(Note -this was written June 25, 2013, the day after Bobby Bland passed away)
I’m gonna play the high class joints,
I’m gonna play the low class joints’
And I’m even gonna play the honky tonks.”
From “I’m Gonna Play The Honky Tonks” by Bobby Bland
Further On Up the Road
A Farewell to Bobby “Blue” Bland
By Rev. Billy c. Wirtz
He never became a household name like his best friend and former band mate B.B. King did.
Ask folks on the street and one in fifty might know the name, but one of America’s greatest singers and Blues artists passed away last night at the age of 83.
Bobby “Blue” Bland was born Robert Calvin Bland in January 16, 1930 in the crossroads town of Rosemark, Tenn.
His musical career began like most Black singers of that era in the church. Till the end of his days he would still love the hard driving, impassioned screams of Archie Brownlee and The Original Five Blind Boys Of Mississippi and the transcendent, other-worldly harmonies of the old school quartets like The Highway Q.C.’s, The Caravans and The Soul Stirrers (the group that gave us Sam Cooke and Johnny Taylor).
His own career began with The Beale Streeters (a group that included Johnny Ace, Roscoe Gordon and B.B. King!!) in 1952 with I.O.U. Blues.
Back in the early fifties when he first recorded, Blues was still characterized by a coolness and detachment on the part of the singer. Bland brought the fire of the pulpit to the stages of the Apollo, The Howard and a thousand forgotten juke joints along the Chitlin Circuit.
He would go on to record a string of number one hits through the fifties, sixties, seventies and even into the eighties.
As Rock historian Bill Dahl says: “He earned his enduring blues superstar status the hard way: without a guitar, harmonica, or any other instrument to fall back upon. “All Bland had to offer was his magnificent voice, a tremendously powerful instrument in his early heyday, injected with charisma and melisma to spare. Just ask his legion of female fans, who deemed him a sex symbol late into his career.”
(By the way, melisma (muh-liz-muh) is the singing of a single syllable while moving between several notes.)
Melisma is THE essence of Soul music, the old Gospel and Blues singers would call it “worrying” a word.
No one ever worried a word like “Blue,” listen to his version of the classic “St. James Infirmary,” and see if chills don’t run down your spine.
His Style
Bobby Bland’s characteristic “squall” came as result of his devotion to the preaching of Rev. C.L. Franklin whom he listened to Sunday nights on radio station WLAC from Nashville, Tn. back in the day.
Franklin used the squall to dramatic effect on his legendary sermon: “The Eagle Stirreth Her Nest.” Not only Bland, but the legendary Joe Ligon from the Mighty Clouds of Joy would incorporate it into their own styles with great success.
You can hear it on such classics as “Turn on Your Love Light,” “I Pity the Fool,” and “Further on up the Road,” songs that remain as a benchmark by which great Rhythm and Blues are measured.
Bland was not only a talented singer, he was an artistic visionary; his album “Two Steps From The Blues” recorded in 1961, stretched the boundaries of, and brought a sophistication, to a music thought by many, to be a simplistic throwback to the old days and old ways.
The cover itself, with the green Gator kicks, and that million dollar process defined a lifestyle for young Black men in the fifties and sixties. Bland sang the Blues, but he sang them with class.
Later Career
Unlike B.B. King, Robert Johnson, and Muddy Waters, Bland as not often cited by the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and the other British revivalists of the sixties as being influential, and around that same time his own hits began to fade.
He struggled along through the seventies and eighties, but managed to hang on long enough to benefit from the second great Blues revival of the late Eighties.
Along with his lifelong fans in the Deep South, he made new ones at major festivals, was inducted into the Rock ‘N’ roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and starred on the weeklong Legendary Rhythm And Blues Cruise in October of 2011.
He passed away Monday at the age of 83.
-Bobby “Blue” Bland:
-Took the old time country Blues and dressed in a sharkskin suit.
-Took the spirit and fire of Sunday morning and sang it in places that were open on Saturday night.
-He warned us: “They call it Stormy Monday (But Tuesday’s Just as Bad);” a cold shot of reality in the early Sixties world of The Singing Nun.
