MUSIC I NEVER HEARD UNTIL…

Oh, Ye, gentle mistresses and most distinguished gentlemen, and others… The opinions and observations are solely my own views, and I take full responsibility for any errors of fact, not to mention any predictions that prove to be wildly inaccurate.

Today’s Listening Pleasure: HOWLIN WOLF-“Howlin’ Wolf”  

   Playing stick ball in the street with the fellows, we usually had a battery operated AM radio playing the Top 40 tunes of the day to keep us company. One hot summer day in 1964 I heard a strange sounding song, one that starts off with a guitarist plucking each string slowly, followed by bass, drums, and an organ. Then, the voice, and oh what a voice it was…“There is a house in New Orleans”… “Who is this?, What is this?” I awaited for the DJ to announce the tune. Finally, he said, “That’s THE ANIMALS with “House Of The Rising Sun”. I knew I had to find that single on my next trip to the record store.

   Being a very young teen record collector is a difficult hobby to have. Most of my friends collected baseball cards or stamps, me I needed vinyl. Having limited resources a record had to really kick me in the balls for me to buy it. A paper route helped but not by much so at this juncture in time my items were usually limited to the occasional album but mostly singles, aka “the 45”, hopefully one with a picture sleeve. Stored alphabetically in a small compact carrying case each item was also recorded in my “journal” as to where I bought it, who I was with when I bought it and mostly, why or how I became aware of the recording. Years later this journal would be a blast to read and laugh at. But I digress…

   I finally found “House of The Rising Sun” b/w “Talkin’‘Bout You” as it shimmed up the chart  becoming a #1 hit. A few months later The ANIMALS were on Sullivan, SHINDIG!, HULLABALOO, and again all over the radio with various hits “I’m Crying”,“Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”, et al. All good stuff for sure. “House” was the only ANIMALS single I had, then mid 1966 I bought “The Best of The Animals” album. It was wonderful, gaining a heavy rotation on my turntable. One tune in particular blew me away, “Boom, Boom”. I needed to know more about this recording and who is JOHN LEE HOOKER, the songwriter. I take the bus to TSS which had a great record department. The older guy behind counter, somewhat of a blow hard, knew everything about only what he liked. He once said when describing an album to a customer “it gave me goosebumps on my toe nails, that’s how good that record is”. “WTF is he was talking about?”, I thought.  I searched the bins for HOOKER to no avail. There appeared to be no album nor single by JOHN LEE HOOKER. I was frustrated but determined to find something/anything.The guy at the counter just said, “Nope” when I asked. He obviously either didn’t know who JOHN LEE HOOKER was, OR saw a fourteen year old boy and thought, “get outta here, punk”. A few other less stocked record stores had no HOOKER either.

   Then, two years later while working as a summer intern on Wall Street, all of 16 years old, lo and behold in WALL STREET RECORDS I find the “Concert at Newport” album by JOHN LEE HOOKER. I couldn’t wait to get home to check it out. Amazing, just Mr. Hooker and a bassist, recorded live in 1963. Opening track is “I Can’t Quit You Baby Blues”. A few months later the same tune is on side two of LED ZEPPELIN’S debut album (not credited to JL HOOKER) and it was the opening number when I saw them at FILLMORE EAST, May of 1969.

   Another tune I heard on the radio was “Smokestack Lightning” by a band called SMOKESTACK LIGHTNIN’. I heard this particular song before (Yardbirds) but not like this version, this was slow and deliberate. I knew it was written by HOWLING’WOLF as was “Spoonful” but who was this HOWLIN’ WOLF. Oh my…I got the HOWLIN’ WOLF album (released 1962) aka “The Rocking Chair” lp, and that collection led me to WILLIE DIXON whose recordings were very hard to find. But, I did it…

   In short, the original or so I thought “original” recordings were great upon first listen but eventually I realized these Brits were only reinventing American blues music which me, an American, had never heard until…

to be continued…

TICKETS TORN IN HALF:October 8,1999-ERIC BURDON@ IMAC,Huntington,NY

TICKETS TORN IN HALF:October 8,1999-ERIC BURDON@ IMAC,Huntington,NY

After hearing a recording of THE ANIMALS doing “Boom Boom” by John Lee Hooker it was only a very short period of time before I was adding blues records by black Americans to my primarilly Anglophile collection. That song, as the lyrics go, really “knocked me out”. I watched as THE ANIMALS performed on ED SULLIVAN, again my mouth wide open,but I never had the opportunity to see them live, never, not as THE ANIMALS Parts 1,2 or 3. So this was my shot at seeing a legend perform in a small theater not far from my home. I went with two buddies, the three of us attending with great anticipation. “Ladies and gentlemen, a true legend…ERIC BURDON”… and sadly, that was the highpoint of the evening.

