Boogie-Woogie with MY(P)WHAE, Part 5--"Rag Mop"!

How to introduce this first track? I guess there's only one way:

"R.... I say, R-A. R-A-G. R-A-G-G. R-A-G-G-M-O-P-P...."

Rag Mop (G. Anderson--J. Lee Wills), Ralph Flanagan and His Orch., vocal by the band, 1952. From "Ralph Flanagan in Hi-Fi" (1958).

"I'll be in you town when I get there...."--Howlin' Wolf. One of the killer killer-boogie tracks of all time, recorded in Memphis in 1951 or 1952 (can't remember which):

House Rockin' Boogie, Howlin' Wolf, 1951 or 1952.

And here's a classic by Texas tenor-sax wizard Joe Houston, from an album released in 1956. Below the track, I've pasted an image of the album jacket. I swiped it from the Net, but it's the same boss cover as mine:

All Night Long, Joe Houston and His Rockets, from Tops LP Rock and Roll with Joe Houston and His Rockets (1956).


















Rounding things up, here's Barclay Allen with Barclay's Boogie, a superb track released in 1951 but most likely recorded earlier, as Barclay's career had been cut short by an auto accident in the late 1940s. I'd read that he was a brilliant pianist, but I didn't realize how brilliant until I heard this gem:

Barclay's Boogie (B. Allen), Barclay Allen and His Rhythm Four, released in 1951, but probably recorded earlier. From Capitol label 45.

I had to do a bit of de-clicking on that, along with some distortion-removing, but the track was worth it, and then some. Scary-brilliant playing!


Boogie on,

Lee

Pal-Yat-Chee

Many thanks to Chickenwee for the following file, Homer and Jethro's Pal-Yat-Chee, a track recorded by the duo in 1950 with the fabulous Spike Jones Orchestra. I first heard this many years ago on the faux-stereo LP Spike Jones is Murdering the Classics! and I think I set a personal record for what is now commonly abbreviated ROFLMFAO (Rolling on the floor and laughing my everloving posterior off). Absolutely brilliant, and H&J could have joined the Jones band, they were that good. The ultimate compliment, Leethinks:

Pal-Yat-Chee, Homer and Jethro with Spike Jones and His Orchestra, 1950.

This was recorded at the same time as the less funny (but equally well-performed) Fiddle Faddle. MY(P)WHAE is always honored to present the comic geniuses of pop-gone-by.

Thanks again to Chickenwee!

Lee

Female Voices, Part 4--Two by Eydie

Pre-Eddie Eydie Gorme, both originally on the Coral label. The second number, Give a Fool a Chance, is especially interesting because it was by penned by Joseph Stefano, who wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and who produced the original Outer Limits TV series.

That Night of Heaven (Based on Cielito Lindo), Eydie Gorme, 1952. From the Vocalion LP Here's Eydie Gorme.

Give a Fool a Chance (Joseph Stefano), Eydie Gorme, 1955. From same LP.


Lee

Some Spike Jones for your Thursday

Or Friday. Or whatever day you happen to be at this post.

The two Jones tracks we're about to hear come from this 45 EP:


















Clicking on the image will get you nowhere (except off of the page). Here are the two tracks in their entirety. The first was made for Standard Transcriptions and the second (a take-off on a very popular Leroy Anderson instrumental) had limited release, I've read:

Come Josephine in My Flying Machine (Bryan--Fisher), Spike Jones and His City Slickers; Vocal by King Jackson and The Boys in the Back Room, 1942.

Fiddle Faddle (Anderson--Jones--Maxwell), Spike Jones and His City Slickers, with Homer and Jethro, 1950.

The second title is beautifully done, but the lyrics are pretty awkward and turgid. The Jones/Homer and Jethro classic Pal-Yat-Chee, recorded at the same time, is much better. Wish I had it handy to put up.

News flash: The Ohio State Board of Education has decided to drop the Intelligent Design portion of the biology standards. This move was not made out of respect for science but rather a fear of lawsuits. Whichever--the idiots behind the measure had to back off, though we won't be safe until idiots are no longer selected, naturally or otherwise, for those positions.

