27 seconds, is 1971's Sticky Fingers.  "Brown Sugar," "Wild Horses," "Can't You Hear Me Knocking," the in-your-face "Bitch" (my favorite Stones track), the country flavored "Dead Flowers," and the raw "Sway," are just a few of the highlights on this masterpiece. 
       The album also includes a version of a song the Stones credit to bluesman Mississippi Fred McDowell: "You Gotta Move".  Interestingly, the inside cover of the CD You Gotta Move [Arhoolie CD 304] shows McDowell with a copy of Sticky Fingers, one hand pulling on the famous zipper cover designed by Andy Warhol.  The caption in part reads: "Fred McDowell celebrating having his song "You Gotta Move" released by the Rolling Stones on their Sticky Fingers LP".  In the spring of 1972, Arhoolie founder Chris Scratchwitz handed McDowell a royalty check.  It's nice to know that an elderly blues musician was financially recognized, but it doesn't look like McDowell wrote it.  A search through the Document Records database gives the earliest version of the song as by gospel group the Willing Four from 1943 [Vocal Quartets Volume 7: 1925-1943, DOCD 5543]. 
       The song was recorded several more times during the 1940s, most notably by Emma Daniels and Mother Sally Jones, who recorded under the name the Two Gospel Keys.  The Two Gospel Keys recorded the song twice in 1946: the first as "You've Got To Move" for Asch Records; the second as "You've Got To Move (When The Lord Gets Ready)" for Solo Records [Country Gospel: The Post War Years (1946-1953), DOCD 5221].  Mississippi Fred McDowell, who took credit for the song, recorded his version on July 5, 1965.      
       In the mid-'80s, an album was recorded under the guidance of Bill Wyman.  Released in 1985, Willie And The Poor Boys [Blind Pig BPCD 5009], features, among others, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, Free/Bad Company vocalist Paul Rodgers, Small Faces/Who drummer Kenney Jones, guitarist Andy Fairweather Low, and singer-songwriter Chris Rea, who had a #12 pop hit in July 1978 with "Fool (If You Think It's Over)".  Wyman plays on eleven of the album's 12 tracks, while Charlie Watts plays on five.
       Highlights include songs originally recorded by bluesman Big Joe Williams ("Baby Please Don't Go"), Otis Redding ("These Arms Of Mine," sung here by Paul Rodgers, whose voice flows like honey), Little Richard ("Slippin' And Slidin'"), Chuck Berry ("You Never Can Tell"), '40s R&B shouter Roy Brown ("Saturday Night") and the previously-mentioned Amos Milburn ("Chicken Shack Boogie").
       In 1995, ten years after the release of Willie And The Poor Boys and two years after Wyman quit the band, the Rolling Stones released Stripped, a live album recorded at various venues featuring Darryl Jones on bass.  It contains a small handful of Stones classics, remakes of "Love In Vain" and Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away," as well as performances of Bob Dylan's 1965 masterpiece "Like A Rolling Stone" and Willie Dixon's "Little Baby," first recorded by Howlin' Wolf in May 1961. 
       "Little Baby" was released on the LP simply titled Howlin' Wolf, aka The Rocking Chair Album, in January 1962.  It is Wolf's second long player.  His first, Moanin' In The Moonlight, contains twelve tracks Wolf recorded between 1951, when he was recording for the Memphis Recording Service (to become Sun Records the following year) and 1959, the year of the album's release.  Both albums were issued on one CD by MCA, who own the Chess masters.  Moanin' In The Moonlight is one of my desert island discs - a definete "must-own".
       To date, the Rolling Stones have been an active band for 45 years.  Their latest album, A Bigger Bang, was released in 2005.  Bill Wyman, who turned 70 in October 2006, has also remained active.  Today, he tours and records with his band the Rhythm Kings, and has put together a 2-CD compilation of some of his favorite blues material from the 1920s through to the early '50s.  The CD, Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey [DOCD 32-20-02], is distributed by and available through Document Records.

Copyright 2007 JacoFan Music.  All Rights Reserved. 
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Tuesday, September 19th 2006

