This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And for today's special we go back to the years 1945 and '46 with some releases on the Columbia label. It was just after the music business crawled itself up from the war and the 1942 to 44 strike of the American Federation of Musicians, where no music was to be recorded and these two had changed the nation's music industry completely. Columbia, as one of the majors, discontinued its OKeh subsidiary and started its 30000 series dedicated to Race music, African American music that we nowadays call Rhythm & Blues.
And to start with I'll get you the first release of the new series, number 30001 amd that is the Leap Frog Blues of Buster Bennett.
30001 - Buster Bennett - Leap Frog Blues
30002 - Big Bill Broonzy - Roll Them Bones
Big Bill Broonzy and he was one of Columbia's most recording artists on the new 30000 series, with 10 records out of the first forty releases. You heard Roll them Bones on the second release, number 30002. And though I'm not intending to play all of their releases the next one is number 30003 and that is a release of Memphis Minnie and her husband Ernest Lawlars - better known as Lil Son Joe. Here is their Please Set A Date.
30003 - Memphis Minnie & Lil Son Joe - Please Set A Date
30005 - James 'Beale Street' Clark - Get Ready To Meet Your Man
(jingle)
30010 - Big Bill Broonzy - Hard Hearted Woman
30011 - Blind Boy Fuller - Step It Up And Go
Step It Up And Go of Blind Boy Fuller was that on Columbia's release 30011 and before that you got the Hard Hearted Woman of Big Bill Broonzy - on the label billed just as Big Bill, like he also was when he recorded for Decca in the thirties. And before the jingle you got the classic Get Ready To Meet Your Man of James 'Beale Street' Clark. It's covered many times under different titles such as Look On Yonder Wall, Hand Me Down My Walking Cane, Just an Army Boy or Crutch and Cane.
The song is about a somewhat disabled man, and his physical impairment made that he wasn't drafted for the war and he had the opportunity to please the women of men who were. But now the war is over, and the men are returning to their wives.
Next the blues of a man who got so many insurance policies on his life, that he's afraid she'll kill him for the insurance money. On Columbia 30013 here is Got Too Much Insurance of Buster Bennett.
30013 - Buster Bennett - Got Too Much Insurance
30015 - Memphis Minnie - Mean Mistreater Blues
The Mean Mistreater Blues of Memphis Minnie and that is number 30015 of the 30000 series of Columbia that I feature today, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. And the reason to do so, is not just for the fine blues that were on it, but also to tell the story of what had happened to the music industry during the war.
In August of 1942 the American Federation of Musicians started a strike against the recording industry, forbidding any recording of instrumental music. It came out to be a long battle, and the major record labels one-by-one ran out of useful material to release or re-release. Columbia was one of the two last majors to succumb, on November 11 of 1944. By then, Decca had settled with the union more than a year before, and so had the newly emerging independent record labels, and Columbia had no choice. It was clear that the union had won the battle and refusing to sign an agreement would place them out of business completely.
The strike had uprooted the music business - together with the war. Now the record labels did recover and with the economic boom that followed the war, the sales of records exploded. But the landscape had changed dramatically. In the gap that RCA Victor and Columbia had left by refusing to sign, new independent record labels jumped in, recording musicians that were not affiliated to the AFM or illegal recordings of union musicians who'd used pseudonyms to keep from getting in trouble with the almighty union. The small labels often only had local distribution but in the big jazz and blues hotbeds Chicago, New York and the emerging Los Angeles, that still worked.
Another effect was that vocalists became the stars - instead of the big bands. For some twist, vocalists were exempted from the ban and just in order to meet the demand for new records, vocalists even recorded with acapella choruses instead of orchestras. Instead of crediting the band on the label and maybe the vocalist in fine print, after the war it was the other way 'round. Before the war you might have bought a Tommy Dorsey record, after the war a Sinatra - and you ended up with the same.
Now it didn't help that during the war Uncle Sam had drafted the personnel of the big bands and the buses that they toured with, got grounded due to a lack of gasoline. The war and the strike effectively killed many a big band and they didn't come back. Instead, small combos presented a new style, the jump blues, and they became extremely popular - just see how Louis Jordan popped up on the scene.
Well, in '45 Columbia was back on track but I guess it'll have been hard starting their new race label where most artists had found their home somewhere else. The roster of the label initially was small even some old recordings had to be dusted off to release. Remarkable, as during the strike it was the company's only option, you'd think they'd had enough of that. But earlier I played Blind Boy Fuller and that recording was from 1940 - and it wasn't the only pre-strike recording on the 30000 series.
