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's mix of tunes will be mostly from CD's that I got myself recently, and in most cases I stumble upon them while searching for material for other shows, like the ones that feature a record label. But I want to start with two promises I did in earlier shows. One of them comes from the show I did on the Sun label. Before I played that iconic number 209 of Sun, Elvis Presley's debut single That's Alright Mama, I had to skip a few numbers from the catalog. Now anyhow I couldn't have played them all, but I promised you to play these missing numbers some time. Well - here's one of them. Here is Sun number 200 - Little Milton with If you love me.
01 - Little Milton - If you love me
02 - Percy Mayfield - Two Years Of Torture
And this Two Years Of Torture of Percy Mayfield is a record that is leftover from my last show, on the Supreme label and it was the title that got a re-release on the Recorded in Hollywood label after Supreme folded due to financial troubles.
Next an instrumental that I found on a CD on Cootie Williams and his Orchestra - titled The Complete Jazz Series 1941-44 and this goodie with that great trumpet work is from that first year that the CD covers, also the first year that he'd gone out on his own and led his own band, after serving a year for Benny Goodman and twelve years in the band of Duke Ellington. As ever he excels in what they called the jungle style of trumpeting - getting these typical sound effects like growling and wah-wahing with the plunger. Here he goes with Blues In My Condition.
03 - Cootie Williams & his Rug Cutters - Blues In My Condition
04 - Fran Harris - He's My Texas Baby
(jingle)
05 - Chuck Merril - Strong Strong Man
06 - Mississippi John Hurt - Stack O Lee
Four in a row - after Cootie Williams you got the obscure Fran Harris and her Four Friends on a 45 of the as obscure Harmad label. You heard He's My Texas Baby and well I'm afraid her vocal capacities are such that she wouldn't have survived the audition of the Voice of America. Now the CD that I got it from was titled Rare 78 RPM Rhythm & Blues Cuts by Stardust records and if you like the obscurest of late fifties Rhythm & Blues, you should get that album or listen to it on the streaming media services.
Then came the jingle and after that you got just another obscurity - Chuck Merrill. He did two other cuts for the Bullet label of Nashville, and where this one came from I don't know except that it was done on another compilation CD on pretty rare stuff - the 2009 CD Rhythm & Blues Lost Gems on the Goldenlane label.
Then finally a dive into the late twenties with the blues of Stack O Lee sung by Mississippi John Hurt. In 1928 he'd been introduced to the OKeh record studio by a friend, fiddler Willie Narmour and they cut a few records. After that, Hurt sank into oblivion to work as a sharecropper and he only got rediscovered in 1963 when he was tracked down in Avalon, MS solely on the lyrics of the Avalon blues he'd recorded in '28, and on the waves of the blues revival he enjoyed three years of being a star on the numerous festivals until he died in '66.
For the next one we go to the early thirties with a band that stood out for its goodtime jazz - ans most of the ever-changing personnel of the group were musicians of good standing. Here are the Washboard Rhythm Kings with Going Going Gone.
07 - Washboard Rhythm Kings - Going! Going!! Gone!!!
08 - Sam Price & His Texas Blusicians - The Goon Drag (Gone Wid De Goon)
The Goon Drag of Sam Price and His Texas Blusicians and he recorded that in 1941 for Decca. He started as a dancer and singer in Dallas and while in Chicago he was hired in 1938 by Decca as a session pianist, where he backed up Trixie Smith and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. His Texas Bluesicians included saxophonist Don Stovall and trumpeter Emmett Berry. He did dozens of records for Decca - with or without the name of this outfit on the label.
Next on the Rhythm label Saunders King with an instrumental titled Ambling With Herb. Where most West Coast musicians worked and lived in Los Angeles, King, as an Oakland resident, started out of San Francisco with that tiny Rhythm label - out of the music store with the same name, it was the only place for local blues musicians to get on record. Here's Saunders King, Ambling With Herb.
09 - Saunders King - Ambling With Herb
10 - Memphis Minnie & Little Walter - Me And My Chauffeur Blues
Memphis Minnie with a re-recording of her blues classic Me And My Chauffeur, that she originally did in 1941. This version was on the Checker label and the harp, that was Little Walter. This was from 1952, so late in Minnie's career at age about 55. On stage, Minnie was ladylike and well-dressed, but in everyday life she was a strong and by times agressive woman who stood up for herself and she was was nobody's fool - a character well-fitting with her no-nonsense style and strong guitar playing.
