The Day The Music Died…Again

   It happens so quickly yet slowly in what appears to be surreal time. We were warned so I should have been cautious but living through it many times I did not expect what happened to happen to the extent it did. The hurricane known as IRENE, August 21, 2011 arrived as predicted and took its toll as the streets were flooded, the sewer is backed up, and then the electricity went out. We evacuated to my son’s inland home, safe, away from the rising tides. With the electricity going out in the area my sump pump would be inoperable, therefore my basement would flood but how high, I did not know. We arrived back home after the storm subsided to 18 inches deep of water.

   Prior to the storm and having been in this scenario a few times before, we, my lovely bride and I moved as many items of personal value as far from the basement as we could. However, we never expected 18 inches and rising. Now, we quickly moved everything else to higher ground as best we could. Fortunately, our heating unit, hot water heater, washer and dryer were all on double cinder blocks but the water was getting close to the mechanisms which keep those items going.

    Then, it happened, the horrendous sound of metal twisting. The three metal shelves started to bend under the weight of the water  which was over the bottom shelves of my extensive record collection. The bottom housed mostly supplies in cardboard boxes, a few trays of “mixed” tapes, nothing of any collectable value. We grabbed what we could from the upper shelves and hoped for the best. Unfortunately ,the water got the best of the cardboard and a few hundred blank record inner sleeves. The shelving crashed to the ground. Thousands of vinyl records, 45’s, 33’s, picture sleeves, all hit the water. Magazines, newspaper clippings, archives, lesson plans, family photos all in the water. The water was still 18 inches high and without electricity the pumps were still not working. Nothing was covered by insurance.

   I’ve been collecting records for as long as I can remember. I had “Sugar Shack” by JIMMY GILMORE, an album by JOEY DEE and The STARLITERS. I had THE RIVINGTONS “ Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow,

hundreds of pictures sleeve including many of THE BEATLES first issues. All were lost. What I saved was minimal but significant. I quickly hand-picked before the crash whatever I could save never thinking that the shelves would collapse. After the water subsided and the pumps were pumping, the mildew and mold destroyed almost everything else in my basement. It took weeks to bag and remove what we could. At my expense I hired a company to remove the mold from the walls, floor and ceiling. 

   Losing my records is minimal in life’s scope of things, no one was hurt, no one died. Over the next few years I gave up collecting vinyl concentrating on CDs. Many of the vinyl records that I had previously purchased were now re-issued on the CD format. I thought that to be a plus. However, I was seriously mistaken. Nothing, Nothing replaces the sound of Vinyl. I’m a snob, I’m proud of it, so I went back to collecting just Vinyl.

   What does this effort to do with “the day the music died, again”. Well, simple put its historical as on June 1, 2008, three years before IRENE hit Long Island, a blow torch is used to adhere asphalt shingles to a façade in the Universal Studios back lot. The worker never checked to see if the area cooled off as he headed out for the night. A three alarm fire ensues. It is later, many years later admitted that the fire destroyed up to 175,000 master tapes belonging to the UMG group. UMG was renting warehouses in the Universal Studios Backlot. It was stated, “in no case was the destroyed material the only copy of a work,” a claim attributed to Universal Studios officials. However, in the March 2009 “Vault Loss Meeting,” the company described the damage in apocalyptic terms. “The West Coast Vault perished, in its entirety, Lost in the fire was, undoubtedly, a huge musical heritage.”

   Losing “The Master Tapes” is sinful. “A master is the truest capture of a piece of recorded music,” said Adam Block, the former president of Legacy Recordings, Sony Music Entertainment’s catalog arm. “Sonically, masters can be stunning in their capturing of an event in time. Every copy thereafter is a sonic step away.”

   Non- original tapes, transfers, n-th generation copies, or worse, even cheap vinyl reissues is what the consumer is left with.Think about what is missing: jazz, blues, country, pop of the pre-rock-’n’-roll period, light classical and even spoken-word selections. This was  a huge archive containing multiple copies of audio and video recordings, documents ranging from legal papers to liner notes, and packaging materials and artwork, unreleased recordings such as outtakes and alternative versions, all lost. DECCA masters from the 1930-1950’s, including those of Chuck Berry, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and some IMPULSE RECORDS masters of JOHN COLTRANE. Whew…and I thought I just lost my records to a hurricane and they could be replaced.

to be continued…

ROCK’S IN MY HEAD: Chapter 12-POST WWII- THE BRITS and THE U.S.

