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 my legends are on the move by public transport. I did a special on train blues in one of my first shows and there are so many songs about that, that I could easily do another special on it. But the train doesn't bring us where there are no tracks, so let's first take the bus with the Amos Milburn. Here is Grey Hound.
01 - Amos Milburn - Grey Hound
02 - Esther Phillips - Mainliner
Written by Mile Stoller and Jerry Leiber the great Esther Phillips on the Federal label with the Mainliner. Now this song is about trains - obviously - but of course mainliner also means someone who takes heroin intraveinously. I don't know if it had that meaning already in the fifties, and for sure I don't think Leiber and Stoller had that in mind when they wrote this - but with Little Esther's chronic addiction to heroin, that was already problematic when she recorded this, I think it's pretty cynical.
In songs trains brought lovers back together and in this song from 1946 the singer waits for the train bringing her man back - I suppose from the war. Here is the pretty unknown vocal group the Celestines from 1946 on the Hub label with Waitin' For The Train To Come In.
03 - Celestines - Waitin' For The Train To Come In
04 - Calvin Boze - Choo Choo's Bringing My Baby Home
The Choo Choo's Bringing My Baby Home - that was Calvin Boze with a classic theme in the train blues, the train reuniting after - mostly - a breakup. But it can also go the other way - the train taking the lovers from each other. Listen to Hot Lips Page with Lucky Thompson's orchestra, here is My Gal Is Gone.
05 - Lucky Thompson with Hot Lips Page - My Gal Is Gone
06 - Dick Davis - Memphis Train
Dick Davis and his combo on the Miracle label - not a very succesful band leader but a good sax ophonist who later signed with King Kolax. You heard him do the Memphis train from 1946.
And I want to go on with Lloyd Glen and Clarence Gatemouth Brown. Listen to their instrumental Slow Train No 1.
07 - Lloyd Glenn & Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown - Slow Train No 1
08 - Muddy Waters - All Aboard
All Aboard - Muddy Waters was that from 1956 straight from a - let's say used - Chess 45. Great harmonica work resembling the steam whistle - a wonderful blues. And where a bluesman does the wistle with the harp vocal groups need their voice, in this case they do the hissing shhh-shhh sound. From an Imperial 45 from 1953 here are the Love Notes with Get On My train.
09 - Love Notes - Get On My Train
10 - Moonglows - 219 Train
The Moonglows and they're being backed up by Red Holloway and his band - the 219 train on the Chance label from 1954. This was before their real breakthrough on Chess with their Sincerely but the typical Moonglows sound is clearly present here.
Next up a bluesman again - listen to Papa Lightfoot with mean old train, from 1954 on the imperial label. By then he had recorded for quite a few labels but he had remained pretty unknown until the sixties blues revival that brought him to the big blues podiums - not for long though since he died in 1971. Here is the Mean Old train.
11 - Papa Lightfoot - Mean Ol' Train
12 - Tarheel Slim - Number Nine Train
A great fusion of blues and country music - that is, we should not forget that country music is based on the blues too - from 1959 you heard Tarheel Slim released on the Fury label. Tarheel Slim was Alden "Allen" Bunn who'd been singing the baritone in the vocal group the Larks in the earlier fifties. In '57 he did some records with his wife Anna Lee Sanford - better known as Little Ann.
From 1954 on the pretty obscure Jaguar label a vocal group called Four Brothers and a Cousin and you'll hear the Wistle Stop Blues.
13 - Four Brothers & A Cousin - Whistle Stop Blues
14 - Cardinals - Choo Choo
Choo-wop choo choo-wop is of course great for scat singing as the background of this little vocal gem. You heard the cardinals with Choo Choo and that was from 1955 on the Atlantic label.
Also from Atlantic, from 1957 is Joe Turner with the Midnight Special train and though by then he was by then a veteran in the rhythm & blues, he sounds as strong as back in the forties - I think he'd better done without the female background singers. Judge for yourself.
15 - Joe Turner - Midnight Special Train
16 - Dossie Terry - Railroad Section Man
(jingle)
17 - Lightnin' Slim - Mean ole lonesome train
18 - Five Crowns - $19.50 Bus
And so we went the way we came - by bus. The Five Crowns were that with the 19 1/2 dollar bus and man, you could ride a long stretch for that money. Before that you got Lightning Slim with the Mean Old lonesome train and that was recorded in 1957 on the Excello label. And then I have to account for what was before the jingle - that was bluesman Dossie Terrie with the Railroad Section Man.
And that makes for another hour of great choo choo blues here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Now the train may not play an important role in America's transportation needs anymore, it did play an important role in the making of the nation - most notably the colonialization of the West, but for my program, more important the great migration of the descendends of black slaves from the rural south to the industrializing north. And where the fifties were the decade of the rise of the automobile, the majority of the African Americans depended on public transport. It's pretty natural that this iconic part of America's identity and history got a prominent place in the blues. And that is apart from the way you can imitate the choo choo wistle with the harmonica - we've seen some outstanding examples of that today.
I love these blues and I hope you like 'em as much as I do and if so, or if not, you can always let me know by e-mail - the address is rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. And you can find all the information that I gave on here back on this program's web site. Do a google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and my site will show up first. As for now, time's up so byebye and have a great day. No - Have a rocking day. See you next time, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!