5:46 PM

Chuck Berry - Hail, Hail, Rock 'N' Roll

 
       In a sense, Chuck Berry's story was different to that of Bill Haley and Elvis in that Chuck was a black man inspired by country music.  For example, Chuck's first record, 1955's "Maybellene," was based on the country classic "Ida Red," and in 1964, Berry recorded a version of "Crazy Arms," first cut by country artist Ray Price in 1956.  In 1996, I caught a ten-part history of rock 'n' roll and I remember Chuck's pianist Johnnie Johnson, whose trio Chuck joined in 1952, being interviewed while sitting at his piano.  He played the piano riff to "Maybellene" and sure enough it was country.  One of the things he mentioned was that when they performed live back in the 1950s, whispers could be heard among the audience proclaiming "I thought he was white" - the Elvis syndrome in reverse, if you wish.  But Chuck naturally had his blues/R&B heroes and influences.  One look through his 1955-1979 discography shows that he covered too many blues/R&B classics to mention here in any kind of detail, but I'm going to highlight a handful for this article. 
       Chuck Berry can be thought of as an "accessible" blues musician in that he rarely, if ever, sang adult themes: women troubles, alcohol or serving time in jail, at least as far as his chart hits were concerned.  More accurately, his lyrics dealt with the lives of young people and the many aspects of it while his music was a combination of swing, blues, boogie woogie and country.  Ultimately, though, I think it's safe to say that Chuck's music was a combination of Aaron "T-Bone" Walker and Louis Jordan.  From Jordan, Berry took the drive; the swing, replacing Jordan's sax with his electric guitar and, I think, the ability to write lyrics that tell vivid, detailed stories.  As for the famous Berry guitar licks, they were actually from the T-Bone Walker school of the blues - with one notable exception: On January 23, 1946, Louis Jordan and his band The Tympani Five recorded "Ain't That Just Like A Woman" for Decca Records.  The guitar intro was played by Jordan's guitarist Carl Hogan, one of Chuck's early guitar heroes.  Twelve years later, in 1958, it would appear as the intro to Chuck's "Johnny B. Goode," itself a rock 'n' roll anthem.  Just how many kids since 1958 copped that lick thinking it was Berry's creation?  How many consider that lick to be the greatest opening guitar lick in all of rock 'n' roll?  Plenty, I'm sure.  But I digress.  The "Johnny" in the song is ultimately Chuck, with the name "Johnny" borrowed from Johnnie Johnson.  Highly recommended: "Johnny B. Goode" as done by The Grateful Dead, found on their live, self-titled 1971 release, a.k.a. "Skull & Roses."  Eventually, Chuck recorded "Ain't That Just Like A Woman" in its entirety, on September 3, 1965.
       Today, Louis Jordan is hailed as the father of rhythm and blues and arguably the father of rock 'n' roll.  However, since my personal view of the rock 'n' roll landscape is a wide one, it's impossible for me to choose one artist as the "king" or "father" of rock 'n' roll.  Therefore, I think it's appropriate calling Jordan the father of '50s rock 'n' roll.  Why, you ask?  Because more than any other musician, Jordan built the foundation which '50s rock 'n' roll directly rests upon.  Some musicians to have fallen under the Louis Jordan spell include such titans as Bill Haley, James Brown, B.B. King, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Bo Diddley, Carl Perkins, and Screamin' Jay Hawkins, in addition to blues/R&B pioneers Gatemouth Brown, Rufus Thomas, Amos Milburn, Joe Liggins, Jimmy Liggins, Koko Taylor, Jack McVea, Joe Lutcher, Freddie King, and, more recently, Joe Jackson and Dave Alvin.  To give an idea of just how important Louis Jordan is to rhythm and blues (and one might say to rock 'n' roll and to music in general), Billboard chart expert Joel Whitburn placed Jordan as the fifth most important R&B musician of All Time, behind James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and The Temptations (he tied with Stevie Wonder).  Considering Jordan was only on the R&B charts for a total of 8 years (and spending 113 weeks of those years at #1) before the music was even called rhythm and blues as opposed to the length of time the others have been around, well, that's a pretty significant achievement.  Louis Jordan wasn't called "The King Of The Jukeboxes" for nothing.
       Texas blues great T-Bone Walker was ultra smooth, playing the guitar perpendicular to his body while pumping out biting guitar licks with jazz band accompaniment.  As a youth, he led fellow Texas guitar great Blind Lemon Jefferson around Dallas.  In 1929, the year of Jefferson's death (his death was, like many aspects of the early blues pioneers, shrouded in mystery) Walker made his first recordings under the name "Oak Cliff" T-Bone.  He didn't record again until 1940, when he recorded with Les Hite's band serving only as vocalist (Frank Pasley was the guitarist on the session.)  It wasn't until July 20, 1942, that he recorded as a leader, singing and playing electric guitar with boogie woogie pianist Freddie Slack, bassist Jud De Naut, and drummer Dave Coleman.
       Musical barriers are built not so much by the musicians but by record store owners, critics, and most especially by the fans.  I'm guilty of building barriers, myself.  However, nobody is more open-minded musically than the musicians themselves.  At least in most cases.  As I've stated in the past, black and white musicians inspired each other, often covering the same material and recording for the same record company.  On August 12, 1940, a white band called the Will Bradley Trio featuring Freddie Slack (piano), Doc Goldberg (string bass), Ray McKinley (lead vocal, drums; former drummer for the Dorsey brothers, in fact), and Don Raye (vocal) recorded a Don Raye composition under the direction of Bradley entitled "Down The Road A Piece" for Columbia Records.  "Down The Road A Piece" as recorded by the Will Bradley Trio is a perfect example of white R&B (the personification of the white rhythm and blues artist is the great Louis Prima).  At his first session, held on September 12, 1946, in Los Angeles, black boogie pianist and vocalist Amos Milburn cut a terrific version of "Down The Road A Piece."  Chuck Berry cut his version of the song fourteen years later, on April 12, 1960.   
       Note: In 1949, Billboard began using the term "rhythm and blues" to describe the then-current black music being recorded to replace the dated term "race." 
       Speaking of white R&B, the team of Freddie Slack and Don Raye wrote a tune called "The House Of Blue Lights" which was recorded by white R&B vocalist Ella Mae Morse on May 18, 1946, for Capitol.  Four years earlier, Morse's "Cow Cow Boogie," co-written by Raye, became the first hit for the label and sustained Capitol throughout the recording ban during the early years of World War II.  On July 16, 1953, white hillbilly boogie/boogie-woogie pianist and vocalist Merrill Moore cut "The House Of Blue Lights" for Capitol (he first cut the tune at his debut Capitol session on May 5, 1952, but this version is unissued and is thought to be lost).  In 1955, Chuck Miller, who sounds white to me, had a #9 pop hit with "The House Of Blue Lights" for Mercury Records.  Chuck Berry cut the tune on June 12, 1958.  "Carol" was also cut that day.
