This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And I'm back, glad to be your show host again here for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Great music is what you'll get from me again, from the roaring twenties up to the rocking fifties, before Rock 'n Roll shook the nation, the days when life was hard but oh, that music - it was your only consolation.
For the first one I go back to the year 1924, in the days of acoustical recordings. Despite the economic boom, this was a difficult time for the recording industry. Radio was the new thing, and with a sound quality much better than from your phonograph, you could listen to much more music than you could ever own yourself - be it, that you were not in control over what to play. It was about time that the industry would strike back - with better sound quality, and that came in '25 with the introduction of electrical recording by General Electric. Up to then, technology hadn't really changed since Thomas Edison had recorded a voice the very first time, nearly fifty years before.
But as I said - this was before, and the musicians had to crowd around a huge horn to capture the music. In that setting this was recorded for the Paramount label - the New Orleans Goofer Dust Blues of Thelma La Vizzo.
01 - Thelma La Vizzo - New Orleans Goofer Dust Blues
02 - Clara Smith - Ain't Got Nobody To Grind My Coffee
Ain't Got Nobody To Grind My Coffee - that was Clara Smith, one of the three great blueswomen named Smith - no family relation. She and Bessie Smith were close friends until a physical fight with a drunk Bessie in 1925. This was recorded in '28 for Columbia after a rejected take a few months earlier. The tune was written by Clarence Williams.
Clara Smith was advertized as the Queen of the Moaners and her many takes for the Columbia label, some of them are accompanied by top musicians - including Clarence Williams, Fletcher Henderson and Louis Armstrong.
Next the now infamous song Shave 'Em Dry - in a version by James Boodle-It Wiggins. The song was made popular by Ma Rainey and well - it's a blues on the rowdy side, definitely, but people now only remember the under-the-counter version of Lucille Bogan, that is sexually so explicit that I can't play it here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman, and it got numerous postings on Youtube where young folks are shocked that in the days of their great-grandparents music was recorded that would make nowadays rappers blush.
Wiggins recorded his version for the Paramount label in 1929 or '30. Any details on the singer, unfortunately, they have been lost to history. Here he is with Gotta Shave 'Em Dry.
03 - James 'Boodle-It' Wiggins - Gotta Shave 'Em Dry
04 - Charley Jordan - Rolling Moon Blues
(jingle)
05 - Blanche Calloway & Her Band - Louisiana Liza
06 - Tampa Red - Let's Get Drunk And Truck
Some great stuff from the Great Depression rolled by - after James 'Boodle-It' Wiggins that was the Rolling Moon Blues of Charley Jordan from 1934 on Decca - in the first year of operation of this label, that was started as the American branch of the well-established British label.
Jordan was a key figure in the St. Louis blues scene, running something like a club or rehearsal studio from a house in his hometown - it draw all kinds of bluesmen. From this position he brought many of them to the studios in Chicago. After he died in 1954 his legacy was soon forgotten until the Document label dusted off the old masters and records and they compiled a three-volume set on him.
And like with so many of them old bluesmen, that brought them to listeners much farther away from their hometown than ever in the days they lived. These musicians lived a life far from shiny or glamorous - many of them had to work hard, a menial job next to their blues gigs in rowdy, smoky and noisy juke joints. And I suppose none of the twenties and thirties bluesmen I play on here, none of 'em will ever have thought their stars would shine again in an obscure radio program, some 80 or 90 years from the day they recorded it in a studio for a few bucks per song.
You got more - four in a row and the swing band that came after the jingle - well it definitely got some more glamour than these bluesmen. That was Blanche Calloway - indeed the sister of - and many think she was even more talented than her brother. She led her own, all-male band but as a Black woman she struggled to keep it alive. She had to face two kinds of discrimination, both on race and gender. Her recordings, they show us at least a glimpse of her flamboyant style - a feature that she shared with her brother. On many occasions, Cab Calloway has credited his elder sister for being a great example to him.
And then I have to account for the last one that I played - well that was Tampa Red with his version of Let's Get Drunk And Truck from 1936 on the Bluebird label and that was a popular song of the day - also done by the Harlem Hamfats and Lil Johnson.
Next some nice goodtime depression jazz - from 1937 on the Vocalion label the obscure ensemble Jimmy Luverte & His Society Troubadors with That Don't Worry Me.
07 - Jimmy Luverte & His Society Troubadors - That Don't Worry Me
08 - Washboard Sam - Ladies Man
The Ladies Man of Washboard Sam and he recorded that for the Bluebird label in 1937. By the late thirties Robert Clifford Brown as his real name was, he was immensely popular in Chicago where he played for packed audiences in sold out performances. For Vocalion and Bluebird and its parent label RCA Victor he done some 160 sides, but by 1950 he got out of fashion and he took a job as a police officer. The blues revival meant only a modest comeback for him, and when he died in 1966 he was buried in an unmarked grave.
Next bluesman Peetie Wheatstraw - the stage name for William Bunch. He also used names like High Sherriff From Hell or the Devil's Son-in-Law and similar to Robert Johnson he told the story of having sold his soul to the devil on a crossroads. But unlike Johnson, Wheatstraw's music doesn't sound devilish or evil or even haunted - it's rather self-mocking with a hint of sarcasm.
His trademark was his ooh-well phrase that he used in his lyrics - copied by several other bluesmen of his time. He wasn't a very good pianist and not at all a guitarist - confusingly because the only picture that's left of him shows him with a guitar. But he was a good singer with highly original lyrics and that's what made him a popular bluesman.
