Glenn's Picks #6 Featuring film clips of Sonny Boy Williamson II & other music masters
Glenn Allen Howard
glennallenhoward at yahoo.com
Sat Nov 21 19:17:18 PST 2009
This edition of Glenn's Picks is dedicated to Norton Buffalo, a great
friend, AMHF advisory Board Member, and an irreplaceable harmonica
virtuoso, like our featured artist, Sonny Boy Williamson II.
ABD, ABD, ABD, ABD & ABD -- which is like dig-latin for "long time no
'C'."
I just got back from an almost Admirable Pearyshibble expedition up to
the remoter parts of the great northern latitudes of Washington, A.C.
I almost had to like make with the dog sled routine and mush my way
through the backwoods 'cept it was already August and the flakes had
mostly split up to Santa's pad some six moons in advance of my opening
night.
I tracked my way through the mother primeval towards the call of the
wildest record library on the face of the whole damn Thelonius Sphere,
where I got lost in a platter paradise and found myself scopin' and
scoopin' deep in the grooves of the sweetest stacks of vinyl and
shellac, where the music of the ages is stored on our old flat friends
-- which is just down the street from where the grapes of wrath are
stored, so it's a pretty good neighborhood, I guess. From this
heavenly stash, I retrieve the lost treasures of music to share with
you all out there in wherever the hell you are-land.
So I got hung up or somethin' and when I came to, I realized, with the
help of a shower of wheredahellru? emails, that it had been eons since
I sent out even one ion of electrickally -- electicklely connections
and that some of you actually missed my missives and/or were just
Jonesin' to catch some more of the great musical wizards of the past
wailin' right in front of your face.
I got a pretty good excuse for laggin', 'cause all we got up there is
like some way -- retired Reuter's New's Service homing pidgeons
leftover from the old Edward G. Robinson movie to get me on the
internet so anything involving music and video ain't too likely to
make a connection let alone score even a taste of the high speed I
need to get myself good and downloaded. Even the phone lines are like
pushin' fifty plus and they been getting weathered, frayed and fried
since back when Elvis was news.
Anyway, it's better to be late than pregnant, so without further ado,
adieus, or any and all unpaid dues, it's finally way past time get
down with your bag of leftover Halloween candy dregs (or whatever gets
you goin') and grok-toe through the tulips towards this big basket-
case of exceptionally good goodies.
As always, if you got good speakers or headphones, get 'em out, plug
'em in and crank it up! Music is sacred and should sound as good as it
can and computer speakers just don't cut it.
De-tailed notes on the clips will follow right after this little list
of links.
1. Peggy Lee "Fever" (1958) (from "The
George Gobel Show")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4hXyALR9vI
2a. Jimmy Cliff "King of Kings" (1962)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpjfPOY3ujg
2b. (or not 2b. -- it's like optional) Millie
Small "My Boy Lollipop" (1964)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCUcbRTB6Rs
3a. Easybeats "Friday On My Mind" The original
version (1967)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zB0RygrYy8
3b. Easybeats "Friday On My Mind" Here's an edgier live
version (1967)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_6TRfu8Nxg
4. Fats Waller "I've Got My Fingers
Crossed" (1935)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upKXARXcsWg
5. Pérez Prado "Que rico el mambo" ("Mambo
Jambo") (1951)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLfvO9xu8fs
And last but not least, here's a more in depth look at OUR FEATURED
ARTIST, one of Norton Buffalo's favorite harmoni-cats:
6a. Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) "Your Funeral and My Trial"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlA_e8OuXsU
6b. Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) "Keep it to
Yourself"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0rRvfwrrGc
6c. Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) "Got My Mojo
Workin'" w/ Muddy Waters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjPezeHN9Hc
6d. Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) "What's Gonna
Happen to You"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZxQlZw8k9Q
6e. Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) "I'm a Lonely Man"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG3Z_R9wJ-w
6f. Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) " A Blues for JFK"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_DlraJOpLY
6g. Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) "Careless Love"
w/ Mae Mercer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5gADTQsM_Y
The following are some exceptional audio clips for extra credit:
"Little Village" Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6UMtWi5rX0
"Eyesight to the Blind" Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice
Miller)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv-yV83IBNo
"Don't Start Me Talkin'" Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice
Miller)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4IQuiiAAe8
"I Ain't Fattenin' Frogs for Snakes" Sonny Boy
Williamson II (Rice Miller) solo, live!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbov5rflJC8
"The Sky is Crying" Sonny Boy Williamson II
(Rice Miller) w/ Matt Murphy on acoustic guitar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bY0vcg2F-I
Now for the notes.