       In 1941, Kansas City's own Jay McShann recorded a tune called "Confessin' The Blues" for Decca Records with Walter Brown handling the lead vocals (an early member of McShann's big band during the early 1940s was another Kansas City legend: future pioneer Charlie Parker).  "Confessin' The Blues" has since become a blues standard, with covers done by blues greats Little Walter, B.B. King, Lowell Fulson, Wynonie Harris, T-Bone Walker, Joe Williams, Jimmy Witherspoon, and countless others, including Chuck Berry and the Rolling Stones.  It's probably through the Chuck Berry version that the Stones came to the song, including it on their album 12x5, released in 1965 (Keith Richards stated that he stole every guitar lick Chuck Berry ever played.)  Chuck recorded his version of "Confessing The Blues" on April 12, 1960, the same session that saw Chuck record "Down The Road A Piece."
       On October 26, 1953, blues singer/guitarist Eddie "Guitar Slim" Jones recorded a tune called "The Things That I Used To Do" for Specialty Records, a small, independent label (one of many during this period) formed in 1946 by Art Rupe to record R&B material that the major labels (i.e., Columbia, RCA, etc.) wouldn't touch.  The musical director in charge of the session was Ray Charles, who shouted with joy towards the end of the released version (check it out!) due to the fact that they finally hit upon a useable take after several failed attempts by a drunken Guitar Slim.  Chuck recorded his version on January 14, 1964.  This day also saw the recording of original Chuck Berry material, including the hits "Nadine" and "You Never Can Tell."  The blues  standard "Dust My Broom," originally recorded by Robert Johnson as "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom" in 1936 for Vocalion, and again by electric blues guitarist Elmore James in 1951 for Trumpet, was also covered by Berry at this session.
       One of the many Christmas classics heard each holiday season is "Merry Christmas, Baby."  The song was first recorded in 1947 by The Blazers featuring singer/pianist Charles Brown.  The group were formerly known as Johnny Moore's Three Blazers (Charles Brown: piano; Eddie Williams: bass; and Johnny Moore: guitar), but Johnny's  brother, guitarist Oscar Moore, left the Nat King Cole Trio to join his brother's band.  A few years earlier, on September 11, 1945, The Three Blazers recorded a Charles Brown original that went on to become a blues standard: "Drifting Blues".  Chuck Berry recorded his version on March 29, 1960.  On this day, he also cut the blues standards "Don't You Lie To Me" and "Worried Life Blues."  
       Two of Charles Brown's main inspirations were Louis Jordan and Nat King Cole (the latter of which also inspired Chuck Berry).  Nat King Cole was an important influence on West Coast R&B piano men such as Cecil Gant, Ray Charles (who modeled himself after Charles Brown early in his career), and the previously-mentioned Amos Milburn (who, in turn, was a major inspiration to Fats Domino).  The version of "Merry Christmas, Baby" that's played each year, though, is not the 1947 original cut for Exclusive Records, but rather Brown's remake, cut on September 4, 1956, for Aladdin Records.  Chuck Berry recorded his version on November 19, 1958, the same session that saw the recording of Chuck's classic "Little Queenie."  "Merry Christmas, Baby" is recognizable to more modern ears through the live version cut by Bruce Springsteen in the mid-'80s.
       Chuck Berry managed to hit the pop charts three times in 1964: "Nadine (Is It You?)" (#23), "No Particular Place To Go" (#10; remade by George Thorogood in 1982) and "You Never Can Tell" (#14; this was included on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack in 1994).  Not bad at all considering that 1964 was the year The Beatles arrived on American soil and caused many of Chuck's musical peers to fall out of favor with the teenage audience.  In fact, Berry would have two more hits in the 1970s, remakes of two R&B classics recorded live in Manchester, England on February 3, 1972: "My Ding-A-Ling" became Berry's only #1 pop hit, and "Reelin' and Rockin'" would become a #27 hit for Chuck in 1973.
       "My-Ding-A-Ling" was originally recorded in 1952 by New Orleans bandleader-producer-songwriter-trumpeter-arranger Dave Bartholomew, who was responsible for all of the recordings of Fats Domino and New Orleans singer/guitarist Smiley Lewis, who recorded  many R&B classics, including the original version of "Blue Monday" in 1953, which ironically featured Fats Domino on piano.  In 1954, an R&B band calling themselves The Bees recorded "My-Ding-A-Ling" as "Toy Bell" for Imperial Records, another indie label formed by Lew Chudd in 1949.  Billy Bland, who, in 1960, had a Top Ten hit with "Let The Little Girl Dance," was one of The Bees.  On September 20, 1966, Berry recorded the tune as "My Tambourine."
       "Reelin' & Rockin'" was originally the B-side to Chuck's single "Sweet Little Sixteen," released in January 1958, but the song was originally recorded for Philo Records as the two-part "Around The Clock" in July 1945 by R&B shouter Wynonie Harris.  Not long after Harris cut the original, "Around The Clock" was recorded, again in two parts, by the aforementioned West Coast pianist Cecil Gant with Numa Lee Davis handling the vocals.  In 1947, Big Joe Turner recorded the two-part "Around The Clock Blues."  By 1940s standards, however, the clock theme was not a new one: in 1922, Trixie Smith recorded "My Man Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll)," which had Trixie looking up at the clock every few hours ("I looked at the clock and the clock struck one... I said, 'Now daddy, ain't we got fun?'") making "My Man..." an ancestor to "Around The Clock," "Around The Clock Blues" and "Reelin' and Rockin'."  On May 26, 1938, Trixie re-recorded "My Man" as "My Daddy Rocks Me" and "My Daddy Rocks Me No. 2" for Decca featuring some of the day's hottest jazz artists: Charlie Shavers (trumpet), Sidney Bechet (clarinet/soprano sax), and Teddy Bunn (guitar).  The clock theme, more specifically "Reelin' and Rockin'," reached a new audience in 1986 when George Thorogood included the song on his live album.
       Like every other musician, Chuck Berry took what came before and made it uniquely his own.  He updated the sounds and styles he grew up on, made them fresh, and presented them to then-modern ears.  He wrote countless rock 'n' roll anthems and remains a true rock 'n' roll original.  Many artists, especially the two biggest acts to fall under the Chuck Berry spell - The Beatles and The Rolling Stones - wouldn't exist like we have come to love them if it wasn't for Chuck Berry.
       Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll!

