On This Day – Sonny Boy Arrives, For The First Time
Mar 30, 2010 Blues, On This Day, arrivals
On this day in 1914 Sonny Boy Williamson was born.
Sonny Boy was a hugely influential blues harmonica player. Arguably all the present blues harmonica players have been influenced to a greater or lesser extent. None more so than Sonny Boy Williamson.
In fact Sonny Boy Williamson was so influential that Sonny Boy Williamson copied Sonny Boy Williamson.
Confused? Don’t worry many avid blues fans have been, and still are, confused by just who is playing when they listen to Sonny Boy Williamson.
Let me explain. The Sonny Boy Williamson born today in 1914 was the original and his birth name was John Lee Curtis Williamson in Jackson Tennessee. He died on 1st June 1948 after being mugged in Chicago. In between he forged a harmonica style that has changed the world of music. He also wrote performed some of the seminal blues songs of the 20th century. His biggest selling song was a massive race record hit (remember, before the 60s in the States the blues and rhythm and blues were thought not to be fit for white people) was “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl”
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl has been recorded by John Lee Hooker, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Muddy Waters, Doctor Ross, The Grateful Dead, Ten Years After, Johnny Winter, Yardbirds, Rolling Stones among many, many more.
Back to the point of this blog…….
So, Sonny Boy was hugely popular and living and recording in Chicago. Over in Arkansas There was harmonica player called Rice Miller (although he may have been born as Aleck Ford, or Rice Ford, or Aleck Miller, no one is really sure and as to his date of birth just don’t get me started….) Rice Miller appeared on the radio and played in a similar style to Sonny Boy. The radio shows sponsors was King Biscuits.
Arkansas is quite a way away from Chicago and though Sonny Boy’s recoreds were popular there was little chance that he would come to Arkansas to play. To King Biscuit it seemed obvious, call Rice Miller Sonny Boy Williamson and pretend (or least not deny) that it was the real Sonny Boy on their radio show! Strangely, it worked. Sonny Boy never sued over the hijacking of his name (but then Rice Miller did not record as Sonny Boy while Sonny Boy was alive – if you see what I mean). They both just got on with it. After Sonny Boy died Rice Miller recorded as Sonny Boy Williamson II. The trouble is that there are still compilations out there that get the 2 mixed up.
Look on the bright side, they were both great harmonica players, just enjoy the music!
People are still getting them mixed up. This is Rice Miller (Sonny Boy Williamson II) with the song thatgave a great band its name.
With Muddy Waters “Got My Mojo Working”
Tags: aleck ford, aleck miller, Blues, blues music, born on this day, Doctor Ross, John Lee Hooker, Johnny Winter, lightnin' hopkins, Mississippi Fred McDowell, muddy waters, On This Day, rice miller, rock and blues, rolling stones, slim harpo, sonny boy williamson, Ten Years After, The Grateful Dead, yardbirds
On This Day – Big Boy, Big Gone
Mar 28, 2010 Departures, On This Day
On this day in 1974 the man who wrote That’s All Right covered so famously by Elvis died.
Arthur Big Boy Crudup was born in Mississippi in 1905. He became a blues singer and made his way to Chicago. He did not really do too well there as he was living in a packing crate when he was discovered by record producer Lester Melrose. Although he could barely make a living working solo in Chicago melrose saw something in Crudup. he introduced Crudup to Tampa Red and signed him to RCA Victor’s Bluebird Label.
His first recording session was in 1941. In some ways the start of his recording career which promised so much delivered so little. After each recording session he would have to return to the labour camp to get work to get enough money to live.
His records were selling but where were the royalties? He sued Melrose, but with no result. In the early 50s he even stopped recording altogether. Then, his songs were taken up by Presley. Surely, his fortunes would change now? Not a bit of it.
Still no royalties. So in 1971 he sued to get his hands on his royalties again. This time a cheque for $60,000 was written, but it was never signed………….
He was dead 3 years later, a poor man. The Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll, whose songs helped send Elvis to stardom, whose songs were recorded by so many rock artists died an honoured but poor man.
Tags: arthur big boy crudup, classic rock music, elvis presley, rock and blues, sun records
Wreckless Sunk by Starship
Mar 25, 2010 Rants
I was re-reading Wreckless Eric’s great book ‘A Dysfunctional Success’. He tells of how Stiff Records decided that he could not write tunes (I beg your pardon?) and so they brought in Martin Page and Brian Fairweather to help him out. This must be for Big Smash. It was a thoroughly dispirating experience for Wreckless and the result not what he wanted……….