Studying the members of BRITISH ROCK music I constantly read stories whereby as children the likes of ERIC CLAPTON, members of  THE WHO,THE BEATLES, etc were confronted with the harsh reality of growing up either during or immediately after WORLD WAR II.Great Britain survived the war, victorious but bankrupt. The Empire would never be the same as WWII and its aftermath transformed Great Britain into something completely different and something very new. London especially, for it was bombed out during the onslaught of the German BLITZKRIEG (Lightning War). September 7,1940 was DAY ONE, the first night of 57 consecutive nights of bombings over the city of London. Three hundred (300) German bombers dropped 337 tons of explosives on the first night and as the fires spread throughout the city 448 civilians were killed.  Terror was the weapon of choice employed by the Germans.

The British government imposed mandatory blackouts, therefore all television broadcasts were banned during the evening.Radio once again was in the forefront as the cheap alternative for entertainment. It was during this time that many more British radio listeners became familiar with American music.

We ,The Brits and The Yanks have a common language, had a common cause being allies during the war. Post War England had exposure to our soldiers and sailors and LIVERPOOL a port city found many US Navy men along with the American records they carried.

POST WAR:

On British radio Traditional Jazz (Trad jazz )with its influences coming from boogie-woogie and the blues was very popular as was SKIFFLE ,especially Lonnie Donegan who rehashed American Folk tunes and was an inspiration to so many British youths, “Hey,I can do that”.

BLACKBOARD JUNGLE (1955) and ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK (1955) two movies that showed teen rebellion set a post war generation off on a different path than their parents took to adulthood. During the late 50’s and early 60’s the radio was playing “new music” ,#1 hits mostly describing teenage desires.  ELVIS, LIL RICHARD, BUDDY HOLLY, etc were heard on the radio and seen on many teen oriented tv shows especially OH BOY! . This show in particular promoted rock n roll. JACK GOOD its producer would later will be part of (American TV) ABC’s SHINDIG.

Homegrown BRIT HITS: August 1958: CLIFF RICHARD and THE SHADOWS with an original written by guitarist IAN SAMWELL, inspired by CHUCK BERRY,  “Move It”  is #2 on the UK charts.

1960: JOHNNY KIDD and THE PIRATES “Shakin’ All Over” is #1 in UK , this being a self penned tune by (Frederick Heath) JOHNNY KIDD and today it is a RnR standard.

1960: The British Blues scene develops with ALEXIS KORNER and CYRIL DAVIES, those artists influenced by MUDDY WATERS, HOWLIN’ WOLF, and ROBERT JOHNSON. And 1960’s  we find the arrival of Beat Music.

This new RnR  as seen in the movies and television, as heard on the radio, influenced the teens in lifestyle choices, fashion, attitudes, cars, motorcycles,and a distinct language of their own.

But what was so cool about the US to the Brit kids?

In America late 1940’s we had RnB, Blues, Jump Blues, Jazz, Gospel, Western Swing, Country (and Western). Bands had members rocking out on piano, sax, electric guitar, and an electric bass. Southern urban centers  like Memphis, Nashville, Etc. became hot beds for music. Northern migration trends brought musicians from the south to the cities of Chicago, New York, Cleveland, Detroit, each city within close proximity of the other. However, radio was mainly narrow, that is, race music was played on traditional black stations. Later, there was a hybrid of styles.

See you next time….Chapter13: A CHANGE IS GONNA COME (1965) Comments? jazzbus@gmail.com

ON THE TURNTABLE: (aka)THE ROCKING CHAIR- Howlin’ Wolf (1962)

ON THE TURNTABLE: (aka)THE ROCKING CHAIR- Howlin’ Wolf (1962)

As was common practice in the 1950’s and early 60’s, albums were primarily a collection of singles previous released, so that is the case in what has been called THE ROCKING CHAIR ALBUM aka HOWLIN” WOLF’S second album. I became familiar with one CHESTER BURNETT when I saw the credits to a song “SMOKESTACK LIGHTNING”( a “one chord vamp in E minor”) performed by various artists in the late 1960’s. At the same time I saw the name WILLIE DIXON and sought out more information about these two gentleman, finding that SPOONFUL, KILLING FLOOR and a host of others had their names listed on songs already in my collection by other artist. Soon, I added some “original” Howlin’ Wolf, and Willie Dixon records to my ever expanding collection. Today, ON THE TURNTABLE’s selection is one of the finest collection of “singles” by THE WOLF playing what his mother deemed to be “the devil’s music”.Pick up a copy, you not be disappointed. Enjoy

 

ROCK’S IN MY HEAD: Chapter 11- THE BLUES IN BRITAIN

From February 1964-66 The British ruled the US airwaves. The movie  A HARD DAYS NIGHT made LONDON appear cool while Carnaby Street fashions sold like hotcakes in The States. The Mersey Beat sound, as well as the (American) blues influenced London groups, were TOP OF THE POPS in the colonies as well as the Motherland. In the UK THE BEATLES were the most successful artists with 17 singles hitting #1, on top of the UK charts for 69 weeks during the 1960’s with SHE LOVES YOU being the best selling UK single for the entire decade.