Copyright 2006 JacoFan Music.  All Rights Reserved.

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Sunday, July 9th 2006

5:43 AM

Directly From My Heart To You

 
A few months back, I wrote of the history pertaining to the tune  "Keep A-Knockin'," with the most popular version being, of course, Little Richard's 1957 smash hit on Specialty (the song was first recorded circa February 1928 by vocalist James "Boodle-It" Wiggins and pianist Bob Call as "Keep A-Knockin' An You Can't Get In [Paramount 12662]).  With this mailing, we're going to take a look at a largely-forgotten yet often-covered Little Richard classic.
       No, it's not "Tutti Frutti" or "Long Tall Sally".  It's not "Lucille," "Rip It Up" or "Good Golly Miss Molly" and it's not "Ready Teddy," "Slippin' And Slidin'," "Jenny Jenny" or "The Girl Can't Help It".  It's "Directly From My Heart To You".  Not familiar with it, you say?  Well, after reading this essay, you will be!
       Little Richard first recorded the song in Houston, Texas with the Johnny Otis Orchestra on October 5, 1953, for Peacock Records (prior to Peacock, he was an RCA Victor artist, a stint which lasted from 1951-1952.  After Peacock, Richard signed with Specialty, a company he would stay with for nine years, from 1955 to 1964, and the company for which he would record all of the hit records mentioned above and then some.  He would re-record "Directly From My Heart To You" for Specialty on September 14, 1955.)  The Peacock version is a nice blues piece perfect for late night listening - nothing like the material Little Richard would cut a few years later.
       I was inspired to feature "Directly From My Heart To You" after recently listening to the stunning version by Frank Zappa And The Mothers Of Invention, included on the album 'Weasels Ripped My Flesh,' released in 1970 (the album's liner notes state that the album was released in February of that year while the book 'Frank Zappa - A Visual Documentary' claims it was released in August.)  Regardless, FZ and the Mothers' version features Don "Sugar Cane" Harris on electric violin and vocal along with Lowell George (later of Little Feat) on rhythm guitar.  I took a bunch of Frank Zappa discs with me to work the other day and listened to FZ from 8am to 5pm.  The last disc ended at 4:20 and to fill the remaining forty minutes, I played "Directly From My Heart To You" eight times in a row.
       "Directly From My Heart To You" was also recorded by blues guitarist/vocalist Fenton Robinson on his 1974 Alligator release 'Somebody Loan Me A Dime' (the title track was written and originally recorded by Robinson in 1967 for the tiny Palos label.  Two years later, in 1969, it was covered by Boz Scaggs featuring Duane Allman on guitar.) 
       Having said all of this, recommended listening  is Little Richard's Peacock version of "Directly From My Heart To You" (the 1953 original); Little Richard's more upbeat 1955 remake for Specialty; the incredible 1970 version by Frank Zappa and the Mothers Of Invention; and the 1974 version by Fenton Robinson, which clearly demonstrates Robinson's clear, fluid, almost jazzy lead lines and passionate, soulful singing.  Enjoy!


Copyright 2006 JacoFan Music.  All Rights Reserved.      
      
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Saturday, July 8th 2006

6:16 PM

Rock N Roll History Lesson #3

So far, I covered the different meanings of the phrase "rock'n'roll" and songs that highlight those meanings.  I have shown that white artists embraced black styles decades before Elvis emerged on the scene and that rockabilly clearly existed in the 1940s but that it was called hillbilly boogie.  It's now time to feature some blues/R&B recordings that, in my opinion, best capture the rock'n'roll sounds of the 1950s, but, of course, all of the tracks are from the pre-1950s period.  Here's what I came up with:
       1. "Anticipatin' Blues" by The Southern Negro Quartette.  The first doo-wop groups to emerge are said to have been The Ravens and The Orioles in the 1940s, but, since fairly that's common knowledge, we must seek an example from an earlier era.  The closest example of doo-wop from the pre-1940s period is easily "Anticipatin' Blues" by The Southern Negro Quartette from June, 1921.  That's not to say that "Anticipatin' Blues" is doo-wop, but with its hollers and shouts that whoop and glide like a rollercoaster, all done a cappella, one can easily hear it being sung on a street corner in Brooklyn, circa 1954.
       2. "Hastings Street" by ragtime guitarist Blind Blake and boogie pianist Charlie Spand, recorded on August 17, 1929 for Paramount Records.  Here, the rock'n'roll beat is undeniable.  Its intro is identical to that of Fats Domino's "The Fat Man" recorded a little over twenty years later.   According to the folks that put together the 2-CD compilation 'Rock Before Elvis, Before Little Richard, Before Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley or Bill Haley' (honest, that's the title), "Hastings Street" is the first rock'n'roll record.
       3. "Strange Things Happening Every Day" by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, recorded for Decca Records on September 22, 1944.  Gospel boogie is a rare thing indeed, but here is an example, and probably the best one, too.  Sister Rosetta is not just one of the most underrated guitarists but she's also one of the most underrated artists and deserves far more recognition for her musical abilities/contributions.  This track was covered by Michelle Shocked on the tribute disc to the Sister released in 2003.
       4. "T-Bone Boogie" by T-Bone Walker with Marl Young and His Orchestra, recorded possibly May, 1945 for Rhumboogie Records.  Here we have Chuck Berry licks a full ten years before Chuck Berry emerged on the scene.
       5. "Ain't That Just Like A Woman" by Louis Jordan and His Tympani Five, recorded for Decca Records on January 23, 1946.  The guitar intro to this track was taken note-for-note by  Chuck Berry for the opening of "Johnny B. Goode."  Jordan's guitarist, Carl Hogan, an early idol of Berry's.
       6. "That's All Right" by Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, recorded for Bluebird on September 6, 1946.  This was copied  almost note-for-note by Elvis Presley in 1954 and served as Elvis' first record.  After Sun Records owner Sam Phillips heard Elvis, guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black tear into "That's All Right," he finally heard what he was looking for - a white boy with the black sound (it's important to understand that Sam recorded Elvis more out of is frustration with the limited acceptance of black music and not so much for is desire to "make a million dollars.")
       The flipside of Elvis' record was a cover of Bill Monroe's 1946 bluegrass classic "Blue Moon Of Kentucky," bringing together black music and white in a very powerful fashion - and at exactly the right time in history.
       7. "Good Rockin' Tonight" by Wynonie Harris, recorded on December 28, 1947,  for King Records.  By June 1948, the song was a #1 R&B hit, and paved the way for countless songs having the word "rocking" or "rock" in their title, and they all rocked musically, too!  It was Wynonie whom Elvis was imitating when he curled his lip and shook his hips. 
       Placing rock 'n' roll's beginnings in the 1950s is similar to walking into a movie theater when the movie's half over - you're missing half the plot!  Just as rock 'n' roll has evolved from the 1950s to the present, so has it evolved from the 1890s to the 1950s.  After all, does Buddy Holly sound anything like Metallica?  Certainly not - because rock 'n' roll has evolved and will continue to do so.
       But music, of course, is subjective, and everyone can view the same thing several different ways.  I submit my opinions to you so that you can draw your own conclusions.
       You can place rock's "birth" in any era you wish or call the music anything you desire.  The important thing to remember is that music is all connected.  All one has to do is listen.

