This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And there's a whole lotta legends on today's playlist, legends from Houston, Texas, as I'll do a selection of the records that featured on a short-lived label from that city, Freedom records. And that label had specialized in a lot of hot jumping, Rock 'n roll defining Rhythm & Blues and that's just what I want to start with. Here is Lonnie Lyons with the Flychick Bounce.
01 - Lonnie Lyons - Flychick Bounce
02 - Goree Carter - Let's Rock
Goree Carter with Let's Rock and this was one of these records that came in the pre-Rock 'n Roll craze, that is, a short time in the late forties and early fifties when Rhythm & Blues actually shaped the style that later was to be taken over by the white artists and the big record companies, and that was to be called Rock 'n Roll. And where the nationwide Rock 'n Roll revolution was a thing of the mid-fifties, the style was defined directly in African-American music, here in this period between, say 1948 to 52, and that was exactly the four years where the Freedom label operated.
And it's that label that I feature today here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and Goree Carter was right in the middle of this. As was Big Joe Turner, who did a few singles on this label while on tour through Texas. From him his first single on Freedom, Adam Bit The Apple and after that you will get L.C. Williams with I Want My Baby Back.
03 - Big Joe Turner - Adam Bit The Apple
04 - L.C. Williams - I Want My Baby Back
(jingle)
05 - Joe Houston - Jumpin' The Blues
06 - L.C. Williams - Jelly Roll
More L.C. Williams with Jelly Roll and before that you got Joe Houston with his Jumpin' The Blues. Both were on the Freedom label that I feature today.
And well, pretty much as usual, I didn't make it easy for myself choosing this label. The music is great but finding information on the label itself is a hassle. There's an undated and incomplete discography out on the web site of the On-line 78 RPM Discographical project, and that shows 30 out of the 47 numbers that are between 1500 and 1546, the issue numbers of the records on the 1500 series, that was the R&B series - there was also a 5000 series doing country music. Were the other seventeen unissued? Probably not, or at least not all of 'em, as I find tracks on a compilation CD titled Let's Boogie, the Freedom records story, that don't fit in the list, and the same with a youtube clip showing the 78 with the label on it, but it's unreadable what the catalog number was.
That same mist hangs for the man who owned the label, according to a listing in the American record label directory and dating guide, Samuel or Saul Kahl, and in a brief review on Allmusic he is called Solomon M. Kahal, or whatever you pronounce that, a man originally from New York whose background was in Tin Pan Alley - and that's about all there was on him. O yeah. I got the name of the A&R man - some Conrad Johnson.
Well - let's return to the music then. Among all the noise of these pre-rock 'n roll jump blues we find a fine acoustical blues. Here is Leroy 'Country' Johnson with No One To Love Me.
07 - Leroy 'Country' Johnson - No One To Love Me
08 - Goree Carter - I Just Thought Of You
Goree Carter and he is best known for his rock 'n roll precursors but he did a fine job as a bluesman too. 'I just thought of you' was that - with his band the Hepcats, that featured a trumpet player whom you heard clearly on this one, two saxophonists, a pianist, bass and drums and Carter himself did the guitar.
More blues from Lonny Lyons - here is the Far Away Blues.
09 - Lonnie Lyons - Far Away Blues
10 - Jesse Thomas - Guess I'll Walk Alone
Jesse 'Baby Face' Thomas was that, a Texas bluesman though he was born in Louisiana and that's where he died too, in Shreveport LA, and like many Texas blues musicians he did a lot of his recordings in Los Angeles, but he did one record for Freedom. This one, Guess I'll Walk Alone was the flip of Let's Have Some Fun.
Time for Big Joe Turner again, here is I'm Still In the Dark.
11 - Big Joe Turner - I'm Still In the Dark
12 - Lonnie Lyons - Helpless
Lonnie Lyons with Helpless, issued on Freedom 1519. And I want to go back to the jump style R&B with Clarence Samuels and his Low Top Inn
13 - Clarence Samuels - Low Top Inn
14 - Goree Carter - Bad Feeling
Goree Carter again with his blues song Bad Feeling. He's not so much known to the greater public but his style definitely helped define rock 'n roll, and especially in his more rock 'n roll-like precursor songs, like the Let's Rock that I played before, and more notably Rock Awhile.
His overdriven electric guitar style was strongly influenced by T-Bone Walker and he himself influenced later rock and roll musicians like Chuck Berry. But even before the rock 'n roll craze really started off, Carter quit recording, in 1954, only five years after his first record, and at the age of only 24. Later he played just every now and then, he has never been seen on stage after 1970.
Next a recording of Carl Campbell and his orchestra, issued as Freedom #1521. There's only one record listed in the page on this label in the on-line 78 discographical project that says it was backed by a side titled Between Midnight And Dawn. As I said, the listing is not complete so I don't know whether there were more records released of him. Listen to Ooh Wee Baby.
15 - Carl Campbell - Ooh Wee Baby
16 - Texas Alexander - Bottoms Blues
Raw Texas blues - the Bottoms Blues that was released as number 1538. You heard Texas Alexander, an important bluesman who is probably most known for his 1928 recording of the House of the Rising Sun, a traditional blues that most people will remember by the version of the Animals in 1964. Alger Texas Alexander dind't play any instrument which is pretty rare in the blues, and with his way of singing that had a lot of rhytmical freedom, he often drove his accompanying musicians mad.
We're returing to L.C. Williams with his Ethel Mae that was released as freedom 1517.
17 - L.C. Williams - Ethel Mae
18 - Big Joe Turner - Jumpin' At The Jubilee
And with Big Joe Turner we end today's special on Freedom records. And Jumpin' at the Jubilee was the last release on Freedom, catalogued as number 1546. Now today I didn't play all of this label, for two reasons, first it would never fit in a one-hour show and second, the discography that I relied on apparently was incomplete.
If anyone of you can provide me with a more complete list of this label than that is on www.78discography.com please let the owners of that site know, or send it to me and I'll pass it on. My mail address is rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com and of course you can mail me also with comments, suggestions and just anything you want to let me know, like that you're a great fan of my show.
Or find me on the web, just do a google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and my site will show up first. As for now, time is up so byebye and have a great, wonderful and above all rocking day. See you next time on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman.