Key to the Highway KSCU
103.3FM
2019-10-06 1-3PM
Various Postwar Blues and R&B
Various 60s Blues and Soul
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I have been asked to fill in this Sunday on the regular two hour
Blues rotation and am happy to do it, particularly because it might serve to
introduce my new Sunday evening show which is nominally scheduled from 7-10PM
but will often be extended to almost midnight.
Because it is kinda short notice and I am working diligently on my blog
for the next week’s evening show I have decided to re-air much of the playlist
from last week’s show because it struck me as a good sampling of my musical
taste. I include the write-up and
playlist of what I plan for this show, although I surely will run out of time
for its completion. If you didn’t get a
chance to listen last week, and surely no one stayed for the full five hours,
here’s another chance.
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I actually had an opportunity to meet Howlin’ Wolf face to face around 1970
when I was jamming at Guitar Player Magazine and they asked me to try interviewing
one of my idols. I was way too
intimidated as a 21 year old kid to try much at all. Not only was Wolf imposing in my mind but he
also stood a full head taller than me, and I’m 5’11”. However, his sax player, Eddie Shaw, was also
one of my heroes primarily from his time with Magic Sam. House Rockin’ Boogie was among Wolf’s
earliest recordings, before he was committed to the Chess Records label and
decades prior to Eddie’s taking over as Wolf’s bandleader. Eddie was as friendly as Wolf was
aloof. More on Eddie when we open our
third set with a Magic Sam tune.
Louis Jordan and Ella Fitzgerald overlapped slightly in their time with drummer Chick
Webb’s Swing Big Band. Every now and
then I receive a call stating that the subject matter is inappropriate,
particularly regarding violence toward women, but here’s a number about a wife
killing her husband! You have to take
into consideration the times; the most absurd, to me, was someone complaining
about a reference to Japs when the song (I believe it was by Jordan) was
released either during or shortly after WWII.
Come on.
I’ve
always said I give the Blues a pretty wide berth with the example that Chuck Berry didn’t sing Dig this Rock
‘n’ Roll, it was Dig these Rhythm and Blues.
Rockin’ at the Philharmonic bears this out to perfection with assistance
from Blues stalwarts Willie Dixon on bass and Lafayette Leake sitting down at
the piano.
Big Joe Williams plays his original acoustic version of the
oft-recorded Baby, Please Don’t Go. I’ve
always loved Them’s remake with Van Morrison.
If
you’ve got to throw in a slow Blues, I Held My Baby Last Night is a good choice
from Elmore James, the most
influential bottleneck guitar stylist.
Mona
is one of those signature ditties featuring the Bo Diddley beat. I don’t
often do shout outs but here I’d like to acknowledge my friend Wally Malone who
played bass most of the times Bo was on the West Coast.
Jazz/Jump
Blues saxophone man Jack McVea had a
big hit with his novelty number Open the Door, Richard.
Not
too many piano bandleaders on today’s show, but here’s Texan Amos Milburn’s original of a favorite
Boogie tune from his long career, Down the Road a Piece.
I
always thought the guitar playing Odetta
was more of a Gospel singer a la Mahalia Jackson but, at least according to
what I have come across, she seems more of a Folk singer and her tune Timber
shows off her powerful voice.
While
Wynonie Harris was with King Records
the label owner Syd Nathan had him do this Country number, Bloodshot Eyes,
written by another of his artists; just another way to capitalize on the
royalties, but it did become normal to see such crossovers.
Harris
got his recording start with the Lucky Millinder Orchestra and the band also
gave Sister Rosetta Tharpe full backing
as she was simultaneously establishing herself as an acoustic guitar playing
Spiritual singer. Her expansion into the
secular field wasn’t taken all that well by her Gospel fans, but I can’t see
how anyone couldn’t be impressed with her version of Up Above My Head. It seems to tag all the bases.
My
favorite story about the late 20s spiritual singer Blind Willie Johnson was when the blind man was arrested for unknowingly
standing in front of a government office as he sang If I Had My Way, I’d Tear
This Building Down, a regular part of his repertoire. Here we hear his classic Lord, I Just Can’t
Keep From Crying, later recorded by Al Kooper and Ten Years After. Another Johnson tune, What is the Soul of a
Man, was sent into space on a Voyager craft.
Big
Band leader Tiny Bradshaw had the
original of the Train Kapt a-Rolling but Rockabilly artists the Dorsett
Brothers revamped the song into the version later performed by Jeff Beck with
the Yardbirds and, even later, by Aerosmith.
The
piano man Ray Charles was a major
musical force as he traversed from Blues to Jazz, often being credited with the
birth of Soul, and even added Country to his arsenal mid-career. Here we have a live version of what must be
considered a classic of Rock ‘n’ Roll, but Ray would probably still call it
R&B.
Pianist
Fats Waller was one of the small
number of Black artists who recorded in the 20s to survive the Depression and
carry on a long recording career. It was
not uncommon for him to put out a humorous ditty like You Run Your Mouth, I’ll
Run My Business.
