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Volume 14 of Ed Parker’s Yer Blues playlist is here, the second-last volume of the playlist, covering songs 324 to 348. Thanks again, Ed! Next Blues Roots will appear on Thursday, July 6, 2017.
There are a lot of playlists this week (both artist-oriented ones and a topical one); the ones with the lined icon in the upper-left corner are playlists, not single videos. I hope there’s a little something for everyone here.
Following is a partial rundown of the songs in volume 14 of Yer Blues.
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I don’t have much to say about this song. It’s actually new to me, and I liked it, so I decided to see if I could get a topic out of it (it’s featured directly below the Yer Blues playlist). There were plenty of good covers, so I did.
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Link Wray’s cover of Jimmy Reed’s “Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby” (numbers 327 and 326, respectively) is a great contrast to the original. His agitated voice and playing are very different from Jimmy Reed’s relaxed feel. Here’s the flip, a cover of Ray Charles’ “Mary Ann.”
For contrast.
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Link Wray’s “Rumble,” released in April 1958, has gotten a lot of deserved attention through the years. It’s a strong, definitive song. According to the article in the link, it was developed to accompany a dance called the Stroll. Bob Dylan once called it “the best instrumental ever.”
The flipside was “The Swag.”
When I heard Lafayette Thomas’ “Cockroach Run,” I thought I’d discovered Link Wray’s inspiration. “Cockroach Run” was released in November 1956 with Johnny Heartsman on second guitar.
The flipside on the original “Cockroach Run” 45 was a comedic song by another artist, The Jumping Judge and His Court, “The Trial.”
Later issues featured Lafayette Thomas’ “The Thing” on the flip, which had been recorded and released earlier on a different 45 (originally released in 1955).
But when I was putting this together, I saw that “Rumble” was recorded in 1954, so there goes that idea. I’m sure there have been long exegeses written on “Rumble,” so someday I’ll be able to satisfy my curiosity. They were both probably playing something like them for a while before they recorded.
This playlist contains all of the Lafayette Thomas cuts I can find (one of each), and I’m working on getting it into chronological order.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVMgP-TlqCc&index=1&list=PLsY6VJc9zDqn0b2ueC-zgHuNysTjf936p……………C…o…c…a…i…n…e………H…a…b…i…t………B…l…u…e…s……………
“Cocaine Habit Blues” reminded me of all those “viper” albums it was on (best explanation I’ve heard about why people were called vipers was that the hissing of a snake sounds like the sound they made when inhaling). Cab Calloway kicks off this viper album with the pin yen classic “Kickin’ the Gong Around.”
From the 1932 film, Big Broadcast.
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Multi-instrumentalist Sammy Myers’ 1956 R&B hit “Sleeping in the Ground” (number 334) was covered by Robert Cray, Eric Clapton and, of course, Blind Faith (number 335, the shorter, faster version). Here’s Blind Faith’s longer, slower version.
Here’s the live version from the 1969 concert in Hyde Park (9 songs from the concert are available on YouTube; those 9 songs may be their whole contribution to the concert).
Sammy Myers met guitarist Anson Funderburgh in 1982 and joined the Rockets in 1986. That was a beautiful collaboration that continued until Sammy’s death in 2006. Here’s a YouTube-generated playlist with almost a hundred selections, including much concert footage (but if you don’t know Sammy Myers beyond his singing and harp playing with the Rockets, take a quick look at the bio the first time his name appears—among other remarkable gigs, he was Elmore James semi-regular drummer).
Sammy Myers can be heard here and on the original “The Sky Is Crying.” Check here to see the complete discography (with thanks to Stefan Wirz).
“Little Girl,” Sam Myers (vocal, harmonica), Johnny “Big Moose” Walker (piano), Elmore James (guitar), Sammy Lee Bully (bass), King Mose (drums), New Orleans, LA, 1961.
“Angel Child,” same session details as above.
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Johnny “Big Moose” Walker , heard on piano on the 1961 recordings of Sammy Myers (above), was a triple-threat monster singer-pianist/organist-guitarist. You can hear him playing guitar on Curtis Jones’ Trouble Blues (numbers 80-91 below). Having already been into his musicianship wherever I found it, the Curtis Jones stuff blew me away.
