Key to the Highway     9-9-2015

Reproduction of time slot debut   8-29-1990

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Today we take a departure from our delving into the Development of the British Blues and Rhythm study to celebrate the passing of a quarter of a century of the Key to the Highway show in this Wednesday 2-5pm time slot, airing for the first time on August 28^th 1990.  All but one song played that day has been collected from my CD library (Lucky Lou by guitarist Jody Williams appeared from the collection of “rare” Chess instrumentals, Wrinkles, but is buried somewhere within my collection and is noted in the playlist as not available) so two additional tunes were added to fill out the two CDs I have been in the habit of preparing for recent shows.

I believe the playlist is indicative of several things that have been consistent throughout the program’s lifetime, the first being that it was never intended to be limited to merely Blues but augmented by other Blues-related musics.  When I began filling in at KKUP about a year and a half before finding an acceptable time slot (not that I was a prima donna but that I was between jobs and waited for an opening that would not conflict with my preferred work hours, but maybe I actually am a bit of a prima donna), I wrote up a little statement of how I felt the content would prove to be: “KEY TO THE HIGHWAY – A liberal view of the roads travelled by the Blues.  While it will include detours into Jazz, R&B, Rock ‘n Roll and the British influence, the main emphasis will be on full band electric urban Blues.  This up-tempo journey will be mapped out by Don.  Heard occasionally on KKUP 91.5fm.”  To that list you can add a hint of Zydeco and maybe others, but I believe I had a pretty good handle on what I wished to present to my listeners. Another truism that has persisted throughout is that you all know by now not to expect a whole lot of slow tunes here!

The first sets of this airing might sound more akin to what Paul plays the other Wednesdays, indeed almost all of today’s music would be a good fit there, as we begin in a 50s R&B mood, but also included today are the triumvirate of my favorites of the time (I would likely only add Luther Allison to the list), opening with Freddy King’s version of our theme song and later Howlin’ Wolf and Magic Sam.

I did take the liberty of moving Ivory Joe Hunter’s portion up a notch because I wished to close the set a bit livelier with some Chuck Berry.  It was Chuck’s instrumental Rockin’ at the Philharmonic which I chose to take the place of Lucky Lou.  I feel Chuck represents my feeling that the Blues should be given a wide berth since I often find myself saying that in his song Roll Over Beethoven he never said “dig this Rock and Roll.”; it’s Rhythm and BLUES!  And certainly Mr. Berry availed himself of some of the best Bluesmen Chess Records had to offer, his portion today to include Willie Dixon on bass (although I don’t believe he took advantage of Willie’s songwriting ability), drummer Fred Below, and his faithful piano partner Johnnie Johnson, although Lafayette Leake plays in his stead on Johnny B. Goode and Rockin’ at the Philharmonic.  Leake has been one of my favorites ever since I heard Magic Sam shout out “Tickle ‘em Blue from there, Laffy” on his Black Magic album. 

Big Joe Turner, Jerry Lee Lewis, and the Coasters were more mainstays in the nascent Rock ‘n’ Roll scene, but no doubt Bo Diddley was a Rocker and a Blues man and all set the table for the multitude of shows to follow.  Little Richard had his own travelling band, The Upsetters, but when it came time to cut the records it was with the best of the New Orleans Rhythm and Blues musicians available at the time.  One thing I can’t recall is why Stevie Ray Vaughan was included, except maybe because I had been requested to play it so many times and had likely just picked up a couple of his CDs.  I always considered him too “Rocky” for my taste, but now I wonder has the Blues scene evolved more in that direction because I actually enjoyed their listen.

Towards the end I might have been running out of material so the sets got longer, or maybe I just intended to fit more Magic Sam in than Muddy Waters, Little Milton or Otis Rush.  And I had likely recently discovered Screamin’ Jay Hawkins; with the strength of his voice, it is not surprising he had wanted to be an opera singer, and on stage he wore a turban and made his coffin an integral part of his act.

If there is room at the end of the show, I have added the first song from the second broadcast, Little Walter’s version of our theme song.  Initially I would open up with one artist’s performance or another, but soon preferred to wind up each beginning set with The Key to the Highway.

Twenty-five years!  Who’d a thunk?

NOTE: After the playlist I have added commentary on Big Joe Turner that I had been working on for an earlier project.

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Key to the Highway
   Freddie King

Corrinne Corina

The Chicken and the Hawk
The Midnight Special Train
   Big Joe Turner
Since I Met You Baby
Empty Arms
   Ivory Joe Hunter
Johnny B. Goode
Memphis
Roll Over Beethoven
+ Rockin’ at the Philharmonic
   Chuck Berry

Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On
Great Balls of Fire
Hound Dog
   Jerry Lee Lewis
Bo Diddley
Who Do You Love
Before You Accuse Me
   Bo Diddley
NOT AVAILABLE:
Lucky Lou
   Jody Williams
Keep A-Knockin’
Lucille 
Rip It Up
Long Tall Sally
   Little Richard
Down In Mexico
Young Blood
Yaketty Yak
   The Coasters

Pride and Joy

Mary Had a Little Lamb
   Stevie Ray Vaughan
Mannish Boy
The Stuff You Gotta Watch
I Got My Mojo Workin’
Rollin’ and Tumblin’
   Muddy Waters
How Many More Years
Poor Boy
Forty-Four
   Howlin’ Wolf
If You Love Me Baby
Beggin’ My Baby
Somebody Told Me
   Little Milton