1. Peggy Lee "Fever" (1958) (from "The
George Gobel Show")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4hXyALR9vI
When I was about knee-high to a Nehi sodapop bottle, right about the
time I got the first few clues in my noggin that there was something
out there called sex, a record came out that seemed to have something
to do with all that, in spades. It was a slinky blonde singin' all
about the grown-up version of the hokey pokey and her voice made it
sound not only like she really meant it, but she knew ALL ABOUT IT and
just might be willin' to give you free lessons -- and that would
definitely beat beatin' out a bad version of "Babalu" on your bongos
as a pastime in the fifties.
This was the dark ages for any kind of jive even leaning in that
direction and folks weren't supposed to say or do shit during the
typical daily planet life of the Eisenhower years -- especially on TV,
which had only 3 speeds: N & A BC and of course the other C and some
more BS. Sex and almost everything else that was any fun at all was
pretty much locked down, looked down upon, and never mentioned in
polite society and/or "mixed" (up) company outside of in the likes of
North Beach, the Village and some of the better U-towns where you
might actually be able to find a few righteous pads stashed amongst
the more strictly sub-bourbonated culture of the 1950s.
Miss Lee's smoldering delivery only added fuel to the already
flammable. Everybody else seemed to get it too, 'cause it sold faster
then they could pitchfork the 45s onto the trucks headin' for the
distributors who supplied the all the music peddlers at the local
disc dens.
This rekerd also has the finger-snappeningist rhythm section since
Tennessee Ernie Ford's "16 Tons," and since "Fever" followed forth
before four more laps lapsed around the calender, there might be a
connection.
Do you suppose that any of the same session-snappers were used on both
records? Check the tone of the lead snapper on these sessions -- it
sounds to these ears like Sorry, Charlie Popper on the alto thumb and
Bird finger to this "don't wannabe" jazz scholar. I'd also like to
know if finger snappers are in the Musician's Union or do they get
scabs to do the dates and do those scabs get even more scabs from all
that finger friction? Surely one of you surly sirs or sizzlin'
sista's knows fer sure. Mail me an "e," if you're on top of it. Maybe
like singers and radio and TV announcers they swing with AFTRA, after
all.
A jazz singer I used to hang with knew the former North Dakota-kitten
(who made her debut as Norma Egstrom) and clued me in that "There was
nothin' she wouldn't do." I don't know, I was only told, but she sure
could sing like she'd done it all. She was a California-cool canary if
there ever was one. Miss Egstrom dumped the Dakotas after the first
few bars and built a nest in L.A. with her husband, Dave Barbour, and
paved some mighty wax mostly for the benefit of the Big Chiefs of the
Capitol Tower Tribe. Have Mercer, baby!
Check out the floor-show scene, like she's hikin' through an` 80s MTV
set, there isn't a dry ice in the house and she ain't warbling
anything like she's got cold feet.
It would be a few years down the pike before a friend hipped me to
Wolfman Jack, who kindly laid down a little of Little Willie John's
stunning R&B original, so that the airwaves would land in the general
vicinity of my teenage eardrums and beat a pair of diddles on me 'til
Little Willie was stuck on replay in mi cabeza for the duration.
Still, I have a soft spot in my skull for Peggy Lee's treatment that
was all over just about every radio (except the Christian stations,
for some reason) in 1958. According to no higher authority than the
sacred texts inscribed on the back of a set of Beatles Bubble gum
cards I have somewhere, three of the Fab Four listed Peggy Lee as
their favorite female vocalist.
2a. Jimmy Cliff "King of Kings" 1962
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpjfPOY3ujg
One Decca-ade and a 12 pack before the film and soundtrack album "The
Harder They Come" started seriously sneakin' across the boarders and
smugglin' reggae, Jah-makin' music and the resta Rasta culture into
some of the more far out-skirty outposts in the U.S. of A., Jimmy
Cliff was already waxing early "ska" hits in Jamaica and various West
Indian enclaves in the somewhat more staid and skiddish Briddish Isles.
By the time the big green cheese in the sky laid down another double-
dozen good turns around the planet Mongo, little 14 year old Jamaican
Millie Small had a "Smash" hit single with "My Boy Lollipop." No less
than Ernest Ranglin was leading a crazy combination from a crazy
little island that would remain way off the radar for at least a
solid 8 to 10 for the typical "Amerikiddies of 1964."
B-sides skippin' and ska-ing its way to number 2 on AM teenage Boss
Radio KWHA-tever and following it with a barely top forty hit, "Sweet
William," the ska craze came and went before little Millie had a
chance to get over bein' sweet 16, and then the ska did the Rip Van
Winkle for an easy 16 choruses and a coda before resurfacing for some
airplay in the early 1980s.