Anyway the Page Fairweather duo (they had matching baseball jackets with ‘Fairweather Page’ on the back – OMG) wer later responsible for “We Built This City On Rock ‘n’ Roll”.
‘Nuff Said (as Stan the Man says) they should be burnt at a stake!
Tags: jefferson starship, rock and blues, we built this city, wreckless eric
On This Day – Lou Bitten
Mar 24, 2010 On This Day
On this day in 1973 Lou Reed was playing in Buffalo, New York. A fan scrambled up on stage shouted “Leather!” and bit Lou on the Bum.
OK, so it is not the most important ‘On This Day’ that I will ever write but I did miss Lou’s birthday (2nd March) and so will have to wait a year before I can do a big piece on him.
1973 was a year after Transformer and Berlin was not released until July ‘73 so this would have been at a concert in support of Transformer. The backing band was The Tots who were;
VINNY LAPORTA, guitar
EDDIE REYNOLDS, guitar
BOBBY RESIGNO, bass
SCOTTIE CLARK, drums
Not sure what happened to the members of the band but here they are with Lou in 1973 (any info about them please let me know, I gather that Laporta was still playing up until 2007).
Lou Reed Live Olympia Theatre, Paris 1973, Walk On The Wild Side , Heroin and White Light, White heat. This is from the “Berlin” tour with the Wagner & Hunter band. Wonderful.
Tags: berlin, classic rock music, lou reed, On This Day, rock and blues, the tots, transformer
Selling My Albums!
Mar 23, 2010 About and things
So, I still have 1,000 (ish) vinyl albums left. The other 6,000 were sold some years ago owing to a financial crisis (not on the scale of the recent monetary melt down, but not far short on a personal level). The man who bought them was very nice about it, very sympathetic, but at the price he paid he could afford to be. He almost broke his trousers trying getting to get the cash out of his pocket quickly so that I would not change my mind.
Anyway, I have not played them since we moved 7 years ago. Apparently, there wasn’t any ‘room’ for the deck as well as my CDs, amp, tuner, CD player (women have no idea about the importance of men’s stuff). I decided to sell them on Amazon (much better prices than eBay). I ordered the LP mailers began sorting them, looking at the Record Collector price guide, so much good news (I had no idea how much some crap LPs are worth!)
It seemed only fair that I should play them one last time before I listed them so that I could judge the quality, you understand. Also, Jane was going to be out for a few hours……
Out came the deck, with a new cartridge. I hooked it up to my trusy NAD amp and played the first disc from the box.
It was amazing.
I had forgotten how warm vinyl sounds. The depth, the brightness. When CDs were new we marvelled at the technology. So much music on such a little thing. 70 odd minutes on a CD only 45 on an LP, and easier to store, they had to be good. But, we forgot (at least most people did, of whom I was one) that vinyl sounds better. The record companies were only too delighted to sell their back catalogue again. Reissued first as ‘the first time on CD’, then as ‘re-mastered’ then as ‘the original mix’. And we were all seduced.
So, the deck now stays (well, Jane and I will have discussions but over my dead body….) and the albums stay.
Anyone want to buy 200 LP mailers?
Tags: amazon, ebay, rock and blues
The Worst Best Albums – 1 Rumours (Fleetwood Mac)
Mar 10, 2010 Rants
One in a short series covering well known and popular albums that I can not stand……..
What is wrong with Rumours ?
The first thing is that it is not Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood was and always will be the band with Peter Green, not a band without the man with the golden guitar. Yes, he was off somewhere on planet Green but to continue the band without him was like the Stones without Brian Jones (OK, like the Stones without Keef).
Something else I really, I mean really, disliked about this version of Mac was that they were so smug. Smugger than the smuggiest thing in the world. smugger than a cat that had all the cream and then found even more cream. I thought that they were a bit full of themselves……
As you will remember, Green was in Mayall’s Blues Breakers having replace Clapton. Mayall gave Green some time in a recording studio as a gift and with Fleetwood and McVie (who were also in the Blues Breakers) he recorded 5 songs and Fleetwood Mac were formed. They were a blues rock band. They were supberb.
