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 the people who listen to my program more than just occasionally - you know that so every now and then I spell out the catalog of Decca's pre-war releases on the 7000 Race series. And I just continue where I left you last time, and actually, for a part we're no longer talking pre-war releases anymore. On December 7 of 1941 the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor, causing the United States to declare war to Japan and Germany, and that meant the nation was fully involved in the war. These releases are from November of '41 until somewhere in the spring of '42.
Soon the war and its consequences for African-Americans were to be added to the themes of the blues. But the majority of what I play today was recorded in the months before. As is the next one, a blues of Big Joe Turner. On Decca 7868 here is Chewed Up Grass.
01 - 7868 - Big Joe Turner - Chewed Up Grass
02 - 7869 - Ruby Smith - Fruit Cakin' Mama
Ruby Smith was that and she was backed up by Sammy Price here on the Fruit Cakin' Mama. Smith was a niece-by-marriage of Bessie Smith, and she took the stage name of Smith after her aunt died in 1937 in a car accident. Before then she'd been on the road with Bessie for some fourteen years - despite her aunt had advised her not to get into the music business.
Ruby did recorded some twenty sides between 1938 and '47 but she's best known for the 72-minute interview she did about Bessie, telling juicy stories about her aunt's sex life. The whole interview is included on volume 5 of Bessie Smith's complete recordings CD, and also pretty easy to find on-line if you're interested. There's a parental advisory warning on the CD box for this interview, and that's for a reason.
For the next one we again get Decca's house pianist Sammy Price, here backing up Nora Lee King. Here is Love me.
03 - 7870 - Nora Lee King & Sammy Price - Love Me
04 - 7871 - Sweet Georgia Brown - These Low Down Men Blues
(jingle)
05 - 7873 - Cabineers - Sweet Lousie
06 - 7874 - Roosevelt Sykes - Prison Gate Blues
And that were four in a row - after Nora Lee King you got the obscure Sweet Georgia Brown with These Low Down Men and that was on Decca number 7871. Then came a vocal group named the Cabineers with Sweet Louise and on the web site of Marv Goldberg - the one-stop place when you want to know something about vocal groups - now, there's a long story about this otherwise pretty obscure group. There must have been two groups with this name, one from Cleveland OH, having a weekly stint on local radio station WTAM, but apart from a picture with a few lines in The Cleveland Call about the group planning to go to New York for NBC broadcasts, nothing has ever been heard of them since.
These Cabineers were from New York and with a daily appearance on WINS, a New York station later made famous with Alan Freed's show after he'd left Cleveland's WJW station. This group consisted of William Westbrook, Maggie Furman, Count Cablo, and Matt McKinney and they get their first mention in the New York Amsterdam News in April of 1941. This song was recorded in November of 1940 but Decca released it a full year later.
Well then I have to account for the last one, and that was Roosevelt Sykes billed as the Honeydripper with the Prison Gate Blues on Decca 7874.
For the next one another one of Ruby Smith with Sam Price on the piano - here is the Thinking Blues.
07 - 7875 - Ruby Smith & Sammy Price - Thinking Blues
08 - 7877 - Blind Boy Fuller - Why Don't My Baby Write To Me
On Decca 7877 a re-release of Blind Boy Fuller's Why Don't My Baby Write To Me, backed with If You See My Pigmeat. Not a new recording, the matrix has the same number as the 1937 release. It was released together with the next record, so number 7878, with two sides from that same session in '37, but this one never made it to a release before. Here is the Bulldog Blues.
09 - 7878 - Blind Boy Fuller - Bulldog Blues
10 - 7879 - Peetie Wheatstraw - The Good Lawd's Children
Some see a racial issue sung about, or at least the hypocrisy of Church members or institutions. Some see a deeper, more spiritual meaning in it, the battle between good and evil. Well such deep meanings were not unusual with the blues that Peetie Wheatstraw brought, let's say this is poetry. Just look up the lyrics of this Good Lawd's Children on Google - they are great.
Next more of Sweet Georgia Brown and her voice and delivery keeps on reminding me of Victoria Spivey - only the piano work is different from Spivey, you can easily recognize Sam Price doing the 88s. Here is The Lowdown Lonely Blues.
11 - 7880 - Sweet Georgia Brown - The Lowdown Lonely Blues
12 - 7881 - Blind Boy Fuller - Weeping Willow
And more Blind Boy Fuller from July 1937, from a session two days apart from the one I played some tracks before. Again, this master had been gathering dust until it was taken from the vaults to be released somewhere on the brink of 1942. You got the Weeping Willow on Decca 7881.
And the next one brings us Nora Lee King again with Let Me Rock You Home - it was paired with a Grooveneers song on the flip. She had nothing to do with the vocal group - just that Decca paired the two songs on one platter. Here is Let Me Rock You Home.
13 - 7883 - Nora Lee King & Sammy Price - Let Me Rock You Home
14 - 7885 - Big Joe Turner - Cry Baby Blues
Big Joe Turner at his best - his forties Decca sides have a signature of their own. These Cry Baby Blues were recorded in January of '42 and have Freddie Slack on the piano instead of Pete Johnson - he was Turners pianist from the early thirties when they together left Kansas City for the Big Apple.
It's pretty rare to see a white artist as Freddie Slack make it to the grooves of Decca's race series. Turner's blues apparently weren't ready - or rather, time wasn't ready yet - to release them to the popular series. Slack is often associated with Ella Mae Morse but that was on the Capitol label, later in '42.
For the next one we go back to the Devil's Son In Law as he often called himself. Here is Peetie Wheatstraw with Bring Me Flowers While I'm Living.
15 - 7886 - Peetie Wheatstraw - Bring Me Flowers While I'm Living
16 - 7888 - Sonny Boy Williamson - Shake It But Don't Break It
17 - 7889 - Big Joe Turner - Sun Risin' Blues
Big Joe Turner ends today's episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - you got the Sun Risin' Blues and before that Sonny Boy Williamson - that is, Williamson the First, with Shake It But Don't Break It, actually a cover of the Pinetop Boogie Woogie that's been around from the twenties.
This Chicago-based John Lee Curtis 'Sonny Boy' Williamson is generally called 'the first' cause there was another bluesman calling himself Sonny Boy Williamson - that was Aleck 'Rice' Miller born in Mississippi. Now Miller just later started to use this name, most likely to capitalize on the name of the Chicago bluesman - well there are other stories around but to me they don't make sense.
Williamson the first was a great harmonica player but on this one he left the harp in his pocket. His Good Morning School Girl and Early In The Morning, both on the Bluebird label, are now blues classics.
Today I featured some releases of the Decca label from late 1941 and '42, a pretty much forgotten time with a very own sound that I love very much. And of course if you like it as much as I do, I'll get you more of it. Let me know, you can e-mail me at rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. And all of today's stories are on my website, and easiest way to get there is to search the web for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and it will show up first. Today you got show number 188 - you'll need that number to find it in that long list of episodes that I did until now.
Next week there will be more Rhythm & Blues from me. Until them, have a rocking time. Be on the lookout for more Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!