       Copyright 2006 JacoFan Music.  All Rights Reserved.
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Saturday, July 8th 2006

5:40 AM

Rock 'n' Roll History Lesson # 2

Now that we've cleared up the history of the phrase "rock'n'roll," let's examine some more musical examples.  I want to begin this mailing with a quote from my favorite music writer, Nick Tosches.  The following comes from his amazing book, 'Unsung Heroes Of Rock'n'Roll: The Birth of Rock In The Wild Years Before Elvis'.  The quote is in response to those who feel that either rock'n'roll was created by Elvis in the 1950s and to those who feel that rock'n'roll was created by blacks and then seized and commercialized by whites: "Rock'n'roll was not created soley by blacks or by whites; and it certainly did not come into being all of a sudden.  It evolved, slowly, wrought by blacks and by whites, some of them old and some of them young, in the South and in the West, in the North and in the East.  Its makers were driven not so much by any pure creative spirit, but rather by the desire to make money.  Nothing can better bring together a black man and a white, a young man and an old, a country man and a city man, than a dollar placed between them.  Rock'n'roll flourished because it sold."  Makes sense to me.
       I've said this before and I'll say it again here: rock'n'roll embraces many styles, which is why everyone's opinion differs when the subject turns to deciding what the first rock'n'roll record actually was.  It's not cut and dried like jazz, for example, in that the first jazz recording was made by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band - a white group - in February, 1917 ("Livery Stable Blues") or the first blues record (history books tell us that it was "Crazy Blues" by Mamie Smith recorded in 1920, but it was actually Morton Harvey - a white artist - and his 1914 recording of W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues") or country (fiddler Eck Robertson's 1922 instrumental version of "Arkansas Traveler".  A version of it, with lyrics, was recorded in either 1901 or 1902 - depending on your source - by Len Spencer, but it's considered by many to be a novelty record.)
       When Elvis recorded his version of Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup's "That's All Right," they didn't know how to promote Elvis or the record.  Was he black or white? Was the record country, blues or pop?  With this mailing, we're going to feature some songs that also defy category on the hillbilly side of things, long before anyone ever heard of Elvis Presley.
       Emmett Miller, a white man who performed in blackface, made his recording debut in 1924.  Unfortunately, not all of his recordings are available (I'm still waiting) but what is available is the compilation 'The Minstrel Man From Georgia'.  Released on CD in 1996, it features twenty tracks recorded for Okeh Records in 1928 and 1929.  Miller was a pop singer with hillbilly overtones supported by some of the hottest jazz artists who were billed as his Georgia Crackers: Tommy Dorsey on trumpet, Jimmy Dorsey on clarinet and alto sax, Eddie Lang on guitar, Jack Teagarden on trombone and Gene Krupa on drums.  Many of Emmet's records feature drunken hillbilly dialect straight out of minstrel-vaudeville circuit (never mind the fact that by the 1920s, minstrelsy was dead), but, like Elvis Presley thirty years later, his music defies category.
       Perhaps the most striking example of rockabilly in the pre-1950s era (again, at the time it was called hillbilly boogie, not rockabilly) is the 1946 recording by Alton and Rabon Delmore - The Delmore Brothers - with "Freight Train Boogie".  Take away the harmonica and you have the same style that Elvis was recording almost ten years later at Sun Records with Scotty Moore and Bill Black.
       Personally, I feel that if black music gained the popularity that it had in the 1940s, Hank Williams would have been promoted as a rock'n'roller.  Instead, he remains a giant in the country music field (and rightly so) and so to cite Williams as a rocker may seem incredibly odd.  It's not odd at all: Hank Williams was a pioneer of country music but he was also a pioneer of hillbilly boogie.
       Black and white musicians influenced each other, with many white artists having learned first-hand from black musicians (Hank Williams and Carl Perkins to name two of the more famous names) and it was not unusual for both black and white artists to cover the same material.
       Recommended listening:
       1.  "I Ain't Got Nobody" by Emmett Miller, recorded on June 12, 1928.  Personnel on the track includes, among others, Tommy Dorsey on trombone, Jimmy Dorsey on clarinet and alto sax and Eddie Lang on guitar.  This is the same tune that was later recorded by both Louis Prima and David Lee Roth.
       2.  "Freight Train Boogie" by The Delmore Brothers, recorded on February 12, 1946 for King Records.  Electric guitar: Jethro Burns, one half of the country comedy duo Homer and Jethro. 
       3.  "Move It On Over" by Hank Williams, recorded on April 21, 1947 for M-G-M Records.  Of course, this was later covered by George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers, thus becoming a  "classic rock" staple in the process.
       And tracks that illustrate, albeit one example, the influence white artists had on blacks:
       4.  "Bloodshot Eyes" by Hank Penny, recorded for King Records on  March 9, 1949.  Steel guitar: Speedy West.  The tune, co-written by Penny, became a # 4 C&W hit in 1950.
       5. "Bloodshot Eyes" by Wynonie Harris, recorded - also for King Records - on February 27, 1951.  It became a # 6 R&B hit later that year.
      
Copyright 2004 JacoFan Music.  All rights reserved.
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Monday, May 22nd 2006