When
Roy Brown was trying to get his
career going, he offered a song he had written on a paper bag to the
established Shout styled singer Wynonie Harris.
Never known to be a very pleasant person unless it was in his best
interest, Harris scoffed at Brown and discarded the song. Until Roy released it in his own name, then
Harris promptly recorded it and his hit version undercut Brown’s. Elvis Presley had one of his early hits with
Good Rockin’ Tonight in the 50s.
A nice way to end a set is
with Ruth Brown’s This Little Girls
Gone Rockin’. The success she had with
the newly established Atlantic label caused it to be referred to as The House
That Ruth Built.
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Maybe my all time favorite song, period, is by Magic Sam, one of my favorite artists,
I Just Want a Little Bit comes from his Delmark album Black Magic which
featured for the first time saxophonist Eddie Shaw. Eddie was brought to Chicago by Muddy Waters
but reached my ears through Sam. When
Sam died, Eddie moved on to Howlin’ Wolf’s band. My friend Johnnie Cozmik befriended Eddie on
one of his trips to Chicago and brought him out to the Bay Area a few times to
play as a guest artist with his J.C. Smith Band and, of course, this provided
several opportunities to get to know the man.
I am not big on gathering autographs but I am the proud possessor of
Eddie Shaw’s signature on my well worn copy of the Black Magic album cover.
Not much I can say about Luther Allison that wasn’t in my definitive write-up this July 24th
except that 4:00 O’clock in the Morning is my favorite among Luther’s early
material.
I don’t know a lot about Texas guitarist Bee Houston except that he recorded his
only album, Busy Bee, shortly after his membership in Big Mama Thornton’s
band. It is a favorite of mine from a
somewhat unknown player, particularly Be Proud to be a Black Man.
The only “celebrity” I ever gave a cab ride to in over
25 years was when the sound man at JJ’s called me directly to take Jr. Walker and a couple of his All
Stars back to their hotel room. I’m not
big on most Motown music except for Walker’s and it is represented here by
Shotgun.
A nice pairing of pianist Memphis Slim and Buddy Guy rocks it up with When Buddy Comes to
Town.
How Hound Dog
Taylor played around Chicago with only three singles to his name, released
in 1954, before Bruce Iglauer actually created Alligator Records around 1970 in
order to put him on the market is beyond my level of understanding. The label’s very first album included She’s
Gone, which shows his devotion to the Elmore James slide guitar style. His stuff always sounded to me like he was
playing through a torn speaker.
I was fortunate to get down to Monterey for the 1967
Pop Festival. Among the acts we saw that
Sunday evening were the Blues Project, Buffalo Springfield, Janis Joplin with
Big Brother and the Holding Company, the group we particularly went down there
to see The Who and, of course, the American debut of the Jimi Hendrix
Experience. If you wish to read all
about the day from my perspective you can dig into my blog archives to June 18th
2017; I think you’ll find it interesting and a little humorous. But the one artist in retrospect that that I
wish I had seen was the ultimate Soul man, Otis
Redding. I believe he died in a
plane crash within a year afterward. Here
he sings the Sam Cooke tune Shake, but not the Monterey version because it is
one of those live recordings where they edit the tune with the intro to the
next song tagged onto the end.
Irritating!
Guitarist Buddy Guy is back, this time with his
longtime though occasional harp playing partner Junior Wells on Messin’ with the Kid. This is not Junior’s original version but one
from the must have album, volume one of Vanguard’s Chicago! The Blues Today
trilogy.
I was really unaware how long Wilson Pickett’s recording career went until I picked up a full 6CD
set of his Atlantic Studio releases. I
kinda lost track as I became immersed in the Blues in the late 60s. There were lots of excellent vocals to choose
from and You Left the Water Running is about as good as it gets.
Perhaps my all time radio ego trip was when I misspoke
and said that Earl Hooker was not
related to John Lee Hooker. Just about
as soon as I got off the mike I got a call from Michael Osborne, at the time
John Lee’s guitar player, to say that John just wanted me to know Earl was his
cousin. John Lee Hooker was listening to
my show! Actually, I knew they were
cousins but my mind wasn’t working on all cylinders. Earl was a versatile guitarist with Country
songs mixed into his repertoire, but Boogie, Don’t Blot is unmitigated
Blues. Probably the reason Earl did not
become better received was that he never felt comfortable with his singing and
used a front man. Still, he had maybe a
dozen albums of his own in addition to his work as a very desirable sideman.
The pairing of Sam
and Dave by Stax Records brought about some great Soul duets, not a common
practice. The two wound up with
considerable animosity, but they continued long enough to put out a lot of
hits. I think they were my favorite Soul
men (pardon the pun), and that’s saying a lot; I Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell
Nobody was their best effort, in my opinion.
One thing that kinda surprised me when I looked over
this assemblage was the lack of songs written by Willie Dixon since I seemed to
have grown up hearing so many of the numbers he penned for the great Chess
masters, among others. At a time when he
was doing his A&R work for Cobra records between Chess stints, Willie
wrote, produced and maybe even played bass on Otis Rush‘s I Can’t Quit You, Baby.
