Right On Red Right On!

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

"GOOD ROCKIN' TONIGHT" The Original Wildman of Rock 'N' Roll

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. 

JERRY LEE LEWIS LIVE AT THE PALIMINO

Back in the early 1960s Jerry Lee Lewis recorded THE definitive live rock ‘n’ roll album at a famous bar in Hamburg, Germany. Live at the Star Club, Hamburg wasn’t even released in the states for twenty years. If you’ve ever wondered why preachers condemned rock ‘n’ roll and why kids went crazy over it, this recording explains it all.

Some twenty years later, Lewis recorded a series of live shows at the legendary Palomino Club in North Hollywood.

Jerry Lee had (barely) lived every minute of the twenty years in between the two recordings. He’d gone from rock ‘n’ roll to country, had several personal tragedies, lasted all of about a week at Betty Ford, and was still rockin’ his life away in his late forties.
Most artists have a different persona offstage than they do when they’re under the spotlight, but not The Killer, much like the Waffle House, he’s wide open twenty-four seven, 365 days a year. This album shows him at his absolute best, and enjoying every minute of it. He trades banter with the audience, makes a few mildly (actually extremely) suggestive remarks to some of the ladies in the house, makes several off-mike jokes to the band, which features James Burton on guitar (Go call your favorite rockabilly guitarist and ask him about James Burton) and generally lets it be known that The Killer is in charge, and he’ll play what he damn well pleases. If you find him brashly egotistical, a bit crude and unrefined, not to mention obviously intoxicated, you are cordially invited to kiss his Ferriday, Louisiana, hindquarters .

This two-CD set covers the entire spectrum of American music from 1945 to 1985. Unlike Elvis, he never drifts into mediocrity or maudlin covers of MOR standards. Jerry Lee F—ckin’ Lewis doesn’t follow a smokin’ bump-and-grind version of “Johnny B. Goode” with some piece of slop like “Wind Beneath My Wings.” 

Hell no, this is a master at his absolute best.

(By the way, I know I rave about most of the albums I write about, but that’s the point, these are not reviews, they are all five-star, must-haves, especially for certain genres.)
 This album just gets better with every song. Damn it, this man can still play the blue-eyed piss out of a piano, and as you hear him end “Brown Eyed Handsome Man,” by slamming the piano cover against the piano for emphasis, you realize you are listening to a true American original at work. … And, trust your Uncle Billy on this, nobody, nobody, and I do mean nobody, can wring more emotion out of two-minute songs than The Killer. 

Need proof? 
Check out “Another Place, Another Time.”

By the way, Lewis freely admits that he and his first cousins first learned how to brush the elephants’ teeth (play the piano) by listening to the black piano players, including Memphis Slim, Little Brother Montgomery, andSunnyland Slim, at Haney’s, Bar, in Ferriday, Louisiana. Although they weren’t allowed inside, they soaked up every eight-to-the-bar, big-legged bass note of grease-drenched boogie-woogie, combining it with the phrasing of southern gospel Hovie Lister to redefine the piano, taking it from the stage of the concert hall to the back seat of a ’59 Caddie.

(I’m listening to “Chantilly Lace” while writing this, now he’s doing a straight-ahead, third-base-on-the-first-date version of “Little Queenie.”) 
For all of you fellow piano players that thought Mr. Lewis was pretty much limited to bashing minor thirds and running arpeegios should live so long as to match his solo on “ I Can’t Stop Loving You.” No one plays with this much command and originality, and pure, unadulterated soul.
His piano playing ranges from in the pocket to truly jaw-dropping, W.T.F.!! Jerry Lee doesn’t play the piano, he just uses it to sing in another voice.

You want Blues? 
Try “Who Will the Next Fool Be?
After that, see if you can even make it through the saddest and most painful song I’ve ever heard a man sing: “She Even Woke Me To Say Goodbye.”
 Have I made my point yet?
When all is said and done, these are the reason you should order this album right away:
1) The band is phenomenal; James Burton plays truly inspired solos.
2) The material ranges from “Great Balls of Fire” to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
3) Jerry Lee is in total command from beginning to end. He sings every song as if it were his last.
4) He finishes “Don’t Put No Headstone On My Grave” by stopping the band and declaring, “ Hell, I don’t want a headstone, I want a f—ckin’ monument.” After listening to Live At The Palomino, you’ll agree that he damn sure deserves one.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=TX4NVGU5JNEYN

THE NEGRO NATIONAL ANTHEM (In “G”)

THE NEGRO NATIONAL ANTHEM (In “G”)

 “Life turns on a dime. Sometimes towards us, but more often it spins away, flirting and flashing as it goes: so long, honey, it was good while it lasted, wasn’t it?” Stephen King From his novel: “11/22/63.”