11:59 PM

Rock 'n' Roll History Lesson #1

 In July 2004, America celebrated the "fiftieth anniverary of rock 'n' roll," for it was fifty years earlier, on July 5, 1954, that Elvis Presley recorded his first record, "That's All Right" for Sun Records.  I was inspired to feature songs, styles and artists to support my theory that Elvis did not create rock 'n' roll, that rock 'n' roll was not "born" in the 1950s and that Alan Freed did not coin the phrase "rock 'n' roll".  None of this is meant to downplay the importance of Alan Freed, Elvis, or any of his musical contemporaries but to simply put it all into proper perspective.  
       Unfortunately, most of the world's population will forever place rock's beginnings in the 1950s, which simply goes to show that whenever something is said often enough it sadly becomes "fact".  Even Rolling Stone magazine devoted an issue to the "50 moments that changed the history of rock 'n' roll".  It beginnings with Elvis, with the headline in big black letters: "Truck Driver Invents Rock".  I used to have respect for 'Rolling Stone' but this - not to mention the fact that they put a near-topless Britney Spears and a naked Christina Aguilera on its covers a few years ago - changed all of that.  And when RCA released Elvis' #1 hits on CD a couple of years back, the TV promotion for the disc began with a voiceover stating "before anyone did anything, Elvis did everything".  Fortunately, I read an article in the July 4, 2004 edition of 'USA Today' in which the writer stated that rock dates back to the '30s.  I go back about forty years earlier, but I'm proud that at least it acknowledged some of the pioneers who emerged before Elvis.  Hopefully, by the time you finish reading this essay, you will  acknowledge them, too.
       We're going to start this series by examing the phrase itself: "rock and roll".  The phrase "rock and roll" actually had several meanings.  What follows are the individual meanings and the songs that capture those meanings:
       1.  "Rock and roll" was black slang for sex.  This is the most popular meaning.  The best early example of this is the 1922 recording by Trixie Smith (no relation to Bessie, Clara or the other Smiths who recorded during this period) entitled "My Man Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll)".  The song was recorded for the first black-owned record label, Black Swan.  Features Fletcher Henderson on piano.
       2.  "Rock and roll" was a spiritual phrase.  Around 1910, a group calling themselves simply Male Quartette recorded a cylinder for Little Wonder entitled "The Camp Meeting Jubilee".  One passage goes this way: "Rockin' and rollin' in your arms... Rockin' and rollin' in your arms... Rockin' and rollin' in your arms... in the arms of Moses".
       3.  "Rock and roll" was a nautical term used by seamen to describe the motions of a ship.  This meaning is best exemplified in a 1934 recording by pop vocal group The Boswell Sisters.  The song, simply titled "Rock And Roll," was recorded for Columbia Records on October 4, 1934 - long before The Velvet Underground or Led Zeppelin recorded songs of the same name.  "Rock And Roll" as by The Boswell Sisters was featured in the film 'Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round' and, although I've never seen it, I hear it's horrible.
       4.  "Rock and roll" - here's where it gets interesting - was used to describe musical rhythm.  The first record to use the phrase "rock and roll" to describe musical rhythm was "Rock It For Me" by Ella Fitzgerald with the Chick Webb Band, recorded for Brunswick Records on September 21, 1937.  Miss Fitzgerald sings: "It's true that once upon a time, the opera was the thing... But today the rage is rhythm and rhyme, so won't you satisfy my soul with the rock and roll... You can't be tame while the band is playing... It ain't no shame to keep your body swaying... Beat it out in the minor key... Oh, rock it for me."  Louis Jordan, a future pioneer in his own right, was a member of this band but was absent the day "Rock It For Me" was recorded.        
       All of this proves that Alan Freed did not coin the phrase "rock and roll" nor was he the first to use it to describe musical rhythm; he was simply the most influential of those who had.  More to come.

Copyright 2004 JacoFan Music.  All rights reserved.
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Tuesday, April 11th 2006

9:13 PM

Matchbox

 I believe I did an article on "Matchbox" a few years ago but decided that, since there are significantly more people on my list than there was then, I'd do another article on the subject, only this time going a little bit further in detail than I did the first time around.   Also, it's fitting because I'm writing this essay on what would have been Carl Perkins' 74th birthday.
       The origins of the song "Matchbox" go all the way back to 1924, when "The Mother Of The Blues," Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, recorded a tune called "Lost Wandering Blues" circa March of that year.  She was accompanied on the recording by Miles and Milas Pruitt - The Pruitt Twins - with Miles on banjo and Milas on guitar.  All of Ma Rainey's prior recordings featured  jazz band accompaniment.  In "Lost Wandering Blues," Rainey sings "I'm sittin' here wonderin' will a matchbox hold my clothes...."
       Jump ahead to March 14, 1927,  Atlanta, Georgia.  The great Texas blues singer and guitarist Blind Lemon Jefferson records what would be his only release on the Okeh label ("Black Snake Moan"/"Match Box Blues" on Okeh 8455) even though he recorded a total of eight titles for them.  He records "Match Box Blues" two more times for Paramount Records, his "regular" label.  Apparently, Paramount threatened Okeh with litigation since it was Paramount who had Lemon under contract, but "Match Box Blues" becomes a huge seller - thus the reason Lemon cut the song two more times for Paramount.   On all three versions of "Match Box Blues," Jefferson sings, "(I'm) sittin' here wonderin' would a matchbox hold my clothes.... I ain't got so many matches but I got so far to go."  Like I've mentioned in previous mailings, white musicians have always been inspired by their black counterparts, with many of them learning firsthand from black blues and string band musicians.  Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers are two prime examples.  White hillbilly musician Larry Hensley cut his version of Jefferson's Okeh recording of "Match Box Blues" on January 25, 1934, for Vocalion, doing an amazing job at copying Jefferson's unique guitar sound and style.
       Another artist who learned his craft directly from a black musician (in this case, "Uncle" John Westbrook) is Carl Perkins.  Between December 4, 1956, and January 1957, Carl Perkins recorded "Matchbox," suggested to Carl by his father Buck during a break in a recording session:
       "Carl, you oughta do that old song, 'Matchbox Blues.'  You know - 'I'm settin' here wonderin', would a matchbox hold my clothes.'"
       "What else does it say, Daddy?," was Carl's response.
       "I ain't got no matches but I got a long way to go," Buck replied.
       "What else?"
       "That's about all I know," his father answered.
       "That don't make no sense," said Carl, having heard his father sing the lyric around the house for years.
       Jerry Lee Lewis, handling the piano duties on the session, began playing a boogie beat.  Carl came up with the guitar riff - one that gives me chills every time I hear it - and began improvising lyrics.  A new song centered around a lyric that was about as old as dirt, even by 1950s standards, was born.
       The Beatles were inspired to record "Matchbox" after learning the song on the LP 'Dance Album Of Carl Perkins,' released on Sun Records in 1958, after Perkins left the label to sign with Columbia.  The Beatles' version was released in the U.K. in June 1964 on their 5th EP 'Long Tall Sally'.  Here in the U.S., it was released on both the LP 'Something New,' their third Capitol album, and as a single, with "Slow Down," a track first released in 1958 by American rocker and Carl Perkins peer Larry Williams, on the flip.  A version of "Matchbox" was recorded in 1962 at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany with John Lennon handling the vocal duties.
       In fact, Carl Perkins was on a U.K. tour and was present in the studio when The Beatles cut their version of "Matchbox," though he does not appear on the recording.  The Beatles recorded five takes of the tune on the afternoon of June 1, 1964, before recording sixteen takes of a Lennon-McCartney original, "I'll Be Back," between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.  Afterwards, Carl and the Fab Four jammed on a variety of '50s rock 'n' roll numbers until 3 a.m.  It should be said, too, that outside of their own compositions, the Beatles recorded more songs by Carl Perkins than by anyone else.
       In 1996, the CD 'Go Cat Go' was released as Carl's last album, featuring duets with Willie Nelson, John Fogerty, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Bono, and Johnny Cash as well as two versions of "Blue Suede Shoes" performed by both Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon.  The CD features "Matchbox" as performed by Carl Perkins and Willie Nelson.  So......
       To simplify things considerably, a rundown of what's recommended listening is as follows: "Lost Wandering Blues" by Ma Rainey from 1924; the Okeh version of "Match Box Blues" by Blind Lemon Jefferson from 1927; "Match Box Blues" by hillbilly singer/guitarist Larry Hensley from 1934; Carl Perkins' "Matchbox" from 1957; "Matchbox" by The Beatles from 1964; and, finally, "Matchbox" by Carl Perkins and Willie Nelson from 1996 (Nelson only plays guitar on the track.)