Legacy:
He made countless great records, singing everything from Country to Pop to Blues, he delivered them with a feeling, passion and world weariness that told you he’d been there.
The Blues has always been Black America’s street philosophy, from Robert Johnson to Muddy Waters to Bobby Bland; it’s a simple style often masking much deeper truths in the lyrics of everyday life. It’s often called the original music, a universal language, simple and at the same time and profound. Its rhythm reminds us of how wonderful is to be human, and the words, especially when sung by artists like Bobby Bland, help us to make it through another day.
RiDE ON RED
A hastily scribbled sign advertised “Twelve Super Hits For A Dollar.”
The Chubby Checker record on top looked promising.
My first teachable moment about the music business.
Aside from “South Street” by the Orlons, (the first record to use the word “hippies”), eight of the remaining ten were forgettable. I still have the other two.
Years ago, television pitched a different kind of star. Back then, pawn shops were still marginal places where Jack Webb searched for stolen manger scenes (remember that one?), and “Doctor” shows were all the rage. “Dr. Kildare” and “Ben Casey,” made feminine hearts pound like the intro to “Caravan”
Vince Edwards, the star of Ben Casey, joined the ranks of singing celebrities with “The Talking Parrot.”
It is, hands down, the stupidest song ever made. The other record introduced me to the blues.
“Right on, Red, Right On?”
“Ride On, Red, Ride On,” by Louisiana Red, began with a distorted bass guitar, followed by a lone voice, and the sound of a speeding car in the background:
What a strange record.
It had a good beat, but was whole lot more intense than “Let’s Limbo Some More,” or “South Street.”
He named all these cities in the South, and at the end of the second verse, the music stopped as he sang:
“.Took the whole U.S. army, to make one school integrate.”
It sounded like he was saying “Right On,” a phrase that wouldn’t even exist for another couple of years.
I bought “Super Hits” at Kresge’s Five &Dime Store in 1965.
“Ride On,” was, in fact, only one cut on an obscure album
called “Lowdown Back Porch Blues.”
I wanted to hear more of whatever this music, whatever it was called. Unfortunately finding a copy of “Back Porch” proved to be only slightly easier than sitting in on harp with Ji...never mind.
I tried the record stores.
“Back-ordered,”
“Temporarily unavailable,”
“Out of print.”
It was reissued on a French label in the early eighties. Six months later, they went out of business.
While touring Europe in the nineties, I spied a copy in the collection of a Norwegian D.J,
I offered substantial Kroner.
He laughed and made some remark about my girlfriends’ feet (?).
“Lowdown” surfaced on one of those microscopic lists in Goldmine, the asking price in early three figures.
August, 2012
Typing in “Ride On, Red Ride On” at Google, I am offered a virtual All-You-Can-Eat buffet:
#1) Youtube.com- Hot Damn!! There it is! It’s even on the same label. Courtesy of “Boogalud” from Germany. The video portion features a close-up of platter and turntable spinning ‘round.
Herr Ludo might have been to Oktoberfest beforehand, mid-way through the song, you can hear someone shuffling papers and closing doors in the back ground.
#2) YouTube (again)- “Ride On, Ride On”- Gallagher ?
Rory Gallagher.
I have an album by him on Atco with some group called Taste. I’m remembering a song called “Born On The Wrong Side Of Time.” Oh well, this ought to be interesti…Jesus, turn that freakin’guitar down.
Hey, the singing’s not bad at all, reminds me of early Johnny Winter.
Wow, this is intense. Some great harp fills and a blazing rhythm section. There’s an actual story line to the video, beginning with a still of Dr. Martin Luther King.
Cool.
Unfortunately, the videographer did too good a job of matching early sixties civil rights footage to the lyric line. Hard to watch, dregs up some painful memories.
#3) Rorygallagher.com-What do you know? The actual words to the song,
#4) Allmusic.com- Mecca.
This is the site. Whenever I come across a new artist or group, I check them here. Chances are, that even the most obscure Norwegian Zither Trio will have a listing. Every entry includes a bio, complete discography, recommended albums (Ridin’ In My Fjord), and sample tracks.