******

Tuesday Night 11 P.M.

The past three weeks have been devoted to the saga of Stagger Lee. I was going to continue discussing Blues as social media beginning with Louis Jordan, and then I stumbled across the story of a song known to an entire generation as “The Negro National Anthem.

The Facts:

1933- While attending Alabama State Teachers College, trumpeter Erskine Hawkins becomes leader of the “The ‘Bama State Collegians.” The Collegians are the school’s Jazz band. Pianist for the band is Birmingham native, Avery Parrish.

1934- Hawkins moves the band to New York, changes the name of the group to “The Erskine Hawkins Orchestra.

1938-Hawkins, along with other members of his group, writes an instrumental about a bar on the Chitin’ Circuit in Ensley, Alabama. The song is “Tuxedo Junction.”

1939- Composer and lyricist Buddy Feyne writes lyrics to “Tuxedo Junction.”

1939:  Glenn Miller slows down the tempo, adds some trumpet fanfares, and has a number one hit with “Tuxedo Junction.” It sells at the rate of 115, 000 copies per week. Miller’s version is released on the RCA-Bluebird label.

1940- The Erskine Hawkins Orchestra records “After Hours” a twelve –bar blues, written and performed by twenty-three year old pianist Avery Parrish. The song is first released on the tiny Advent label, and then picked up for release by RCA-Bluebird.

1940- Buddy Feyne, under the pen name of Robert B. Wright, pens lyrics to “After Hours” and another song by Hawkins, ”Dolemite.”

1941-Parrish quits the band.

1941- Parrish moves to California. Soon after relocating there, he is partially paralyzed as the result of injuries from a bar fight.  At the age of twenty-four, his career is over. He never plays piano again.

1941-1945 – “After Hours” becomes known as “The Negro National Anthem.” There is no official declaration made, however, Parrish, being from Alabama, hs most certainly been exposed to what Thomas A. Dorsey described as the “lowdown, gutbucket blues.” “After Hours” blends old-fashioned blues licks with just enough sophistication to make it acceptable for Black folks only two generations removed from slavery, struggling to shed rural, unsophisticated stereotypes. The songs’ simple form embraces the blues but smoothes out the rough edges, making it acceptable to a slowly emerging Black middle class. Along with demands for an end to Draconian Jim Crow laws, Black folks discourage the use of such demeaning terms as Nigra and “Colored” in favor of Negro. “After Hours: serves as an anthem for those struggling to secure civil rights and societal acceptance.

1952-? – Herman Grizzard hosts “After Hours” on WLAC a 50,00 watt AM station in Nashville, Tn. WLAC booms out over twenty eight states and several countries, bringing pure, undiluted Rhythm and Blues to Black and White audiences for over thirty years. Grizzard uses the Hawkins tune as his theme song.

1958- Avery Parrish dies under “mysterious” circumstances at the age of forty-two in Los Angeles.

1960 (approx) “Lift Every Voice and Sing” becomes “The Negro National Anthem” for the next generation and the Civil Rights movement.

1972- Ray Bryant performs a live version of “After Hours” at the Montreux Jazz Festival. He introduces it with: “I think it’s the greatest piano blues solo in the world.” He plays a note-for-note rendition of the song, and receives a thunderous ovation at the end of it.

July, 1979-While staying with Sunnyland Slim in Chicago, I visit pianist Erwin Helfer. He offers to teach me Blues piano. The first song he recommends I learn is “After Hours.” He gives me a copy of the song, reissued by RCA on forty-five RPM.

Spring, 2005- I speak with seventy-two year-old Harold Bessent owner of “Fat Harold’s” a dance club often listed as the world headquarters of Carolina Beach Music in North Myrtle Beach, S.C. At the end of a long interview, I ask him about his all-time favorite song. He answers:  “An old Blues tune called ‘After Hours.”.

