The Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - episode 199

Decca 7000 series (end)

This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.

And some more great blues from the Decca 7000 series for today, that is, the very last ones of them, as today we'll reach the end of the series. Later, I'll tell you more about the long history of the Race series of this label, that made Decca the leading label for the blues in Chicago and New York for nearly a decade.

Let's start with the music - after all that's what you came here for. On Decca 7888 this is Sonny Boy Williams - not the bluesman - with the Worried Life Blues.

00 - 7888 - Sonny Boy Williamson I - Worried Life Blues.mp3
00 - 7891 - Jewel Paige - I'm Left with a Broken Heart.mp3

On Decca 7891 Jewel Paige and her Brown Brownies as the backing band was credited on this one, actually a combo led by Joe Brown. You heard I'm Left With A Broken Heart, recorded in 1941 and well, this Jewel Paige only made a few recordings and she's been featured on the a 1943 broadcast record of the AFRS Jubilee show - a show aimed at African-American soldiers during the war.

The record was backed with a recording of Nora Lee King backed by Sammy Price and his band the Texas Blusicians. Here it is, the Deep Sea Diver.

00 - 7891 - Nora Lee King with Sammy Price - Deep Sea Diver.mp3
00 - 7892 - Blind Boy Fuller - Stingy Mama.mp3

(jingle)

00 - 7894 - Peetie Wheatstraw - Don't Put Yourself On The Spot.mp3
00 - 7895 - Lem Johnson - Candy Blues.mp3

That was a whole lot of music, four in a row and after the Deep Sea Diver of Nora Lee King, you got a release of Blind Boy Fuller's Stingy mama, a recording he did in 1937 but that went unreleased by the time - like most of the recordings he done for the label. The reason for that was, that Fuller was under exclusive contract with the ARC label when he had recorded with Decca.

Fuller died in 1941 of kidney failure and infections - and with that Decca could finally release the records.

You got more - after the jingle that was Don't Put Yourself On The Spot of Peetie Wheatstraw on Decca 7895 and finally the Candy Blues of Lem Johnson. Now Johnson primarily was a tenor saxophonist and a good one too. He played in recordings of Louis Jordan in the late thirties and with him he did an excellent honk in the instrumental Flat Face from '39. In the band of Skeets Tolbert he also excelled as a singer - and this record is a vocal solo of the saxophonist with pianist Sammy Price that sounds more like the typical pre-war blues of Decca than the swing saxophonist that we know him of.

But I think he does great. Let's flip the record over and hear the other side. Here is Going Down Slow.

00 - 7895 - Lem Johnson - Going Down Slow.mp3
00 - 7898 - Sonny Boy Williamson I - Wee Wee Hours.mp3

The jazz and pop singer Sonny Boy Williams - and that is someone else than the bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson - with the Wee Wee Hours. Well it's easy to tell the difference, and that sure counts for the flip, I'll Bring Home The Bacon For You, Baby, a colorless pop song.

The next issue - we're talking number 7899 then - again is an issue of Blind Boy Fuller from a recording that had been in the vaults since 1937. Here he is with the Walking and Looking Blues.

00 - 7899 - Blind Boy Fuller - Walking and Looking Blues.mp3
00 - 7901 - Peetie Wheatstraw - Old Organ Blues.mp3

The Old Organ Blues of Peetie Wheatstraw in this last special on the Decca 7000 series - that is, for the forties. Regular listeners will know that I spell out the catalog of Decca every now and then. Nearly a hundred shows back - it was show number 102, nearly two years ago - I started somewhere in 1940, with issue 7730 and since, every now and then when I did a special on this series of Decca, I've played every record that's been issued since, except the gospels and a few records that I simply could not lay my hands on.

In fact, the music is pretty easy to find as nearly everything has seen re-issues on either extensive anthologies on the artists or compilation albums with titles like 'Jazzing the Blues' or 'Women's blues' - and especially the Document series CDs have proven to be extremely useful. To spell out catalogs of postwar labels is much more difficult and requires much more patience - there's still a huge amount of that material waiting to be re-issued.

