This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And today were going for some extended legends, as in this episode I will play some extra long tunes, that had to be divided over the two sides of a record. That's a whole lot of music and that's what you came for so I guess for now I cut the talking and play the greatest of all double-siders: the 1945 smash hit the Honeydripper. Here is Joe Liggins.
01 - Joe Liggins & His Honeydrippers - The Honeydripper pt. 1 + 2
Joe Liggins with the Honeydripper. Now that was a smash hit in 1945. In live performances this song lasted some fifteen minutes and it served as the end smash of each gig of Joe Liggins and his Honeydrippers. A honeydripper, according to urbandictionary.com is a very sweet and sexy person and can both be a man or a woman.
When it came to the attention of Leon Rene of Exclusive records, it was decided that it had to be cut down to six minutes so that it could be pressed on two sides of a record. Three minutes was about the technical limit for a 78 RPM record. The record hit#1 on the the race chart - as the R&B chart was called these days - for 18 weeks. Up to now, it still is the longest stay on the top of the R&B list ever, though that amazing achievement is shared with Louis Jordan's "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie". It even crossed over to the pop list to number 13, which was unprecedented by that time, and it sold a massive two million copies. It might well have done even better if Exclusive records had been able to meet the massive demand for the record.
Joe Liggins and his band had had their sweet taste of success and they made several follow-ups inlcuding the next double-sider that I'll play, Dripper's boogie, also from an Exclusive records 78.
02 - Joe Liggins - Drippers' Boogie Part 1
03 - Joe Liggins - Drippers' Boogie Part 2
Dripper's boogie. As you can hear it's pretty similar to the Honeydripper. Next double-sider is from the great Louis Jordan. The Saturday night fish fry, tells of the singer and a friend going to a fish fry on Rampart Street in New Orleans. As the party gets wilder and wilder the joint is raided by the police and the singer ends up spending the night in jail. It was released on Decca in 1949 and hit #1 on the race chart for 12 weeks and number 21 on the pop chart. With a running time of 5:21 it was split up over the two sides of the record. Yet, the master was in one take. I will play it from a re-release on CD, without the break needed to flip the record. Here is Louis Jordan with the Saturday Night Fish Fry.
04 - Louis Jordan - Saturday Night Fish Fry
Now quite a few of these longer recordings were instrumentals. As is the following from Sonny Thompson, from 1951, Mellow Blues. Other than most musicians who learnt to play by themselves, Thompson attended the Chicago Conservatory of Music. Thompson was a great piano player who also did a lot of session work, most notably for Lula Reed whom he married. So here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman, Sonny Thompson on piano and Robert Hadley on the tenor saxophone with the Mellow blues.
05 - Sonny Thompson - Mellow Blues Part 1
06 - Sonny Thompson - Mellow Blues Part 2
More instrumental stuff with Illinois Jacket. He was a pioneer in that honking style on the saxophone that was so typical for late forties and fifties R&B. One of the very first times this style was recorded was in 1942 when he plays Flying Home, a saxophone solo with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra which was a big hit and became the climax of every gig of Hampton and his band. From Illinois Jacket, here with his own band, the great double sider Flying Home.
07 - Illinois Jacket - Flying Home, Part 1
08 - Illinois Jacket - Flying Home, Part 2
Now you can just do a long take and split it up on two sides of a record, but sometimes the necessary break was used to give that second half a slightly different dimension. You can hear that on the Turkey Hop from Johnny Otis and his orchestra, where the A-side is merely instrumental, while the flip is primarily a vocal tune. The vocals were done by the Robins. Now listen for yourself and decide which half is best. Here is Johnny Otis and his orchestra and the Robins with the Turkey Hop, from 1950 on Savoy records
07 - Johnny Otis - Turkey Hop Pt. 1
08 - Johnny Otis - Turkey Hop Pt. 2
Next a great war blues from Roy Milton, from 1945, on the Hamp-tone label. It his second record, singing about a soldier's journey in 1942 to Australia, the Phillipines and eventually to Burma, but as he sings, as soon as this mess is over, darling, I'm coming home to you. Here's the Burma Road Blues.
09 - Roy Milton - Burma Road Blues (part 1)
10 - Roy Milton - Burma Road Blues (part 2)
(LLoyd Glenn vervallen)
When the 78 RPM shellac record was replaced by the more modern microgroove vinyl 45, the maximum recording time didn't change much as the size of the record was reduced to a mere seven inch. The music industry had gotten used to a standard song size of somewhere between two and three minutes. It had become a convenient standard for radio and for the jukebox that lasted well into the next decades. From the mid-sixties the average record length gradually grew and just from the seventies we see new standard sizes of records like the twelve-inch single. Before, the music industry had just missed the opportunity to take advantage of the new possibilities to press longer tunes on vinyl, and the custom to split up long songs remained where it had been technically possible to put it on one side of a record. Listen to Billy's blues from Billy Stewart and Bo Diddley from 1956.
13 - Bo Diddley - Billy's Blues Pt.1
14 - Bo Diddley - Billy's Blues Pt.2
Billy Stewart with Billy's Blues, with Bo Diddley on the guitar. It was Diddley who had discovered Billy Stewart, first as a piano player, and later as a singer who soon developed his very own and typical singing style.
As we reach the end of the show let me play one more double-sider from the end of the fifties. It's the 1959 rock 'n roll classic Shout from the Isley brothers, a great call-and-response song that was a big hit and covered by many artists, including the Beatles. Here are the Isley Brothers.
15 - Isley Brothers - Shout (Part 1 & 2)
Now i'm afraid I've been telling you something that's not entirely true. I said that the music industry had failed taking advantage of the better possibilities of the new vinyl material and the microgroove technology. But in my collection I do have a Mercury 10 inch microgroove LP from 1959, titled Battle Royal with Syl Austin on side A and Red Prysock on the flip, both with instrumentals that were way longer than the three minutes that were the previous limit. Unfortunately the A-side of that copy is heavily damaged and unplayable. But the frantic instrumental that served in the background during the spoken parts of this show, including this one, were all taken from the fourteen-minute tune Take the A Train on the B-side. So we're going out with this tune instead of the Bongo Bounce from Wild Bill Moore that normally serves as the outtro of my show. And I promise you that I will play this tune completely in the next episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Let me know whether you liked the show by dropping me an email at rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. And for now, have a great day. No - have a rocking day. And be on the lookout for the next episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman, see you then. Bye.