Lee

A day to celebrate the family--we need one

My left hand smells like skunk. Will you be my Valentine? Please? (No? Why not?)

I just fed the birds, and my hand must have picked up the odor from the lid of the birdseed tub. Actually, it's a big plastic garbage can. Great for storing seed. 150 lbs., or so, when full. The birds don't care where the seed comes from, so long as we put it out for them.

Last night, I tried to write a funny-bitter V-Day essay, and it came out fine, only way too sour. Making fun of V-Day is almost impossible, because the subject is too touchy. Here's a day devoted to pretending that most adults in the U.S. are married, when in fact it's more like 50 percent (I don't have the FAX handy at the moment). At some point, our society is going to have to acknowledge as much. My main issue is the yearly report about how singles don't live as long as married people. Every year, right on schedule. Instead of reporting this as a grim statistic, anchors virtually smile when they convey it. In other words, singles don't live as long, but... what? But that's a good thing? I see.

I doubt that ABC News (which I was watching last night) would cheerfully, or even casually, treat any other demographic in this fashion. If singles die earlier than unsingles, this is a cause for concern. It's a health issue. It's hard to imagine Charlie or Elizabeth happily announcing that TV anchors are more apt to die from stress disorders or develop skin cancer from bright studio lights than people in other professions. Something tells me they'd treat such items as serious news. You think?

Singles are striking back, and that's a good thing, even though the movement will be overstated and Oprah-melodramatic. That's inevitable. Soon, Valentine's will go from a ritual in which married people thumb their noses at the unmarried to a day partly marked by overstated shows of respect for the single half of American adults. Oh, well--it's better than all the terrifying, Nazi-style "marriage is God" propaganda of the present. When marriage and family are treated like sacred institutions, you know that something bad is in the works. In our case, it's the gradual wiping-out of the American middle class. Get folks to "focus on the family," and they're too busy to notice their rights marching out the door.

(Isn't it funny, by the way, how Station Manager Ken mistook me for a right-winger? Do I sound like one?)

Maybe a single/singles backlash is just what's needed. It might help people focus on the whole family--the country and its citizens. We need a family-oriented ritual that doesn't divide the family.


Lee

Happy V.... Er, never mind. It's over.

Well, it's the 15th already. How about that? Now I can't say "Happy Valentine's Day," darn it.

Aw, heck, why not? "Happy Valentine's Day, darn it"! There, I said it.

A long, trying day. Medical issues have us zonked out. For several weeks, we've been coping with very difficult stuff. Stuff that ain't over. If this is God's sense of humor, I'll make a point not to visit any comedy clubs in Heaven.

I was preparing some especially neat tracks for my final V-Day post, but I didn't come close to completing them. It. Whatever. However, since love songs know no special day, I can stick them up anytime. I'll just cyber-tack them to the blog.

Wanted to say that I got my mitts on that 1965 Rosemary Clooney Dot label recording of Bacharach-David's One Less Bell to Answer. ("That I got my mitts on that 1965 Rosemary Clooney Dot label recording of Bacharach-David's One Less Bell to Answer.") There. I said it.

Two things I discovered: 1) It's quite good, and astonishingly like the Fifth Dimension's version, and 2) it's not from 1965. In fact, it's from 1968. I kind of figured as much when I looked at the label and saw that it didn't look like circa-1965 Dot.

I had gotten my information from an otherwise excellent on-line Rosie discography. So, it's all their fault, not mine. You can't shoot a man for believing what he reads. At least, you shouldn't.

Seriously, mistakes happen. I'll have to e-mail the site and let them know they got the year wrong. I'll communicate this as politely as possible, making sure to emphasize that they embarrassed me at my blog and disappointed me, to boot. I was expecting a 1965 version of that tune, dang it!

Just kidding. I'm just happy to learn about the record. I'll rip and burn it at the first opportunity. Here's the link to the well-designed Rosemary Clooney site in question: http://www.rosemaryclooney.com/

I'll bet you'd guessed the URL was something like "rosemaryclooney.com." You were right.


