The Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - episode 139

Legends Mix

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 the best of Rhythm & Blues for today and as usual I'll span several decades in this show. And why not start with what's for this show a bit on the late side - it was recorded in December on 1955 in Chicago for the Checker label. Here is the harp of Little Walter with One More Chance With You.

01 - Little Walter - One more chance with you
02 - Wynona Carr - Ding dong daddy

The Ding Dong Daddy of Wynona Carr, a recording for the Specialty label that went unreleased by the time and for sure that's a shame 'cause it's definitely a strong song. Wynona had switched from gospel to Rhythm & Blues in 1955 and like her gospel career, the Rhythm & Blues gave her just one hit. She contracted tuberculosis in '57 and remained too weak to tour or record, so the disease effectively killed her career.

Next the band of Lucky Millinder with a follow-up song of their succesful Shorty's Got To Go. From 1950 on the King label here is Who said Shorty wasn't coming back.

03 - Lucky Millinder & His Orchestra - Who said Shorty wasn't coming back
04 - Tiny Grimes & His Rockin' Highlanders - Juicy Fruit

(jingle)

05 - T-Bone Walker - Travelin' blues
06 - Todd Rhodes Orchestra feat. Pinocchio James - Your Mouth Got A Hole In It

Pinocchio James was that backed up by Todd Rhodes with Your Mouth Got A Hole In It and that was from 1953 on the King label. It's unknown why he got himself the nickname of Gepetto's puppet whose nose grew as he lied - other than that Cornelius Jones isn't a very marketable stage name. We know the man primarily from his long-time association with Lionel Hampton from 1957 to '65.

Before that was T-bone Walker from 1950 with the Traveling Blues on the Imperial label and that rocking and bouncing instrumental before the jingle was Tiny Grimes and his Rockin' Highlanders and you heard Juicy Fruit. I played it quite a few times on here as background music behind my talking but for now it got some better exposure. It was from 1953 on the Red Robin label.

Next a pretty obscure bluesman from either Louisiana or Texas with his only recording, that he did for the, also obscure, Oklahoma Tornado label in Westlake, LA. in 1949. The label billed him as Cleo Harves and his lightning guitar. Here is Crazy with the Blues.

07 - Cleo Harves - Crazy with the Blues
08 - Roosevelt Sykes - New Mistake In Life

From 1939 Honeydrippper Roosevelt Sykes with The New Mistake In Life, and the word new indicated a re-recording. Indeed he done it before one year earlier and I wonder why Decca did this so often, recording and releasing the same song again in such a short time.

Next Frankie 'Half Pint' Jaxon, and I featured him too just last week when I did a Decca release of him. For today a recording from 1930 titled Chocolate To The Bone - I'm So Glad I'm A Brownskin. Well let's say an early song of black pride.

09 - Frankie Halfpint Jaxon - Chocolate To The Bone (I'm So Glad I'm A Brownskin)
10 - Sam Price and His Texas Blusicians - The Dirty Dozens

The band of Sam Price, the Texas Bluesicians with a recording from 1940 for Decca, the Dirty Dozens and what a great piece of early jump blues this is. For Decca he was hired as a session man for the piano parts for many vocalists, but the music he did with his Texas Blusicians is still is best. Price was born in Texas and he had moved up from Dallas to Kansas City, Chicago and Detroit and after the war he moved to New York where he played in the Roosevelt hotel and the Crawdaddy Restaurant - here he played with Benny Goodman and Buddy Rich.

Next from the Bluebird label bluesman Washboard Sam and he was extremely popular in the pre-war Chicago scene. He was a productive session man but from 1935 he also recorded under his own name - some 160 sides. It's typical how such a popular musician sank into oblivion after Rock 'n Roll struck the nation. He got just little attention with the blues revival in the sixties and when he died in '66 he was buried in an unmarked grave. Only in 2009 at a fundraising concert featuring the pretty eccentric female washboard player Washboard Jo, money was raised to place a headstone.

From him - the Backdoor Blues.

11 - Washboard Sam - Backdoor Blues
12 - The Cats & The Fiddle - Killin' Jive

Vocal group the Cats & The Fiddle with the Killin' Jive from a session in June of 1939 for the Bluebird label. The group started like so many of them, as high school students, under the name of the Harlem Harmony Hounds - and there was nothing Harlem in them, all were from Chicago.

At some point in the many personnel changed that the group had, they changed their name into the Cats & The Fiddle and before they got on record, they apperared in several movies. One of them was Too Hot To Handle starring Clark Gable, The Duke Is Tops where they did this song, a western movie titled Two-Gun Man From Harlem, and Going Places from 1939, that also featured Louis Armstrong. That's just a handful, they were in many shorts and all-black movies. It was in these years that they met up with Bluebird's A&R man Lester Melrose and they did 21 sides for the label.

Next drummer and blues singer George Vann backed up by Jack McVea and his band on the Aladdin label from 1946.

13 - George 'The Blues Man' Vann - Jail House Blues
14 - Chris Powell - Hauntin' Pinochle Blues

The Hauntin' Pinochle Blues of Chris Powell and his Five Blue Flames from 1950 on the Columbia label and if you might wonder how they made that haunting sound in it, that is a Theremin, an electronic instrument invented in 1928 by a Russian inventor with the same name. You play it by moving your hands closer or farther away from two antennas, but never touching them, one antenna for the pitch and the other one for the volume. I must say I never heard of this instrument before I stumbled upon this rarity on YouTube where the uploader, a theremin player himself, explained the sound.

Next a recording from 1942 of Big Bill Broonzy with a group named the Chicago five. On the Columbia label, here is Tell Me Baby.

15 - Big Bill Broonzy - Tell Me Baby
16 - James 'Beale Street' Clark - Get Ready To Meet Your Man

And for this one I go back to the show of two weeks ago where I played another goodie of this bluesman James 'Beale Street' Clark a.k.a Memphis Jimmy. This one got somewhat of of a blues classic, with versions of Arthur Crudup and Elmore James under different titles, that is Hand Me Down My Walking Cane or Look on Yonder Wall. This original was titled Get Ready To Meet Your Man and it's about a man who wasn't drafted for the war for his physical disabilities. Instead he pleased the women of the men who did serve for Uncle Sam. But now the war is over, and the woman's man is coming home.

Well there's time for two more so here is, on the Atlas label, the Shuffling Boogie from 1947 of Luke Jones.

17 - Luke Jones - Shufflin' Boogie
18 - Meade Lux Lewis - Cow Cow Blues

And Meade Lux Lewis pounded his piano with the Cow Cow Blues and that marks the end of another hour of Rhythm & Blues. Lewis, together with Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons and Jimmy Yancey were the greats of the boogie-woogie piano. And well I just hope you liked this and the other seventeen tracks I played today and of course you can let me know and drop me a line at rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. Then on my website you can find what I told you today and see what you'll get next time. Easiest way to get there is to search Google for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Once in, look for show number 139 in that long list of shows I done up to now - that's this one.

For now time's up so I wish you a rocking day. See you next time, when I play more great Rhythm & Blues, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!