This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
Yeah, I love you, my audience, it's so great to be with you again here on another show of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman, and as always I'll promise you some of the best of Rhythm & Blues. And that'll bring us some of the obscurest and some great names - well that's not new either.
I want to start with a 1950 recording on the Fortune label. It was done in Detroit and the piano is played by two people - Big Maceo Merriweather and James Watkins. John Brim does the guitar and the singing and harmonica is Grace Brim - and so often you don't see female harp players.
Here they are with Strange Man.
01 - John Brim feat. Grace Brim - Strange Man
02 - Johnny Moore's Three Blazers - St Louis Blues
Straight from the 78 of the Exclusive label that was the St. Louis Blues of Johnny Moore's Three Blazers - featuring Charles Brown on the piano and singing. Now Brown was the star of the group - far more than guitarist Johnny Moore but Moore refused to give him the credits - and the payment. Brown left in '48 to pursue a solo career - and highly succesful, with ten charting hits between '49 adn 52.
Many artists followed his style of mellow and soft blues, but through the time they got to sound more and more troublesome and worried. In Ray Charles' early recordings you hear very much the style of Brown - that again was inspired on Nat 'King' Cole.
The next one is an influential figure in the New Orleans scene - Roy Byrd or as we know him better, Professor Longhair. Now his weird stage name - and of the band called the Shuffling Hungarians - that came from the owner of the club where he played - the Caldonia. His recordings on Mercury were done under his real name. Billed as Roy Byrd and his Blues Jumpers you'll get the Hadacol Bounce.
And should you wonder what Hadacol is - it was a multivitamin elixir with 12 percent of alcohol - as a preservative it was claimed - but that probably was the main attraction, especially in counties where the sale of liquor was prohibited. By 1950 the mix had become a national hype - thanks to the agressive marketing that was unheard of in these days, the merchandise and the 25 cent discount token that bore the portrait of the inventor, Louisiana State Senator Dudley LeBlanc.
But here is the song - the Hadacol Bounce.
03 - Roy Byrd & his Blues Jumpers - Hadacol Bounce
04 - Hubert Robinson - Answer To Wintertime Blues
(jingle)
05 - Robert Lockwood Jr. - I'm Gonna Dig Myself A Hole
06 - Sunnyland Slim w Muddy Waters' Combo - My Baby, My Baby
A whole lotta music again - after Professor Longhair's Hadacol Bounce, you got the Answer To Wintertime Blues of Texas bluesman Hubert Robinson on the Houston based Macy's label. The Macy's department Store - it had no relation to the New York based chain - was one of the outlets for the records but they had a distribution network in Atlanta and in New Orleans.
This was the Answer to Wintertime Blues - the Wintertime Blues itself had been the major Rhytm & Blues hit of Macy's done by Lester Williams. Macy's recorded both Rhythm & Blues and Hillbilly - their major country music asset was Jim Reeves. Still the label existed for only two years, and afterwards most of their Rhythm & Blues artists made the move to Los Angeles and joined the Modern label of the Bihari Brothers.
You got more - after the jingle that was Robert Lockwood Jr. with I'm Gonna Dig Myself A Hole and finally on the Aristocrat label Sunnyland Slim with My Baby, My Baby, backed by Muddy Waters and his band.
Next on the Philadelphia based 20th Century label Let Me Be Your Coal Man of James 'Sweet Lucy' Carter. It was recorded in Chicago by J. Mayo Williams and the master was dealt to Irvin Ballen's 20th Century label. The flip was wrongly, also credited to James Carter, but instead it had Muddy Waters on it with the Mean Red Spider. Now you wouldn't easily have recognized Muddy Waters, cause Williams had recorded him, instead of his own band, with a trio consisting of alto sax, clarinet and piano in a style that harked back to the thirties blues on Decca's Race series - also headed by Mayo Williams.
But here is James 'Sweet Lucy' Carter with Let Me Be Your Coal Man.
07 - James 'Sweet Lucy' Carter - Let Me Be Your Coal Man
08 - Jesse Price - Blue Book Boogie
From '47 released on Capitol's Americana series that was the Blue Book Boogie of Jesse Price. Price was a drummer in many of the leading jazz bands - including Count Basie, Harlan Leonard and Louis Armstrong and later also for Jay McShann and Slim Gaillard. The sessions he did for Capitol were mostly blues based.