October 3, 20212- While researching this article, I notice that there is still no sheet music to the original available. The only sheet music is for the vocal version sung in a different key (A flat) than the original (G major). A jazz site, dothemath.typepad.com, posts an obituary for Ray Bryant. Discussing Bryant’s style, which bridges the gap between Jazz and Blues, the article notes:

“Bryant deals more exclusively with the folk side of things on another 1957 recording, “After Hours” on Dizzy Gillespie’s “Sonny Side Up”. The original recording of “After Hours” by the composer Avery Parrish with Erskine Hawkins was a huge hit and the progenitor of a kind of urban, glistening, and patient piano blues."

Despite its fame, there has never been accurate sheet music to “After Hours” available. No classical pianist has ever been able to play it. To learn it requires extensive listening to the record -- and, ideally, someone who can play it already to show you how parts of it go. You don’t have to come from the black community to acquire the right information, but it surely doesn’t hurt.”

“After Hours” is indeed, the song that all Blues piano players are expected to know. However, in thirty years, I have run across very few jazz players that are familiar with it. The observations in the above quote are correct, you have either watch somebody play it, or listen to it over and over on your practice tape. The primitive recording makes it almost impossible to hear exactly what Parrish is playing, and therefore, everyone plays it slightly different, but always in the key of “G.” The only sheet music I could find is for the “vocal” version in the dreaded key of “A Flat.”  In the last seventy years it has been re-recorded numerous times by such artists as Muddy Waters, Danny Gatton, Glenn Miller, Bobby Enriquez, Pinetop Perkins and Henry Mancini.

Blues For Avery

If you Google “”Erskine Hawkins” you’ll find numerous entries and several collections of his great music still in print.

A “Search” for Avery Parrish yields:

 - Wikipedia: A brief bio and no picture

-Allmusic.com:  The same bio and no picture

- Allaboutjazz.com: Once again, the same bio, and a picture…of Bull Moose Jackson

Finger Pluckers

( Note: This is a piece I did last Fall . The Box Set that’s got my nerves ramped and stamped is a pricey, gorgeous collection from Bear Family Records that calls itself “Electric Blues 1939-2005-The Definitive Collection.”
It is





Finger Pluckers

Back in 1971, we Blues fans were small in number.
I worked at Glen’s Music in Rockville, Md., with a lot of cool people, My favorite was Dave Pierce; he was a real sarcastic guy who also became my first Blues buddy.
We used to sit in his apartment drinking Silver Satin (Hoy, Hoy)Wine and listen to Muddy and Chuck Berry.
When I asked him who his all-time fave guitarist was, he began telling me about a show he used to watch late night on Channel 11(the station that featured Negro programming) from Baltimore. He claimed that it featured some guy named Gatemouth, who could actually make the guitar talk.
“Talk?”
Figuring it was the primitive hallucinogenic effect of the Solver Stain, I didn’t push it.
 Years later, the show turned up in someone’s vaults. Its name was “The Beatttttttt” a mid 60’s dance show from Nashville hosted by legendary R&B Disc Jockey, Bill “Hossman” Allen of WLAC radio.
The guitarist in question was Gatemouth Brown.
:
Fast Forward:

Last night,  first at Dr. Joel’s crib, and then later at The Wirtz Compound, I spent the better part of the early morning hours  having my wig fried, dyed and laid to the side, by a whole bunch of totally Gonzo Cat Gut talkers most of them not from Chicago, but around Houston, Texas.
 If Chicago is “the Home “of the Blues, then Houston would be its “All You Can Eat Buffett.” 
The town that would one day is known as the birthplace of John Bradshaw, Dr. Phil and a host of other Codependent Cowboys still thrived on booze and betrayal in the mid 50’s.  It rocked all day and night to the gospel tinged erotic pleas of old Black Railroad piano players, Dixie Peach Conked Gospel quartets, and Bipolar Hillbillies, fueled by Mexican Cough Syrup and “Diet Supplements.” They made dozens of almost hits for record labels owned or inherited by small time pornographers, and minor league gangsters.
Much of what was considered “Blues” in the Black community during the early 1960’s owed as much to Count Basie as it did to Robert Johnson, and often sounded closer to Ernest Tubb, than Robert Johnson. When you said “Blues” to the Black community it meant Jr. Parker and Bobby Bland...
It also meant good steady work for the musicians that played with them. 
These next few cuts feature some amazing music, that frankly, even after forty years, I was virtually unaware of.
This “talking” style of guitar uses licks and runs I recognize from Check Berry, Keith Richards, and especially, Alvin Lee.


