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 a pretty random selection of tunes that I never played before, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman, and for sure I bet you're gonna enjoy it. And we're gonna start with a nice instrumental of guitarist Dickie Thompson and his band with on the saxophone John Hardee. It was released on the Signature label and Billboard gave it a lukewarm review in their magazine of July 5 of 1947. "An aimless procession of hot choruses" it says, and "the spinning sustains no interest". Well that's what you're gonna get as a starter for today - and judge for yourself. Here is Dickie Thompson with the Swing Song.
01 - Dickie Thompson feat. John Hardee - Swing Song
02 - Marion Abernathy - Stormy Mood
Recorded in August of 1947 that was Marion Abernathy backed up by Paul Bascomb with the Stormy Mood. Abernathy may not be the first that comes in mind when you have to mention a good female blues singer, but by the time, that, the Blues Woman was her nickname and for sure she does a good job on this slow blues. Stormy Mood was recorded for the King label, and she'd moved there after the company where she'd been under contract, the Hollywood-based Melodisc, had burnt down to the ground and it was clear that it would never re-open.
Marion Abernathy was one of the earlier discoveries of Johnny Otis and he brought her to the attention of the owner of the Juke Box label, Art Rupe, and that's where she done her first recordings.
Next another blues woman from another coast - Albinia Jones was a New York resident after she's moved there from Mississippi and she gigged in some of the best clubs, including the Elks Rendezvous and the Club Harlem. On this one she's being accompanied by Don Byas, Dizzy Gillespie and Sammy Price - definitely not the least of musicians. Well here she is - with her version of Leonard Feather's composition Evil Gal Blues.
03 - Albinia Jones - Evil Gal Blues
04 - Paula Watson - I'll Be Glad, Glad, Glad
(jingle)
05 - Cripple Clarence Lofton - Strut That Thing
06 - Buddy Tate - Rock With Me Mamma
And that were four in a row, all great music you got and after Albinia Jones you got Paula Watson with I'll Be Glad, Glad, Glad - a nice jazzy novelty ditty that she did for Decca in 1949. Paula Watson had been the big star of the Supreme label when the big hit she made - A Little Bird Told Me - was the subject of a lawsuit against Decca who'd released the same song done by Evelyn Knight. Now Supreme lost the case and the costly lawsuit meant the end of the little label, and to add insult to injury, Decca gladly took Watson in.
Then after the jingle we made a dive back to 1935 with a raging boogie woogie of Cripple Clarence Lofton. You got Strut That Thing, released on the Vocalion label. Now his nickname was because he walked with a limp but that didn't withold him from his original profession - a tap dancer. Lofton had a very own style of playing and with that he was popular in the Chicago clubs until he retired from the music business in the late forties - by then over sixty years old, well he he definitely was of an older generation, being born in 1887.
And then finally you got Rock With Me Mama from 1950, the band of Buddy Tate was that and it was released on the Columbia label.
Then for the next one, a fine blues guitarist from the Houston Rhythm & Blues scene - Goree Carter. As a teenager he did his most influential song, Rock Awhile, that's often cited as a great influence for Chuck Berry. At the age of 19 he was drafted for the Korean war and when he returned, his career was mostly done.
This was done for the Sitting In With label. Here is the slow blues Everybody's Love Crazy.
07 - Goree Carter - Everybody's Love Crazy
08 - Ivory Joe Hunter - Changing Blues
More slow blues - on the King label from '49 you got the Changing Blues of Ivory Joe Hunter. During all of his career he was very succesful, a career that started at lead singer of Johnny Moore's Three Blazers. In 1945 he had his first hit with Johnny Moore on his self-founded label Ivory records, and soon he had to lease the master to Leon Rene's Exclusive label to be able to meet the demand. Hunter again started a record label that in 1948 had another hit of himself - the Pretty Mama Blues peaked the R&B chart for three weeks - and many, many hits more during the fifties on several labels - both in Rhythm & Blues and in Country & Western.
Next another former lead singer of Johnny Moore's outfit - Charles Brown. Moore's group was formed after the great succes of Nat King Cole and effectively took Cole's place when he started to tour outside of Los Angeles. The success of the group was merely Brown's merit but Moore didn't give him the credit nor the payment for it. He left Moore in '48 to start out for himself and he developed his typical mellow and troublesome blues style.
In his turn he was a major influence on Ray Charles who started a combo similar to Nat King Cole or Johnny Moore - but Charles' style came much closer to Brown's that Cole's - in fact it was even more troublesome.
So listen to a typical blues of Charles Brown - the Homesick Blues.
09 - Charles Brown - Homesick Blues
10 - Bill Samuels - Open The Door Richard!
