Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thank You Friends

Happy Thanksgiving from all of your friends
at the Boogie Woogie Flu.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Recent Acquisitions From The Fluville Museum of American Song



Here's something to be thankful about as you baste and bake your Thanksgiving dinner. This may be the greatest collection of songs ever assembled under one post here at the Boogie Woogie Flu. No turkeys. All certified Grade A meat.

Hear The Reverend Satchel Mouth Armstrong ask the musical question: "What kind of church is this?" Well, it's the kinda church where the parishioners smoke Louis Armstrong Special cigars. "More power to you, boys," says the Reverend.

Hear Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup take an early stab at a song that later became "That's Alright, Mama," long before the Tupelo Flash got his hands on it.

Hear Bill Monroe sing Jimmie Rodgers and The Stanley Brothers sing Bill Monroe.

Hear Tampa Red demonstrate what the Stones would've sounded like if they hired a clarinetist as a sideman on Beggars Banquet.

Hear Bo Diddley have his way with a violin and make it sound like a blues harp.

Hear all this and more, with at least three sides featuring the late great Earl Palmer on drums, including two by Professor Longhair with his Blues Scholars, the band he hired to replace The Shuffling Hungarians.

Glory, Hallelujah!


Download:



"The Lonesome Road (El Camino Solitario) " mp3
by Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra, 1931.
available on 1931-1932



"St. James Infirmary" mp3
by Hot Lips Page, 1947.
available on Jump For Joy!



"The Honeydripper" mp3
Roosevelt Sykes, 1943.
available on The Honey Dripper



"If I Get Lucky" mp3
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, 1941.
available on 22 Greatest Songs



"Blue Yodel #4" mp3
Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys, 1947.
available on All the Classic Releases 1937-1949



"Blue Moon of Kentucky" mp3
The Stanley Brothers, 1954.
available on The Stanley Brothers and The Clinch Mountain Boys: The Complete Mercury Recordings



"New Bad Luck Blues" mp3
by Tampa Red, 1946.
available on Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 13, 1945-1947



"Tollin' Bells" mp3
by Lowell Fulson, 1956.
available on The Complete Chess Masters



"The Clock Strikes Twelve"
mp3
by Bo Diddley, 1958.
available on I'm a Man: The Chess Masters, 1955-1958



"Boogie Uproar"
mp3
by Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, 1953.
available on Dirty Work at the Crossroads 1947-1954



"Jump Children" mp3
by Dave Bartholomew, 1954.
available on 1950-1952



"Heeby-Jeebies" mp3
by Little Richard, 1956.
available on The Georgia Peach



"In The Night" mp3
by Professor Longhair and his Blues Scholars, 1953.
available on New Orleans Piano




"Tipitina" mp3
by Professor Longhair and his Blues Scholars, 1953.
available on New Orleans Piano

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Little Willie's Quantum Leap






This is an interesting record. And when I talk about this record, I'm talking about this record -  the very one you are looking at. When I first got it, I saw some writing on the inner grooves in grease pencil, and two concentric circles drawn right onto the grooves. Closer inspection revealed an arrow marked in pencil pointing upwards to the first of these two circles. This is the type of thing that audiophiles or a certain type of record collector might scoff at. Not me. I find it thrilling. There's a story in the grooves that goes beyond the music contained within them, giving life to this object and the purpose that it served, probably as study material to it's previous owner, whom I'm guessing was a musician.

The first circle comes precisely at the moment when the band drops out and Charlie Parker begins his lyrical solo on tenor - not alto - which he hadn't played since he was in the Earl Hines orchestra, and leads into Miles' solo and then pianist John Lewis' run. I have a few other Bird records, where you can visually see where the solos are, because the grooves are worn out from excessive replay of these parts. This is the first time I've seen it marked.

Modern technology makes this type of loving demarcation unnecessary. I can tell you that after making an mp3 of this record, that the first circle comes at exactly 0:34, and the second one (where the solos end) at 2:21. It also gives visualization to another another bit of mathematic symmetry. The band plays the harmonic be-bop riff on the chord changes over the head in a 32 bar form at the beginning and the end of this take for approximately 33 seconds.

If a paper airplane is sent off from the Empire State Building's observation deck on a clear day, and a bullet is fired from a smoking gun 100 yards away pointed toward a rocket leaving Cape Canaveral, who picks up Little Willie's bar tab?



Download:

"Little Willie Leaps" (take 3) mp3
by Miles Davis All Stars, 1947.
available on The Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes

Bonus:

"Little Willie Leaps" (take 1 - incomplete) mp3
by Miles Davis All Stars, 1947.
available on Complete Savoy & Dial Studio Sessions

"Little Willie Leaps" (take 2)
mp3
by Miles Davis All Stars, 1947.
available on Complete Savoy & Dial Studio Sessions

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Mitch Mitchell R.I.P.



Time to give the drummer some. Unfortunately, another one has passed. The great Mitch Mitchell died yesterday. He was the last surviving member of The Jimi Hendrix Experience. I never got around to doing an Earl Palmer memorial - although his drumming shows up here from time to time - and I rarely get a chance to post Hendrix, so that's what we'll listen to today.

Download:

"Fire" mp3
by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, 1967.
available on Are You Experienced

"Remember" mp3
by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, 1967.
available on Are You Experienced

"Bold As Love" mp3
by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, 1967.
available on Axis: Bold as Love

"Crosstown Traffic" mp3
by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, 1968.
available on Electric Ladyland

"Angel" mp3
by Jimi Hendrix, 1970.
available on Voodoo Soup

**********************

"Yer Blues" mp3
by The Dirty Mac, 1968.
available on The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Victory




Congratulations America.

I was on 125th street in Harlem when the news broke. I think you could have been anywhere in the city and elsewhere in the country and experienced the same collective sigh of relief. It was the most joyous celebration I've ever witnessed. There was dancing in the streets. New York can be like that, but I haven't seen it for a long time, and this was something much bigger than us that we were all a part of. When the announcement came on the jumbotron, the crowd erupted. "He won!" I yelled. An older woman turned to me and threw her arms around me jumping up and down. My friend Barron said it looked just like The Price Is Right. I was Bob Barker, yet she and we all won something much better than a new car. We got our country back.

Here's to the future.


Download:

"Back In The USA"
mp3
by The MC5, 1970.
available on Back in the USA



"Brown Eyed Handsome Man" mp3
by Chuck Berry, 1956.
available on The Great Twenty-Eight

"(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, & Understanding" mp3
by Nick Lowe, 2001.
available on Live At the World Cafe - Tenth Anniversary Edition

"(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, & Understanding" mp3
by Brinsley Schwarz, 1974.
available on The New Favourites of Brinsley Schwarz

"(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, & Understanding" mp3
Elvis Costello and The Attractions, 1979.
available on Armed Forces

"(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, & Understanding"
mp3
Steve Earle and The Dukes, 2003.
available on Just an American Boy

"(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, & Understanding"
mp3
The Holmes Brothers, 2006.
available on State of Grace

"(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, & Understanding" mp3
by Nick Lowe, 1995.
available on KGSR 107.1 Austin Broadcasts Volume 3