By then, this boppin' little bunny-hoppin' two-beat was showin' up on
the radar of the Specials and all that Madness of the crowd in the
integrateful "Two Tone" scene that rose up in reaction to the "lily
white" to downright "pasty" English punk rock/new wave scare that was
still goin' down in the wakes and ripples a few years after the
flowering of the power of the Sex Pistils.
Dig the threads and some of the moves these Kingston Trenchtown
tribesters and Trini-daddy-o's be stompin' down. There's one cat who's
got a shirt that looks like he may have mugged one of the Kingston
Trio. The beat is enough to make Tom Dooley hang down his head and
groove. I suggest you do the same.
Here's a little extra credit for anyone who's been deprived and/or
depressed from being stuck in some kind of "Smallville-ville" that
didn't hip you to or hook you up with the biggest Small of 'em all,
this neat little non-Vanilli Millie chicklet from Jamaica. This was
the biggest old-school ska hit ever and she was cute as a bug's ear.
Just to prove it's 1964 there's even a Lennon-esque harmonica solo to
guarantee maximum teen appeal.
2b. (or not 2b. -- it's like optional) Millie Small "My
Boy Lollipop" (1964)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCUcbRTB6Rs
3a. Easybeats "Friday on My Mind" original
version (1967)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zB0RygrYy8
Not long after the 1964 British Invasion came the deluge and other
British Colonies started invading the former British Colony -- as if
we aren't still owned lock, stock and barely by the British East India
Tea and Junk Company at least according to some of our wisest wacko-
tologists.
These New Zealanders just about knocked me out of my tree in 1967,
about a dotted eighth note before San Francisco and LSD (which stands
for Ladder Saints Day for any firemen or heat out there) totally
changed the game for real and forever.
This style of garage rock has been pigeon-pitched into a hole that the
Rock Hysterians call "Power Pop," that is, it's like melodic, but also
hard rockin' like "The Kids Are Alright" by Whoever the hell did that
song.
This is a genre that is still very much around today, but I don't know
if the style is as vital as when it was new in '66 and '67. 'Course
I'm not as 19 as I used to be, either -- 'cept when I'm diggin' clips
like these.
3b. Easybeats "Friday On My Mind" Here's an edgier
live version (1967)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_6TRfu8Nxg
4. Fats Waller "I've Got My Fingers
Crossed" (1935)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upKXARXcsWg
When I was a young delinquent back in the good old golden rule days
(or nights, actually) I used to stay up sometimes till seventy 'leven
o'clock in the damn morning just to catch the Movies Till the Day
After Tomorrow's Dawn, surfin' through the screen gems for moments of
musical majesty stashed between the sometimes duller dialog of old "B"
programmers. This was one of my first and best finds.
1935 was when swing really came out swingin' with Benny tearin' up the
Palomar and this new music got the kids goin' crazy again. In short
order, even a couple of Hollywood's bigger wiggers figured out that
Fats was doin' more than his fair share and really hittin' his stride
in the swing scene. They decided to slip him into a slice of their
little celluloid scene to see if maybe he could sell a song. Fats
Waller was, is, and always will be a feast for the eyes and ears,
body, soul and don't forget the feet, Pete. This little clip will
nail that statement to the ceiling, with feeling.
The thing I like best about the "old jazz" is the "groove." Their job
was DRIVIN' the dancers who were wearin' out the dancefloors and
stompin' the mother Savoy Ballroom on down. See if you can detect any
groove emanatin' from Fats and his little combo. Even Jack Oakie and
his cigar-puffin' pal get off!
5. Pérez Prado "Mambo Jambo"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLfvO9xu8fs
Speaking of detectable (and delectable) grooves, here's one with a
grin so wide you could park a '58 Buick in it and still have room for
the Masked Man, Silver and the top two-thirds of his faithful Indian
companion, Tonto, leavin' only his legs stickin' out.
Just about the time the beboppers were instigatoring some kinda "just
say no" campaign to stop jazz from bein' a dance music, the Latins
from Manhattan, Miami and Havana were comin' up with this monster
mambo beat, the hottest take on Jelly Roll Morton's Spanish tinge to
date, Gate. This wicked little waltz was takin' tons of dancin' former
jazz kiddies along for a ride like rats followin' the piper all the
way out to Spanish Hamlin and eventually out into the Catskulls where
it found some friendly Jewish cats -- including a 19 year old future
concert promoter Bill Graham, who were more than ready to run with it.
