Hank Williams B-sides + Luke The Drifter

I can clearly remember the first time I heard Hank Williams. I was probably 9 or 10 and in my father's car listening to WIL in St. Louis. Country radio was still listenable in those days. It was the mid-70's. In between Donna Fargo and Glen Campbell, they played an oldie. I think it was "Why Don't You Love Me" or maybe "Your Cheatin' Heart." Anyway, it was so real and so great, I was transfixed. I stored that information away, and five or six years later bought Hank's 40 Greatest Hits and that was what I knew of him for quite a while. Today's selections are B-Sides of some of Hank's MGM singles, none of which are on that 40 Greatest Hits record, which if that's all he did in his short life, it would have been remarkable. But as I found out later, that's just the tip of the iceberg. In addition we get a Luke The Drifter single, which was Hank's alter-ego for his spoken word recordings.














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Buy: Hank Williams and Luke The Drifter at Amazon
or at your local independent record store

Jerry McCain

Jerry McCain, AKA "Boogie" McCain made his first recordings on Trumpet Records before moving over to Excello, where he released this as his first single. "That's What They Want" takes it's cue from Bo Diddley's "I'm A Man", but it's money that he's talking about. By the time we get to the b-side, he's demonstrating his point and out cavorting and "Courtin' In A Cadillac."














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**** BONUS ****

Upon further listening, it's clear that "That's What They Want" is what you would call an answer song to the Bo Diddley track mentioned above, so without further ado here's "I'm A Man."



Download: GONE mp3

And as requested by the good folks at Airform Archives
Muddy Waters' take: GONE mp3

Buy at Amazon or at your local independent record store

Gene Vincent

In 1956, looking for competition to RCA's recent signing of Elvis, Capitol Records signed Gene Vincent and released this as his first single. While Elvis was seen as a threat to the middle class American values, Capitol raised the bar with Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps who exuded a more menacing hillbilly degeneracy and made Elvis look tame by comparison. Vincent was allegedly thrown in jail for performing "Woman Love" on charges of public obscenity. The b-side, "Be-Bop-A-Lula" is one of the greatest songs of the rock 'n roll era. Check out the great Cliff Gallup on guitar.














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**** Bonus ****

Gene Vincent on YouTube: HERE

And a loving tribute to GV by one of rock's greatest oddballs via YouTube: HERE

Buy at Amazon or at your local independent record store

The Singer Not The Song

Alex Chilton photograph: New York, 1985 © Ted Barron

In 1978, Alex Chilton entered Phillips Recording Service in Memphis Tennessee, with Jim Dickinson, Sid Selvidge, Lee Baker, Richard Rosebrough, and few other friends to record his first post-Big Star LP, Like Flies On Sherbert. The results of these sessions were mixed over the following year and released on the small Peabody label in a pressing of 500 copies. The record is made up of mostly covers, including these two singles below. It's a great and messy rock 'n roll record with an eclectic collection of songs ranging from the Carter Family to K.C. and the Sunshine Band. It's also a difficult record that some people just don't get. It's long been one of my favorites. Like on Big Star's 3rd, which was still unreleased at the time, rather than strive for perfection, Dickinson's production stresses the mistakes, although it is perfect in it's own unorthodox way. It's also a document of a time and place, that being midtown Memphis, late 1970's. The band sounds fucked-up because they are fucked-up. Still, that's only half the point, or not the point at all. It's complicated. Chilton had been burned by the record business not once, but twice. He was a jaded and slightly burnt-out veteran and only in his late 20's. I won't attempt to put my finger on what it is that is so compelling about it, as much better writers have done so more eloquently than I could do. I will however suggest reading It Came From Memphis, by Robert Gordon, which ties together the disparate elements of the music and culture of Memphis into what reads like a secret history of rock 'n roll. So here it is, some of the source material for Chilton's overlooked and misunderstood classic. Hope you like it, I do.




