The Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - episode 54

80s Re-issue Albums

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's legends are all taken from re-issue albums, most of them printed in the eighties. I got a nice amount of them and nearly all the music on them is still waiting to be catalogued in the database that I keep of my music collection. Some browsing around always leaves for a nice mixed bunch of tunes to fill the hour with. So let's not waste time and start with the first one. I took this goodie off an LP titled Swinging Saxophones. Here is Ike Quebec with the I.Q. Blues.

01 - Ike Quebec - I.Q. Blues
02 - Percy mayfield - I Dare You, Baby

Percy Mayfield with I dare you baby that he sang while he was under contract with the Specialty label. Of course we know him from his 1950 hit Please Send Me Someone to Love. in 1952 he had a severe car accident leaving him with a heavily damaged face and a changed voice. And, according to the liner notes of the LP The Voice Witin on the Route 66 label that I found this song on, as soon as he was able to sing again, he got an even deeper commitment to the blues, but the success stayed away. He was, though, a very succesful songwriter and probably his most well-known work was Hit The Road Jack that was a great succes for Ray Charles.

Next up, from the summer of 1949 Buddy Banks and his sextet with the Happy Home Blues. The lady singing on that is Baby Davis and the track that was recorded for the Specialty label was included on an album on the Danish Official label. Now this label has re-issued a whole lot of mid-forties to early fifties R&B with good liner notes of Dave Penny. Listen to the Buddy Banks sextet with the Happy Home Blues.

03 - Buddy Banks - Happy Home Blues
04 - Joe Liggins - Daddy On My Mind

Candy Rivers and Joe Liggins were that in this duet titled Daddy on my mind and that was recorded in 1950 in Los Angeles. I found that on an album from 1980 on the Jukebox Lil label, a division of the Swedish Mr. R&B label that re-issued nearly 200 albums on vinyl packed with rhythm & blues from the thirties to the 60s. One thing that is great about these albums is that most of them come with detailed session information and the liner notes. You get often first-hand interviews and on this one Joe Liggins recalls how he grew up in a family where music wasn't much around. When they moved to San Diego he was refused a position in a band because he couldn't read music - something that he learnt himself en he got into this band two years later. He got a lot of experience in a short time arranging for large bands that played in the Douglas ballroom in San Diego.

Of course we know Liggins from his smash succes with the Honeydripper, the 18-week number one on the Race records hitparade of 1945 and I have another album that memorizes a lot of the success that came with that. But unfortunately I don't have time to read complete liner notes of albums here, there's music to be played. So let's move on to Mercury Wing album that unfortunately is not dated, nor is the track that I'm going to play. Here is Sil Austin with Balin' Wire.

05 - Sil Austin - Balin' Wire
06 - Sonny Thompson - Mellow Blues

From an album titled Cat on the Keys you heard the great double-sider Mellow Blues. Pianist Sonny Thompson was that and that great saxophone work is Robert Hadley. And I love the music of Sonny Thompson for a reason more than that it's great easy-going music. This isn't too difficult to play on the saxophone and I've spent many hours rehearsing this one, and another double-sider Cotton Ball, on my tenor saxophone. Well I'm just a very mediocre beginner on the sax so I have to find the easy stuff to play.

And we'll do another instrumental - it's Cozy Eggleston with Cozy's Beat. I took that from a German album titled Swinging Saxophones - a pretty cheap-looking LP with no liner notes and as label information it only says "Bop Und Rhytm Schallplatten Saarland". Well we'll have to do with that. Here is Cozy Eggleston.

07 - Cozy Eggleston - Cozy's Beat
08 - Chuck Willis - Wrong Lake To Catch A Fish

Chuck Willis from a British album on the Edsel label - You're in the Wrong Lake to Catch a Fish.

Next a song of Big John Greer that was released on RCA in 1951 - Woman is a Five Letter Word. I took that from another LP on the Danish Official label and the liner notes by Steve Propes start wondering why this well regarded musician just disappeared off the radar in 1956 after a succesful career mostly with RCA. The answer is given in Wikipedia: he retired from the music business coping with alcoholism. The liner notes blame the rise of rock 'n roll causing R&B musicians like Greer grow outdated. And maybe they're right too.

