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 I'm gonna play a few great classics in different versions - the original song and a notable cover of it. Now covering a good song is nothing special - it happened and it happens all the time, but often a good cover develops the song further into a new stage, into the musical fashion of a new era. Sometimes there's decades between the original version and the cover and I think it's time and time again a great achievement how people get to develop a good composition further.
Like the next one, and in this case there's just months between the original of Clarence Williams and his band, and Tiny Bradshaw's version - that definitely is not a copy. Let's start with the original. Recorded in January of 1934 on the Vocalion label, here is Mister, Will You Serenade.
01 - Clarence Williams - Mister, Will You Serenade
02 - Tiny Bradshaw - Mister, Will You Serenade
And Tiny Bradshaw's version from November of '34 is just 8 months away from Clarence Williams but what a great version.
Now Mister, Will You Serenade never made it to the status of a jazz classic and hearing these two versions that's pretty much surprising - it probably didn't make enough noise back in the thirties. Even though the lyrics are not very exciting the song had enough musical potentional and where many nowadays old-style jazz combos all have classics like I Got A New Baby or Everybody Loves My Baby in their repertoire, well if I'd played in such a band, I for sure would have chosen this wonderful goodie.
For the next one I go back to 1923 with a classic of Trixie Smith - My Man Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll). In the song that she recorded for the Black Swan label, she describes lovemaking around the clock with her man. She did a memorable re-recording in 1938 for Decca where she left out the intro lyrics and added more hours. Together with a follow-up it made for 24 hours of good times with her man.
Now the theme had been used in numerous variations for either partying or lovemaking around the clock. After Trixie's original you'll get one of them - just one of the many around - from Jimmy Rushing as Jimmy's Round The Clock Blues.
03 - Trixie Smith - My Man Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll)
04 - Jimmy Rushing - Jimmy's Round The Clock Blues
(jingle)
05 - Anna Meyers - Tain't Nobody's Biz-ness If I Do
06 - Jimmy Witherspoon - Ain't Nobody's Business
It Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do - in the first recorded version of Anna Meyers backed up by the Original Memphis Five. They were a white jazz combo formed in 1917, and they recorded under different names, including the pretty 'black-sounding' name the Cotton Pickers. After that you got one of the most famous versions of Jimmy Witherspoon on the Modern label.
For the next one a typical wartime blues titled Get Ready To Meet Your Man and in its original version it was done by James 'Beale Street' Clark. A man with a slight handicap was not drafted for the war and so he had the opportunity to have fun with the wives of the men who were. But now the war is over, he has to go and leave the woman for her husband.
The song spawned many covers under different titles such as Look On Yonder Wall, Just An Army Boy or Hand Me Down My Walking Cane, from bluesmen such as Junior Parker, Earl Hooker and Arthur Crudup. Funny thing is, that while the war was over for decades, the song still was being played and recorded.
Here is, on the Columbia label, the original of James 'Beale Street' Clark.
07 - James 'Beale Street' Clark - Get Ready To Meet Your Man
08 - Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup - Hand Me Down My Walking Cane
And that was just one of the covers of James Clark's original, Arthur Crudup with Hand Me Down My Walking Cane.
For the next one I go back to the twenties again with what was the first recording of a traditional blues that's been around long before - Bill Broonzy recalled he learned it from a songster in his childhood. The See See Rider is about the easy rider, either a woman with liberal sexual behavior or a prostitute. Ma Rainey recorded it first in '24, with Louis Armstrong on the cornet for the Paramount label. Here she is.
09 - Ma Rainey - See See Rider Blues
10 - Bea Booze - See See Rider Blues
The first number one hit version of the See See Rider Blues was in 1942 for Bea Booze. There have been over a hundred versions of the song recorded. Later, in '57 Chuck Willis' version also hit number 1.
For the next one I play the original of what became known as Hey Lawdy Mama with the famous line 'bring my boots 'n shoes'. From 1934 on the Melotone label here is Oh Lordy Mama of Buddy Moss.
11 - Buddy Moss - Oh Lordy Mama
12 - June Richmond with Roy Milton and his Solid Senders - Hey Lawdy Mama
This is just a great version with June Richmond with Roy Milton and his Solid Senders that was released as a soundie - a short movie that you could watch on a coin machine for a dime. Of course there are many versions around.
Next a marijuana song of the Harlem Hamfats. Joe McCoy wrote the song that was recorded in October of 1936 for Decca. Listen to that first before I tell you about the women's blues classic that evolved from it.
13 - Harlem Hamfats - Weed smoker's dream
14 - Lil Green - Why Don't You Do Right
Well you heard the similarity between this Why Don't You Do Right of Lil Green and the marijuana-filled song that came before - it's the same composition. Now often in such cases, the melody just was nicked, but in this case, the original composer Joe McCoy rewrote his own song.
Now Lil Green did a great performance, but it was Peggy Lee who made it famous with her recording with Benny Goodman's band. Goodman had noticed Peggy loved this song that she played on a phonograph in her dressing room, and offered her to make an arrangement on it, that was recorded for the Columbia label in 1942. The song was used in the 1943 movie Stage Door Canteen that helped popularize the Peggy Lee version.
And for the last set you'll get the story of the Night Train. There's so many stages in development of this, that I can't possibly play all of them. It starts with a riff of a composition of Johnny Hodges, saxophonist in Duke Ellington's band, that he recorded on his own in a small combo under the title of That's The Blues Old Man.
Duke Ellington used the theme in the Happy-Go-Lucky Local, the first time it was connected to a train. Jimmy Forrest, another saxophonist in the Duke's band, left in '48 and he made it to what we know it best of, the composition Night Train. He recorded it for the United label in 1951. Now probably in order to get a portion of the songwriting royalties, co-owner of the label Lewis Simpkins wrote some lyrics on it - not the best songtexts around - and there are quite a few versions around with these lyrics, next to the instrumental versions.
And then finally James Brown recorded it as the instrumental but instead shouting the cities where he would tour that year - as some extra publicity for his tour. He did the same a year later with his Mashed Potatoes USA.
But first the Johnny Hodges version. On the Bluebird label here is That's The Blues Old Man.
15 - Johnny Hodges - That's The Blues Old Man
16 - Jimmy Forrest - Night Train
17 - James Brown - Night train
And with the funky sounds of of James Brown's Night Train in the background - instead of my usual outtro - I end this show where I highlighted different versions of the same composition - and with that you got the longest time strech I ever did in my program, from a 1923 acoustical recording of Trixie Smith to the '62 funk of James Brown. Unmentioned you even got a later blues, the 1969 version of Look on Yonder Wall of Earl Hooker in the background of my story on Get Ready To Meet Your Man.
And so I hope you liked it - the comparisons between the versions and the stories behind them. And if you want to read them back, the stories, well there's the website of this little program that you can get to, just do a web search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and my show wil pop up first. This is show number 195 in that long list of shows that I already done. Of course you can find more, like what will be on for next week and how to provide feedback - you can do that on the website or e-mail me at rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com.
I'm done for now. I'll get you more great Rhythm & Blues next week. Until then, don't get the blues - be on the lookout for more Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!