ROCK’S IN MY HEAD-CHAPTER 23: AT SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER 23: AT SEVENTEEN

They say it’s your birthday, It’s my birthday too, yeah

They say it’s your birthday, We’re gonna have a good time

I’m glad it’s your birthday, Happy birthday to you

What a way to celebrate my 17th birthday with two tickets to see THE DOORS on January 24, 1969 at Madison Square Garden. New brown corduroy slacks, brown boots, a new overcoat, with a few extra bucks in my pocket from my folks as a birthday gift and away I go. A new pack of Marlboro Reds, train fare, money for the food after the show at the diner, I was psyched to go to another live show. But on the train ride in, the “problem” soon reared its ugly head as I had a girlfriend who was more excited about seeing Jim Morrison and chatting with her friends about Jim Morrison on the train ride in and again on the way home than celebrating my birthday.

In THE GARDEN the stage was set in the middle of the arena and as the lights dimmed, The Staple Singers appeared first. Beautiful mood and music is the best way to describe what The Staples did. Even with a poor sound system their set was fascinatingly simple, elegant and spiritual. I was awestruck. After a rather extensive intermission, THE DOORS with a bass player (Harvey Brooks) appeared on stage, and adding a small horn section for a few tunes this being their Soft Parade days. According to The Doors faithful, this show, one of the band’s first attempts at an arena rock show, was one of their finest. That night included songs from The Soft Parade, as well as Tell All The People, Love Me Two Times, Spanish Caravan,Back Door Man, Light My Fire, Five To One and When The Music’s Over

The Doors were, to my limited live experienced ears, musically okay, but not what I had anticipated. I expected a great rock band. Jim Morrison was an idiot, or was it just me? Nah, he was an idiot, hindering an otherwise good band with his “poetry” and rants. One interlude by Mr. Morrrison was something about him sitting on a fence, “and boy, do my balls hurt”. Musically my night was made by really digging The Staple Singers and developing a true appreciation for what they did. They were one cool group with a smooth, unique sound. Needless to say the Staples did not fit into the conversation on the return trip home. And neither did my birthday which seemed to have been overlooked. So as the song goes, TURN OUT THE LIGHTS…

February 1969 a group of us went to see the film MONTEREY POP in the local movie house. It was a night of enlightenment for me. The Who fantastic, Otis Redding was the MAN, Big Brother and The Holding Company’s feedback guitars with Janis Joplin singing, Country Joe and The Fish, the harmonies of The Mamas and The Papas, the horns of Hugh Masekela, Jefferson Airplane and according to all my compatriots Jimi Hendrix was the star of the show and rightfully so. I took this movie experience more as a lesson in what I was MISSING, new horizons to be explored and I was excited, oh so excited to start the exploration.

At this time I am in a relationship with a girl, one who I had an on and off again kinda thing going for the last few months. We dated a bit in the spring and summer of 67, she being the one I listened to SGT PEPPERS at her house while playing whiffle ball. She was a bit of an athlete playing softball and a cheerleader at the local high school. We parted company at the start of the school year as I saw her being driven home by an older neighbor. They soon became an item as my Mom would have said. Cool. We saw each other at house parties and occasionally at Hullabaloo. Then we met up again in the spring at my buddy house where he was having one of his notorious bashes with bottles and bottles of alcohol sent to his house by a friend of ours who worked making deliveries for the local liqour store. George’s goal tonight was to get the girl who caught his eye to be his date for our school (not hers) Semi-Formal Dance, a semi-big thing. He needed the alcohol to get up the nerve I guess. Bingo, as I was smoking a smoke outside he ran out shouting “YES, She’s going”. Cool. The party proved to be another fun night, a classic with guys falling down, guys throwing up outside, girls laughing at idiot guys. The usuals, me being one, stayed back to clean up before his parents would arrive home which we figured to be about 2 AM. A few girls stayed also. Spotless. Now my “used to be” girl asked me to walk her home. At her door she told me what a great time she had and we should get together soon. She said, “Call me”. Confused? Oh boy was I. A few days later, I had new arrangements for the SEMI FORMAL SPRING DANCE of 1968.

So now you are up to date on my relationship status. The girl from the SUMMER OF 67, and me, as Mom did say, “were an item”. It’s now February 1969 and we are going to different high schools. Her older brother a recent graduate of University of Maryland with a Master’s Degree in Business Administration had volunteered for service in the U.S. Army, ultimately being sent to Vietnam. With a spare car in her family she would occasionally meet me up at my high school dismissal.

One day late February, she had no activities after school and arranged to pick me up. I would blow off work as we expected to go riding around in her car. I exited school from the usual side door, headed over to my favorite smoking area behind the buses for a quick puff.  Walking toward her car, my girlfriend’s best friend came out of the car and said, “Larry is missing in action”… My heart dropped.

The strange phenomena here is my Mother, only the night before said she was thinking about my girlfriend’s brother and hoped all was okay. Mom actually asked “Did your Mom hear from him lately?”

A few day later the soldiers came to her house to deliver the worst news, February 26, 1969, he was killed in action. A death in the family. I didn’t know what to do. We spent many of the next few nights secluded in my basement, seated quietly.

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