This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And a mix of great music today from a few CD's that I got myself recently. Cd's that feature my daily drive to and from my work where I'm alone with the music. You know, sometimes you see people in their car apparently enjoying the music they listen to, drumming on the steering wheel and loud singing - well I'm one of them. Good music is the vitamin that lifts your mood - and I hope with my music I lift yours as well as it does mine.
So let's start with a nice feel-good blues of Chubby Newsome. Not the most succesful of Rhythm & Blues singers despite her gorgeous looks and her first hit Hip Shakin' Mama that she did with Paul Gayten. Most blues musicians travelled up north but Newsome came from Detroit and ended up in the New Orleans music scene. This is with Crescent City legend Dave Bartholomew and his band. From 1950 on DeLuxe - Chubby Newsome with the New Orleans Lover Man.
01 - Chubby Newsome - New Orleans Lover Man
02 - Buddy Johnson feat. Ella Johnson - Well Do It
One of my favourite female singers who stands out for her sexy and vulnerable voice when she sings the blues about her unfaithful lovers - well this is something tougher and she does a great job. You'll probably have recognized Ella Johnson and as usual it's the band of her brother Buddy who backed her up in this recording from September 9 of 1954 on Mercury - Well Do It.
And next a lady whose talent and ambition stood out for a woman in the early thirties. This flamboyant woman was the first to lead an all-male band, from 1931 to '36, named 'her Joy Boys' or later just 'her orchestra'. I'm talking about Blance Calloway - and the only reason why she remained in the shadows of her brother Cab is that career perspectives for a black woman in the thirties were, to say the least, dim.
Cab always said his elder sister was a major influence on him and the song that I'm going to play is one of the clear examples. Ever since Cab did his legendary song Minnie the Moocher, the scat phrase Hi-de-hi-de-ho became his trademark, but it was born in this song of his sister. Just a crazy song is the title and it was released on Victor in 1931. Here are Blance Calloway And Her Joy Boys.
03 - Blanche Calloway And Her Joy Boys - Just a Crazy Song
04 - Skeets Tolbert & His Gentlemen Of Swing - Fill-Up
(jingle)
05 - Bob Merrell featuring Cootie Williams Orchestra - Wrong Neighborhood
06 - Hot Lips Page - Dance Of The Tambourine
Three in a row - before the jingle you got a nice piece of swing music from 1942 released on Decca - Skeets Tolbert and his band the Gentlemen Of Swing with Fill-Up.
After that Bob Merrell fronting Cootie Williams' Orchestra - that was just after Eddie Vinson left the band to pursue a solo career. Now Merrell may not have that great blues shouting style that Vinson had - but Cootie Williams does his great trumpeting work that gave his band that unique sound. The Wrong neighborhood was released on Capitol in 1946.
And then what you just heard - the band of another great trumpeter - Hot Lips Page with a wonderful song that must have sounded somewhat... retro, old-fashioned in 1944 when it was recorded for the Savoy label. The Dance of the Tambourine is the title and it has a typical thirties style and the only thing that places it in the forties is that tasteful sax break in the middle.
And I continue with another song that at the time it was recorded was pretty old-fashioned. We're talking 1948 - while the first wave of pre-Rock 'n Roll Rhythm & Blues shakes the juke joints - that Joe Liggins comes with Sweet Georgia Brown, a mid-twenties classic as the flip of the Drippers Blues.
Now remember that by then you didn't have an album to fill up where you can put on a cover of an old song as a musical experiment as a bonus track number 22 or so - in the 78 era you only had singles, two-sided platters that were supposed to sell or to be selected in the juke box. So bringing a twenties song without re-arranging, modernizing it to the latest fashion was somewhat of a gamble - and with this one Liggins did a lucky shot. In July of 1948 Billboard lists the song as number 7 for most played in juke boxes.
So on the Exlusive label from 1948 here is Joe Liggins with Sweet Georgia Brown.
07 - Joe Liggins - Sweet Georgia Brown
08 - Miss Rhapsody - Hey Lawdy Mama
Viola Wells under her nickname of Miss Rhapsody with her version of Hey Lawdy Mama - a blues classic that orginates from 1934 when Buddy Moss recorded Oh Lordy Mama - a song that for sure I'll play in a future episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. The version that brought in the lyrics Meet me in the bottom, bring my boots and shoes was Bumble Bee Slim's from 1936 and that was the base for most subsequent versions including this one - and that was released on the Savoy label in 1944.