With Rumours Mac placed themselves firmly at the forefront of soft rock. Soft rock, rock with a pretty face, tea and cumpet rock, rock without attitude. That is their main crime against rock.
Those, very personal objections aside what else is wrong with an album that contained so many hummable tunes?
The production is too slick, the harmonies too, well harmonic, the songs steeped in honey (with no lemon). Rock should be relevant and scratchy. It should make you think, not sleep. It should not be suitable to use a s lift (elevator) music. It should be music not musac.
I know that I am in a minority of 1. I know that Rolling Stone, Q, Mojo, and the rest of the universe all believe this to be one of the best records ever produced.
They are wrong.
Fleetwood Mac’s line-up consisted of guitarist and vocalist Lindsey Buckingham, drummer Mick Fleetwood, keyboardist and vocalist Christine McVie, bassist John McVie, and vocalist Stevie Nicks
Tags: fleetwood mac, john mayall, peter green, rock and blues, worst albums ever, worst records ever
On This Day – Bobby Darin Sings Rock Island Line
Mar 10, 2010 On This Day
On this day in 1956 Bobby Darin made his first appearance on TV when he sings “Rock Island Line” on ‘The Stage Show’.
‘The Stage Show’ was a variety programme on CBS US TV. One of the interesting things about the show (this blog was going to be about Bobby Darin, then it was going to be about ‘Rock Island Line’, now it looks like it is going to be about some defunct US TV show. Go figure) was that it had alternate hosts. One week it was Tommy Dorsey the next it was his brother Jimmy. Both were noted jazz musicians and band leaders.
At that time Jimmy had stopped leading his own band and was working with Tommy’s which was billed as ‘The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra Featuring Jimmy Dorsey’. A bit of a mouthful but it seems to have worked.
Apart from Bobby Darin’s first TV appearance the show also gave Elvis a spot on 28 Jan 1956. The response was so overwhelming they booked him for another 5 appearances in the next 8 weeks!
Tags: bobby darin, elvis, jimmy dorsey, On This Day, rock and blues, tommy dorsey
On This Day – Black Sabbath in London
Mar 9, 2010 On This Day
On This Day in 1970 The band formerly Known as Polka Tulk performed at The Roundhouse in North London under their new name, Black Sabbath.
Polka Tulk comprised Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward. Where the name really came from is a matter of debate some say it was named after a clothing sgop in Birmingham (Pulka Tulk Trading coompnay) or a brand of talcum powder. Personally I like the idea of the softest stuff on earth giving us the name of what would become the hardest (and loudest) band on earth.
Polka Tulk became Earth and was a blues rock band, as were so many bands at the time, at least in the UK. The band was playing the usual set list of blues covers but was keen to expand their repertoire. So Geezer began writing some original songs. Again, the truth is shrouded in the mists of time (in other words I have not tracked down a direct quote) but it seems that Geezer was reading a lot of books by Denis Wheatley. Wheatley wrote about magic and the occult (as well as thrillers in which he displayed his pro-monachy, empire, and class sysyem bias. But on the positive side his books, like him, were verhemently anti Nazi). It was the Occult series that gripped Geezer.
He wrote a song called Black Sabbath and, apparently, as soon as they played it live on stage for the first time they knew that they were onto something. The crowd went wild.
The lyrics, the loudness, the fact that Ozzy could not sing all made record companies wary of them. However, they toured and toured. They built up a great live reputation but, in what might have been a mistake, they did not play any London venues. This would appear to be because London venue owners did not realise that music existed outside the capital and Liverpool. This also meant that the music critics, all based in London, did not see much of them and gave them a hard time in print.
However, the truth was that they were building a large and growing following. The gig at the Roundhouse and the record deal were ininevitable and hugely succesful. The eponymous first album was released on 13th February 1970 on Vertigo.
(I still do not understand how anyone could have been intimidated by BS in those days, have you seen the pictures? Ozzy is no more than a pimply, overweight, idiot – or that a recent photo?)
Say what you like about Sabbath, and I do, Sabbath were an influencial band. They helped define Metal. They were voted the Greatest Metal Band of all time by MTV came second to led Zep in VH1’s 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. Paranoid, the second album sold 4 million copies in the US (still with little air play) total sales in the Us are more than 15 million. Their first 5 albums all top ten hits and all sold in the millions.
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