This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And legends sure is what you're gonna get today, once more a mix of some old and some older stuff. Big names and obscurities again, no central theme, just great music, but that's what you came here for. So let's start with the Legendary delta blues singer and songwriter with Arthur Crudup - I'm gonna dig myself a hole on RCA Victor from 1951. Crudup did quite a few songs that have become rock 'n roll classics like "That's All Right" , "My Baby Left Me", and "So Glad You're Mine", all covered by Elvis. Elvis was a great admirer of him but Crudup never got any royalties for his songs. They could have made him rich, yet apart from singing he had to earn his money as a labourer and bootlegger, providing the moonshine to the establishments where he sang.
01 - Arthur Crudup - I'm gonna dig myself a hole
02 - Piano Red - Right String But The Wrong Yo Yo
[read title] Piano Red was the stage name of "Willie" Lee Perryman and he was an albino African American blues pianist just like his brother Rufus who went by the stage name of Speckled Red and he wrote this song. From the 30s, Piano Red played piano in juke joints and house parties and he developed his hard pounding barrelhouse playing style to be heard over the noise of the people. He started recording from 1936 for Vocalion and later for RCA Victor and got his succes with "Rockin' with Red" and "Red's Boogie" in 1950. He also worked as a disc jockey for WGST and WAOK in Atlanta where a young James Brown appeared on his shows. From the 60s he adopted the name of Dr. Feelgood - slang for heroin.
We go on with Joe Turner & Pete Johnson and their Roll 'Em Pete on Vocalion from 1938. Influential pre-rock 'n roll boogie woogie. Pretty unique for the time with that strong back beat and straigt rhythm. Joe Turner recorded the song a few times more, but this is the original version together with Pete Johnson.
03 - Joe Turner & Pete Johnson - Roll 'Em Pete
04 - Lil Green - Every Time Atlantic, 1951.
[read title] From the end of her way too short career and life, she already was in bad health when she signed with Atlantic and she died three years later of pneumonia at he age of 34. Of course we'll always remember her for her 1941 hit Why don't you do right that one year later was done by Peggy Lee.
I want to go on with Roosevelt Sykes with Fine and Brown - The first single of the Chicago-based United label. Roosevelt Sykes toured with a band called the Honeydrippers that had no relation to the group of Joe Liggins. By the time he recorded this he was already a blues veteran - his first and most influential record was the 44 blues from 1929.
05 - Roosevelt Sykes - Fine and Brown United 101, 1951
06 - Earl 'Fatha' Hines - Blues For Garroway - Sunrise, 1946. * overslaande plaat! Dubbels verwijderen *
The great and influential pianist Earl Fatha Hines with his orchestra, one of the forerunners of that new jazz style of the forties, bebop, with the Blues For Garroway on the Sunrise label from 1946.
Now another great name of jazz of course is Duke Ellington though he himself would call his music "American music" being influenced by all styles. This is from 1942 which was probably one of the best years of Ellington's band, measured both in success as in creativity.
07 - Duke Ellington and his Orchestra - Johnny Come Lately
08 - Larry Darnell - For You My Love -
[read title] and that was written by Paul Gayten and this was Darnell's greatest hit, but my favourite version still is the duet that Nellie Lutcher and Nat King Cole did in 1950 - I played that a few weeks ago on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman.
I go on with King Pleasure & Betty Carter singing Red Top and that is what they call a vocalese, that is that this originally was a jazz instrumental and they put words on the main melody line. King Pleasure whose real name was Clarence Beeks did quite some vocaleses - it was his specialty.
09 - King Pleasure & Betty Carter - Red Top - Prestige 821 1952.
10 - Helen Humes - Married Man Blues - Black & White 109 1945
oh, what a touching sad blues about the troubles a woman has to go through when she loves a man who isn't hers. [read title and label info]
I wanna go on with a pretty obscure 78 from Decca pressed in 1935, it's the flip of something completely different, Bob Crosby's Bobcats with a song called Big Crash From China. [read title] Funny song about marijuana with Cleo's typical high-pitched style.
11 - Cleo Brown - The Stuff Is Here and It's Mellow - Decca 3683 1935
12 - Oscar Pettiford & his Orchestra - Empty Bed Blues Pt. 1 - Manor 1002 1945 -
[read title] Part 2 is on another record. Pettiford was a bass player - the big double bass you found in jazz and Rhythm & Blues these days. He was also known for pizzicatoing the cello, first as a gimmick but later out of necessity for he'd broken his arm and he just couldn't reach the double bass.
on with Nature Boy Brown & His Blues Ramblers and the Black Jack Blues - John T "Nature Boy" Brown was a tenor sax player and singer who had been around in the Chicago music scene since the early forties. With his band the blues ramblers he recorded for the Chicago-based United label and this was actually the third single of this label.
13 - Nature Boy Brown & His Blues Ramblers - Black Jack Blues - United 103 1951.
14 - Babs Gonzales - We Ain't Got Integration -
[read title] On Prestige label from 1956 - Songs that complained about segregation and discrimination were pretty rare in the fifties - the civil rights movement still had to grow in the sixties.
We'll continue with Tiny Grimes - Ho Ho Ho - Gotham 319 1956
- Tiny Grimes played the electric four-string tenor guitar and fronted his band the Rocking Highlanders, dressed in kilts and Tam O’Shanters. Grimes was one of the great names in the making of Bebop, earlier in the forties. Here's his shouter Ho Ho Ho
15 - Tiny Grimes - Ho Ho Ho - Gotham 319 1956
16 - Chris Powell - Rock The Joint - Columbia 30175 1949
[read title] Original was from Jimmy Preston who recorded that in 1949 after similar jump songs like Wild Bill Moore's We're gonna rock and Nelson Alexander's Rock That Voot. Rock the Joint was an instant classic that was covered by many artists including several white rock 'n roll bands like Jimmy Cavallo and his house rockers, now didn't go further than the town of Auburn, NY but of course most notably Bill Haley and his Saddlemen, being one of the first Rock 'n Roll examples.
Next Willie Mabon with Say Man, the flip of Poison Ivy from 1954 on Chess that was actually his last succesful record.
17 - Willie Mabon - Say Man
18 - Lightnin' Hopkins - Life I Used To Live
And with Lightning Hopkins on Herald from 1954 I have to end another episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Time's up so I hope you liked it, you can let me know on 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. For now, byebye and have a great day. No have a rocking day. See you next time on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!