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Download: Alex Chilton

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Buy: The Bell Notes, Troy Shondell, Alex Chilton.

Sonny Boy Williamson

When it comes to post-war delta blues, no one was more original than Sonny Boy Williamson. You could make a case for Elmore James, Muddy Waters or Howlin' Wolf, but Sonny Boy was not only a great singer and instrumentalist (blues-harp), no one else wrote lyrics like:

Been so long until I just can't sleep at night.
I could eat my breakfast in the morning,
and my teeth and tongue begin to fight.

This verse followed by a highly expressive harmonica solo, where he's actually using his teeth and tongue to play it. These Trumpet sides are as good as anything I know of. The band sounds half-drunk yet totally lucid. Elmore James is on guitar on at least some of these and Leonard Ware plays some great swinging upright basslines.

Dig it.















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Buy these sides at your local independent record dealer or at Amazon

Smiley Lewis

A few weeks ago, I posted a couple of rockin' sides by Fats Domino, and was reminded of Smiley Lewis by a cat named Chedwick, over at Tangled Up In L' Heure Bleue, where there's something happening- but I don't know what it is. Sadly, I don't have Smiley's version of Blue Monday, but I do have this to offer, which is in my opinion his best single. From 1955, his biggest hit, with Huey Smith on the piano. Ched, here you go.














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************** Bonus ***************

Lazy Lester: GONE mp3
Dave Edmunds: GONE mp3


Buy at Amazon: Smiley Lewis, Lazy Lester, Dave Edmunds.

Wee Willie Wayne

Photograph: © Robert Frank, New Orleans, 1955.

I couldn't find any actual photographs of James "Wee Willie" Wayne, so instead you are looking at a fine and iconic image image by Robert Frank, made at about the same time and place as this Imperial recording. Not much information on him either. He's originally from Texas, recorded a handful of sides for a handful of labels, and among those are two very influential recordings of New Orleans Rhythm and Blues: "Travelin' Mood" and "Junco Partner." There's a weird drum part on "Travelin' Mood," that almost sounds like a crack in the shellac- it is not.














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*** Bonus ***

More versions at THIS Post.

Buy these recordings and more HERE

Two-Faced Preacher

Well, It's a story as old as the hills. Or at least as old as the Bible. The wolf in sheep's clothing. The false prophet. The devil in disguise. Okay, you get the picture. Karl and Harty sing about " a preacher with a cane and a long-tailed coat, he does all his preachin' with his eye on the women-folk." He then proceeds to hustle, get drunk, steal, and carry on with Brother Jackson's wife. Enjoy.















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Buy: Karl and Harty at Venerable Music
Night of the Hunter at IMDB

Fever and Spasms at the Flu

I've been a little under the weather the last few days.
I think I'll just let Little Willie John explain...














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and from our patron saint of
the boogie woogie flu: GONE

Buy at Amazon: Little Willie John and Huey "Piano" Smith

Louis Jordan

It's time to pay our respect to Louis Jordan. This record is uncharacteristic of his sound. No jump blues, but it's a swinging one-two punch nonetheless. The A-side, the standard "Paris Blues," is a lovely ballad with a sweet sax solo by Jordan. I'll send this out to our readers in France. In case you don't know, Paris in the springtime is cold and rainy. The B-Side is a mambo of the New Orleans classic. I first heard it as a slightly enlightened, yet ignorant teenager by another group of degenerate English record collectors. This version is smokin'. Dig the marimba and have a good weekend.