Bill Samuels and his Cats 'n Jammer Three with their version of the immensely popular Open The Door Richard, recorded for Mercury in 1947 when Jack McVea had a big hit with it. The music is McVea's but the vaudeville sketch that it was based on is much older. Two comedians, Dusty Fletcher and Pigmeat Markham had played it numerous times in Harlem's Apollo theatre - the latter in blackface, that already in the thirties had become very controversial for being so degrading to African Americans.
Several versions, including Count Basie, Dusty Fletcher and Louis Jordan made subsequent hits on the Rhythm & Blues hit list in 1947. Bill Samuels version didn't chart but I think it's equally enjoyable.
The origins of the song in vaudeville led to a huge copyright fight. Pigmeat Markham had tributed the idea to comedian Bob Russell but he was dead by the time McVea's version saw daylight. It finally settled with the credits to several people, none of them had written either the words nor the music, leaving the heirs of Bob Russel and Jack McVea with nothing.
The phrase Open The Door Richard got a special meaning in the civil rights movement, where opening the door meant letting African Americans in at places in society that were closed before, like an editorial in the Los Angeles Sentinel pleaing for African American representation in local government.
And after all this talk it's time for music again. From 1949 you get guitarist Pee Wee Crayton with a recording that he did for the Modern label. Here is the Brand New Woman.
11 - Pee Wee Crayton - Brand New Woman
12 - Meade Lux Lewis - Jumpin' With Pete
I had another boogie woogie great today, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman, with Cripple Clarence Lofton and this was Meade Lux Lewis with - not a boogie woogie but a smooth piano shuffler - Jumpin' With Pete. Lux was not is middle name, but a nickname short for the Duke of Luxemburg after a gimmick he used to do in his childhood.
He had recorded his signature instrumental - the Honky Tonk Train Blues - already in 1927 for Paramount but his fame grew after a joint concert in 1938 with old-time friend Albert Ammons and Kansas City pianist Pete Johnson at Carnegie Hall that spawned a renewed insterest in the boogie woogie, or rather a boogie woogie craze that crossed over to the white artists like Will Bradley with his raging Beat Me Daddy Eight To The Bar.
The craze though did not survive the war - but Lewis kept finding work in clubs where he showcased his talent. The boogie woogie though, it played an important role in the making of Rock 'n Roll and the pre-war revival of the style has been the major contribution to that.
Next up a recording of Jimmy Witherspoon that he recorded in October of 1947 for the Supreme label. Here is Hey Mr. Landlord.
13 - Jimmy Witherspoon - Hey Mr. Landlord
14 - Jimmy Liggins - Misery Blues
Recorded in the last days of 1948 Jimmy Liggins and his combo the Drops of Joy with the Misery Blues - well that is some of a contrast with the band's name. Jimmy Liggins is the brother of Joe Liggins and he always remained in the shadows of his elder brother, who was commercially much more succesful. The brothers never played together in a band.
Next a pioneer on the electric guitar - Saunders King. He did most of his earlier recordings for the San Francisco based Rhythm label - like this one. King was from Oakland and that town had been one of the less documented centers of the blues, but Oakland also been stage for Ivory Joe Hunter, Pee Wee Crayton, Lowell Fulson and Jimmy McCracklin. And like all of the West Coast bluesmen, they'd come from the Deep South. King was from Lousiana.
Here he is with Write Me A Letter.
15 - Saunders King - Write Me A Letter Blues
16 - Percy Mayfield - Life Is Suicide
Percy Mayfield with Life Is Suicide and that was a recording from 1950 on the Specialty label. And that made for the end of another hour of raging Rhythm & Blues with a mixed bag of tunes, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman.
And you know, maybe you heard that I had a little trouble presenting the show. I caught a cold and that explains, so please bear with me, listeners. Well it's the music that brought you here I suppose.
In my childhood I wondered whether radio and TV presenters never got sick 'cause I never heard one cough or sneeze or sound like they had the flu or a cold and my father told me that they should always take care going out, dress warm, to make sure not to catch a cold and what stuck to me most, as a little kid, never eat ice cream. Now recently I haven't eaten any ice cream so I'm afraid that didn't work for a recipe.
But the show must go on and I'm just required to deliver a show every week. So here you go. And I hope you still enjoyed it. Well let me know and send me an e-mail. Adress it to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com and it won't be needing a post stamp. And should you have missed something on my story that you want to know about, don't worry 'cause everything is on my web site. Do a google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and it will show up first. This show was number 163 in that long, long list of episodes that I already did.
Well it's time for a cup of hot tea and I'm gonna take a dive under the blankets. There will be another show next week, hopefully with a brighter voice that I had today. So see you next week, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!