Scuttle Buttin’
Honey Bee
Stang’s Swang
Cold Shot
   Stevie Ray Vaughan
Sit Down Baby
My Baby’s a Good’un
Three Times a Fool
It Takes Time
   Otis Rush

She Belongs to Me

My Love is Your Love
Magic Rocker
Everything Gonna Be Alright
21 Days in Jail
Out of Bad Luck
   Magic Sam
I Put a Spell On You
Little Demon
Alligator Wine
Yellow Coat
She Put the Wamee on Me
Person to Person
Frenzy
This Is All
   Screamin’ Jay Hawkins

Love Struck Baby

   Stevie Ray Vaughan
+ Key to the Highway
   Little Walter

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K

ansas City during prohibition was a wide-open town rife with speakeasies, jazz-filled gin joints, gambling and prostitution under the corrupt reign of Thomas J. Prendergast (since 1910 the mob-affiliated local leader of the Democratic party), and all the goodtime spending created a vibrant music scene that drew and kept some of the best musicians of its time.  "You could hear music twenty-four hours a day in Kansas City", according to drummer Jo Jones, so indeed there was no reason to go anywhere else. 

After Prendergast's conviction for tax evasion in 1939, the Kansas City night life was quickly and drastically curtailed, but until then what times were had!  Count Basie had a prolonged residence there, as well as Jay McShann and Andy Kirk, but perhaps the best show was put on by a hometown boy they called Big Joe Turner (1911-1972).

Joe began his apprenticeship at an early age by going out with street musicians: "I'd go down from the house a block or two in the morning and I'd find one of the blind singers standing on the corner.  I'd stay with him all day and we'd cover the town".  In his late teens, he snuck into the Backbiter's Club and talked his way on stage, where he impressed with his timing and unmiked vocal strength, then convinced the owner into believing he was twenty years old and giving him a weekend job.  This later turned into work behind the bar at the Black and Tan Club, where Joe became known as "the singing bartender".  As Andy Williams' wife, pianist/arranger Mary Lou Williams recalled, "While Joe was serving drinks, he would suddenly pick up a cue for a blues and sing it right where he stood, with Pete (Johnson) playing piano for him.  I don't think I'll ever forget the thrill of listening to Big Joe Turner shouting and sending everybody while mixing drinks."

After seeing them in K.C. in 1936, producer John Hammond brought Big Joe and Pete Johnson to New York with mixed success; they returned in 1938 as part of Hammond's two-day "Spirituals to Swing" concert at Carnegie Hall in memory of Bessie Smith, who had passed away a year earlier.  Hammond first asked Joe to front Count Basie's band, but Joe wanted neither to slight Basie's lead singer Jimmy Rushing nor to learn Rushing's songs.  Instead, he performed backed only by Pete Johnson; there they met Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis and the three pianists stayed on in New York gigging as the Boogie Woogie Trio with Joe as their vocalist.  This was the concert in which Hammond planned to include Robert Johnson, but his premature death had Big Bill Broonzy filling his slot; other acts at that show were Billie Holiday, Sonny Terry, Sidney Bechet's New Orleans Feetwarmers (whose pianist James P. Johnson also backed Bessie's niece Ruth Smith), Ida Cox and the Kansas City Six featuring vocalist Helen Humes, Sister Rosetta Tharpe with Mitchell's Christian Singers, and the Golden Gate Quartet.  Hammond had the good sense to ask the Hall's engineer to record much of the two shows and it was here that Joe's "It's All Right Baby" was preserved to acetate, and seven days later his first recording session was done at Vocalion's studio including his classic "Roll 'em Pete".

In 1941, Joe came out to Los Angeles to participate in a two and a half month production titled Jump For Joy: A Sun-Tanned Revu-sical put together by Duke Ellington

Big Joe (6'2", 300+ lbs.) ran the gamut of most of the currently popular musics without changing his own style throughout his career.  He would sing in front of big bands but much preferred the flexibility to improvise with smaller groups, and on some of his recordings he was accompanied only by his longtime piano partner and friend Pete Johnson.  He was one of the most popular of the blues shouters, and when he signed with Atlantic Records became a pioneer of rhythm and blues, and later a major influence on the rise of rock and roll due to his songs such as "Shake, Rattle and Roll".

Apparently, there was once a discussion while Joe was recording an Atlantic session at the Chess studio in Chicago where the Chess brothers expressed their displeasure with Ahmet Ertegun's outrageously generous payment of 5% to his recording artists.  Leonard Chess mentioned an agreement he had with Muddy Waters, the man who almost singlehandedly put Chess Records on the map.  "Muddy, when your stuff like Hoochie Coochie Man and Mojo stops selling, you can come over to my house and do the gardening."  Ertegun answered, "Funny, but I got a different kind of deal with Turner.  If his records don't sell, I can be his chauffeur!"  When Big Joe passed away in 1972, Ertegun discretely paid off the family's mortgage and covered all the funeral costs, and later went on to retroactively pay his performers for overseas and re-issue royalties.  He also contributed $2 million to a foundation to assist R&B artists needing financial aid.