He played keys on many of Earl Hooker’s recordings, more than any other keyboard player, including the May 3, 1961, version of “Blue Guitar” that Chess bought for Muddy Waters to sing “You Shook Me” over (1962, lyrics by Willie Dixon), and all the great late ’60s albums on ABC/Bluesway. I hope I have everything there is to be had on YouTube on the playlist below. I think you’ll be surprised how much he played on without ever becoming well-known.
Johnny Walker’s Ramblin’ Womanfrom 1969 is trading low again these days. The lowest-priced copy at Discogs is currently $10 (after reaching over $100 and holding there for over a year); hope this means a reissue is in the works. It’s a masterpiece of funky contemporary blues, with Earl Hooker.
Both of these are from that fine specimen mentioned above, Ramblin’ Woman. Johnny “Big Moose” Walker (vocals, piano, organ), Otis Hale (tenor), Earl Hooker (guitar), Chester “Geno” Skaggs (bass guitar), Paul Humphrey (drums), Vault Recording Studio, Los Angeles, June 9, 1969.
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Tommy McClennan’s 1941 “I’m a Guitar King” was on Ed Parker’s Yer Blues playlist along with Dion DiMucci’s “Guitar King” cover (Dion of the Belmonts, “Runaround Sue,” “The Wanderer”). I couldn’t find the cover on YouTube. Here’s the fine original (Robert Petway, featured in the last OBR, is pictured; McClennan and Petway were associates, and there aren’t any photos of McClennan, so people have taken to substituting without comment).
Here’s a Dion DiMucci playlist. Dion said that he said he kicked a heroin addiction while listening to nothing but the music of Robert Johnson, which sounds like his deepest connection to the blues.
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Another intoxicant, “Ma” Rainey’s 1924 “Booze and Blues” (number 344) laid the basis for Charley Patton’s 1929 “Tom Rushen Blues” (number 345), which was in turn covered by Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band in 2011 on Peyton On Patton (number 346); on this song, the Big Damn Band consists of one guitar.
Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett was one of the women who pioneered the blues, the first time around, along with her husband, Will Rainey, in the Rabbit Foot Minstrels and, later, in their own group, Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues.
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“Minglewood Blues” by Gus Cannon’s Jug Stompers (number 347 on the playlist, the Grateful Dead’s cover is number 348) was especially interesting as one of the constituent elements of “Rollin’ and Tumblin’,” one of my favorites, and I’ll come back to it one day, but for now, anyone interested please check out the Blues Roots on “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” from about a year ago.
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songs numbered 324 through 348
“DON’T CRY NO MORE” BOBBY “BLUE” BLAND
“DON’T CRY NO MORE” BOZ SCAGGS“AIN’T THAT LOVIN’ YOU BABY” JIMMY REED
“AIN’T THAT LOVIN’ YOU BABE” LINK WRAY“COCAINE HABIT” MEMPHIS JUG BAND
“COCAINE HABIT” OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW“MISSISSIPPI BOWEAVIL BLUES” CHARLEY PATTON
“MISSISSIPPI BOWEAVIL BLUES”“TE NI NEE NI NU” SLIM HARPO
“TEE NI NEE NI NOO” ALEX CHILTON“SLEEPING IN THE GROUND” SAMMY MYERS
“SLEEPING IN THE GROUND” BLIND FAITH“BALD HEADED LENA” PIANO RED
“BALD HEADED LENA” THE LOVIN’ SPOONFUL“MEAN JUMPER BLUES” BLIND LEMON JEFFERSON
“MEAN JUMPER BLUES” COUNTING CROWS“FAN IT” FRANKIE “HALF-PINT” JAXON
“FAN IT” WILLIE NELSON & ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL“YOUR BABY AIN’T SWEET LIKE MINE” PAPA CHARLIE JACKSON
“YOUR BABY AIN’T SWEET LIKE MINE” THE CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS“BOOZE & BLUES” MA RAINEY
“TOM RUSHEN BLUES” CHARLEY PATTON
“TOM RUSHEN BLUES” REV. PEYTON & HIS BIG DAMN BAND“MINGLEWOOD BLUES” GUS CANNON’S JUG STOMPERS
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I don’t have a lot to say about the first song in volume 14, Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “Don’t Cry No More” (number 324). It’s new to me and I like it (it spoke to me, and it generated a slew of worthy covers—I would have liked to feature “Ain’t That Lovin’ You, Baby,” but there just weren’t nearly as many covers).