Soon Bird and Diz got hip and the bopsters traded a few flatted fifths
in on a brand new groove now known as Afro-Cuban jazz, but back then,
some of the hipper cats called Cubop. Like Blakey ain't flakey, so
callin' this Art Cubop must be cool.
Between the decline of swing and the rise of R&B, many kids got crazy
to the beat of the Mambo, like at the high school dance in "West Side
Story." Most of the squares heard various lame-ass big band covers of
this tune like Sonny Burke's, but the devil wore (out) Pérez Prado,
cause he digs it hot. So will you. See if you can detect the groove
stashed somewhere inside this mad little minuet.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Now here's a brand new feature: A FEATURED ARTIST feature, featuring
the fantastic and fairly feisty filmed feats of one of the all time
legends of the non-Harpo harp. As Mezz Mezzrow might have said when
passin' one over to ya, this is "Really the Blues." Features don't
fail me now!
---------------------------------------------------------------
6a. Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) "Your Funeral and My Trial"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlA_e8OuXsU
This is some bad -ass blues by one of the absolute greats, Rice
Miller, aka "The Original Sonny Boy Williamson," which he wasn't. But
he was better known than the first one who was also pretty damn good,
but there ain't more than a few frames of film of him, and none of it
is the moving variety. He was way dead before I had chance to see him
or even rack up my first few hundred diaper changes.
The first Sonny Boy, John Lee Williamson, was no slouch and recorded
some slick sides for Victor's cheapo label, Bluebird, starting in 1937
with the first recording of "Good Mornin,' Little Schoolgirl." He
really laid the harmonica down and solid for all the blues hipsters
and harpsters who were waitin' in the cue when he checked out for good
in '48,and that's like most of them.
That said, Rice was probably the better bluesman, made more records
and lived long enough to make eyeball contact with lots of the 60s
white rockers (especially the Band when they were still the Hawks and
a whole lotta Brits). SBW II made no where near enough film clips
which I'm goin' to whip onya right now.
6b. Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) "Keep it to
Yourself"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0rRvfwrrGc
6c. Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) "Got My Mojo
Workin'" with Muddy Waters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjPezeHN9Hc
6d. Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) "What's Gonna
Happen to You"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZxQlZw8k9Q
6e. Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) "I'm a Lonely
Man"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG3Z_R9wJ-w
6f. Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) "A Blues for
JFK"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_DlraJOpLY
6g. Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) "Careless
Love" with Mae Mercer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5gADTQsM_Y
Stashed below are some really bitchin' audio files for any
audiophiles, audiofellas, audiofillies or audiophools out there who
still want more, more, more of our fine feathered feature-kitty who is
most certainly NOT what Al Jolson had in mind when he waxed "Sonny
Boy" in the late 1920s. Here's the very best of the ear candy I was
able to find hidden under large irritating patches of internettles.
This stuff is pretty good wake up music for when you have to get up at
some ungoodly and/or ungodly hour of the morning to milk the chickens
or what ever your gig is. If you play these sounds often enough,
Sonny Boy will give a you lot more juice, Bruce, and you can load 'em
into your own eye, ear, nose and throat pod, put it on repeat and make
enough of your own chicken milk to feed and clothe any and all of your
eggs that happen to hatch. Like, it'll be good for you to hit on
these, even if you can't see it all go down.
"Little Village" Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller)
SBW does the dozens on Leonard Chess and kicks the shit out of the
blues. This is Essential with a capital E flat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6UMtWi5rX0
"Eyesight to the Blind" Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice
Miller)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv-yV83IBNo
"Don't Start Me Talkin'" Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice
Miller)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4IQuiiAAe8
"I Ain't Fattenin' Frogs for Snakes" Sonny Boy
Williamson II (Rice Miller) solo, live!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbov5rflJC8
"The Sky is Crying" Sonny Boy Williamson II
(Rice Miller) w/ Matt Murphy on acoustic guitar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bY0vcg2F-I
'Course there's a lot more of Sonny Boy on records and you should run
out and score them, but I can see that my after-sundown sundial is
dialed in to way past everybody's nod time so I think I'll just slide
on out of heah on the Q.T. before the sandman runs out of sand and
just say Toodle-oo till next time to any and all of you that are
hangin' anywheres East, West, North or South of East St. Louis.
Later,
Glenn Allen Howard
P.S. Thanks to John Gilmore, Katherine Armer and John Perry Barlow
for tech support and reality checks.
Glenn Allen Howard
Founder, Curator
American Musical Heritage Foundation
(831) 335-4356
PO Box 66224
Santa Cruz County CA 95067
(360) 691-2105
PO Box 163
Arlington, WA 98223
glennallenhoward at yahoo.com
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