This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And legends are what you're gonna get from me, again, and also some real obscurities, and today I was sorting through some eighties LP's with re-releases from the fifties and that's gonna be the base of today's selection. As usual I'll get you some trivia on the artists or the music, but not too much, after all I know you came here for the music and not for the blabla. So let's start with with a great mover. It's the flip of You're Gonna Suffer Baby, from 1956 on the King label, here is Roy Milton with One Zippy Zam.
01 - Roy Milton - One Zippy Zam
Roy Milton with One Zippy Zam from 1956 and your can hear that this was in the middle of the rock 'n roll craze. And we'll stay in that mood for a moment longer with Mabel King, also from 1956 is here her Alabama Rock 'n Roll.
02 - Mabel King - Alabama Rock 'n Roll
03 - Jesse Allen - Rockin' and Rollin' Back.jpg
Jesse Allen with Rockin' and Rollin' from 1954. Now I must say I'd never heard of this guy when I got that French LP dedicated to him in my hands. The liner notes were done by Jeff Hannusch a.k.a. Almost Slim, the writer of one of the best books on the New Orleans Rhythm & Blues scene, but he also had to confess he knew little or nothing about this man. New Orleans musician and producer Dave Bartholomew, who produced his first record, was pretty sure he came from Jacksonville, FL while other musicians he worked with say that he was from Alabama, Georgia, Missisippi or even Kansas.
Anyhow, through the fifties he recorded on half a dozen of labels, none of them sold anything, and quite a lot of his songs were pretty bland copies of big hits. It makes sense to say that a lack of originality killed his ambitions. Somewhere at the turn of the decade he disappeared to where he came from, the land of Oblivion.
Well it's actually pretty amazing that that French label dedicated a whole LP on him. Maybe on a nice day, somewhere in the eighties when it was released, Jesse might have encountered the LP in a record store, and he may have said "Wow, I'd never thought someone would remember that old stuff". Well I said you'd get obscurities too, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman, and as long as they're not legends yet - we'll just make'em.
So let's continue with a real great name in the Rhythm & Blues. Here is Wynonie Harris with Down Boy Down, the flip of Quiet Whiskey, on the King label from 1953.
04 - Wynonie Harris - Down Boy Down
05 - Joe Houston - Trouble, Trouble, Trouble
Man that were some - let's say adventurous harmonies in that piano solo. Joe Houston with Trouble, Trouble, Trouble from 1952 on Mercury and he sang it together with Lois Butler and "Streamline" McNeal. An apparent attempt to follow up the success of his 1952 hit Worry Worry Worry - well it was so similar that I first thought it was the same song.
Next up another pretty unknown group. Now following the success of Nat King Cole's trio, some more of these little combo's consisting of piano, guitar and bass emerged, and the Nelson Alexander trio was one of them. A few days before Christmas, 1947 they recorded a song pretty much in the same mood as Jimmy Preston's Rock the Joint, for the Specialty label. It's a great mover I think. Here's the Nelson Alexander Trio with Rock That Voot.
06 - Nelson Alexander Trio - Rock That Voot
07 - Joe Liggins - Dripper's Boogie + 7a
The great Joe Liggins and his Honeydrippers with the Dripper's Boogie, recorded in Los Angeles in July, 1946, a year after his monster hit the Honeydripper, and like that one, this song was also split up over the two sides of the record. Liggins had become a huge star but in the interview that I read on the back of a re-issue LP he relates in such a modest and humourous about that time. Now Liggins is a big name of course but it strikes me how many people never heard of him nowadays. Well - that's why I started the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman in the first place.
We're going back even somewhat earlier into the forties with the orchestra of Jay McShannon with Confessin' the Blues. Now that was his most popular recording and it has become a standard in the blues. It was recorded by many artists including Chuck Berry, B.B. King and a very memorable version of the Rolling Stones. You'll hear Walter Brown on vocals and Jay McShannon on the piano - here is the Confession blues.
