This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And again a great mix of pre-Rock 'n Roll African American music - that we better know as Rhythm & Blues. And to start off one of the great vocal groups of the fifties - the Orioles with their lead singer, ladykiller Sonny Til. Their performances were the scene of screaming and fainting teenage girls trying to reach for their idol Sonny. In the years 1948 to '54 they cut over a one hundred and twenty sides for the National and Jubilee labels. This is from '52 on Jubilee. Imagine the girls screaming when Sonny Till does the slow middle part of this otherwise rocking song. Here is their Shrimp boats.
01 - Orioles - Shrimp Boats
02 - Roy Brown - Good Rockin' Man
Roy Brown trying to continue the success of Good Rockin' Tonight with the Good Rockin' Man. His Good Rocking Tonight earned him a contract for DeLuxe records and a #13 position in the Rhythm & Blues hit list, but it was Wynonie Harris who ran away with the succes. And Roy Brown had a few good years from 1948 to 51 but his success dried up since then. Some believe that he was blacklisted after he won a lawsuit against King records for unpaid royalties. In the meanwhile, he also got troubles with the IRS. The story goes that Elvis Presley had tried to help him out, with a check he wrote on a paper bag - now try to cash that in an ATM nowadays. Brown even served some prison time for tax evasion.
Next the B.B. Boogie of B.B.King. The initials were short for what originally was the Beale Street Blues Boy - later just the Blues Boy while he worked as a disc jockey at WDIA of Memphis. This was recorded for the RPM label, where he did most of his early recordings. Here is the B.B. Boogie.
03 - B.B. King - B.B. Boogie
04 - Ivory Joe Hunter - Wrong Woman Blues
(jingle)
05 - Big Maceo - Poor Kelly Blues
06 - Albinia Jones - Love Is Such A Mystery
You got four in a row - after B.B. King I played Ivory Joe Hunter with the Wrong Woman Blues that got released on the MGM label in 1951 - not a label that brought much Rhythm & Blues, most of it was pop and some hillbilly. Then after the jingle came Big Maceo Merriweather with the Poor Kelly Blues recorded in Chicago for the Bluebird label in 1941. And then finaly that blues lady that was Albinia Jones with Love Is Such A Mystery. I found that on an album titled Vocal Blues and Jazz on the Document label, containing all her recordings plus a few from other female artists. This one went unreleased by the time. Albinia or Albennie Jones has recorded for only a few years, from'1944 to '49, and retired from the music after a bad fall on stage, after that she could only walk on crutches.
Next a man who clearly was heavily influenced by Louis Jordan. I'm talking about Calvin Boze but compared to Jordan, he didn't even come close to his succes. Calvin Boze had just one hit, and that made it to number 9 of the Rhythm & Blues hit list. That was Safronia B, recorded for the Aladdin label, and here it is.
07 - Calvin Boze - Safronia B
08 - Valaida Snow - If You Don't Mean It
The great multi-talent Valaida Snow with a late recording of her, If You Don't Mean It released on Chess in 1954. That was just two years before she died and then she had a storming career behind her that started in the earliest twenties. She was raised in a show business family and in her teenage years she could play all possible kinds of string and wind instruments. Finally she decided to specialize on the trumpet, with a talent that earned her the recognition of Louis Armstrong as the "second best trumpet player in the world" - Armstrong himself being the first of course.
Now a trumpet playing woman was something bold in the twenties - but her marriage, when she was in her mid-thirties to a nineteen year old dancer, in pre-war America caused a scandal and the father of the boy did everything to make the marriage fail - and in that he eventually succeeded.
From the mid-twenties she toured the world including the far East and especially Europe, where she had a great following. A second tour started in 1940 but it ended for her with arrest in 1941 and imprisonment in a Nazi-run Danish jail. After her release a year and a half later, on the brink of starvation weighing only 65 pounds, she was mentally broken and never regained her pre-war successes. This song from 1954 is a nice attempt but it's just a shadow of her pre-war qualities.
Next another star of pre-war America be it in another league. From 1939 on Decca, here is Georgia White with The Way I'm Feelin'.
09 - Georgia White - The Way I'm Feelin'
10 - Bumble Bee Slim - Cold Blooded Murder, No.2
Cold Blooded Murder Number 2 - number 2 'cause this was a 1939 re-recording of Amos Easton, a.k.a. Bumble Bee Slim on Vocalion. He'd done the song for the same label five years earlier. For Vocalion, Decca and Bluebird he recorded more than 150 sides and that made him one of the most extensively recorded bluesman of his era. After the war he moved from Chicago to Los Angeles hoping to get a career in the movies. He didn't succeed and didn't get back in spotlights for the rest of his career - he was pretty much overlooked in the blues revival of the sixties.
More blues with Sonny Boy Williamson the Second. On the Trumpet label, here is Stop Crying.
11 - Sonny Boy Williamson - Stop Crying
12 - Charles Brown - So Mistreated
Recorded in March of '49 for the Aladdin label you got Charles Brown with So Mistreated. It wasn't released by then, but it's on many compilation albums on Brown and on here he shows off that he slowly moved away from the lighthearted, Nat King Cole like songs to the more troublesome blues.
And we stay in 1949 with the next one of Saunders King. It was recorded in San Francisco for the Modern label and this comes straigh from a somewhat imperfect 78. Here is the Empty Bedroom Blues.
13 - Saunders King - Empty Bedroom Blues
14 - Pee Wee Crayton - Tired Of Travelin'
Also from the Modern label, and also recorded 1949, was this Tired of Travelin' of Pee Wee Crayton with a great guitar solo of the man himself. Crayton was the first bluesman to play the famous Fender Stratocaster, that originally was designed for country music, but it became an icon for rock musicians.
And we stay with the electrical guitar with another guitar great - Lightnin' Hopkins. He recorded his Fast Mail Rambler for the Aladdin label in August of 1947. Here it is.
15 - Lightnin' Hopkins - Fast Mail Rambler
16 - Big Bill Broonzy - Medicine Man Blues
17 - Sonny Thompson - Single Shot
And this instrumental brought us once more to that moment that I have to say goodbye for a week to you listeners, 'cause time's up and this show is almost done. If I had more time to spend on this program I could easily bring you whole days of Rhythm & Blues - but yeah - I got a job and a family life as well. Anyhow you heard Single Shot of Sonny Thompson and that was from 1954 on the King label. Before that, I got you Big Bill Broonzy with the Medicine Man Blues and he recorded that for the Okeh label in 1940.
Now I hope you liked today's show and its variety of music and stories and of course there's always the possibility to let me know, and send me an e-mail. Send it to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com and for sure I'll answer all your questions, comments or whatever you have to say to me. Then you can also read back what I told you today and see what you'll get next week. For that you can go to my web site, and the easiest way to get there is to ask Google for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman.
As for now, have a rocking day, and remember, don't get the blues, just listen to them. See you next time here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!