For us old-timers, two days of squinting at microfilm and scouring thru old copies of Hit Parader can now be accomplished with a click.
The page for Louisiana Red shows a total of thirty albums.
The editors’ pick?
“Lowdown Back Porch Blues.”
Say Yeah!!
(It’s similar to that thrill my dad got when Consumer Reports gave top ratings to the tires he had just bought).
So now, I’ve learned:
- “Lowdown” is considered his best album, and available in several formats:
- C.D.- For 12.99
-MP3 Download- Amazon (7.99) or E-Music (5.19).
-Cassette- From .99 to 3.99
-Eight track- Norwegian import only
-Vinyl LP-This took some searching. However, I found a copy. The price has gone down, it’s listed in VG shape at groovetunesday.com for $45.
-An original 45 on Roulette—$40.
There are actually several NM (Near Mint) copies of the single floating around. Maybe somebody uncovered a stash of “Twelve Hits For A Dollar.”
Which means, along with the few copies of
“Ride On”, there might still be:
Google Search:
“Vince Edwards+ music.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stmAk_LySHo
LIKE A ONE EYED CAT… Wynonie Harris and the Birth of Rock ‘N’ Roll
"I'm Mr. Blues! The man's threat, and the woman's pet, and I got enough money to air-condition Hell!"
“The crooners play the Great White Way where they are swamped by Coca-Cola drinking bobby Soxers. I star in Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Tennessee and Missouri, and get those who have money to buy stronger stuff and the money to buy my records while they drink it.”
Wynonie Harris
Have You Heard The News?
It began with “After Hours.” In the early Forties, Black artists started incorporating the raw, “gutbucket” rhythms of blues and barrelhouse into their playlists. The big band era was in slow, but steady freefall.
Carrying twenty-piece bands had become way too costly, large numbers of musicians were called up for military service, and public tastes were changing... Louis Jordan was one of the first to profit from these changes. He trimmed down the band, and Louis Jordan and his “Tympani Five “were suddenly the latest rage, entertaining audiences of all races with songs about his girl “Caledonia” and the ‘Saturday Night Fish Fry.”
It was a new sound.
Jordan didn’t even have a name for this “new” music, but when he left Chick Webb and formed his own group, his stated intentions were to produce music that was fun to listen and dance to and of course, it was despised by critics, “educated” musicians and various designated defenders of morality and decency.
Meanwhile Jordan had a major label deal with Decca and outsold everyone. To this day, he is still ranked ahead of James Brown and Stevie Wonder, as the top Black recording artist of all time, his records lasting an incredible total of 113 weeks in the #1 position.
Along with a reduction in the size of the groups, he ushered in an all-important change in the predominant rhythm.
For the past several years, the big bands played a straight 4/4 rhythm. Beginning with Jordan, a 2/4 rhythm began to show up. It was a rhythm with a back beat* that hit below the neck, actually, below the belt. Everyone from youth leaders, to ministers, to music industry hacks began to warn against it. This new “big” beat had in fact, been around under the radar, for years, in strip joints, holiness churches, and places either unknown, ignored or occasionally whispered about.
Let’ Rock Awhile
By the mid-forties, small-band combos with that “big-beat” were cropping up in the South and Mid-west and selling lots, and lots, and lots, of records. Lucky Millender, often credited with having one of the best bands of that era, (also one of the first leaders to hire Dizzy Gillespie), was playing some dates in Chicago, and heard a brash young blues shouter from Omaha named Wynonie.
Wynonie Harris, born in 1915, broke into the entertainment business as a dancer and singer in the Thirties, first around Omaha, then Los Angeles, and finally Chicago, where Lucky hired him. Harris had no delusions about his abilities or appeal. In an interview with Jet Magazine : “The woods are full of Blues singers, some who are good, some who stink, but I wanted to be the greatest of them all. I didn’t play drums or piano, so I had to work out a new approach.”
His new approach produced “Who Threw the Whisky in the Well?’ and rocketed him to stardom.
A short time later, he and Millender had a falling-out over money, and went their separate ways.
