The Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - episode 69

Cars

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 show is stashed with Cadillacs, Fords and Oldsmobiles - songs related to the automobile and the great American brands used to rule the highways and byways of the nation. And where most bluesmen, like other poor folks, had to walk, take the bus or the train, having a nice car showed off your status and if you drove a Cadillac, man, you had it made. And maybe every man's dream was that Cadillac, but for a beginning, a modest start is OK. Listen to Sleepy John Estes with the Poor Man's Friend. That friend is a T-model Ford, by the time he recorded it, in 1937, out of production for ten years, so indeed an old and worn car, the poor man's friend.

01 - Sleepy John Estes - Poor Man's Friend
02 - Lightnin' Hopkins - T Model Blues

And another song dedicated to that car for the ordinary people, the old T-Model Ford. Lightnin' Hopkins with the T Model Blues was that, recorded in 1949. Well in here he sings the blues on his malfunctioning car and with that you won't impress the fast class of women. Got no idea wether 22 years after production ended the T-model still was common on the roads but here in this blues the model is iconic for the troubles he has with it.

And we'll stay with the Ford with a later popular model - the V8 Ford. Here is Willie Love and his Three Aces.

03 - Willie Love & His Three Aces - V-8 Ford
04 - Dan Pickett - Ride To A Funeral In A V-8

The ride to a funeral in a V-8 - you heard Dan Pickett and he recorded that for the Gotham label in 1950. Today it's all about the automobile and let's just scale up from the car for the ordinary man to the dream of the ordinary man - the Cadillac. Many songs have been devoted to that brand as the top-class car - to impress your friends or the lady you want to be your girlfriend. Thing is of course - you need the cash to buy it.

05 - Big John & The Buzzards - Your Cash Ain't Nothin' But Trash
06 - Paul Bascomb - Pink Cadillac

(jingle)

07 - Jimmy Liggins - Cadillac Boogie
08 - Jerry McCain - Courtin' In A Cadillac

Four Cadillacs drove by - first Big John who got to hear from the Cadillac salesman that his Cash Ain't Nothin' But Trash - so it didn't get himself the car that he wanted to impress his baby with. Then Paul Bascomb with the Pink Cadillac, a self-penned song that he recorded in 1952 for the United label. Next, after the jingle was Jimmy Liggins and his Drops of Joy with the Cadillac Boogie and that was recorded in November of 1947 and released on Specialty in 1948. And last was Jerry McCain and his Upstarts with Courtin' in a Cadillac and that was from 1956 on the Excello label.

Next Roy Brown with his Cadillac Baby that he recorded in 1950 for DeLuxe and though there's not a word wrong you can't get without the impression that the lyrics do have a strong sexual meaning. In Rock 'n Roll songs, singing about the features of the automobile was a metaphor for the physical description of a girl without getting too explicit, after all the music was targeted at the white teenagers and played on the mainstream radio. Rhythm & Blues never was and could have more explicit lyrics - but still the car as a metaphor was another thing that Rock 'n Roll inherited from the Rhythm & Blues.

Listen to Roy Brown and the Cadillac Baby.

09 - Roy Brown - Cadillac Baby
10 - Jackie Brenston & his Delta Cats - Rocket 88

The Rocket 88 of Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats - actually it was the band of Ike Turner that you heard on this rock classic. The song was loosely based on Jimmy Liggins' Cadillac Boogie that I played before and has elements in it of Pete Johnson's 88 Boogie that you hear play in the background. The distorted guitar in this recording is said to be an accident - the cone of the amplifier was damaged and they stuffed it with newspapers.

The 88 model was that highly succesful latest Oldsmobile that was introduced in 1949. It was a light car with a powerful engine, the Rocket V8, making it the ultimate hotrod, appealing to young people, and that was a complete revolution for the brand that used to be so conservative. Make a Date with a Rocket 88 became the slogan for the model from 1950 when the executives at General Motors found out the gold mine they'd created.

The song was a gold mine too - it was the second best selling single in Rhythm & Blues for 1951. So to cash on the success, the follow up song was about the same subject. Listen to In My Real Gone Rocket 88.

11 - Jackie Brenston - In My Real Gone Rocket 88
12 - Little Sylvia - Drive Daddy Drive

Little Sylvia Vanderpool with Drive Daddy Drive. Other than the previous songs I played this doesn't praise or feature a particular model but is just about driving.

And the same counts for the next classic - that features a road instead of the car on it. The most iconic of America's highways - from Chicago to LA on Route 66. Here is Nat King Cole.

13 - Nat King Cole - Route 66
14 - Tommy Lee Thompson - Highway 80 Blues

And from Route 66 to the Highway 80 blues of Tommy Lee Thompson. US 80 runs from Savannah GA to Dallas nowadays - but it used to go all the way west to San Diego, CA up to 1964 and in this blues the singer goes to find his baby who went far west.

Next the Treniers with a song where the singer picked up a girl for a drive, but as she refuses to answer his sexual advances, he threatens to put her out of the car. Here is Uh Oh Get Out Of The Car.

15 - Treniers - Uh Oh (Get Out Of The Car)
16 - Willie Love - Little Car Blues

The Little Car Blues of Willie Love, and his plead to be allowed to ride in her automobile I can only take for a sexual metaphor.

And as we reach the end of the hour, let me throw in just one more Cadillac. A Cadillac makes the women don't want no man anymore, sings Tommy Brown in his V8-Baby.

17 - Tommy Brown - V-8 Baby
18 - Walter Roland - T Model Blues

And we've gone back to the car we started with - the T-Model. Walter Roland was that with the T-Model Blues - about women acting high-class but they're not, and he compares their attitude to a Cadillac, but they're nothing more than a T-model Ford.

Blues on cars are not so ubiquitous as they are on trains. Both cars and trains have their own appeal but I think trains fit more in the music of the no-haves. You won't need to sing the blues on the great car you own. And I think that's why two brands of cars are most sung about - the shiny new Cadillac as the dream of riches, of finding success in life, and the old broken down T-Model Ford as the actual reality, full of flaws and troubles.

Rock 'n Roll popularized the car song and here they're about the car the singer does own, about the great features, their looks and their speed, like men can talk about cars.

For today the hour has come to an end and the only thing left for me today is the usual mentioning of my e-mail address - rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com - where you can leave all your questions and comments, and my website where you can find back everything I told you today and the play list and you can also see what's on next week. Do a google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and my site will show up first. As for now, byebye and have a rocking day. See you next time here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!