And we're staying with the ladies with Marion Abernathy. On the King label from 1949 here is Ja-Hoosey Baby.
09 - Marion Abernathy - Ja-Hoosey Baby
10 - Alma 'The Lollipop Mama' Mondy - Love Troubles
Love Troubles for Alma Mondy. She was nicknamed Lollipop Mama named after the moniker of the comedian that she did a show with, Lollypop Jones, and that show was based on the popular sketch of Open the door Richard. Those two were the support act for a young Fats Domino in a club in Ninth Ward of New Orleans - not the very best of neighborhoods by then.
Next from 1952 Terry Timmons with a heavy-sounding minor key song. On RCA Victor - here is Daddy Be Good to Me.
11 - Terry Timmons - Daddy Be Good to Me
12 - Fat Hayden - Brownskin Gal Is The Best Gal After All
The Brownskin Gal Is The Best Gal After All - an intriguing title. The bluesman is called either Pat or Fat Hayden and blues encyclopedias don't have a trace of him. This is his only recording for Decca, back in 1939 - I played the flip Voodoo Blues some time ago.
Next Lucky Millinder fronted by Annisteen Allen with the Moanin' the Blues, from 1949 on RCA Victor. The label credits the song to Lucky Millinder and his orchestra, not mentioning Allen at all, as all of her releases on Decca and Victor were. Now that was common practice before the war, but as late as '49 not done. I don't know whether it was for that, that she pursued a solo career at the Federal and King labels. On there she got her only hit under her own name, Baby I'm Doin' It, that sounded so much like the Five Royales' Baby Don't Do It, that King was sued for copyright infringement. Annisteen had to pay the lawyer costs by her own, that is, it was taken from her royalty payments.
Now Rock 'n Roll lovers know her from her song Fujiyama Mama from 1954 but that record never charted, it's become a Rock 'n Roll standard anyhow.
But for now her 1949 song Moanin' the Blues.
13 - Annisteen Allen & Lucky Millinder - Moanin' Blues
14 - Tom Archia feat. Jo Jo Adams - If I Feel Like This Tomorrow
If I Feel Like This Tomorrow - of maybe one of the most recognizable blues shouters of the forties, Doctor Jo Jo Adams. In a biography of him on a site named Black Cat Rockabilly, conaisseur Dave Penny describes him as a slim, dapper, Cab Calloway-like performer, a great comedian and blues singer. This was from a session he did with the band of Tom Archia for the Aristrocrat label in 1947.
Jo Jo Adams nowadays is not the first name you get in mind when you should mention a forties blues shouter, but he was famed in Chicago and regarded as one of the best. He may have been too local and he didn't have big charting hits, that he didn't get the recognition like Wynonie Harris, Roy Brown, Eddie Vinson or Joe Turner got - but for his style and vocal capacities I think he should.
Next - the king of the triplet style piano - Little Willie Littlefield. He was 18 years old when he did this - and already two years in business. Here he is with The Moon Is Rising.
15 - Little Willie Littlefield - The Moon Is Rising
16 - Memphis Slim - Nobody Loves Me (Every Day I Have The Blues)
(jingle)
17 - Paul Bascomb - Robbin's Bop
18 - Saunders King - Swingin'
You gotta play that loud - three great tracks mark the end of today's episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - you hard Saunders King with Swingin' and that was on the Rhythm label. Before that Robbin's Bop of Paul Bascomb and that was released on Manor.
And then I have to account for the blues that was before the jingle, that was Memphis Slim with Nobody Loves Me - a leftover of last week's show on the Miracle label. And leftovers don't make less of music I think so I hope you liked it - like all of today's show.
Now of course you are invited to let me know and you can send an e-mail to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com to get in contact. And if you want to review today's playlist or see what I got in store for you for next time, it's all on my web site. Do a Google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and it will show up first.
For now time's up so have a wonderful and rocking day and I hope to catch you next time here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - seeya!