The Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - episode 144

Supreme records

This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.

And on this 144th show I'll take you to Los Angeles in 1947 and I'll get you some of the local independent Supreme label. In the thriving post-war Rhythm & Blues scene of the City of Angels anyone aspiring to start a record label had a choice of top artists. Supreme contracted Jimmy Witherspoon, Paula Watson, Buddy Tate, Percy Mayfield and Eddie Williams and his Brown Buddies - the band that featured a young Floyd Dixon. Now that's guaranteed for some great Rhythm & Blues and I'll start with some blues shouting of Jimmy Witherspoon. Here he is, on Supreme number 1500, with the Cain River Blues.

1500 - Jimmy Witherspoon - Cain River Blues.mp3
1502 - Buddy Tate - Tate's a Jumpin'.mp3

Tate's a Jumpin' - that was Buddy Tate, saxophonist in Count Basie's band up to 1948, so he was still with the Count when he recorded this in December of '47. With all record labels, the last month of 1947 saw an unprecedented recording frenzy because of the upcoming strike of the American Federation of musicians in '48. Now the Supreme label was founded in the fall of '47 - not the best of timing and so a significant part of the catalog was recorded in these last days of the year.

Founder and ownder of the label was a dentist named Al Patrick. I don't know what made him change his drill for the recording business but one thing's for sure, he got himself some great horses in his stable and this jazz veteran Buddy Tate was one of them.

I'll get you some more of him, and here his band backs up Charles Q. Price with a slow blues, titled Good Morning Judge - be it that Tate's saxophone is hardly present.

1504 - Buddy Tate - Good Morning Judge .mp3
1507 alt - Paula Watson - Pretty Papa Blues.mp3

(jingle)

1508 - Jimmy Witherspoon - Hey Mr. Landlord (Landlord Shuffle).mp3
1509 - Big Jim Wynn - JW Bop.mp3

And that's a whole lotta honking with Big Jim Wynn's JW Bop that was number 1509 in the catalog of Supreme records. Before that you got another great blues of Jimmy Witherspoon, Hey Mr. Landlord a.k.a. the Landlord Shuffle. And then the lady before the jingle, that was Paula Watson with the Pretty Papa Blues, a modified cover of Ivory Joe Hunter's Pretty Mama Blues. It was the flip of the novelty song A little Bird Told Me, that is, for part of the pressings, 'cause there also are records that paired the Little Bird with Stick By Me Baby, another pop song.

Now Paula Watson definitely can sing her blues, and she shows that off on this goodie, but after the smash success of A little Bird Told Me she got novelty songs to sing for the Supreme label hoping for another cash maker - that didn't come. And eventually the Little Bird would become the demise of the Supreme label - but I'll tell you later how come.

First number 1510 of the catalog and that again is Paula Watson. It pairs another release of Stick By Me Baby with a shuffling boogie woogie instrumental. Paula pounds the piano here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman with Paula's Nightmare.

1510 - Paula Watson - Paula's Nightmare.mp3
1514 - Buddy Tate - Swinging Away With Willie & Ray.mp3

And another instrumental of Buddy Tate with Swinging Away With Willie & Ray - and if you wonder who Willie and Ray were, well that were Willie Bryant and Ray Carroll, who co-hosted a radio show on WHOM of New York - not only one of the hottest shows on air, but the first show that paired a black and a white man. Now both were also musicians but they don't apprear on this record - in the announcement of the re-release of this record on the Black & White label, Billboard says that it was a tribute to these two discjockeys.

Next another one of Paula Watson and for the many novelty songs she did for Supreme I think this is the nicest of them. Here is Of All Things. After that you will get saxophonist Big Jim Wynn, and his stage performances served as an example for a new generation of tenor sax honkers. Wynn made a show of his honking laying on his back while playing his wildest notes - a show that inspired young sax players like Big Jay McNeely and Frank Culley. You will get his Farewell baby. But first Paula Watson.

1518 - Paula Watson - Of All Things.mp3
1522 - Big Jim Wynn - Farewell Baby.mp3
1527 - Earl Jackson - If I Had One

If I Had One of pianist Earl Jackson and his band - a man who left little trace in the history of Rhythm & Blues. Apart from six cuts for Supreme I found him listed in a few odd sessions with Jimmy Witherspoon, and then his name pops up again in 1968 with a release on the ABC label titled Soul Self Satisfaction. That made it as a soundtrack on the 2010 movie Soulboy - about the Northern Soul scene in England.

