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 is what you're gonna get from me, great blues legends and that stands for a full hour of great guitar work and rasping harmonicas but though that's what people first think of with the blues, a lot of the greatest songs in the genre were pretty well orchestrated with horns and a piano, especially in the forties and before. So let's start with a great blues of Etta Jones, accompanied by a complete band that includes Barney Bigard on the clarinet and Georgie Auld on the tenor saxophone. I don't know who does the trumpet on this. Listen to the Long Long Journey.
01 - Etta Jones - Long Long Journey
02 - Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson w. Cootie Williams Orchestra - When My Baby Left Me
From 1945 the Cootie Williams orchestra featuring Eddie Cleanhead Vinson on lead with When My Baby Left Me and that really is one of the most gorgeously orchestrated blues I ever heard - I dare to make a comparison to a symphony.
But blues have a great variety and there's probably no greater contrast with the man-and-guitar blues of Kansas Joe McCoy. This was from before he played in the influential band the Harlem Hamfats, so earlier in the thirties. Listen to Look Who's Comin Down the Road
03 - Joe McCoy - Look Who's Comin Down the Road
04 - Smokey Hogg - Possum Hunt
Smokey Hogg was that with he possum hunt. Andrew 'Smokey' Hogg grew up on a farm and well you can say these are country style blues and they were pretty popular in the South in the late forties and early fifties, when he had his best successes.
Next - Little Walter from a - say somewhat used 78 on the Checker label. Well you may have noticed that the cracks in the grooves are a feature of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Listen to his instrumental Juke.
05 - Little Walter & his Night Cats - Juke
06 - Sonny Terry - Harmonica Rumbo
The harp of Sonny Terry playing the Harmonica Rumbo. The Harmonica was somewhat of the poor man's saxophone - I heard blues fanatics often call it the mississippi sax.
I want to continue with one of the greats of blues and rhythm & blues, and a man that I don't play music that often from. I'm talking about Ike Turner and where most people know him primarily from his work with Tina Turner, he actually had a whole musical career after him before that. Turner grew up in what you can call a gritty environment, having witnessed his father beaten up by a white mob, the injuries leading to his death after three years of suffering, later living with an alcoholic and violent step father and from the age of six being sexually abused by a middle aged women - though he claimed not to be traumatized by that, or as he stated it "in those days they didn't call it abuse, they called it fun". His career started in the mid-forties with the Kings of Rhythm and from this period is I'm Gonna Forget About You.
07 - Ike Turner - I'm Gonna Forget About You
08 - Big Bill Broonzy - Detroit Special
Big Bill Broonzy with the Detroit Special. Broonzy was an influential bluesman who started in the twenties playing country blues and where his style grew more urban through the years, in the fifties he returned to the country style, feeding the folk revival of the early fifties. That also brought him to Europe where he toured. In the book Blue Smoke that is a biography of Broonzy is told that he had several women both in America and in Europe, a Jacqueline in Paris and a woman called Pim van Isveldt in Amsterdam, and with her he had a son Michael.
Next Doctor Ross, the harmonica boss - his doctor title was for the black doctor's bag that he carried his harmonicas in. From him the Downtown Boogie.
09 - Doctor Ross - Downtown Boogie
10 - Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup - Where did you stay last night
Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup - the influential blues man whose songs were so often used by Elvis who turned them into rock 'n roll classics. Where did you stay last night was this.
I want to continue with Dan Pickett of whom hardly no information is to be found. Allmusic's biography says he may or may not be the same man as Tennessee guitar man Charlie Pickett, and otherwise he will be the man about whom we don't know anything but that he recorded one session for the Philadelphia based Gotham label in 1949 that yielded five singles. One of them is Early one morning that I will play here.
11 - Dan Pickett - Early One Morning
12 - Joe Hill Louis - She May Be Yours
Joe Hill Louis - the influential guitarist with She May Be Yours on Sun records from 1952. Lester Hill - as his real name was - often played his one man band, that is, the electric guitar, harmonica, vocals and drums with his feet. Well it's a way of never having to compromise on what you play. Apart from that he was a notable session man at Sam Phillips' Sun records.
Next - the great Lightnin' Hopkins with the Moonrise Blues and after that the pretty obscure Silver cooke with Mr. Ticket Agent
13 - Lightnin' Hopkins - Moonrise Blues
14 - Silver Cooke - Mr Ticket Agent
(jingle)
15 - Sonny Boy Williamson - Don't Start Me Talking
16 - Sonny Terry - Four O'clock Blues
Two bluesmen called Sonny, you first heard Sonny Boy Williamson the Second with Don't Start Me Talking and after that Sonny Terry with the Four o'clock blues and in the latter you must have heard that exceptional guitar work that is better known as the Piedmont blues style, that took the elements of the ragtime piano to the guitar. The style was most popular up to the mid-forties but there were more bluesmen who played it later too.
Next - Magic Sam on the Chicago based Cobra label with All Your Love from 1957. This is by far his best known fifties recording. He performed through the sixties getting breakthrough recognition in 1969 at the Ann Arbor Blues Festival and that opened doors to blues stages all over the world, but unfortunately that same year he died of a heart attack at the young age of 32. Listen to All Your Love.
17 - Magic Sam - All Your Love
18 - John Lee Hooker - My Daddy Was a Jockey
19 - Memphis Minnie - Killer Diller Blues
And with blues lady Memphis Minnie we end this show on great blues here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. You heard the Killer Diller Blues and before that John Lee Hooker with My Daddy Was a Jockey from 1951 on the Gotham label. Well I hope you liked all these stomping blues and if so, or if not, you know you can always let me know by sending me an e-mail 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. As for now, time's up so have a rocking day and don't get the blues. See you next time on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!