Her real name, was Lizzie Douglas, from childhood already nicknamed Kid. About 1930 a talent scout of Columbia records found her with her husband Joe McCoy busking Beale Street in Memphis and he sent the couple to New York. The A&R man of Columbia dubbed the couple Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie - and that's what their stage names would remain.
McCoy was her second husband, and by '35 the two were divorced - it's often said that McCoy couldn't handle Minnie getting more popular than he was. The two lived in Chicago by then and a few years later she married another bluesman, Little Son Joe. In 1941 her first version of the Chauffeur blues features her on the electrical guitar that she'd took up recently. Her amped guitar style has been described a musical version of electric welders and a rolling mill - her guitar amplified to machine proportions - by poet Langston Hughes, when he saw Minnie play in the 230 club in Chicago - sitting on an ice box, and she got the place packed, as Hughes wrote in his column in the Chicago Defender. Minnie played in more famous venues, including the Club DeLisa, the Music Box, Gatewoods and the White Elephant - those were the better paying places in the Windy City to play.
As I said, this version that I played was much later and I'll get you that '41 version some day here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Minnie was, eh, let's say an over middle-aged woman and her health got her more and more troubles when she retired from music in 1957 and the couple returned to Memphis. She died in '73, aged 76, in a nursing home after her third stroke.
And I stay with the same record company for a moment with a cover on Chess, of a thirties classic by Howling Wolf. Oh Red was the first and major hit of the Harlem Hamfats in 1936 and this version was recorded in the studio of Sam Phillips in Memphis in October of 1952. Here he is, with Oh Red.
11 - Howlin' Wolf - Oh Red!
12 - Lloyd Glenn - That Other Woman's Gotta Go
Geraldine Carter did the vocals on this goodie with the band of Lloyd Glenn, the Joymakers. Gleen came from Texas in 1942 and started his own outfit in '47, when he signed for Imperial. He recorded this in December of '47, that frantic month where record labels used the studios 24/7 to make sure to make it through the next year when the American Federation of Musicians had its general strike on recording. Glenn made some fame as an A&R man for Swingtime records apart from his own work. Geraldine Carter though leaves no trace in the history or Rhythm & Blues and I guess was a local club singer.
Next also from '47 Jimmy McCracklin and his Bad Luck And Trouble that he recorded for the Aladdin label, the only single he did for the label. It wasn't released until 1951. Just like Saunders King whom I played earlier this hour, he lived in the Bay area and his first stint was in the Savoy - no not the presigious ballroom in New York and also not the famous venue in Chicago - it was his sister-in-law's cafe in Richmond, CA where she cooked homemade southern meals. Jimmy McCraclin started recording in 1945 for the Globe and Preview labels. His group the Blues Blasters got their real fame from the late fifties with the dance song The Walk.
But for now, on Aladdin, Bad Luck And Trouble.
13 - Jimmy Mccracklin - Bad Luck And Trouble
14 - Jimmy Witherspoon - Confessing The Blues
And with that we stayed with the Aladdin label for a moment, or actually its forerunner Philo, with Jay McShann's band fronted by Jimmy Witherspoon with Confessing The Blues from '45. Compared to this I think, the far more famous version with Walter Brown as a front man stands out. McShann cut that version in 1941 for Decca - at that time he still aspired a Count Basie-like big band to lead, but Decca producer Dave Kapp cut that ambition short recording mostly blues with only the rhythm section of McShann's band. The jazz tune that you hear in the background now, titled Swingmatism, is just one of the few recordings featuring the full band of McShann.
Well after the war the era of big swing bands was over and McShann wound down his ambitions to smaller combos and he teamed up with Jimmy Witherspoon - and the version of Confessin' that I played is just one of the examples.
Next up the Television Blues of Lowell Fulson that he cut for the Swing Time label in 1950.
15 - Lowell Fulson - Television Blues
16 - Smokey Hogg - I Don't Want No Bloodstains
And Smokey Hogg was that with I Don't Want No Bloodstains and you know, guess I stick with that 'cause I don't want'em either. So if you really didn't like the show, maybe a better idea is to send me an e-mail. Well you can, of course also do that when you did like it, or if you have any questions to ask or comments to make. The address is rockingducthman@rocketmail.com.
All of the stories that I told you today are on my web site, and that is best found just doing a web search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. This was show number 145 in that ever growing list of episodes. Of course you can also find what's on the menu for next week.
Smokey Hogg's blues meant the end of today's show for me - time's up. Have a rocking day, and don't get them blues, just play 'em. See you next time, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!