Copyright 2006 JacoFan Music.  All Rights Reserved.
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Sunday, April 2nd 2006

3:04 PM

My Castle's Rockin'

Today, April 1st, marks the birthday of one of the greatest blues singers who ever lived - Miss Alberta Hunter, born on this date in 1895 in Memphis, Tennessee.  I just finished reading 'Alberta Hunter: A Celebration In Blues' by Frank C. Taylor and Gerald Cook (the latter her pianist during the late '70s/early '80s) so I decided to do a 'Roots' mailing on Miss Hunter. 
       A brief rundown of her accomplishments are as follows:
       She was one of the original blues queens of the 1920s, recording four tracks in May 1921 for Black Swan Records (the first black-owned record label, some forty-years before there was a Motown), two of which, "How Long, Sweet Daddy, How Long" and "Bring Out The Joys," filled both sides of her first record.  She wrote many blues compositions, including "Down Hearted Blues," which was recorded by Bessie Smith in 1923 for Columbia Records and became her first record.  Alberta also traveled to Europe in 1927 (the first trip of many over the next few decades); she appeared in several stage productions, including a London production of 'Showboat' in which she appeared opposite Paul Robeson; she became a member of a USO tour entertaining World War II veterans and veterans of the Korean War during the 1940s and early 1950s, and in 1957, she officially became a nurse, a job she held until 1977 until she was forced to retire (the hospital staff thought she was 70 as she had chopped twelve years off of her age; she was really 82.)  In the mid-'60s, she would read newspaper articles about some poor family and send them food and clothing.  Least important of all, however, but worth mentioning, is the fact that Alberta was a lesbian.  Her partner was Lottie Tyler, niece of black entertainer Bert Williams.  I mention this because many, more recent celebrities have "come out of the closet," most notably Melissa Etheridge, k.d. Lang and Ellen DeGeneres.  However, it was far more risque to be a lesbian in Alberta's era, and to be a black lesbian was nothing short of risking your life.  For the record, Bessie Smith and another blues queen, Ethel Waters, were also lesbians.  As the phrase goes, there isn't anything new under the sun.
       The year 1977 saw Alberta return to touring and recording.  Between 1977 and 1983, she recorded what would be four albums for Columbia.  It was at this time that she toured South America and made The Cookery, a nightclub in New York's Greenwhich Village operated by her friend and manager Barney Josephson, her home away from home.  She won rave reviews everywhere she performed - which included Alberta shaking her hips and telling the band "lay it on me" and to "play it" - made countless television appearances, was interviewed by just as many magazines, including  'Rolling Stone' and 'Playboy' (one reader wrote that she was the only woman in the issue with her clothes on), made two appearances at the White House for "her president," Jimmy Carter, and was idolized by millions of fans,  both young and old.  She came to be seen as a symbol for humanity before dying peacefully in 1984 at the age of 89.
       Recommended listening  is "I'm Having A Good Time" and "My Handy Man Ain't Handy No More," both of which Alberta recorded in New York on January 8, 1980.  They were released in May of that year on the album 'Amtrak Blues'.  I chose "My Handy Man Ain't Handy No More" because it's a perfect example of risque blues that were so popular among the early blues pioneers and because it clearly demonstrates Alberta's spunk - which she had until the minute she died - she was 84 when she recorded it!  (It was also recorded in 1929 by Ethel Waters featuring the great James P. Johnson on piano as simply "My Handy Man".    I'm also including "I'm Having A Good Time" as it perfectly sums up Alberta's incredible outlook on life, as does this quote from the 'Houston Post' upon reviewing the previously-mentioned Alberta Hunter bio:
       "A rich, detailed portrait of a woman who lived her own life, her own way, for a long, long time."
       God bless Alberta Hunter!

Copyright 2006 JacoFan Music.  All Rights Reserved.

The title of this essay, "My Castle's Rockin'," is the name of a tune Alberta wrote and recorded in New York on June 3, 1940,  for Bluebird Records.
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Sunday, March 19th 2006

8:52 PM

And it makes me wonder...

