ODDS & ENDS

Dick Dale & His Del-Tones • Surfing Drums • 1962

Get it: Surfers’s Choice

DINOSAURIC PRECEPTION ROADMAP BLUES

This week’s DPRB selection is what my friend Marie might call a guilty pleasure. But I don’t feel guilty as much as stoopid for liking this. When it came out I was a newly baptized blues pup, but rock’n’roll continued to have a strong pull. And as blues wankers Led Zep were as good as they come. Listening to this there’s a point in the middle where you seem to fall through a hole in time and there you are on a hot day in the Mississippi Delta in 1942 as a train chugs by in the middle of a song Son House is recording on a porch for Alan Lomax. Time lurches again as Son House’s protégé McKinley Morganfield (aka Muddy Waters) records “You Need Love” and another lurch lands us back in the present with Led Zeppelin screaming and thrashing away on their version of Muddy’s record, their first big hit.

Led Zeppelin • Whole Lotta Love • 1969

Get it: II

Album cover: All Music

CUE BALL BLUES

“Little Joe” Arwood • Cue Ball Blues • c.early 1950s

MIS’SIPPI TAPE 21

Tom Paxton • Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney • 1965

I GOT TWO WINGS

A friend of mine emailed me yesterday and asked “What’s up with the ‘no blues’ programming lately?” I had to go back and look and, yep, it’s been about a week and a half since I posted any true blues. So today’s post, while not quite blues, will have to hold you all for about another week and a half ’cause I plays ’em like I feels ’em. But what a record we have for you today. Nobody these days plays guitar and hollers like Rev. Utah Smith, blues or otherwise. So, let’s strap on them wings and fly. . . .

Rev. Utah Smith • Two Wings • 1953

Photo: Rev. Utah Smith (from taintradio)

DINOSAURIC PRECEPTION ROADMAP BLUES

Scenario: Blasting along PCH in a VW bug, passing beach town after beach town on the way to work, windows down, radio tuned to top 40 radio, volume all the way up, little dashboard speaker straining not to bust its cone. The following two songs were favorite speaker busters along with Canned Heat’s “On the Road Again” and (gulp!) Led Zep’s “Whole Lotta Love.” Looking back, it’s hard to fathom that there was actually something on everyday AM radio worth getting excited about. . . .

Smith • Baby It’s You • 1969

Candi Staton • I’m Just a Prisoner (of Your Good Lovin’) • 1970

Find ’em: “Baby It’s You”: A Group Called Smith; “I’m Just a Prisoner (of Your Good Lovin’”: I’m Just a Prisoner

Label picture: 45cat

ODDS & ENDS

Charlotte Gainsbourg & Calexico

Just Like a Woman • 2007

Get it: I’m Not There

UP FROM THE GRAVE

Sheffield Male Quartet • Christ Arose • 1927

Photo copyright © 2014 by Brad Barrett. All rights reserved.

SOMETIME DURING ETERNITY

Lawrence Ferlinghetti • A Coney Island Of The Mind #5 • 1999

Photo of Lawrence Ferlinghetti from booklet to A Coney Island of the Mind (Ryko, 1999).

HAMMER RINGS

Edna Gallmon Cooke • The Hammer Rings • 1961

Many thanks to H.M.S. at Cussin’ & Carryin’ On.

DINOSAURIC PRECEPTION ROADMAP BLUES

Elvis Presley • Suspicious Minds • 1969

Get it: The Memphis 1969 Anthology: Suspicious Minds

Picture sleeve: For Elvis CD Collectors

HARMONICA TRAIN

So . . . you’ll have noticed that we feature a lot of cuts from Blues Classics LPs as well as from OJL and Yazoo. In the days before Yazoo started up, Blues Classics was one of the major pre- and postwar reissue labels and their releases could be found just about everywhere, no doubt due to good indie record store distribution by Bayside (or Jack’s Record Cellar, I can’t remember now). There was a period there in the mid- to late 60s when some of the greatest blues ever recorded were as easily available, at the right shops, as current pop music. So, for a beginning blues fan, what a time it was. Relatively good sound remastering, terrific selection, informative liner notes all in one package for about $3.00 a pop. How could you go wrong?

Sonny “Hootin’” Terry & His Night Owls

Harmonica Train • 1952

Sonny Terry, vocal whoops/harmonica; Bob Gaddy, piano; Brownie McGhee, guitar; Bob Harris, bass; George Wood, drums. Recorded in New York City, 1952.

I SPELL B-A-D

Bo Diddley’s fifth single for Checker, “Who Do You Love,” featured “I’m Bad” on the flip, a sort of follow-up to his first record, “I’m a Man.” “I’m Bad” has a tougher sound than its predecessor (thanks to Jody Williams’ stinging guitar) which fits the more threatening lyrics perfectly. (Note the misspelling of the title on early pressings.)