Okie Dokie Stomp
Gatemouth Brown
-This is the great Blues guitar song of all time. 
It’s Frank Zappa’s favorite, the one that turned his head around.
Swings like a Tea Party politician up for re-election.
The horns blow right on the edge of hysteria. 
Gate was the slick down, Bad Mother Shut Your Mouth Player in those days.

  Strollin:
Jimmy Nolen:
 Jimmy Nolen was a serious mothf-ckin’ guitar player, that’s him, standing behind James at The TAMI Show. He’s the one that came up with that funky chord in Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag.”
 What a Tone!!
He sounds like a really pissed off Chuck Berry whose just been told to turn down for the fifth time by some brain dead cub owner.
Apparently, Strollin’ was a fave in the strip clubs, and on Border Radio.

Johnny’s House Party:  
Johnny Hartman
Beats me, I’ve never heard of this guy either.
However, Hartman and the boys, have obviously paid off a few speeding tickets with gigs in Tijuana.
Sounds like a medley of the hits they’d play behind Ouchy Wa Wa, the midget stripper that came onstage in a giant neon taco shell.
Or something pretty similar.

The Big Push:
Cal Green
Before Elvis, guitar players, especially in R&B were rare.
Hank Ballard changed all that, replacing the screaming tenor with the biting Telecaster. 
You want it down and dirty??
This is X rated guitar.
Actually this is an instrumental combining the melody of “Lucille” and “Work with Me, Annie,” 
 The result:
A prime example of (in the words of the White Segregationists) “Filthy, suggestive Negro music” at its best/’worst.

A f-cking Masterpiece, as is the next one:

Hard Grind:
Jimmy Spruill
Go dig out your original copy of “Kansas City” by Wilburt Harrison that insane guitar solo is played by Wild Jimmy Spruill, the pride of Little Washington, N.C.
 Each note rings out with attitude and command.
A solid ten on the “dirty” scale. 

Prancing: 
Ike Turner
And then there’s this charming number, that literally stings your ears. Once again, he makes that instrument laugh, cry, talk and mainly groan.
Great musical surprises and rhythm patterns. 
In the liner notes, Turner attributes his “talking” style to his use of the Whammy bar; apparently, he thought that it was like a pick, to be used on every stroke.
Oh Lord what a cool sound, and it just gets more interesting every verse, with wolf whistles in the background 
And Finally:
Red Light 
Carl Green
I swear this guy sounds like Alvin Lee or vice versa. Everyone always compares Lee to Django, but for my money, this is the guy. How weird to be writing this on the day, Alvin leaves to join Green for the eternal Jam session. This is the fastest solo I’ve ever heard, it makes “Going Home” sound like “Goodnight Irene” .

And Finally:

Finger Lickin’:
Johnny Jones:
 Nashville’s resident Blues master in the early Sixties. 
Jones is often acknowledged as the single greatest influence on a young Jimmy Jones, who would later change his last name to Hendrix.

The above selections can be found on “Volume Two/ CD Number Three of this amazing collection.
Wow.
I repeat, 
Wow.
This is some amazing guitar playing. Very, very cool stuff. 
The music is so high energy; it wears me out just listening to it. 
Usually I’m not all that big a fan of guitar, but quite frankly, Spruill, Turner, and the Green Bros, actually leave me with a touch of Pianist Envy.
***************

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MAYBERRY AFTER DARK

Mayberry After Dark

By Rev. Billy C. Wirtz

Okay, for one hundred dollars and a trip to Mt. Airy, North Carolina, name the first comic to record a “blues” album.

This forgotten volume featured songs by Leadbelly, Leroy Carr, Joe Turner, and the Golden Gate Quartet.

Not only did the comic cover these classic tunes, he enlisted the aid of blues legends Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.

As a result of the session, he and Brownie became close personal friends and the artist then used his influence to land Brownie a cameo in the movie "A Face In The Crowd."

 This cameo led to Sonny and Brownie appearing in several other films, most notably the notorious "Baby Doll". (That film also featured “Shame, Shame. Shame” by Smiley Lewis in a mild bondage sequence involving Eli Wallach, a rocking horse, and a fly swatter.)

Give up?

Too busy looking up the scene in "Baby Doll"?

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Andy Griffith Shouts the Blues and Old Timey Songs

(Capital T1105)

In 1959, the year before he would begin his career as the sheriff of Mayberry,Andy Griffith recorded an album of blues and traditional folk songs.