Next a recording of the great pianist Fats Waller - one of the founders of the stride piano style but also a great comedian. Already at a young age he signed with Victor where he recorded all of his life. Starting in '34 he done numerous recordings with his small combo as Fats Waller and his Rhythm.
Well I done a lot of legendary stories in my shows so far, and for sure Fats Waller had one to tell. He was only 22 years old when he was kidnapped after a gig he done in Chicago. They brought him to a hotel owned by Al Capone - and with the pistol still in his back they put him at the piano. So he was the surprise guest at Capone's birthday party. Legend has it, that they kept him there for three days leaving Waller stone drunk, tired and with a few thousand dollars in his pockets.
Now Waller had the odd combination of being a seriously influential musician and a great comedian. That's sometimes not a good combination - and for Waller it means that he hasn't always got the recognition of an important pianist that he deserves. I can only say, I value him for both. In the countless movie shorts he made, it's fun to watch him, and in his recordings he shows off his piano skills.
Waller was an obese man with a not-so-healthy lifestyle. In '43 during a long train ride from Los Angeles to New York, he suddenly died of an unrecognized pneumonia during a stop in Kansas City.
Here he is with a '39 recording for RCA Victor - Who'll take my place.
09 - Fats Waller - Who'll Take My Place
10 - Arthur Big Boy Crudup - She's Gone
She's Gone of Arthur Crudup on RCA Victor recorded in 1945 and of course we know Crudup of the blues that Elvis covered of him - including That's Alright that started the career of the King of Rock 'n Roll with the Sun label. Unfortunately the interest of the Rock 'n Roll artists didn't get Crudup any revenue. Several people have attempted to assist him in getting the royalties he was entitled to but none of them ever succeeded, leaving Crudup to work as a laborer, bus driver and liquor bootlegger next to his ill-paid gigs in juke joints. Only after his death in '74 his heirs have succeeded to get any money for the songs Crudup wrote.
Next from 1944 on the Bluebird label, billed as Big Joe and his Rhythm, Kansas Joe McCoy with Your Money Can't Buy Me.
11 - Big Joe - Your Money Can't Buy Me
12 - Tommy McClennan - Bottle It Up And Go
And we stayed with the Bluebird label with this '39 recording of Tommy McClennan - Bottle It Up And Go. In this version it became a classic that was covered by John Lee Hooker, Blind Boy Fuller and B.B. King - with somewhat different titles. McClennan got the writer credits, but he had based it on several other songs - Got the Bottle Up and Go of Sonny Boy Williamson the First, then, the Hesitation Blues, the Duck's Yas Yas - a '29 hokum blues made famous by Oliver Cobb and his Rhythm Kings - and a 1927 song of Julius Daniels titled Can't Put the Bridle On That Mule This Morning. It's full of racially loaded lyrics that caused troubles to McClennan several times. In a '42 re-recording under the title of Shake It Up And Go he had altered the lyrics.
And one more recording on Bluebird with Washboard Sam. Here is I Laid My Cards On The Table.
13 - Washboard Sam - I Laid My Cards On The Table
14 - Henry Red Allen - Sticks And Stones
From 1947 on Vocalion the band of Henry 'Red' Allen featuring a young Tab Smith on the alto saxophone - during the same time that he also played in the band of Lucky Millinder. During the thirties he was a freelance musician - only after the war he went out on his own, recording for the independent record company of J. Mayo Williams and more succesful, in the fifties for the United label.
And today the music gets older as we go further - next one is from 1934. On Vocalion this is Peetie Wheatstraw with the Long Time Ago Blues.
15 - Peetie Wheatstraw - Long Time Ago Blues
16 - Cow Cow Davenport - Chimin' The Blues
17 - Foster & Harris (Tampa Red & Georgia Tom) - The Alley Crap Game
Hokum of Tampa Red and Georgia Tom, here on the Paramount label billed as Foster and Farris with the Alley Crap Game from September of '28 and that will be the last one today here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. But you got one more from the same year, and that was Chimin' The Blues of Cow Cow Davenport on the Vocalion label.
I had a lot of stories in today's show and I hope you liked them, together with the music, and of course you can let me know and send your comments to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. And these stories, you can find them back on the website of this radio show, and easiest way to get there is to search the web for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Once in you'll have to look for show number 218.
Time's up for now - and there's more to enjoy after a week's wait. That's a long time, listeners, but well worth the wait cause I'll be back with another shot of Rhythm & Blues. So I hope to see you then, here, on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!