The next one is a hip vocal effort of a new group the label signed - the Big Three Trio, featuring Willie Dixon, Bernardo Dennis and Baby Doo Caston. The song of the Signifying Monkey dates back to an African folk tale of a Monkey insulting the Lion, but saying he just repeats the words of the Elephant. The Elephant though is too big to fight for the lion and when they find out they're tricked by the Monkey, the two stand up against him.
Well here it is - the Signifying Monkey.
30019 - Big Three Trio - Signifyin' Monkey
30020 - James 'Beale Street' Clark - Come to Me Baby
One more of James 'Beale Street' Clark - you heard Come to Me Baby on release number 30020 of Columbia's race series. And for the next one we go to the husband of Memphis Minnie - Lil Son Joe. Release number 30025 pairs a Memphis Minnie song with the Black Rat Swing of Lil Son Joe. Here it is.
30025 - Little Son Joe - Black Rat Swing
30027 - Brownie McGhee - Step It Up And Go No. 2
A re-recording of Brownie McGhee's Step It Up And Go, from back in 1941, just like the Black Rat Swing that you got before. Apparently Columbia still wasn't done yet with releasing old material when the big recording strike was over.
The same counts for the next one, release number 30030. These are actually old recordings done for the OKeh label that was a Columbia subsidiary, but in 1946 the OKeh brand was discontinued for a few years and the African American artists got on the main label. OKeh had always been a strong name in Rhythm & Blues, ever since their smash success with a recording of Mamie Smith's Crazy Blues back in 1920 - the first blues ever recorded. The OKeh 8000 series is legendary for their unique recordings of artists outside Chicago and New York, done in mobile recording trucks.
Curtis Jones though, he was a Chicago resident and from him you'll get the Glamour And Glory Blues recorded in 1941.
30030 - Curtis Jones - Glamour And Glory Blues
30032 - The Yas Yas Girl - Froggy Bottom
An impressive song about the town of Froggy Bottom somewhere in Tennessee - imaginary I think as it didn't show up on Google Maps. The singer is the pretty obscure Merline Johnson - usually billed as the Yas Yas Girl who emerged in the Chicago scene of juke joints on the South Side in the late thrirties until about 1947 when she faded back into oblivion. It's unknown where she came from. From many of her songs, like this one, you would think she was from some Southern rural community but others think she was from Missouri, born Merline Baker, and if that is true, she was related to Lavern Baker.
Next another 1941 recording of Curtis Jones. On Columbia 30034 here is the Tin Pan Alley blues.
30034 - Curtis Jones - Tin Pan Alley
30035 - Roosevelt Sykes - Let The Black Have His Way
30036 - Buddy Moss - Joy Rag
Three in a row to end with - After the Tin Pan Alley Blues you got on Columbia 30034 - Roosevelt Sykes with Let The Black Have His Way and that seen an earlier release in 1941 on OKeh, Columbia's subsidary that was discontinued in 1945 in favor of the main label. I done a special, some time ago here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman, on the 1951 reincarnation of OKeh - until today it's led an on-and-off existance for rhythm & blues, pop, soul, blues and nowadays it's a jazz label. With that, the brand exists for about a century, 'cause Otto Heineman who started the label did that in 1918 after starting a phonograph business two years before. It was sold to Columbia in 1926 when it alreay got a name in Race records under supervision of pianist, singer, producer and songwriter Clarence Williams.
And the last one was number 30036 of the catalog, Buddy Moss with the Joy Rag.
When you compare the postwar Rhythm & Blues catalog of Columbia with the leading independents you would soon get the feeling it has a strong pre-war feeling, and Rhythm & Blues moved on without Columbia knowing it. Of course these OKeh re-releases from five years before contribute to that - and you may wonder what made the A&R man responsible decide to do so. On the other hand - in Chicago these kinda blues still were in demand.
I'm afraid we won't find out but for now, well all of the music I play is old-fashioned regardless from what time it is. And I keep playing that old stuff for your enjoyment and of course you can let me know what you think of it, send an e-mail to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. Today's story and playlist is on my website, just do a google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and my site will show up first. This was show number 152 in that long list of episodes that I done already.
For now time's up so for your next shot of Rhythm & Blues I hope to see you next time, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!