Bo Diddley • I’m Bad • 1956

Personnel: Bo Diddley, vocal/guitar; Jody Williams, guitar; Clifton James, drums; Jerome Green, maracas. Recorded in Chicago, 24 May 1956.

Label photo: 45cat

I DONE GOT HOMESICK AGAIN, I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO

So, we’ve been around the world this past week, it’s Monday morning, and we’re back home . . . sick.

Homesick James • Homesick • 1953

James Williamson & His Trio: Homesick James, vocal/guitar; Lazy Bill Lucas, piano; Johnny Shines, guitar; Alfred Elkins, bass. Recorded in Chicago, 23 Jan 1953.

TODA MI ALMA

“Ramiro Cavazos is one of the most soulful singers in the Norteño field and also an excellent bajo sexto player, songwriter, proprietor of the R y N label in McAllen [Texas] and record shop owner in the small town. . . . The slow waltz TODA MI ALMA is with the Banda brothers and I do not know the name of the accordionist but he is superb. The original record was overmodulated but despite such shortcomings I felt this disc had so much feeling it deserved inclusion [on the album Norteño Acordeon – Part 3].” *

Conjunto Hermanos Banda • Toda Mi Alma • c.1950s

* adapted from Chris Strachwitz’ 1978 notes to the LP Norteño Acordeon – Part 3: South Texas and Monterrey, N.L., The 1940’s and 50’s [Folklyric 9020 and amazingly still available from Arhoolie]).

Label photo from UCLA’s The Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings.

KILAKILA HALEAKALA

Here’s a nice bit of “Maui no ka oi” for all you “Mauiians” out there. . . .

Ray Kinney with Dick McIntire & His Harmony Hawaiians

Kilakila Haleakala (Hawaiian Cowboy Song) • 1937

NAUGHTY RITA

“‘Naughty Rita’ was one of just four tracks recorded by a mysterious little ensemble that likely featured one G. Crapanzano, the author of most of I Flautisti’s tunes. Featuring flute, piccolo, banjo, and guitar, the group recorded their entire output on June 1, 1928 at Liederkranz Hall on 58th Street.” —JW

I Flautisti • Rita impertinente • 1928

Notes, label photo, and tune from Excavated Shellac, a terrific blog that features music at 78 rpm from all over the world. Give ’em a listen.

KANASHII SAKÉ

Ladies and gentlemen, the queen of enka, Misora Hibari, performing her 1966 hit “Kanashii Saké” (Sad Saké). . . .

美空ひばり• 悲しい酒 • 1966

 (Misora Hibari • Kanashii Saké)

MISERLOU

This is the first recording of “Miserlou.” Come all ye Dick Dale fans and bow at the throne of Tetos Demetriades. Or maybe just have an enjoyable listen to history being made.

Tetos Demetriades • Miserlou • 1927

Tetos Demetriades photo: Recording Pioneers

UA LIKE NO A LIKE

Here’s some fabulous Hawaiian steel by Tau Moe accompanying his wife Rose’s chicken skin-inducing falsetto vocal. . . .

Tau Moe’s Hawaiian Jazzites • U Like, Noa Like • 1934

Photo: cover of Yazoo CD Slidin’ on the Frets (2000). That’s Tau Moe, left rear behind the steel guitar player, 1932.

PLEASE STAND BY

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you these exciting new old releases. Our longstanding regular series will resume next week.

Und now, for something completely . . . the same! We’ll be stretching Blues All Kinds’ credo this week with wonderful songs and music from South Carolina . . . Hawai‘i . . . the Eastern Mediterranean . . . Japan . . . Italy . . . south Texas! First up, we bring you Bull City Red singing “I Saw the Light” accompanied on guitar by the great Rev. Gary Davis.

Blind Gary • I Saw the Light • 1935

ODDS & ENDS

Here’s the top side of Harmonica Frank Floyd’s first 78, recorded at Sun, issued on Chess. One of his strangest. . . .

Harmonica Frank • Swamp Root • 1951

Get it: The Sun Country Box

GOT A LETTER THIS MORNING

Son House • Death Letter Blues • 1965

DINOSAURIC PRECEPTION ROADMAP BLUES

The Band • Jemima Surrender • 1969

Get it: The Band

THE VICKSBURG–FORTY FOUR BLUES SAGA, Part 5

One of the many recordings Little Brother Montgomery made of his signature piece “Vicksburg Blues” is this unissued version from an April 1949 Regal Records session.

Little Brother Montgomery • Vicksburg Blues • 1949

LP cover: American Music

Next time, back to 1929 for Lee Green and James Wiggins. . . .