Here is Woman is a Five Letter Word

09 - Big John Greer - Woman Is A Five Letter Word
10 - Varetta Dillard - Send Me Some Money

Originally on the Savoy label from 1954 that was Varetta Dillard with Send Me Some Money and according to the session details on the album I found this on, it was Mickey Baker on the guitar. And this again was a Swedish re-issue on the Mr. R&B label.

There are - not so surprisingly - many European albums in my collection, after all I live in that tiny little country of the Netherlands. The next is on the British Charly label. From that an album dedicated to T-Bone Walker and the track that I'm gonna play is Bobby Sox Blues. Here is T-Bone Walker.

11 - T-Bone Walker - Bobby Sox Blues
12 - Nellie Lutcher - Lake Charles Boogie

Nellie Lutcher and her lake Charles Boogie and I found that on an three-track EP on the British Stateside label.

And I return to that German album titled Swingin' Saxophones that I started this show with. On that I also found this little honker. Here is Joe Morris with The Spider

13 - Joe Morris - The Spider
14 - Buddy Johnson - Li'l Dog

Buddy Johsnon and his orchestra with the Li'l Dog and that was recorded in 1947. The album that I got that from was one of the Silver Star Swing Series of a German pressing of Teldec-Telefunken Decca from 1976 with an eye-blinding pink sleeve that causes headaches when you try to read the white print on it.

Next from another Charly LP - Louis Jordan with a recording from 1947. Here is Louis Jordan as a storyteller - you can't call that singing - with Pettin' and Pokin'.

15 - Louis Jordan - Pettin' And Pokin'
16 - Lucky Millinder - Rock Daniel

Walking the chalk line between gospel and profane Rhythm & Blues that was Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Rock Daniel was that from 1941 and there's no word for the Lord in it but the style is 100% gospel mixed with the big band sounds of Lucky Millinder. And that guitar solo is the Sister too.

Now some people credit singers in the early fifties to start mixing gospel elements in Rhythm & Blues - you often hear names like the Five Royales, Clyde McPhatter, Hank Ballard and his Midnighters, and others credit Ray Charles with his I Got A Woman to be the first to bring the gospel elements to the world of the blues.

Well this song and many more of Rosetta Tharpe prove that this all was nothing new. What stayed was the disapprovement of the more conservative people, of using sacred gospel styles for the blues, still considered the music of the devil, adn that debate still was as hot in the fifties.

As for Rosetta Tharpe, I think the liner notes of the album Apollo Jump, that was released on the British Affinity label, well they are right crediting her as one of these delightful eccenticities that come along once in every decade. The word cross-over artist still had to be invented but she surely was one. And I think no other blues singer ever sticked so close to gospel, and no gospel singer ever sang with two of the greatest of big bands - Cab Calloway and Lucky Milinder. And she played the guitar in her own unique way, closer to the blues than to the gospel.

Her '45 hit Strange Things Happening Every Day - a gospel - is widely considered as an important and influential record for the making of Rock 'n Roll - and there's no other gospel on any list of Rock 'n roll precursors. Many a rock 'n roll artist, including Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley mentioned her as a great influence or inspiration.

17 - Roy Milton - Where There Is No Love

And Roy Milton ends today's show that was dedicated to that massive amount of music sitting on re-issue albums from the eighties, still to be catalogued in the database that I keep of my music collection. This came from another Swedish re-issue album of Mr. R&B, and I'm glad they do the liner notes in English and not is Swedish. Of course, riginally it was recorded for the Specialty label, and in Milton's backing band, the Solid Senders we find another great name, Camille Howard, on the piano. They worked together for a very long time, from 1933 until well into the fifties.

Now for sure I'll take these records every now and then to play some great stuff from it. And I hope you liked them, and today's selection. Well you can always let me know and send me an e-mail to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. There's also a web site where you can find all information that I told you today and review today's playlist - or see what's up next week. Do a google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and my site will show up first. Time's up for now so byebye and have a wonderful, and rocking day. See you next time, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!