The role of Andy Taylor became a career-defining role for the young man from western Carolina, however, listen to this album, rent a copy of " A Face In The Crowd" and you’ll another side of Opie’s father.

Rewind: 1959

Five years after "Brown v. Board of Education", the South is still experiencing it’s greatest upheaval since the Reconstruction Compromise of 1877. Along with social integration, there is, for the first time, an integration of cultures. Whites are now openly expressing an affinity for black music and style. In the Carolinas, what would later become known as “Beach Music” ( a code word for Black R&B) is played on the jukebox at The Pad in Myrtle Beach. Prior to 1954, R&B could only be heard in black clubs or in juke joints like The Tijuana Inn in Carolina Beach, North Carolina.

There is a new school of “hip” comics working the nightclubs and showrooms. Unlike Minnie Pearl and other “rube” acts,they speak in dialect and hipster jargon; a former drummer from Jackson, Tennessee, named Brother Dave Gardner is the Lenny Bruce of the South.

One example of his new style is delivered on an album, recorded in Dallas, circa 1960:

Young Lady: “Honey, this place is a drag. Let’s blow this joint.”

Boyfriend: “Naw, leave it for the waitress.”

The joke gets one laugh out of audience of several hundred.

Brother Dave parodied the southern preacher, and also created characters later “modified” by other comics, the most famous being Geraldine by Flip Wilson.

Although Gardner enjoyed fleeting national fame on the Jack Parr Show, his personal life and extremely right wing politics would bar him from future success. To this day, however, mention his name to any southern male between the ages of sixty and eighty and they’ll begin to recite one of his routines.

Andy Griffith’s first character was likewise based on the southern preacher.

Billed as “Deacon Andy Taylor,” his forte was the retelling of classic literature (Cleopatra and Andy) and performances like “Swan Lake.”

Griffith and Garner were the first (and unfortunately the last) cerebral southern comics for nearly thirty years and both featured blues and “folk songs” in their acts. Along with his records, Griffith stars in two movies:

In "No Time For Sergeants" he plays a genteel country boy for whom the indignities of boot camp are cause for daily celebration.

 "Hee Haw" meets "Full Metal Jacket."

In the other film, he’s cast in the deeply disturbing role of Lonesome Roads in "A Face In the Crowd."

This dark and chilling picture depicts the rise of a ruthless, amoral populist hero in the early days of television. Griffith plays a truly vile misogynist, rivaling Robert Mitchum’s Henry Powell in "Night Of the Hunter" as a personification of pure evil.

There is an eerie quality to Griffith’s character, foreshadowing the rise of such modern-day “commentators” as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. Former MSNBC commentator Keith Oberman often made frequent references to Griffith, even nicknaming Beck “Lonesome Roads.”

When Griffith recorded "Blues and Old Timey Songs", he was a rising star and a somewhat controversial one at that.

"Andy Griffith Shouts The Blues and Old Timey Music"

Although I knew of this album, I hadn’t really listened to all of the tracks until yesterday; I was in for more than a couple of WTF moments.

Here it is, song by song:

1)  “The Preacher And the Bear”

Griffith abbreviates this story/song by The Golden Gate Quartet. Unlike the original,his tongue-in-cheek version begins with “Can I get an amen?” He follows with two semi-blue jokes.

2) “Midnight Special”

It begins with a banjo and an “authentic” Dixieland arrangement, while Griffith sings it  in dialect. Example: “Well she gonna see da gubna, she gonna free her man.” Otherwise, pretty true to Leadbelly’s original version.

3) “The House Of The Rising Sun”

This features a harmonica solo by Sonny Terry with changes to the gender of the original, but otherwise a faithful rendering. Griffith also borrows a verse from “In The Pines” by the Louvin Brothers. I find it difficult to imagine Andy Griffith as a young, male prostitute, but, whatever…

4) “How Long Blues”

Leroy Carr as performed by Blaze Starr’s house band. Classic Blues with a stripper beat?? A heartfelt vocal performance with a blistering guitar solo by Brownie Mcghee.

5) “The Crawdad Song”

Uses the intro to “Mystery Train.” A very hip version of the “You get a line and I’ll get a pole” standard. Once again, a fabulous guitar line against Griffith’s (more than adequate) vocals. Utilizes a hambone rhythm played on someone’s thighs, that goes on unaccompanied for eight bars at the end of the song.

