Tale #39.Fannie Mae

9th October 2011

Tale #38.Wang Dang Doodle

2nd October 2011

Tale #37.Booba Barnes Ain'y Gonna Worry

25th Sept

Tale #36.Breakdown in Chicago

Tale #35.Stop This Killing

Tale #34.Drop Down Mama

Tale #33.Trombone Time

Kai Winding played trombone in the jazz bebop idiom, mainly for the Stan Kenton oufit; he told his session arranger, Garry Sherman, that he wanted to try something with a rhythmic harder edge. Garry hooked him up with Jerry Ragavoy who wrote “Time Is On My Side” in about an hour on the afternoon of the 1963 recording. (As an aside his “Cry Baby” for Garnett Mimms took over 18 months to write).

The backing vocalists were Cissy Houston and sisters Dionne and Dee Warwick, all now noted solo artists and the song hints at a gospel passion through the arrangement. It was that aspect which appealed to Irma Thomas for her cover in short order with added lyrics by Jimmy Norman early in 1964 (her version is often wrongly cited as the original).

Within a few weeks (June 1964) the Rolling Stones were touring the States and cut their first version with a short organ intro – issued on their US album called “12X5”. By November the band redid the song with a guitar intro that became their best known version on single and on their second UK album. The guitar intro version is the one found on film soundtracks and compilations of hits. Subsequently the song has been taken on by many singers though none with the commercial success of the Rolling Stones.

Kai Winding went onto solo projects that embraced jazz, country, rock,and classics; he gave jazz clinics and produced trombone instructional materials.

Tale #32.Wilbert gets to Kansas

In 1952 lyricist Jerry Leiber and tunesmith Mike Stoller couldn’t agree on the arrangement for “Kansas City” the song they wrote especially for West Coast artist, Little Willie Littlefield: Mike got his way though the title was changed to “K. C. Lovin’” after producer Ralph Bass thought it had more street cred.

Wilbert Harrison did the song live but it was 1959 before he took it to the studios in Harlem for Bobby Robinson’s Fury label. The arrangement was intended to emulate Littlefields but the solid groove actually came alive through the guitar solo of Wild Jimmy Spruill. So much so the single got to number 1 and sold a million copies, despite three other competing versions released the same week in April 1959.

Shortly after Harrison’s hit version Little Richard combined it with “Well Well Well Well” as a medley for his single version and live act. The medley inspired the remake the Beatles did on their album “For Sale” in 1964. The song has been covered 300 times including by Trini Lopez and by Peggy Lee with subsequent blues versions from Muddy Waters and Albert King. It was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001

Tale #31.Nina's in the House

Like most great stories there’s a fuzzy line at the edge of fact, and though it’s clear this story refers to somewhere in New Orleans the great web out there says it may actually originate as an English Folk song. We’re pretty sure that the musicologist Alan Lomax recorded the song in Kentucky performed by 16 year old Georgia Turner in September 1937. That one set the tone of many later versions by putting the point of view as female in “The House of The Rising Sun”. It had sex, drugs and alcohol it its cautionary lyrics. Put these in the context of a gambling hall or brothel in the Crescent City and things seemed pretty clear cut.

Nina Simone covered the song live in 1961 and may well have been the record that Alan Price heard when he suggested the song to the Animals for their 1964 hit that got to number one here, in the States and in Europe. They moved the focus of the song to a male viewpoint, though they weren’t first. Shortly after Ms Simone, Bob Dylan also did the song though his muse was gotten by copying the version his friend Dave van Ronk already had in his live set. What’s more Dave had his own theory about the House of the Rising Sun.

Dave’s research dug up a photograph of the entrance gates to the New Orleans Parish Women’s prison – complete with motif of a Rising Sun. So the “ball and chain” of the lyrics could be real not a metaphor for the shackles of married life.