You would never know it from the material he wrote and performed, but the late Jim Croce had a passion for early American music.  In fact, several years ago I taped and watched a VH-1 special on Jim Croce, and there was a still photo of him as a DJ (I'm guessing at his college) along with a voice-over of Jim on the air announcing a Bessie Smith record.  Who knows?  Had Jim Croce not been killed in a 1973 plane crash, he may have gone on to record an album's worth of blues material.  He did, however, pass on his passion to his son A.J. Croce, who today is a recording star in his own right.
       As of this writing, we only have A.J.'s debut release, simply titled 'A.J. Croce,' released back in 1993.  He looks just like his dad, minus the moustache.  On this release, he covers the blues classics "She Wouldn't Give Me None," recorded February 20, 1930, by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie, and boogie pianist/vocalist Cecil Gant's first record, "I Wonder," cut in 1944.
       In 1944, Gant asked to play the piano during intermission at a wartime bond rally in Los Angeles.  He was told he could.  He went over so well that the local campaign committee got permission from Gant's commanding officer to have him play the piano at all Los Angeles treasury bond rallies. 
       That same year - 1944 - saw Gant cut the first recording of his ballad "I Wonder" for the Bronze label.  He released three records for the label before switching over to Gilt-Edge Records later that year.  Gant re-recorded "I Wonder" for Gilt-Edge, where the record became a huge hit.  So much so that Gilt-Edge re-released the record in picture disc form, making it rock's first such item (When I first moved to the Midwest in August 2000, I was here for only a few days when I spotted a copy of the picture disc at our local record shop, having recognized it from an imported Cecil Gant compilation CD which used the picture disc on one of its covers ['Cecil Gant,' Flyright Fly CD 61, 1997.]  I immediately purchased the disc and it remains one of the cornerstones of our collection.)  Gant stayed with Gilt-Edge until May 1946 (all of his Gilt-Edge releases listed him as Pvt. Cecil Gant: The G.I. Sing-Sation) and would come to record for a number of labels after his stay with Gilt-Edge ended: Bop Features, Bullet, Dot (the Dot releases were later purchased by Bullet), King, Down Beat/Swing Time, Imperial, Four-Star (operated by Richard A. Nelson, who also ran Gilt-Edge) and Decca.  Sadly, Gant died on February 4, 1951, at age 37 in Nashville (he was born on April 4, 1913.)  It's been said that he died of pneumonia, but more than likely he died of alcoholism. 
       Occasionally, I like to look up certain artists at Amazon to see what's been issued since the last time I checked.  Much to my amazement, a few months ago I discovered that Blue Moon Records released Cecil Gant's entire output on seven CDs, of which right now we have two: Volume 1 (1944) and Volume 5 (1947-1949).
       Recommended Listening: the original version of "I Wonder" by Cecil Gant (issued as Bronze 117.  Running Time: 3:39), the hit version (Gilt-Edge 501; reissued as an unnumbered picture disc.  Running Time: 2:57), and A.J. Croce's version from 1993.


Copyright 2006 JacoFan Music.  All Rights Reserved.
      
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Sunday, January 22nd 2006

8:50 PM

Little Richard

Little Richard claims to be the "architect of rock'n'roll".  Why? Because, as the man himself says, we must remember that he was recording as early as 1951, before Elvis.  True enough, but it seems that Little Richard forgets that Big Joe Turner made his first record ("Roll 'Em Pete"/"Goin' Away Blues") on December 30, 1938 for Vocalion with boogie piano master Pete Johnson, and that Bill Haley first stepped into a recording studio in 1944 with a group called The Downhomers.  The song was called "We're Recruiting," recorded for the Vogue label.  And, on December 10, 1949, Fats Domino recorded his debut record: "Detroit City Blues"/"The Fat Man" for Imperial.
       But getting back to Little Richard.  Yes,  he first recorded in 1951 for the RCA label, stepping into their studios on October 16th of that year (more appropriately, Little Richard recorded for RCA before Elvis.)  He recorded a total of eight sides before moving over to Peacock Records, making his debut for that label on February 25, 1953, where he recorded another eight titles.  During his stint with both labels, Little Richard's sound was very much of the blues ballad/jump blues styles that were so popular in the 1940s.  In fact, on several cuts during this early period of his career, Richard sounds very much like '40s R&B shouter Roy Brown, the man who wrote and recorded the original version of "Good Rockin' Tonight" [DeLuxe 1093] in 1947, which was later covered by Elvis, and "Rockin' At Midnight" [DeLuxe 3212] in 1949, which was covered by The Honeydrippers in 1984.
       Jump ahead to 1955.  Little Richard signs with Specialty Records, making his Specialty debut possibly on February 9th of that year.  His final session for the label would take place on March 19, 1964 - one month after the Beatles arrived on American shores and changed the rules of rock 'n' roll forever.  Between 1956 and 1958, Little Richard reached the Top 40 pop charts a total of nine times.
       On January 16, 1957, Little Richard cut "Keep A-Knockin'".  The song, released as Specialty single 611, appeared in the film 'Mister Rock And Roll' starring Alan Freed that year, and entered the Top 40 on October 7, 1957, peaking at # 8 pop and # 5 R&B.  But the song has a rather long history.
       "Keep A-Knockin'" was originally recorded in February 1928 by pianist Bob Call and vocalist James "Boodle It" Wiggins for the Paramount label [released as Paramount 12662, the original full title is "Keep A-Knockin' An You Can't Get In"].  The song was also covered at least three times for Decca Records: on April 18, 1935, blues singer/slide guitarist extraordinaire James "Kokomo" Arnold cut the tune as "Busy Bootin'" [Decca 7139]; on March 5, 1936, western swing pioneer Milton Brown and his band the Musical Brownies recorded the song [Decca 5251; sadly, on April 12, 1936, Milton Brown died due to injuries sustained in a car wreck], and finally, jump blues great Louis Jordan and his band the Tympani Five covered "Keep A-Knockin'" as "Keep A-Knockin' (But You Can't Come In)" [Decca 7609] on March 29, 1939.  It is most likely through Jordan's version that the tune reached Little Richard's ears.
       Interestingly, when Led Zeppelin was recording their fourth album in 1971, drummer John Bonham was goofing off, playing the intro to Little Richard's version of "Keep A-Knockin'".  The rest of the band joined in but soon after the tape stopped.  Fortunately, enough was captured to structure the track and the tune became LZ's "Rock And Roll".
       Recommended listening for readers is "Keep A-Knockin'" by James "Boodle It" Wiggins, Kokomo Arnold (as "Busy Bootin'"), Milton Brown And His Musical Brownies, Louis Jordan and the Tympani Five, and Little Richard.  As a bonus, compare the intro of Led Zeppelin's "Rock And Roll" to Little Richard's version of "Keep A-Knockin'".

Copyright 2006 JacoFan Music.  All Rights Reserved. 

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