Lucky would continue to have hits over the next decade; meanwhile, Harris recorded for Apollo Records (with Illinois Jacquet featuring Charles Mingus on Bass), Bullet Records, and a couple of other small labels. In 1947, he signed with Syd Nathan’s King label in Cincinnati, and all Hell broke loose.
Mr. Blues Is Coming To Town
Wynonie Harris was an unrepentant one-man army of every quality that detractors of the new music (now known as Rhythm and Blues) warned against. In 1947, he fused gospel rhythms with secular lyrics and unleashed “Good Rockin’ Tonight,” The song had originally been the tame story of a dance party, but in the hands of the Omaha Wild Man it was a bombshell. Using handclaps on the back beat it swung like a gospel shout, while the lyrics suggested church folks like Elder Brown and Deacon Jones would be at the party, doing a different kind of rocking. Described as “blasphemous,” “crude,” “suggestive,” and “Wild, Animalistic, Ni—gg-r Bop,” it launched a style of music that would tear down the ropes at segregated dances in the South, and ultimately become known as Rock ‘N Roll.
Mr. Blues was now the hottest act in the country, with the exception of Count Basie; he sold more tickets than anyone. He drove women crazy and took full advantage of his star status. Years ago, I read an interview with him in (I think) Sepia magazine. The headline read: “Women Can’t Keep Their Hands Off of Me.” In it, Harris suggests that for the safety of his fans he may have to give up singing. He cites the case of a preacher’s wife in Georgia who threw herself off of a balcony at him, and the numerous jealous husbands he has to avoid on a daily basis. Even with all the negative press, he continued to sell a shitload of records, and despite public appeals to decency from the press and the pulpit, Nathan and the folks at King refused to reel him in. The A&R people decided to stick with a winning formula, and let Harris sing about matters uppermost in his mind. His favorite subjects were:
Drinking: “Who threw The Whiskey in the Well?” “Bloodshot Eyes,” “Quiet Whiskey,”
Screwing “All She Wants To Do Is Rock”: Wasn’t That Good?” “Keep On Churnin’ Till the Butter Comes.”
Underage Girls: Good Mornin” Judge”
His Dick: “Papa Treetop.” “My Lovin’ Machine.”
And of course:
Pus- , (sorry) Girl Parts: “I Like My Baby’s Pudding,” “You Kept on Sittin’ on it.”
His offstage behavior was every bit as entertaining as his music:
I Googled Wynonie Harris+ Magazine and here’s only a few of the best ones:
-Jet Magazine, May 1953:
-Wynonie Harris turned down several theater dates in Virginia because Richmond cops have a warrant out for his arrest. He was indicted on charges of having Larry Darnell's valet beaten up.
-Jet Magazine, August 12, 1954:
Wynonie Harris redecorated his swank Long Island home and told the interior decorators that he wanted his toilet seats trimmed in mink.
(I think I have just found a new hero)
-Jet Magazine, November 3, 1955:
Because of neighborhood pressure, singer Wynonie Harris changed the name of his Brooklyn bar from "House of Blues and Booze" to the Star Tavern.
-Jet Magazine, February 24, 1955:
Wynonie Harris put a sign on the lawn of his Long Island home that lights up at night and flashes “The World’s greatest Blues Singer Live Here” Neighbors are said to be displeased with it.
“I Feel That Old Age Comin’ On”
By the mid-fifties, Harris was approaching forty and too old to cash in on Rock “N’ Roll. In 1955, he told Sepia Magazine: “I originated that style ten years ago. The current crop of shouters are rank imposters, they have no right to call themselves the kings of rock and roll.”
In the sixties, he would re-record some of his hits on other labels and attempt a couple of comebacks, and then it all caught up to him. At the young age of fifty-four, He died of on June 14, 1969 of esophageal cancer.
Wynonie Harris kept rocking all the way to the end. When he knew his time was up, he invited all the musicians, pimps, hustlers old runnin’ buddies and working women he could recall, and invited them to Los Angeles to say goodbye. They partied 24/7 non-stop for a solid week, and when it was time, “Mr. Blues” went upstairs, and called it a night.