Here he is with the Confidence man - on Decca from 1939.
09 - Peetie Wheatstraw - Confidence Man
10 - Joe Turner with Art Tatum - Lucille
More on the Decca label with Lucille of Big Joe Turner backed by Art Tatum from 1941. These sessions - they done two together - they boosted the popularity of the pianist. As for Turner, he just got a fime print mentioning vocal chorus by Joe Turner.
Art Tatum won the popularity poll for best jazz pianist in Esquire Magazine, and he started a trio similar to Nat King Cole's, with Tiny Grimes and Slam Stewart. The bebop did not appeal to him, and eventually he fell out of favor.
And we move on to another Decca pianist - next is Erskine Butterfield with the then popular song A Zoot Suit. The song describes how his outfit should look, for meeting his Sunday gal. The zoot suit was closely connected with the early 1940s African American culture and got in fashion as flashy outfit for men in Harlem and the African-American neighborhoods in other big cities. Soon they also became popular with Latinos, Italian and Filipino Americans - but primarily, it was the ultimate hepcat's outfit.
The suit had large amount of fabric in them - they were wide everywhere, with a long coat that served as jacket, huge padded shoulders, high-waisted and wide trousers. Later during the war the extravagant suits were considered unpatriotic, because in a time where everything was rationed or in short supply so much fabric was wasted on the suits. In 1943 this led to the zoot suit riots in Los Angeles - though they were rather racist-motivated, especially against Mexican immigrants.
In this song from 1942, there's nothing of the negative sentiment of just a year later. The suit is to please and impress the girl he wants to date. Here is Erskine Butterfield.
11 - Erskine Butterfield - A Zoot Suit
12 - Cliff Jackson - Squeeze Me
From 1944 on the Black & White label pianist Cliff Jackson with Squeeze me - the clarinet was done by Pee Wee Russell. These days Jackson was the house pianist in the upscale Cafe Society in New York. This is from one of the New York sessions of the Black & White label done before the company was sold in 1945 and moved to Los Angeles.
Next the pianist and band leader Lorenzo Flennoy with his trio that was modeled after Nat King Cole's. Flennoy had led a big band that played the prestigious Club Alabam on Central Avenue in Los Angeles. In a much smaller setting, he recorded for the US Armed Forces on its legendary Jubilee shows, and for Melodisc before he signed with the Excelsior label of Otis Rene. It's on this label where he recorded this I Ain't Mad At You Pretty Baby.
13 - Flennoy Trio - I Ain't Mad At You Pretty Baby
14 - Rickey Jordan - Drop Dead
From the Excelsior label to the Exclusive label is a small step - the labels were owned by brothers. On the Exclusive label of Leon Rene was this Drop Dead of Rickey Jordan recorded in 1946.
And the next one is the birth of a real classic. We're talking 1945 and Deek Watson, one of the singers of the Ink Spots, he had left the group after a dispute on leadership. He started a new group with the same name but he was forced to change it, and he chose Brown Dots as their new name.
Pat Best was the baritone and guitarist of the group, and an amateur poet. He wrote I Love You For Sentimental Reasons and the group recorded it in '45 for the Manor label and on the label, the songwriting was credited to Deek Watson. That must have caused some discussion in the group, as in later re-releases the credit was changed to Best. The record didn't sell much, initially, and in the summer of that year, Best sold the rights to publisher Moe Levy for 2,500 dollars, and that was an awful lotta money.
Well the song did have the success that Levy had thought when he paid two-and-a-half grand for it. In '46 Nat King Cole and Charlie Spivak made hit versions and numerous covers were made since. Eventually, Pat Best regained the rights to his song, after a long legal battle.
To doowop lovers - this is an absolute classic. Here are the Brown Dots of Deek Watson with For Sentimental Reasons.
15 - Deek Watson & The Brown Dots - For Sentimental Reasons
A classic that's a favorite for everyone who loves vocal groups - For Sentimental Reasons of Deek Watson and his Brown Dots. The tune stayed for decades, the group did not. Deek Watson seems to have had personality clashes throughout his career. He wanted to be in control of the Ink Spots, a game that he lost, and he wanted the same with the Brown Dots, and again he lost that.
Soon after the success of For Sentimental Reasons, the group recorded with Danny Owens instead of Deek Watson, under the name of the Sentimentalists. A few months later, Watson was starting a new, unsuccesful Brown Dots line-up and the Sentimentalists were recording with Savannah Churchill. And later, in early '47, they went on as the Four Tunes, upon request of Tommy Dorsey who had a female background group with his orchestra that was named the same.
There's an awful lot of information on this group in its different incarnations, on the web pages of Marv Goldberg. For information on vocal groups, this is the place to go.
And I hope you like the stories I tell you about them, and about all of the musicians that come by, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Well if you dug the show, why not tell me and send e-mail to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. Of couse, all kinds of feedback is greatly appreciated.
Then, all of today's story is to be found on the website of my show, and easiest way to get there is to search Google for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. The site will show up first, and once in, this is show 271 in that sheer endless episodes list. You're gonna need that number 271 to easily find it back. Of course, you can always use the search button on the home page.
For now I'm done, and you'll have to wait another week for your portion of great music from the roaring twenties to the rocking fifties. Until then, dont'cha get the blues. Just tune in with me next week, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!