Thanks to the Animals, the song is in the Rock’n’roll Hall of Fame; Frijid Pink scored another number one with the piece in 1969 and Dolly Parton did it on her 9 to 5 album with additional words. Nina Simone was a classically trained pianist who crossed several musical genres from jazz to pop to gospel. Her nickname was “the High-Priestess of Soul”; an independent thinker with a volatile temperament and strong convictions who campaigned for Civil Rights, Nina found herself on the outside of so much of the Establishment, small wonder she included the outspoken song in her armoury.

Tale #30.Ray Sharpe's stacked to the max

'Cryin' In The Chapel' was written by Artie Glenn and recorded by his son Darrel. They had some spare studio time they gave to Ray Sharpe to let him cut some demo songs on the understanding that they would get some action if the demos lead to a recording contract.

Producers Lee Hazelwood and Lester Still liked what they heard so Ray got a deal with the Jamie label. The subject of his first single was written about a girlfriend of one of his buddies who he later described as “stacked to the max”: Linda Lu. It was one of three songs they did at Audio Sound Studios in Phoenix with Al Casey in the band. There's no truth in the legend that Duane Eddy played guitar on the song.

In those days singles were first put out into strategic markets to test the water before wider distribution. The a-side “Red Sails in the Sunset” got played on radio a few times in New York, Ohio and Miami – the West Coast was different, a dj in Los Angeles flipped it over to play “Linda Lu”. Word got back to the Glenns and they arranged for Jamie to re-press the single with “Linda Lu” on top, together with another of their songs on the b-side instead of “Red Sails”. Further confusion came about due to keeping the same catalogue number for both versions.

Ray Sharpe never repeated his commercial success with “Linda Lu” but he wrote many other songs regarded as rockabilly gems. He didn't stay out west too long before making his way back to his home town of Fort Worth. As with so many of his contemporaries, Ray Sharpe has always been more highly prized on this side of the pond despite once being called the whitest sounding black man...

Tale #29.Buddy Guy's first time

When Eric Clapton left John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers he did so with the express intention of emulating Buddy Guy.

With Magic Sam and Otis Rush, Buddy Guy was part of the next generation of blues guitarists that followed Muddy Waters in Chicago blues. It was fate that Guy would gravitate to Waters for advice and underage entry to clubs.

Over on the West Side, Buddy started to build a live reputation as a showman player and got deal with Cobra Records. Two years on, in 1959, he was recording for Chess. He cut four songs on 2^nd March 1960 in Chicago that included “First Time I Met The Blues”. There was a sense of anguish defined by his falsetto pitched vocals and razor sharp guitar. The line-up included both baritone and tenor saxes: tough urban blues – the polar opposite of easy listening. Even today it is at the heart of Buddy’s definitive style – much emulated though rarely equalled.

His flamboyant live act with more than a little tendency to rely on rock star histrionics and rapid-fire licks at high volume simultaneously reinvigorated his fortunes in 1991 and alienated many purists. Few however can argue with his potency aged 74 on his 2010 album “Living Proof”: it won a Grammy in the category of “Best Contemporary Blues” - a full fifty years after he first met the blues

Tale #28.Howlin' Wolf remembers Natchez

The Rhythm Night Club in Natchez was decorated with Spanish moss hanging from the ceiling. Tiny Bradshaw and his orchestra was scheduled to appear on 23^rd April 1940 but was double-booked in Harlem so was replaced at the last minute with Walter Barnes and his Sophisticated Swing Orchestra.

Sometime during the evening the moss was ignited by a stray match or cigarette. The building was made from corrugated metal with a single exit and boarded up windows. Barnes directed his band to carry on playing to calm the crowd as they scrambled to leave. Over 200 people died including Barnes and 9 members of his band. Over 15000 people attended his funeral.

One of the first songs about the tragedy was done by Leonard Baby Doo Caston a few months later, however the best known is the song written by Howlin Wolf : THE NATCHEZ BURNING. The session on 19^th July 1956 had Willie Johnson on guitar , Chess however only released the song in November 1959 presumably to be out in time for any twentieth anniversary remembrance.

