This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And more great Rhythm & Blues today, no particular subject, just great music that I gathered just everywhere from my music collection. And just last week I played an hour full of instrumentals and today I start with one too. It's a leftover from my set on the Supreme label some time ago. Listen to this double-sided goodie from 1949, the Kansas City Jump.
01 - Earl Jackson Band - Kansas City Jump
02 - Bea Booze - Mr. Freddie Blues
The Mr. Freddie Freddie Blues of Bea Booze that she did for Decca in 1944 - two years after she hit number one on the Harlem Hit Parade with the blues classic See See Rider. For that song, she was long time confused with Muriel Nichols, a Philadelphia-born singer who, in 1945, did her own version of See See Rider for J. Mayo Williams' Harlem label. On that label she was credited as Muriel 'Bea Booze' Nichols and it was long time assumed that Bea Booze was the stage name of Nichols. Admittedly - a great stage name. But Bea Booze was someone else and she was born with that name in 1912 in Baltimore, MD.
For the next one we go back to June 22 of 1938 and the historical boxing match of Joe Lewis versus Max Schmeling. African-American Lewis had lost a fight against German Schmeling in '36 and Hitler had used that in his propaganda as proof of the supremacy of the Aryan race. So when the two met in the ring again, two years later, Lewis felt the burden of putting that right, and few days before, President Roosevelt had told him "Joe, we need muscles like yours to beat Germany."
The fight lasted two minutes and four seconds, and in these few minutes Louis had battered Schemling to the ground three times, and the fight was ended on a technical knock-out of Schmeling. The German had to be brought to hospital and he recalled hearing the music on the streets and people cheering and shouting Lewis' name as they drove through Harlem.
The Nazi party stopped using Schmeling for their propaganda and the German boxer increasingly got fed up with what happened in Germany. He did recover from this fight, becoming European champion heavyweight just one year later. After the war, Lewis and Schmeling became close friends and Schmeling reportedly has been supporting Lewis financially.
Now just in case you might think I gone crazy and traded my music program for a show on sports history - the day after the fight Bill Gaither entered the Decca studio and recorded this song about the historical fight.
So here he is, with Champ Joe Lewis.
03 - Bill Gaither - Champ Joe Lewis
04 - Effie Smith - What You Puttin' Down
(jingle)
05 - Doctor Sausage & His Five Pork Chops - Cuckoo Cuckoo Chicken Rhythm
06 - Eddie Williams & his Brown Buddies - Broken Hearted
Borken Hearted of Eddie Williams and his Brown Buddies and one of these brown buddies was Floyd Dixon, he was like Williams himself a former member of Johnny Moore's Three Blazers. Williams had formed his group similar to the Blazers - in their turn a copy of the outfit of Nat King Cole. The light and mellow style of Cole was extremely succesful in the Los Angeles scene and everyone wanted to sound like him.
Before that you got Doctor Sausage and his five Pork Chops - really, that's the name of the group appearing on the label of this Decca record. You heard the Cuckoo Cuckoo Chicken Rhythm. Doctor Sausage's real name was Lucius Tyson, drummer and singer, and with this outfit they brought hepcat style comedy like Cab Calloway did, or Slim and Slam and the group Cats & the Fiddle.
For Decca Tyson and his oddly-named group did two unsuccesful records in 1940, then resurfaced in 1950 with a few releases for the New Jersey based Regal label, and after that, Doc Sausage was never heard of again.
Then I have to account for what I played before the jingle, that soft bluesy voice was Effie Smith together with Buddy Harper's band and the title of that goodie is What You Puttin' Down. She recorded this for the Aladdin label in 1947. Effie Bly - her maiden name, she married some Mr. Smith at a young age, well, she had been on several radio broadcasts for the armed forces overseas, when she recorded for her second husband's record labels, G&G and Gem, and later for other labels.
For any real succes she had to wait for the sixties when her re-make of Dial That Telephone, a song she'd done before on Aladdin, made it in the hit parade, and also an answer record on the country classic Harper Valley PTA - the Harper Valley PTA Gossip.