Eugene Jefferson, the first cover, from 1961
Conway Twitty, 1963
Roy Head, 1966
Buddy Ace
The Mindbenders, Terrace Club, Hamburg, July 1, 1966
Wilson Picket from Jumping, 1968
Bobby “Blue” Bland with B.B. King from Together for the First Time (live at Western Recorders Studio), 1974
Denise LaSalle
Warren Haynes and Soul Stew Revival, Wanee Festival, Live Oak, Florida, April 12, 2008
Cyndi Lauper on Jimmy Fallon
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I also want to share three of my very favorite Bobby “Blue” Bland tunes. There was a time when singers waited to hear what he released so they could cover it. All three of these songs have produced many fine, fine covers (many are listed at the Wikipedia articles in the titles).
“Farther Up the Road” with Pat Hare, 1957.
“I Pity the Fool,” Joe Scott, Melvin Jackson (trumpets), Pluma Davis (trombone), Robert Skinner, L. A. Hill (tenor saxophones), Rayfield Devers (baritone saxophone), Teddy Reynolds (piano), Wayne Bennett (guitar), Hamp Simmons (bass), and John “Jabo” Starks (drums). 1961.
“Turn On Your Love Light,”
Joe Scott, Melvin Jackson (trumpets), Pluma Davis (trombone), Johnny Board, Jimmy Beck (saxophones), Rayfield Devers (baritone saxophone), Teddy Reynolds (piano), Wayne Bennett (guitar), Hamp Simmons (bass), and John “Jabo” Starks (drums)—personnel is same as above except the saxophones. 1961.
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Worthy of mention, if you like Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “Mean Jumper Blues” (number 338) or the cover by Counting Crows (number 339), there are a lot of amateur covers online by 2nd graders of Trinity School. Apparently one of their teachers assigned it. Although they all mention Blind Lemon Jefferson as the author, they’re clearly basing their songs on the Counting Crows’ version. Here’s one.
Here’s my Blind Lemon Jefferson playlist. It’s almost pointless, as randomly as it’s organized, and it’s one I’m thinking of pruning way down, breaking into its constituent parts. By the time I get to 100, I’ve started including Mance Lipscomb, and I changed the name and description to include other Texas guitarist. Look out, Texas is big, room for lots of guitarists. At 210, we move on to Lester Williams, Smokey Hogg, Ray Sharpe and others (Ray Sharpe has a nice Freddie King-like take—if you don’t know him, have a listen). Roy Gaines comes up next at 366, he smokes, clearing the way for Johnny Copeland at 455, he burns. I see Clarence Garlow in this list and wonder how he got there; I associate him with Louisiana, but I may have known at one time that he spent time in Texas (I’m hoping there’s a reason). Skipping over a few, Johnny Winter picks up at number 876 where Texas Johnny Brown left off, brothers Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan show up not long after. And so on, a stylistic hodge-podge but kind of awesome… Hope you’ll find something you like.
More Texas here, T-Bone Walker, Gatemouth Brown and Pee Wee Crayton and Zuzu Bollin currently share this playlist, another one that will be broken into its constituent parts.
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………C…h…i…c…a…g…o………B…r…o…o…m…d…u…s…t…e…r…s…,……1…9…7…5…………Joe Carter (Elmore James, Jr.) was a badass guitarist. Here’s a little proof.
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“Homesick” James Williamson, “Lonesome Ole Train”
Lightnin’ Slim, “Mean Ole Lonesome Train”
Papa Lightfoot “Mean Ol’ Train”
…and 434 other songs about trains. Thanks to YouTube channel Sliptrail, I grabbed 300+ videos from his Train Songs playlist and under 20 of them were ones I already had! The duplicates have mostly been removed, except Papa Lightfoot’s “Mean Ol’ Train.” After you hear it, maybe you’ll understand why I have so many.
Also check out this YouTube channel, devoted to railroad songs.
Don D.
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