Though other artists like John Lee Hooker and Captain Beefheart wrote songs about the fire, it is the Wolf song that defines those terrible events at the club in Natchez.

Tale #27.Drive Em Down from the Crescent City to Halifax

Blues artist Willie Hall was better known as "Drive 'Em Down" and though he never recorded, he left a legacy in the melody called "Junkers Blues". It was a story of drugs and a harsh existence in the notorious Angola Prison. The distinctive riff became part of the New Orleans musical tradition picked up by Champion Jack Dupree in 1940 for a session released by the Okeh label. It was certainly recognised as the first recorded version of this famous piece and it inspired Fats Domino's debut "The Fat Man" in 1949.

Since then you can hear the same motif in "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" by Lloyd Price and Professor Longhair's "Tipitina" and countless other variations. Though Jack was the quintessential New Orleans barrelhouse player, he moved to Halifax, married a Yorkshire lass and got a major feature in the Sunday Times Colour supplement.

Our STAR BLUES playlist on 10th July took the track from the set of Champion Jack's Okeh recordings and raritiess issued by Columbia/Legacy in the early 1990s.

Tale #26.Little Richard Can't Help It

The 1956 film "The Girl Can't Help It" was, on one level, a vehicle to showcase the curves and comedy of Jayne Mansfield. While the plot wasn't up to much with the happy ending obvious from the start, the soundtrack written by Bobby Troup was outstanding.

Jayne played the girlfriend of small time mobster who was set on her success as a singer, despite there being no obvious signs of talent. He hired a publicist to hawk her around various night clubs where we get to see acts like Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, the Treniers and Little Richard. Each gave a magical performance, none more so than Richard who ripped through the title track: "The Girl Can't Help It". This was a man at the very top of his game on a winning streak of hit singles, his followup was "Lucille".

Our STAR BLUES playlist on 3rd July took the song from a collection of the hits from Richards first spell with Specialty: "The EP Collection". The disc is no longer in print.

Tale #25.Lowell Fulson at Three O'Clock

Lowell Fulson was part Choctaw Indian and was born in March 1921 in Tulsa Oklahoma but became best known as purveyor of both Texan and West Coast blues. After his National Service he returned to Oakland and met up with Bob Geddins, who promised to record Fulson when he had enough material. So it was he did a session for Bob's Down Town label helped by his brother Martin on a self-penned song: "Three O'Clock Blues".

Their version was very different to the cover later done by B B King and Lowell's own style rarely sounded as raw again. (He also did "Everyday I Have the Blues" before B. B. King) His other contributions to late 20th century music were pretty significant, he wrote and recorded "Reconsider Baby" but Elvis Presley had the hit with it; and his song "Tramp" was made more famous by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas.

Our Star Blues show on 26th June used the long out-of-print collection of Fulson's earliest recordings issue by Zircon Bleu: "Three O'clock Blues" by Lowell Fulson.

Tale #24.Healing Blues

The urban myth surrounding John Lee Hooker's re-discovery from obscurity by Carlos Santana and Canned Heat is only marginally based on truth. He stayed very active in the blues community: Into the 1980's his Coast to Coast Blues Band worked consistently from its base in San Francisco and John added regular sessions on others' blues albums to his "Jealous" project - as well as that appearance in the Blues Brothers movie. By 1987 he was in the studio with Charlie Musselwhite and three of Canned Heat and a year later with Bonnie Raitt and then with Carlos Santana and his group. Those recordings were put together in Summer 1989 for the "Healer" project that brought John Lee Hooker back into mainstream focus and kick-started an interest in a newly cool genre, blues.

Purists disliked the album and its subsequent projects, decrying Hooker's involvement as cameos on his own albums. Putting those observations on one side he did include some haunting solo pieces as good as any he'd done 40 years earlier. He still approached the music in his own inimitable way with varying bar counts.