I always thought of it as the theme song for my bass guitar: I Can’t
Quit You but I Got to Put You Down for a While until I finally did quit.
I bought Billy Boy
Arnold‘s album which contained You Don’t Love Me No More on the same
shopping excursion with a couple of friends to a record store in Mill Valley
that I also brought home Hound Dog Taylor’s first; probably my best day’s
shopping ever! I figured it would be
worthwhile because of the band behind him: a couple of guys from Magic Sam’s
band and the bass player from the first Butterfield albums, Jerome Arnold,
Billy Boy’s brother.
The only Blues fiddler on today’s show, Papa John Creach‘s String Jet Rock reminds
us why we loved him back in his days with the Bay Area’s Hot Tuna.
Stax Record’s brand of Soul was the style that grabbed
me and William Bell was part of that
stable that also included Otis Redding and Sam & Dave, whom we have already
heard. His You Don’t Miss Your Water
(‘til the Well Runs Dry) is another longtime favorite slow number.
Howlin’ Wolf, Magic Sam and Texas-born guitarist Freddie King have been my Blues
triumvirate since the 60s. Despite his
excellent Blues vocals, it seemed Freddie’s instrumentals garnished the most
attention. With so many to choose from,
Remington Ride has been my first choice since it entered my ears, due in part
to the fact it was rarely reinterpreted.
Pianist Percy
Mayfield was often referred to as the poet laureate of the Blues and a favorite
example is his River’s Invitation.
Another of his best known songs is Please Send Me Someone to Love.
Chicago guitarist Jimmy
Dawkins acquired the moniker “Fast Fingers” for obvious reasons. His debut album on Delmark also had Eddie
Shaw accompanying him, likely the reason I made the purchase, however it is the
bite in his instrumental Gittar Rapp from a decade and a half later that made
it my choice for today.
Again,
not much can be said about Aretha
Franklin that was not included in my August 14th essay. We didn’t play Save Me on that show and I
find it a strong choice to close this set.
enjoy
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For listening to KSCU on a computer, you
need to use iTunes or WinAmp for the media player.
To listen to KSCU on a smart phone use
either the NextRadio or TuneIn apps.
The studio phone number is (408) 554-KSCU or, for the
digitally inclined 554-5728 but, as always, make sure no one is speaking on the
air before you dial.
The
mailing address for sending CDs et cetera is:
KSCU
Local Music
500
El Camino Real
Santa
Clara, CA
95053
KSCU radio is located in the basement of Benson Hall
The
best way to reach me is by email at coyledon@yahoo.com
(my computer’s autocorrect adds a letter t, so if that shows up here please
remove it before trying to contact me; apparently, cotyledon is some kind of
botanical term). I do send out my blog
via email so, if you would like to be added to that list, just give me your
address and I’d be happy to do so, otherwise all my writings going back to 2014
are still available at key2highway.blogspot.
I do recommend the direct email to let you know when I will be on,
especially now that I will occasionally waiver from the second and fourth week
of each month format. Thank you all for
your continued support. Feel free to
call me during the show; it gets lonely in the dungeon.
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House Rockin’ Boogie
Howlin’ Wolf
Stone Cold Dead in the Market
Place
Louis Jordan and Ella
Fitzgerald
Rockin’ at the Philharmonic
Chuck Berry
Baby, Please Don’t Go
Big Joe Williams
I Held My Baby Last Night
Elmore James
Mona
Bo Diddley
Open the Door, Richard
Jack McVea
Down the Road a Piece
Amos Milburn
Timber
Odetta
Bloodshot Eyes
Wynonie Harris
Up Above My Head
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Lord, I Can’t Keep from Crying
Blind Willie Johnson
Train Kept a-Rollin’
Tiny Bradshaw
What’d I Say
Ray Charles
You Run Your Mouth, I’ll Run My
Business
Fats Waller
Good Rockin’ Tonight
Roy Brown
This Little Girl’s Gone Rockin’
Ruth
Brown 50mins
I Just Want a Little Bit
Magic Sam
4:00 in the Morning
Luther Allison
Be Proud to Be a Black Man
Bee Houston
Shotgun
Jr. Walker and the All
Stars
When Buddy Comes to Town
Memphis Slim and Buddy Guy
She’s Gone
Hound Dog Taylor
Shake
Otis Redding
Messin’ with the Kid
Junior Wells with Buddy Guy
You Left the Water Runnin’
Wilson Pickett
Boogie, Don’t Blot
Earl Hooker
Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody
Sam and Dave
I Can’t Quit You, Baby
Otis Rush
You Don’t Love Me
Billy Boy Arnold
Jet String Rock
Papa John Creach
You Don’t Miss Your Water
(‘til Your Well Runs Dry)
William Bell
Remington Ride
Freddie King
The River’s Invitation
Percy Mayfield
Gittar Rapp
Jimmy Dawkins
Save Me
Aretha Franklin 63mins
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