6) “Good Mornin’ Blues”

“These are called ‘The Good Mornin” Blues that I learned from my good friend Brownie Mcghee who you hear playin’ the guitar.” Cool! Griffith acknowledges his debt to Brownie, but then proceeds to engage in scolding someone named “Lucy” throughout the song. Although Griffith would be horrified to be accused of such, unfortunately, it smacks of a musical head rub. Unintentional P.C. violations aside, this is a really well played song by all the musicians, and includes a smokin’ piano solo.

7) “Police Department Blues”

Begins with an Albert Ammons piano figure. Griffith credits it to someone “back home.” A basic “Everyday I Have The Blues” twelve-bar shuffle with another great guitar solo. Griffith comps a few standard blues verses. At 1:02, during the piano solo, Griffith tells a joke about women’s menstrual cycles. I kid you not.

8) “Little Maggie”

“Here’s a song I learned from a guy named Jeff Pack in the Blue Ridge Mountains.” A bluegrass standard about an alcoholic girlfriend with fidelity issues. Griffith bemoans his inability to obtain closure.

9) “Careless Love”

Another song about multiple dysfunctional relationships. Once again, Brownie provides a five-star guitar solo.

10) “Molly Darlin’”

Folk song meets Broadway show tune. Includes a solo on the spoons.

11) “I Want A Little Girl”

Griffith proceeds to tell us how his current significant has dietary issues, and isn’t particularly attractive. He then spends the rest of the song wishing for someone “smaller than me.”

12) “Pick A Bale Of Cotton”

I guess any album of “authentic” blues back then had to include at least one song about picking cotton. Actually he and Brownie sing a duet with pretty good results. Andy mentions turnip greens, fatback, etc.

While "Andy Griffith Shouts the Blues, featuring Brownie McGhee", may not be recognized as one of music’s great collaborative efforts, it deserves consideration. As the first entry in the “Actors as Blues Singers” genre, it stands up well against later releases.

In the course of twelve songs there are several great solos and some decent vocal performances. Deacon Andy tells a couple of pretty funny (and raunchy) jokes. And, perhaps most important, unlike subsequent efforts, Capitol T1105 didn’t spawn a generation of fedora-clad frat boys deconstructing the musical legacy of Joe Turner and Robert Johnson.

 

Me Gotta Go Now!!!

ME GOTTA GO NOW

OK, faithful readers:

Name this tune:

(Read it out loud)

Bomp-bomp-bomp

Bomp-bomp

Bomp-bomp-bomp

Bomp-bomp

Did ya get it?

How about if I told you that the progression goes I-IV-Minor V?

By now, I hope you’ve figured out that I am referring to a song written byRichard Berry and immortalized by a bunch of guys in Seattle, everybody grab your honey, it’s LOUIE LOUIE time!!!

The story:

First of all, after Richard Berry, there are numerous versions of the saga.

Here’s one of them:

Los Angeles, 1955 – A young black artist named Richard Berry was trying to compose a tune in the style of “Havana Moon” by Chuck Berry. He wrote some lyrics on a napkin between sets of a bar gig.

He ended up writing the song about a love-starved fellow sailing to Jamaica to meet his girlfriend.

Here are the words he scribbled down:

Louie Louie, me gotta go

Louie Louie, me gotta go

Fine little girl she waits for me

Me catch the ship for cross the sea

I sail the ship all alone

I never think I’ll make it home

(Chorus)

Three nights and days me sail the sea

me think of girl constantly

on the ship I dream she there

I smell the rose in her hair

(chorus)

Me see Jamaica moon above

It won’t be long, me see my love

Me take her in my arms and then

I tell her I never leave again

(Chorus)

Shortly thereafter, Berry needed money for an engagement ring and sold the rights to “Louie Louie”…for $750. That’s not a misprint.

1957 – “Louie Louie” by Richard Berry is released on Flip Records. Berry performs with an R&B revue at Eagles Auditorium in the Seattle area.

From here on, it gets really weird; I read about six different accounts, and this seems to be the majority opinion.

Tacoma, Washington – 1960: A white kid named Robin Roberts sings with various local bands.

His two favorite songs are “Rockin’ Robin” and a doo-wop obscurity, ”Louie Louie.” He records “Louie Louie” with The Wailers, a local group with the recent hit, “Tall Cool One.” They are frequent performers at The Spanish Castle, a club later immortalized in song by Jimi Hendrix.