Lee

Valentine's with Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra

Five excellent 1928-1930 Paul Whiteman classics for Valentine's, featuring amazing arrangments by Bill Challis and Ferde Grofe.

Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love) (Porter, Arr. by Bill Challis), 1928. Vocal by Jack Fulton, Charles Gaylord, and Austin "Skin" Young.

Button Up Your Overcoat! (DeSylva, Brown, Henderson; Arr. by Ferde Grofe), 1929. Vocal by Vaughn DeLeath.

Cradle of Love (Gilbert-Wayne; Arr. by Bill Challis) Vocal by Austin "Skin" Young, 1929.

My Lucky Star (DeSylva, Brown, Henderson; Arranged by Ferde Grofe), 1929. Vocal by Norman Clark.

Whispering (Arr: Ferde Grofe), 1928.

Lee

Valentine's, Howlin'-Wolf-style

All of these Wolf sides are about love, only in a "you done me wrong"/"I'm leavin' you" sort of way. Of course.

We start with a great Sun side:

Bluebird, Howlin' Wolf, 1951 or 1952. Rec. at Sun Studios. Willie Johnson, guitar.

Here's an earlier version of Killing Floor. The "making my getaway" theme makes this a blues-style Valentine. ("Honey, I bought this candy for you. By the way, you done me wrong, so goodbye.")

Break of Day, Howlin' Wolf, 1956, Chicago. Willie Johnson, "Smokey" Smothers, guitars.

In this excellent number, Wolf declares his love in his usual complicated fashion. No simple "I love you" for Wolf. Actually, he has little time to declare his feelings before the verses are invaded by every blues cliche in history:

Color and Kind, Howlin' Wolf, 1951 or 1952. Rec. at Sun Studios. Willie Johnson, guitar.

Here, Wolf decides to make like a Hollywood star and find someone his age, only much younger:

I Have a Little Girl, Howlin' Wolf. 1955, Chicago. Jody Williams and Hubert Sumlin, guitars.

Once again, Wolf decides to leave, but not before reading off choice reasons from the Blues Handbook of Break-up Rationales (Third Edition):

Going' Back Home, Howlin' Wolf. 1956, Chicago. Willie Johnson, "Smokey" Smothers, guitars.

The way Wolf carries on about his baby's picture, you have to wonder if it's a rare Van Gogh or something....

I Want Your Picture, Howlin' Wolf. 1951 or 1952, Memphis, orig. on RPM label. Willie Johnson, guitar.

Wolf is the insecure type--he repeat his compliments again and again. And again. And again....

You Can't Be Beat, Howlin' Wolf. 1956, Chicago. Willie Johnson and Hubert Sumlin, guitars.

We're all adults here. So, just to let you know--"worried" means "sexually wound up." Horny, as it were. Astonishingly good guitar work by Willie Johnson, with some agitated ("worried") notes in the second half of the final, killer solo:

Worried About My Baby, Howlin' Wolf. 1951 or 1952. Willie Johnson, guitar.

The following relationship is a healthy one, by blues standards. After all, while the couple may not get along, it's still together:

How Many More Years, Howlin' Wolf. 1951 or 1952, rec. at Sun Studios. Willie Johnson, guitar.

Happy V-Day from The Wolf!


Lee

Valentine's Day Playlist, Part 2

It snowed like crazy this morning--then it stopped. Meanwhile, temps are slightly below freezing but feel lower. If I didn't know better, I'd think this was winter.

I hope that everyone caught in the big blizzard is doing O.K. Even from this distance, I can hear the shovels hitting the sidewalks and the scrapers working on the windshields. Central Ohio winters are pretty wimpy (save for last year's!), and I can live with that--nooo problem. Growing up in Toledo, Ohio, I didn't get any such break, and I like the change.

Toledo winters are a cold and fuzzy memory by now.