On this one, the vocal was, according to Tom Lord's discography, another obscurity named Walter Roberts. I'll get you one more of this group - despite they're so unknown they do lay down some nice blues. Here is So Help Me.

1532 - Earl Jackson - So Help Me
1535 - Eddie Williams & his Brown Buddies - Red Head 'N' Cadillac

The Red Head 'n' Cadillac of Eddie Williams & his Brown Buddies. Eddie Williams had been the bass man in Johnny Moore's Three Blazers - the group that featured Charles Brown, and when Brown left, Floyd Dixon. Williams himself stepped out shortly after and started his own group the Brown Buddies, featuring Dixon on the piano and "Tiny" Webb on guitar and drummer Ellis Walsh. The sound of the group pretty clearly shows off the legacy of Johnny Moore's combo that in its turn had copied Nat King Cole's style. Now after the sessions with Supreme, Floyd Dixon went out on his own and after Eddie Williams broke up his little combo, he joined Dixon again in his band.

Here's some more of them on Supreme 1542 with the Mississippi blues.

1542 - Eddie Williams - Mississippi Blues.mp3
1543 - Percy Mayfield - Half Awake (Baby You'Re Still A Square).mp3

Percy Mayfield with the Monroe Tucker Band, and his contract with Supreme would become his breakthrough. He'd come from Texas in 1942 and his first years, when he established his own band the Maytones, he'd been struggling combining the music with other jobs.

Mayfield got picked up later by the Specialty label and there he had his greatest successes. A car accident in 1952 seriously limited his ability to perform on stage, but he went on recording and songwriting and for that, he's most known for Ray Charles' hit Hit The Road Jack that he wrote in 1961.

Next some more of Jimmy Witherspoon - he had some great blues on the Supreme label. Here he sings about the decline of the hepcat's scene in the Skid Row Blues.

1545 - Jimmy Witherspoon - Skid Row Blues.mp3
1548 - Eddie Williams and His Brown Buddies - Johnny Katherine.mp3
1549 - Percy Mayfield - Leary Blues.mp3

The Leary Blues of Percy Mayfield as Supreme number 1549 and before that Johnny Katherine of Eddie Williams and his Brown Buddies - the band that had Floyd Dixon on board. Mayfield's Leary Blues backed with How Wrong Can I Be was the last release of the Supreme label. Like so many indies, the label hadn't made the owner, former dentist Al Patrick, rich, and the reason was not that the records didn't sell. No, it was actually Supreme's biggest hit, Paula Watson's pop song A Little Bird Told Me, that eventually killed the label.

How come? Well, shortly after Watson's song started selling, Decca recorded a version with Evelyn Knight that made it number 1 in the pop lists and that sold much better than Paula's version. Now this was already happening more and more, white artists on major labels, covering succesful songs of Rhythm & Blues and getting away with the fame and the sales. And African American Al Patrick of that small Supreme label sued Decca for stealing the arrangement and vocal style and the stake was high - 400 grand.

Now if you compare Paula's and Evely's versions, their vocal similarity is striking. Yet the judge ruled that there was no copyright possible for arrangement and style - and so Supreme lost the case. Now this *was* a landmark case, as it legalized the already widespread practice of white artists covering the songs of African Americans, of course as long as songwriter royalties were paid. The musicians remained unprotected though, and many saw the sales of their recordings fall, when major labels plugged the versions of their pop artists. But it also brought the Rhythm & Blues - at least the songs - to the white audience, and that was one of the cornerstones of the Rock 'n Roll revolution.

Supreme though, it got in financial troubles for this case and also got in legal troubles with one of its distributors, Black & White records. By the end of 1950 it closed its doors. Paula Watson got a contract with Decca and Percy Mayfield's promising Two Years Of Torture - I played the flip today - it got a re-release on the Recorded in Hollywood label where, indeed, it became a hit.

Interesting musical history again, and I hope you like that kind of knowledge brought to you here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Of course you can let me know and mail me at rockingducthman@rocketmail.com. And today's story together with the playlist and more, you can find it on my web site. Easiest way to get there is to search Google for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Once in, well this was show number 144 in that nearly endless row of shows I already did.

As for now, I'm done so have a rocking day. See you again, here at the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!