Roberts’ version goes to #1 locally, but tanks on the national charts.

April 1963 – “Louie Louie” has become a regional standard played by all the bands. Two groups record versions of it in the same week.

The first version by Paul Revere and Raiders sells respectably, but they would find greater fame with a dozen other hits.

A group of teenagers known as The Kingsmen pony up $36 and record the song in one take. There are two microphones, one over the drums, and another one for the vocals and rest of the band. The words come out mumbled and virtually incomprehensible.

FACT: The original vocal was sung by Jack Ely, who quit the band two days later.

FACT: In the song, Ely makes a one glaring mistake, coming in too soon on the vocals after the guitar break, Lynn Easton covers it with a drum roll. It doesn’t matter; the mistake becomes part of the song, part of music history, and is included by The Kingsmen when they play it live.

FACT: At :54, Easton drops a stick and yells a clearly audible “F—ck,” in the background. (Go ahead, go listen, and then come back and finish the article).

The guys decide “Louie Louie” is a terrible recording and forget about it.

October, 1963 – A Boston D.J. plays “Louie Louie” declaring it the worst record of the week. His joke backfires and the song sells over 20,000 copies in a week. Wand Records buys the master from Jerden (Hell yes, it worth some serious cash), the original label in Seattle.

Jack Ely realizes his mistake, pleads with Lynn Easton to let him back in the band. “No way “ says Easton, and thus begins a series of The Kingsmen versus Jack Ely and The Kingsmen rivalries that will ultimately end up in multimillion dollar lawsuits.

Winter, 1963-64 – Rumors begin to fly that when played at 33 RPM the words describe a variety of sexual acts. School kids pass notes in class with the “secret lyrics.” “Louie Louie” sells two million copies and spends four months on the charts. It charts yet again in 1966.

The State of Indiana bans “Louie Louie.”

Radio stations refuse to play it.

My band, Thomas Tuff and The Soul Exhaustion, gets kicked out of Teen Club for playing it.

A senate investigation is launched; millions of dollars are spent, until finally, a year later the subcommittee confesses that it has been unable to discover any obscene lyrics. The “F” bomb at :54 goes unnoticed.

1965 – Yet another Seattle band, The Sonics, record a version of “Louie Louie.” Their version has a distinctly different feel, the progression being an edgy I-III-IV progression. The buzz-saw guitars and sneering vocals predate punk by almost fifteen years. Black Flag will record a cover of this version complete with spontaneous lyrics by Henry Rollins.

1978 – The movie Animal House begins spurs a resurgence in the song’s popularity.

1983 – Radio station KFJC in Los Altos Hills, California, plays over 600 versions in one weekend.

1995 – After years of legal wrangling, Richard Berry regains his rights to the song. He records an album featuring “Louie Louie,” “Have Love, Will Travel,” and “Yama-Yama, Pretty Mama,” for his good friend Johnny Otis. He buys an SUV and pays off his mom’s mortgage.

1997 – Richard Berry dies a rich and happy man. In the past two years he has collected more than two million dollars in royalties.

The Millennium – Richard Berry’s little song is now the most covered song, with somewhere around two thousand documented versions, in all of pop music.

In many respects, “Louie Louie” is the classic American story. From the B-side of a forgotten single to the floors of the U.S. Senate, from Jack Ely to J. Edgar Hoover, spur of the moment decisions made by teenagers, affecting the rest of their lives, and changing popular culture. The night before they recorded it, The Kingsmen played a ninety-minute version of it at a dance.

Dave Marsh wrote an entire book about it and due to legal hassles couldn’t print the lyrics.

When asked why he used a minor five chord instead of a major five, Ely admits it was a simple error.

If you were unaware of the :54 remark, don’t feel bad, I just found about this week.

I have recently gone into semi-retirement after thirty years on the road. In the world of itinerant musicians, there are certain annual events that help to make ends meet.

The Christmas season is always tough, people aren’t going out, too many private parties, and clubs traditionally book a light schedule.

At the end of the season however, there’s the New Year’s Eve gig. Every year I played one, I would of course, play “Auld Lang Syne” at midnight. Following that I’d pause and announce: “Ladies and Gentlemen, our national anthem.” Without missing a beat, I’d dive head first into “Louie Louie.” It killed ‘em, every time.

…And finally, according to LouieLouie.net, Richard Berry’s children divide a royalty check of around one hundred thousand dollars every year.