STAR BLUES on 19th June 2011 chose the title track of the turning-point album "the Healer" to mark the tenth year since John's death on 21st June 2001.

Tale #23.The Guitar Master's Swing Out Rhythm

The single-stringing style of Lonnie Johnson [rn: Alonzo Johnson, born 1899] was the inspiration for B. B. King, Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian. We think it common place for electric rock guitarists but Johnson perfected his technique before going electric and he used his gifts for dozens of jazz, blues and r&b recordings.

Initially he was signed to the Okeh label and he duped many with his pairing with Blind Willie Dunn (in reality white jazz player Eddie Lang). After some commercial success, both solo and as a duo, Okeh dropped him out of the blue and for five years he looked for work outside music. By November 1937 he was in the studio again to record "Swing Out Rhythm" - a piece of dexterous grace and beauty with Joshua Altheimer on piano. It would be another two years before he got chance to record again for labels like RCA Victor and King.

His 1952 song "Tomorrow Night" was a hit for him but he got the big royalty cheques for the versions recorded by Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. Ironically the coming of rock'n'roll made him seem old-fashioned and he slowly drifted out of music again.

Our STAR BLUES playlist on 5th June took "Swing Out Rhythm" from the 4-disc survey of his career up to 1952 called "Original Guitar Wizard" issued on the Proper label some while ago.

Tale #22.Blind Willie Johnson's last record

Over the space of a couple of days in April 1930 the Columbia recording team were in Atlanta and captured some seminal recordings, including what proved to be the final session from the visiting Blind Willie Johnson [born 22nd January 1897, Texas]. Much of his work had been proven from his street performances and he'd already recorded "You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond" under a slightly different title a couple of years earlier. His gruff vocal on this gospel piece is sweetened with a female voice, long thought to be his second wife Angeline though this is now disputed. In a recording career of just three years and thirty sides, his composition credits also include "Nobody's Fault But Mine". "John the Revelator", "Soul Of A Man" and "Dark Was the Night Cold Was the Ground".

"You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond" was covered in 1994 by Eric Bibb for the album "Spirit and the Blues" [Opus3] with deft bottleneck guitar accompaniment from Goran Wennerbrandt. On STAR BLUES on 29th May 2011 we featured both artists as a back-to-back feature. The anthology of Atlanta blues on Fantastic Voyage was the source for Johnson's 1930 version and we went to Eric's album on the audiophile label Opus3.

Tale #21.Bob Dylan's muse from before recorded blues

Bob Dylan's earliest musical memories included songs from the very first days of recorded blues. Most likely he heard the Bo Chatmon version of Corrine Corrina from 1928 or the one by Western Swing maestro Bob Wills in 1940. Actually the song is one of the best selling pieces of sheet music from at least a decade before, published by Roger Graham.

With a bit or artistic licence in the lyrics, Bob put his take on the subject onto side two of his second album "Freewheelin Bob Dylan"; released early in 1963. The piece quickly became a staple favourite for the artists playing in Greenwich Village that year.

The other noted interpretation worth seeking out is the one done by Big Joe Turner for Atlantic. Our selection for STAR BLUES drew the track from the deleted antology of Bo Carter's work that Catfish Records compiled some time ago. There's no readily identified cd issue for "Corrine, Corrina".

Tale #20. At Last

The 1941 original of "At Last" was written for a film called "Orchestra Wives". Etta James cut it in 1960 as the title track of her first album on Chess Records label. Though only a moderate hit at the time it has become an evergreen staple on radio ever since, currently it is being used to accompany an advert for Marks & Spencer.

Others like Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Nicks, Eva Cassidy and Joni Mitchell have done covers though none match Etta's reading of the piece. She was miffed however that Beyonce got to sing it in the film "Cadillac Records" and at President Obama's inauguration early in 2009.

Our STAR BLUES feature on 15th May 2011 used the version on her "At Her Best" cd anthology compiled by MCA/Chess.