This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And today it's a bit of forgotten legends that you're getting from me - I selected some oddities from my music collection that you won't get to hear that often. You know, it's one of my favourite things to do, just browsing around in my music collection and find out again what was hidden in the grooves of these re-issue LPs from the eighties, stuff that I still have to catalog for myself but I just can't find the time for it. And sure that leaves for some real cool gems. So let me just start with a litle finding that I did on a 1985 Stateside EP with a wonderful duet of Nellie Lutcher with Nat 'King' Cole. Here is For You My Love.
01 - Nellie Lutcher & Nat 'King' Cole - For You My Love
02 - Joe Thomas - Lavender Coffin
Now that should be everyone's last wish, to be buried in a Lavender Coffin. You heard Joe Thomas and according to the 1977 Arbee LP that I found this little gem on, he'd been working as a tenor saxophonist for Jimmy Lunceford and after Lunceford died in 1947 he was one of the band members that kept the band going on for another two years. In the early fifties he'd started for his own for a few years and somewhere from that period this song must have been. He left the music scene to join the family business as an undertaker. I suppose they had lavender coffins.
On that same LP I found this army recruitment song. Here are Lollipop Jones & Ethel Morris with the Aviator Papa.
03 - Lollipop Jones & Ethel Morris - Aviator Papa
04 - Tab Smith - Roebie's Blues
And we made a jump to the West coast when in 1945 Tab Smith recorded in Los Angeles Roebie's Blues, that I found on an LP on the Saxophonograph label. The lead vocal is Roebie Kirk singing about his four hundred pound gal who left him after a party.
We stay on the West Coast with Betty Hall Jones. In 1949 she recorded That's a man for you for Capitol records and I found that on a 1985 french Pathe Marconi LP titled Those great blues girls from the forties. Listen to Betty Hall Jones.
05 - Betty Hall Jones - That's A Man For You
06 - Tiny Bradshaw - Bradshaw Boogie
And that came straight from a King 78 and a pretty clean one, from 1951 the Bradshaw Boogie - that was Tiny Bradshaw of course. That sax break was Red Prysock for whom it was the first time working with Bradshaw.
Up now Hot Lips Page fronting Lucky Thompson's combo as a vocalist with My Gal Is Gone. Now ever since the movie and TV series MASH I can only think of Major Houlihan when I hear the name of Hot Lips but it was the nickname of trumpeter and singer Oran Thaddeus Page. Now in the thirties and forties he has been leader of at least thirteen bands working with numerous artists. He died young - at the age of 46, in 1954. Nowadays, not many people remember his name but he has been an influential person in the development of the Rhythm & Blues. Listen to My Gal Is Gone.
07 - Lucky Thompson with Hot Lips Page - My Gal Is Gone
08 - Dossie Terry - Sad Sad Affair
Sad Sad Affair, that was Dossie Terry - and that is a pretty unfamiliar name. Now according to the liner notes of the LP that I found this on, it was recorded in 1951 in New York, with Howard Bigg's orchestra that includes Budd Johnson on sax. The notes do not get much farther than that he was a singer and songwriter. He wrote for instance for Teddy 'Mr. Bear' McRae's hit Hi-Fi Baby in 1958. But that, and some youtube clips that show that he recorded for the King and RCA Victor labels, is about all I could find about him.
The LP by the way was titled Harlem Heavies, undated, no country of issue but I think it's European. It was labeled as Moonshine BLP 107 and I'm pretty sure that is not the Moonshine label from Hollywood that specializes in house and trance music on vinyl.
Going back to 1946 with a recording of Tiny Grimes with Gatemouth Moore on lead. This was released on the National label. Here is Nobody Knows The Way I Feel This Morning
09 - Gatemouth Moore & the Tiny Grimes Quintette - Nobody Knows The Way I Feel This Morning
10 - Tiny Grimes & Charlie Parker - Romance Without Finance
And we stayed with Tiny Grimes a little more, here together with Charlie Parker with Romance Without Finance. Well I know a few songs with that title, all different but all say that it takes some dough to keep the romance going and I found this little gem on a cassette - really - titled Stompin' at the Savoy. I did a little research and found out that there has been a re-release of this as a CD in 2003 on the Giant Steps label, titled Still Stompin' at the Savoy with a few extras on it.
And then now - as they say - for something completely different. On a 1960 Jubilee LP titled Whoppers featuring several vocal groups I found this little gem. Here are the Ravens, with that gorgeous voice of Jimmy Ricks, with Take Me Back To My Boots and Saddle
11 - Ravens - Take Me Back To My Boots and Saddle
12 - Billie Ward & the Dominoes - Come To Me Baby
From that same album Whoppers, that were Billie Ward & the Dominoes with Come To Me Baby, and that's a perfect blend of big band backed Rhythm & Blues with that gospelish style that they'd specialized in.
Next - from an EP featuring four different stars on the Atlantic roster, here is Ruth Brown with too many men.
13 - Ruth Brown - Too Many Men
14 - B.B. King - Everything I do is wrong
Now the sound quality of that one may be a little rough - it's straigt from a 78 from 1954 on the RPM label. You heard B.B. King with Everything I do is wrong.
From a Willie Mabon album titled Chess Masters I'll play Poison Ivy - recorded in Chicago in 1954.
15 - Willie Mabon - Poison Ivy
16 - Jay McShann & His Orchestra feat. Walter Brown - Confessin' The Blues
Confessing the blues - a blues standard that was done by many artists including Chuck Berry, Little Walter and of course the Rolling Stones. This was the original of Jay McShann's band featuring Walter Brown on vocals and it's from as far back as 1941.
I want to go on with a track from an album that I already played that Betty Hall Jones song from, titled Those great blues girls from the forties. It's a song from the pretty obscure Tina Dixon, recorded in Houston in 1947 for the Aladdin label. Here is Don't You Know I Want To Love You
17 - Tina Dixon - Don't You Know I Want To Love You
18 - Larry Dale - Let The Doorbell Ring
19 - Big John Greer - I'll Never Let You Go
And Big John Greer marks the end of this episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - that was I'll Never Let You Go and before that you got Let the Doorbell Ring from Larry Dale. Well you heard an all-vinyl and shellac show today and I hope you liked my selection, mostly from re-issue albums and a few from the original 78.
I know there's a whole lot more to explore and that's why you get these unthemed shows every now and then. Well you can let me know what you thought of this show - just drop me a line at rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. Or find me on the web, just do a google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and it will show up first. Time's up for now, so byebye and have a great day. No - have a rocking day. See you next time, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!