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*** Special Bonus ***

The Clash"Junco Partner" GONE
Professor Longhair"Junco Partner" GONE
Dr. John"Junko Partner" GONE

***Update 3-18 Thanks to Nick Hill***
Holy Modal Rounders "Junko Partner" GONE

*** Update 3-20 ***
Thanks to ZubZub over at Magic of Juju :
The late great Freddy Fender complete with
a shout out to "Malcolm" Rebennack...
"Junco Partner" GONE
Buy these records at Amazon

Jimmie Rodgers

It recently came to my attention that I've posted a scant few hillbilly or country records here on the flu. So, considering that a good portion of my collection of shellac are just that, I'll start today to pick up the hillbilly deficit with none other than Jimmie Rodgers, the father of country music. Labels don't really do justice to his contribution to music. Let's just call this music of the American vernacular, as you would about the photographs of Walker Evans, or the writing of Mark Twain. Rodgers, who only recorded for less than six years, has more in common with Blind Willie McTell, Louis Armstrong and Woody Guthrie, than the slick redneck neo-hipster posers of Music Row today. Doug Sahm said it best a few years back, when he took a poke at the current state of "country": "Who said Bob Wills' fiddles was a joke? All's you know it had been been replaced by laser beams and smoke..." None of that here. From the laudanum haze of the TB ward, I give you Jimmie Rodgers, The Singing Brakeman...















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Download: GONE by Doug Sahm

*** SPECIAL BONUS mp3 GONE ***

Jimmie Rodgers on YouTube! Here, Here, and Here.
Buy Jimmie Rodgers music at Amazon
Buy Doug Sahm music, Here.
Read more Here.

Blue Monday

Fats Domino is sick and tired of being sick and tired. It's blue Monday here at the Flu. Sorry if I've been a little lax around here with the posting, but what started as a mission is starting to feel like a burden. Don't get me wrong, I love sharing this stuff, and Google Analytics tells me people from Siberia to South Africa are digging the flu. Not to sound like a Jewish mother or something, my dear readers, but would it hurt you to use the comments? Send me a love letter. Tell me you hate my guts. Anything, I dare you...














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Bonus:
Download: Keith Richards GONE mp3
Download: Alex Chilton GONE mp3

Buy at Amazon: Fats Domino, Alex Chilton

Barbara Lynn

Like many good things in American music, I first heard this from degenerate English record collectors. Barbara Lynn Ozen, from Beaumont, Texas played guitar left-handed with style and grace, wrote and sang a handful of classic R & B numbers before disappearing from the music scene to raise a family. Influenced by Guitar Slim, Gatemouth Brown, and Elvis, she fronted an all-girl band called Bobbie Lynn and the Idols, before being discovered and recorded by Huey Meaux. In the late 90's Barbara returned to recording and performing. She's playing at the Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans in May. This record is a killer.





















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Listen: GONE mp3 by The Rolling Stones

Barbara Lynn on YouTube here , here and here (with Gatemouth Brown)

Buy at Amazon: Barbara Lynn, The Rolling Stones

Love And Theft

This is NOT breaking news. There's been a lot of hub bub about this over the last several years. The title of this record was taken from a book about black-face mintrelsy and the white American working class of the 19th century. There was the revelation that Dylan lifted lyrical passages from a Japanese novel about a gangster's dying confession. Then, the Dylan sleuths uncovered a variety of references to everything from F. Scott Fitzgerald to the musical appropriations illustrated below. I prefer appropriation, the post-modern term for borrowing, although some will claim it is outright theft. Maybe it is. Or maybe it's homage, which Dylan has paid to everyone from Woody Guthrie to Elvis over the course of his career. He's an artist after all, and to deny that he is partially the sum of everything that he has consumed, is to miss the point. When the Beach Boys released "Surfin' USA," they over-zealously gave Chuck Berry a co-writing credit. It does bear a thematic resemblance to "Sweet Little Sixteen," but so does half of the catalog of numerous rock 'n roll bands. Chuck Berry learned it for T-Bone Walker and Louis Jordan, and they learned it from those before them, and so on.














Listen: GONE Gene Austin mp3

Listen: GONE Bob Dylan mp3

Listen: GONE Big Joe Turner mp3

Listen GONE Bob Dylan mp3

Buy at Amazon : Gene Austin, Big Joe Turner, Bob Dylan