And for the next one I go to 1951 with Smokey Hogg and he recorded his Miss Georgia for the Mercury label.
08 - Smokey Hogg - Miss Georgia
09 - Lightnin' Slim - Ethel Mae
Ethel Mae of Lightnin' Slim from 1954 on the Feature label, recorded in Crowley, LA. The harpist on this one was Schoolboy Cleve White. The Feature label was specialized in country, swamp pop and Louisiana Blues and it was owned by the controversial producer Jay Miller. Controversial, because he produced racist recordings of Johnny Rebel, music you can find on racist and hate group websites, and he claimed to be segregationist, but at the same time he employed racially integrated bands in a time when, in the Deep South, that was on the verge of illegal. And, like on this record, he recorded bluesmen as well.
And we stay with the blues guitarists for a moment with a blues of T-Bone Walker that he did in 1947 for the Capitol label. Here he is with I Got a Break Baby
10 - T-Bone Walker - I Got a Break Baby
11 - Sherman 'Blues' Johnson - Blues Jumped a Rabbit
The pretty obscure Sherman 'Blues' Johnson with Blues Jumped a Rabbit was that. Johnson recorded a few sides for the Trumpet label with his band the Clouds of Joy, not related to the thirties and forties swing band of Andy Kirk. These were recorded at the studio of Sam Phillips - the Memphis Recording Service, that was before he started his Sun label. This one didn't it to a record with the Trumpet imprint and went unreleased at the time.
Next Ivory Joe Hunter with a release from 1951 on the Four Star label, and for the time it sounds pretty old-fashoned. Now from 1947 to '51 Four Star released a few disks of Hunter while he was under contract with other labels, so it may well be that this was recorded a few years earlier in '47.
Well nowadays all the music I play sounds a bit old-fashioned so who cares. Here he is, Ivory Joe Hunter with the Big Wig.
12 - Ivory Joe Hunter - Big Wig
13 - Todd Rhodes feat. Connee Allen - Let Down Blues
A release from 1953 on the King label, this Let Down Blues of Todd Rhodes with blues singer Connee Allen doing the vocals. Rhodes worked in Detroit and he did sessions with other female singers - earlier Kitty Stevens and after Allen left, a young Lavern Baker.
With his band the Toddlers, Todd Rhodes also did a lot of instrumentals including a magnificent jazz interpretation of a masterpiece of Edvard Grieg, the classic Anitra's Dance that he transformed into Anitra's Jump that you hear in the background now. Another instrumental, the Blues for the Red Boy, became the theme music of Alan Freed's famous Moondog radio program.
Next a recording that Wynonie Harris did for the King label in 1952. Here he is with Bring It Back.
14 - Wynonie Harris - Bring It Back
15 - Dave Bartholomew - Ain't Gonna Do It
From 1950 New Orleans great Dave Bartholomew and Ain't Gonna Do It that he did for the Imperial label. For this label he provided the house band and he also did A&R work, wrote songs, he produced and worked as a talent scout and in that position he done a lot for fifties Rhythm & Blues and the transition into Rock 'n Roll in the Crescent City.
Next John Lee Hooker and under the name of Johnny Williams he recorded this Prison bound that made it to the Swing Time label after he recorded it for the tiny Detroit based Staff label. Johnny Williams was just one of his pseudonyms, to record all kinds of labels he used names like John Lee Cooker, John Lee Booker, Texas Slim, Delta John, Birmingham Sam and his Magic Guitar and The Boogie Man.
Here is Prison Bound.
16 - John Lee Hooker - Prison Bound
And Prison Bound of Johnny Williams, in real John Lee Hooker, ends today's show full of great music and remarkable stories. And these stories, you can read them back if you missed something, they're all on my web site. The best way to get there without having to memorize a difficult web site name, is to search Google for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and you'll get the link on top of the search results. Of that long list of episodes, this was show number 148 and under that number you'll find the playlist and a transcript. Of course you can also let me know whether you liked the show, there's a link on my web site but you can also mail to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com.
Time's up for now, so have a rocking day and don't forget to tune your radio to this station for the next show of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!