By the way, be happy you only have to hear my music and not smell it. I had to perform a quick rescue for six boxes of albums last night--I rushed them indoors and down to the basement from my foster dad's studio, where a colony of skunks have been camping out below the deck. We're guessing that one of them expired--sure smells like it. I could insert a "The only thing worse than a live skunk..." joke here, but that would be tasteless. And this situation already stinks. Anyway, I had to get the records out of there.

I brought twenty or so LPs in here (the Media Room), where they've aired out incredibly well. Only a faint odor remains inside the jackets--I'm amazed. The first thing I did was to remove the discs so that the paper and cardboard would have a chance to un-skunk. Looks like--I mean, it smells like I got to the things in time.

I think I'll hold off on any postings of Dead Skunk (In the Middle of the Road) for a while, if that's O.K. Suddenly, that song isn't so amusing.

And now, let's go from odor to ardor....

You Started Something, Rosemary Clooney with Tony Pastor and His Orch., 1948. From 10-inch LP. (Rosie's first hit, I believe.)

Fool, Fool, Fool (Ahmet Ertegun), Kay Starr, with The Lancers and Lee Young and His Band, 1952. From Capitol EP. (Incredible cover of the Clovers classic!)

They All Laughed (Gershwin & Gershwin), Jaye P. Morgan, with Hugo Winterhalter and His Orchestra, 1955. From RCA LP set.

Someone to Watch Over Me (Gershwin & Gershwin), Jaye P. Morgan, with Hugo Winterhalter and His Orchestra, 1955 (?). From RCA LP set.

Back, shortly, with a Howlin' Wolf Valentine's special.


Lee

Tape Music, 1952--The rest of the concert

Took me a while, but I've finished de-clicking and de-hissing my recording of the 1952 Museum of Modern Art tape music concert featuring works by Vladimir Ussachevksy and Otto Luening. Fittingly, these were ripped from cassette tape. From tape to vinyl to tape to hard drive--what a journey these pieces have taken. And they sound terrific, for all that.

I've been reading up on these works, and it seems that, in addition to some kind of sound-on-sound, they employed such features as feedback, varied speed, and audio mixing. I suppose the technology used was Primitive By Today's Standards, as the cliche goes, but you'd hardly know by the results. Save for tape hiss (which only adds to the atmosphere), these recordings have the same fresh, sonic immediacy as Les Paul's multi-tracked masterworks.

Wow, those last two clauses could land me a job with PBS....

"Sonic immediacy," indeed. These brilliant tracks have it in droves:

Sonic Contours (Vladimir Ussachevsky), 1952.

Low Speed (Otto Luening), 1952.

Fantasy in Space (Luening), 1952.

Invention on 12 Notes (Luening), 1952.

Moonflight (Luening), 1952. (This piece reminds me of the introduction to "The Man Who Was Never Born," my favorite episode of original Outer Limits series: "Here, in the bright, clustered loneliness of the billion, billion stars, loneliness can be an exciting, voluntary thing, unlike the loneliness Man suffers on Earth. Here, deep in the starry nowhere, a man can be as one with space and time; preoccupied, yet not indifferent; anxious, and yet at peace.")

Moonflight is my favorite, followed by Incantation (which we heard last time) and Sonic Contours. I've had Moonflight running through my head all day, believe it or not--and it's no intrusion. It's peaceful and calm underneath the dissonance (or even because of it?). Dissonance can be beautiful. Yeah, I love my Mantovani and Kostelanetz, but I can't live without my Honegger and Luening, too.

I guess there are those who would argue that twelve-tone/serial/atonal music can't be labeled "dissonant," as dissonance and consonance are functions of tonality. But I don't buy that. I believe what my ears tell me. And I'm one of those folks who believes that tonality never actually goes away--our modern ears hear music in tonal terms, even when it's someone laying a board across Steinway keys. And I don't know to what extent these pieces are serial--they sound semi-serial. ("Semi-serial"??) I just read that they were a product of improvisation and musical chance (with a degree of pre-planning), though they could have fooled me. Luening (born in Wisconsin) and Ussachevsky (born in Mongolia!) were masters of form.

Extraordinary stuff.

Lee