The Beatles started as THE QUARRY MEN SKIFFLE BAND in 1957. SKIFFLE style music (guitar, washboard, tea chest bass) was popularized in England by LONNIE DONEGAN who was influenced by American HUDDIE LEDBETTER  better known as Lead Belly who had a hit with ROCK ISLAND LINE in1956) . BIG BILL BROONZY, another American artist was also an icon in England.

BIG BILL BROONZY aka Lee Conley Bradley was a true mystery man, a story teller to the Nth degree. He fabricated many a monologue using each as introductions to his tunes. Usually his “tales” were at best an amalgam of stories told to him by others. But according to most who saw him, BIG BILL was  a great story teller and performer nonetheless. A farm hand born to slaves he played violin and fiddle, later as an itinerant preacher he became Bill Broonzy for unknown reasons. He moved to Chicago in the 1920’s learned guitar and started recording as BIG BILL in 1927.

(broonzy.com)On 23 December, 1938, Big Bill was one of the principal solo performers in the first “From Spirituals to Swing” concert held at the Carnegie Hall in New York City. In the programme for that performance, Broonzy was identified in the programme only as “Big Bill” (he did not become known as Big Bill Broonzy until much later in his career) and as Willie Broonzy. He was described as:”…the best-selling blues singer on Vocalion’s ‘race’ records, which is the musical trade designation for American Negro music that is so good that only the Negro people can be expected to buy it.” The programme recorded that the Carnegie Hall concert “will be his first appearance before a white audience”.

In the fifties, folk blues (acoustic blues) gained popularity in England as Big Bill Bronzy toured the countryside. He was followed a few years later by the electric blues of MUDDY WATERS, SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON, JOHN LEE HOOKER, SISTER ROSETTA THARPE, BLIND GARY DAVIS, SONNY TERRY, and OTIS SPAN. In 1963 MELODY MAKER declared London “the NEW CHICAGO”. American Black artists felt a bit more comfortable touring Europe than they did in the USA.

Also in June of 1963 The STONES release their first single which is a remake of CHUCK BERRY’S 1961 tune “Come On”. Chuck’s original did not chart in the US yet The Stones hit #21 in the Mother Country. The Stones B-side was a remake of WILLIE DIXON’S “I Want To Be Loved”.

CHUCK BERRY was a pioneer of American rock n roll. A singer, songwriter, and guitarist of some renown to say the least. Berry developed a unique guitar sound with a few moves stolen from T-BONE WALKER and together with the addition of the amazing pianist JOHNNIE JOHNSON the two wrote some of the greatest rock songs: “Maybellene” (1955), “Roll Over Beethoven” (1956), “Rock and Roll Music” (1957) and “Johnny B. Goode” (1958).

In 1964, a tune written and recorded by JOHN LEE HOOKER’s (“DIMPLES”) was released in England as a single and stays on the UK charts for 10 weeks peaking at #23. Immediately THE SPENCER DAVIS GROUP adds the tune to their set and recorded their version which charts. The Animals also add it to their set. Next HOWLIN WOLF’S “Smokestack Lightning” charts at #42 but more importantly THE YARDBIRDS, MANFRED MANN, THE ANIMALS and THE WHO add that song to their set lists.

The most significant UK single was a WILLIE DIXON (1961) penned tune “Little Red Rooster” originally recorded by HOWLIN’ WOLF, reworked ever so slightly and released in 1964 by THE ROLLING STONES. Their interpretation charts as #1, the first blues record to top the British charts. London Records THE STONES US record company refused to release the 45 in the states.

Within short order THE ANIMALS release LED BELLY’S “House of the Rising Sun”, THE MOODY BLUES record BESSIE BANKS “Go Now”, THE YARDBIRDS do the same with SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON’S  “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl”, and THE ANIMALS “steal” NINA SIMONE’S “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”. And ALL becoming huge hits in England and as well as in the States where the naive record buying public assumed these were original songs for the recording artist.

See you next time….Chapter12-POST WWII- THE BRITS and THE U.S. Comments?  jazzbus@gmail.com