It helps of course, that Decca had become one of the major record labels and their masters have always remained well-organized and accessible for re-issue programs - other than the many postwar indies that took over large parts of the market for Rhythm & Blues.

As for the 7000 race series, two events mark its end. I think the major force has been the 1942-44 strike of the American Federation of musicians. Apart from one or two records, everything in the series is from before this strike. The second is, that once Decca got back to recording, head of the Race music department J. Mayo Williams quit the company. He started his own independent record labels, named Harlem, Chicago, Southern and Ebony - a pretty low-profile initiative. Williams had made his fortune in his years with Decca and before the Great Depression, when he headed the Race departments of Paramount and later Vocalion.

The American branch of Decca had started in August of 1934 when Jack Kapp launched it - originally Decca was British and there it had started in '29. J. Mayo Williams had worked with Jack Kapp before, both had headed the Vocalion Race series in the late twenties. Williams had been without work as a recording executive from 1930 to '34, when he found employment as a football trainer in Atlanta - in the early twenties he'd been a succesful professional football player in the National Football League for the Hammond Pros and other teams.

The 7000 series was started as one of the first series of Decca. The Great Depression had forced many record companies to either cease operations or work low profile. By '34 the economic situation still was pretty bad, but the fact that Decca immediately got succesful, proved that America slowly was recovering.

By 1940 Decca launched its 8500 Sepia series and quite a few artists were transferred from the 7000 series to this one. The series was for records that might have potential to cross over to the general audience. It came with a better promotion budget and more upscale instrumental backing. Most swing jazz that didn't make it to the popular series ended up here, and then Louis Jordan, Jay McShann, a few records of Nat King Cole, but also some blues singers, like Bea Booze, some records of Sonny Boy Williamson, Big Joe Turner. You can say, the Sepia series got the sound that would grow into the afterwar Rhythm & Blues.

For the future I promise you to extensively feature this Sepia series like I did with the 7000 series. But for now, let's finish that Race series. You just got a Blind Boy Fuller and a Peetie Wheatstraw release, and the numbers 7903 and 7904 again are for these two artists. So first you'll get Put You Back In Jail of Blind Boy Fuller.

00 - 7903 - Blind Boy Fuller - Put You Back In Jail.mp3
00 - 7904 - Peetie Wheatstraw - Southern Girl Blues.mp3

The Southern Girl Blues of Peetie Wheatstraw on Decca 7904 - and the flip of it was a track of Oscar Woods that was recorded six years before, in 1936. Here it is - the Evil Hearted Woman Blues.

00 - 7904 - Oscar Woods - Evil Hearted Woman Blues.mp3
00 - 7906 - Curley Weaver - Sometime Mama.mp3
00 - 7906 - Curley Weaver - Two Faced Woman.mp3

And that also was an issue from long time before - two sides of Curley Weaver but these had been released before, in 1935 on the Champion label. This label, that ran in 1935 only, was somewhat of a subsidiary of Decca, be it that most of it consisted of re-releases on the Gennett and Paramount labels. Now this was recorded in '35, the listing says. Anyhow, the Decca 7906 that I played was a re-issue - you heard Sometime Mama and the Two Faced Woman.

Now up to now, all issues had been before August of '42, so before the recording strike of the American Federation of Musicians started. Only three issues are dated after the strike. That is two records containing gospel of the Selah Jubilee Singers and the Harmonizing Four, and the very last issue is a blues of some Perline Ellison - her only recording as far as I found out. Why these three issues were done, while the series had been ended two years ago, I don't know. But here she is, and I'll play both sides of the record. The last one in the famous 7000 series of Decca, here is Perline Ellison with the New That Ain't Right and the Razor Totin Mama

00 - 7910 - Perline Ellison - New That Ain't Right.mp3
00 - 7910 - Perline Ellison - Razor Totin Mama.mp3

And both sides of Decca's very last issue of the legendary 7000 series marks the end of this show number 199. There's very little time left so I just wanna mention my e-mail address should you want to provide feedback - rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. And today's story is full-text available from my website, that you can find with a web search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman.

Next week will be show number 200 where I look back at nearly four years of Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Of course, you'll get your regular shot of Rhythm & Blues. So see you back at that anniversary show, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!