08 - Jay McShann & his orchestra - Confessin' The Blues
09 - Count Basie Orchestra feat. Taps Miller - I ain't mad at you
And another cracker from the forties - Count Basie and his orchestra with Taps Miller on lead singing I ain't mad at you. Frequent listeners to this show may have heard other versions of this song before.
We're going to the year 1952 when the Jackson Brothers Orchestra record Rock this Joint for RCA Victor. It was a different song as the famous Rock the Joint that was a big hit for Jimmy Preston earlier this year - though apparently influenced. I'd say, judge for yourself what you think of it. After that you will get Mabel Scott with a great shouter, Mr. Fine.
10 - Jackson Brothers - We're Gonna Rock This Joint
11 - Mabel Scott - Mr. Fine
(rocking dutchman jingle)
12 - Wynona Carr - Jump Jack Jump
13 - Jimmy Preston - Let's Hang Out Tonight
Jimmy Preston with Let's Hang Out Tonight on the Philadelphia based Gotham label. Before that you heard Wynona Carr with Jump Jack Jump, the flip of Hurt me on the Specialty label from 1956.
Jimmy Preston is of course most known for his Rock the Joint that is widely considered as one of the great forerunners of rock 'n roll, together with Jackie Brenston's Rocket 88. From Brenston I'll play another one, I want to see my baby. According to the liner notes of the LP that I took it from it's taken from some unnumbered, uncatalogued and undocumented masters of Chess, probably taken in Memphis in 1951 - so let's just assume that. Here is Jackie Brenston.
14 - Jackie Brenston - I Want to See my Baby
15 - Little Esther - Bring My Lovin' Back To Me
The great Little Esther Phillips with Bring My Lovin' Back To Me from 1952 on Federal Records. She'd left the Savoy label and her discoverer, Johnny Otis, who had brought her instant fame, for an adventure with the Federal label, and that didn't turn out right. The singles didn't chart and even before she was twenty years old she was addicted to drugs and we didn't hear from her until her come-back in 1962.
Next up Jimmy Liggins, the brother of Joe Liggins, and though the brothers were pretty close they never played together and Jimmy would always remain in the shadows of his elder brother. From Jimmy Liggins, from 1947, is here I can't stop it.
16 - Jimmy Liggins - I Can't Stop It
17 - Annisteen Allen & the Lucky Millinder Orch. - Bongo Boogie
The bongo Boogie, this was Annisteen Allen backed up by Lucky Millinder and his orchestra on the King label from 1951. It was Millinder who gave her the stage name Annisteen instead of her real name Ernestine, afther his own town of birth, Anniston, AL. Now of course Millinder himself used a nickname too, that was pretty close to his real name - Lucius Millinder.
I want to end this show with a great piano instrumental and also a great story. It's five to twelve on New Years Eve of 1947, and it's also five minutes to the recording ban that the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) had announced as a protest against legislation that should restrict the power of labour unions. On these last days of the year, before the recording ban, all record labels held as many recording sessions as possible in an attempt not to run dry in the next year. That was also the case with Specialty records and Camille Howard had been in the studio for the very last hour and there were still five minutes to go until the new year. The X Temperaneous Boogie was improvised on the spot and this is the result - and it got to number 7 on the R&B chart of April, 1948. Here is Camille Howard together with Dallas Bartley (from Louis Jordan's Tympany Five) on bass and Roy Milton on drums.
18 - Camille Howard - X Temperaneous Boogie
And with the X Temperaneous Boogie another episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman has come to an end. One hour is way too short for such great rollicking music and if you think so too, or if you liked or disliked the show, do me a favour and write me an e-mail on rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. Or if you want to review the play list, or want to know more about this program, or see an awful picture of your show host or the coolest record label ever, just do a Google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and it will pop up first. As for now, byebye and have a great day. No, have a rocking day. See you again, next time on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!