The Wise One "I Got The Blues For You" (Collins) Al Collins & Orch, Ace, 1955 LISTEN "I'm Wise" (E. Bocage) Eddie Bo, Apollo, 1956 LISTEN Here we have two songs that were the basis for one of [...]
Jessie 'Ooh Poo Pah Do' Hill Shirley 'Sweetheart of the Blues' Goodman "Ivory Tower" (Fulton - Steele) Shirley & Jessie, Wand, 196? LISTEN Here they are, Shirley & Jessie, your American anti-Idols! Consider this post my antidote to tonight?s TV showdown. If you don?t live in the US, [...]
A Review As I mentioned earlier, I went to an advance screening of the film documentary, Make It Funky! , here in Lafayette back on April 26. This was sponsored by the Recording Academy (NARAS, you know, the Grammy award people), which also hosted several showings of the film in New Orleans later in the week. Following the film, the director, Michael Murphy, took questions from the audience, including one from your intrepid (or is that insipid?) reporter. Stick with me, and I?ll get to that ?(?)?. [...]
Ms Juanita back then "Garden of Four Trees" Explosions, featuring Juanita Brooks, Gold Cup, about 1970 Dug up Eddie Bo started to do some producing for me, but his stuff just didn?t sound right. . . .I always felt that there was something that didn?t fit or was out of tune on everything Eddie Bo produced. I tried to tell [...]
"Don't Let My Husband Catch You" (Ronnie Barron) Ronnie Barron, from Reverend Ether , Decca, 1971 LISTEN I met Mac Rebennack when I was 15. I'd been aware of him since I was 12, and he had a good working band that played on the west side where I lived, in Algiers. New Orleans was a real fly-by-night town, where there was a big tourist crowd and people wanted to drink. They [...]
"A Little Bit Of Something [Is Better Than A Whole Lot Of Nothing]" (Robert Parker) Robert Parker, Island, 1976 Nevertheless. . . So, the song title sums up the blog output for this week. Hope you can hang with it. The tune itself is an interesting artifact: enjoyable enough, but without rendering you sockless, I guess. It?s a Sansu production [...]
Willie Tee in action "I Want Somebody (To Show Me The Way Back Home)" [Turbinton], WillieTee, Atlantic, 1965 LISTEN I featured Willie Tee (Wilson Turbinton) here back on October 30, 2004, posting a cut from his 1976 album, Anticipation ; and I?ve also previously pointed out his vital work as composer, arranger and band leader [...]
"What Is Success" (Allen Toussaint) Allen Toussaint, from Toussaint , Scepter, 1971 Sometimes it's knowing when to quit Last night, I saw the documentary film, Make It Funky! , as I mentioned earlier, and will give you more details in a later post. But, briefly, it is a very good attempt to get at the essence of the New Orleans musical experience using those insiders (and [...]
Some guy and a mod John Fred "Shirley" John Fred (T. Bryan, J. Fred) Montel, 1958 LISTEN We were driving through Baton Rogue a few weeks ago, listening to a local university station, when I heard the DJ say that John Fred (Gourrier) had passed away. So, I made a mental note to make him the subject of my next Swamp Side. Probably best known around the planet for his 1968 single, ?Judy In [...]
Leo, Zig, George, & Art "Little Old Money Maker" (Nocentelli-Porter-Neville-Mod eliste) from Look-Ka Py Py , Josie, 1970 Spent Well, the big news around HOTG for this week is the reunion of the original Meters at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Saturday. And, that?s just one highlight during a little over a week of musical abundance on and off the festival grounds. For example, other goings [...]
Guess which one is Big John "I Just Find Myself Falling" (W. Devillier - J. Vinidigini) Sweet Salvation, from Sweet Salvation , Elektra, 1972 You liked it....you really liked it As with most of my Swamp Side designated tracks, this one and the album it comes from have ties to Louisiana, and, in this case, New Orleans, too. I found the Sweet Salvation album in a pile of dollar records at one of [...]
Funkifying our lives once again. ?We?re a little older. A little fatter. Still black. And still funky.? Art Neville, onstage, April 23, 2005 Like I said, it was an intimate affair, 20 ? 30 thousand of us squeezed into and overflowing the site of the Sprint stage, the second largest venue at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Meanwhile, at the largest, the Acura Stage (our heritage has become a victim of corporate branding), James Taylor was doing something completely different [...]
I'm still decompressing from the Meters' reunion, where I and about 30,000 close friends (we were real close for about 100 minutes) witnessed some HOTG music history. It was hot shit on an unusually cool day. . .but, I'll tell you more about it later along with a piece about the Make It Funky film I saw previewed tonight. And I'll have a tune up soon. Stand by.
"Ship Of Love" (T. Lynn) Tamiya Lynn, from Tamiya Lynn , 1992 LISTEN Tamiya Lynn's atmospheric "Ship Of Love" uses as its departure and end points lyrics similar to what Fats Domino and Chris Kenner worked with on their rather innocent Shoora Rah songs ("front to front", "side to side", "back to back", "go kiss your lover", all with "Shoo Rah" repeated between them); but her song's yearning vocal over primal percussion takes us into an exotic, [...]
"Shoorah Shoorah" (A. Toussaint) Allen Toussiant with Chocolate Milk , 1976 LISTEN Allen Toussaint puts his own creative spin on "Shoorah Shoorah" (shown as "Shoo-rah Shoo-rah" on the 1973 copyright filing), recorded live with Chocolate Milk backing him on the riverboat President in 1976 during a New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival concert. He never released a studio version of this tune, which was covered by the Righteous Brothers, Betty Wright, and Frankie Miller (produced by Toussaint) in [...]
What or who is Shoo Rah (aka Shu Ra or Shoo-rah)? I have yet to find out. It appears in at least five songs by New Orleans artists, four of which we'll hear in this and the next few posts. The Crescent City has always been a fertile source of novelty tunes, nonsense lyrics, and secret languages (the Mardi Gras Indian songs and chants, for example). I don't think Shoo Rah has MG Indian origins; and it may just be euphonious nonsense used to spice up a few songs. Or is something else going on? If you couldn't care less [...]
Irma - these days "You Ain't Hittin' On Nothing" (Naomi Neville) Irma Thomas, Minit, 1963 "I'm Gonna Cry Till My Tears Run Dry" (Pomus/Shuman/Fagin) Irma Thomas, Imperial, 1965 Her birthday is February 18th; so, in celebration, here are two offerings from Irma Thomas , both a bit off the beaten track, but I think worth hearing. From 1963 comes "You Ain't Hittin' On Nothing", which was the B-side of the great "Ruler of My Heart", both of which were written (using [...]
"Bon Ton Roulet" (Clarence Garlow) Papa Mali & the Instagators, from Thunder Chicken , Fog City, 2000 Bon Ton Gone The CD notes credit Clifton Chenier (the late progenitor and king of zydeco music) as the writer of "Bon Ton Roulet"; but this is not his song of the same name, which Chenier had actually copped from Louis Jordan's "Let The Good Times Roll". No, the song covered here was written and originally recorded in the early 1950's by Clarence Garlow, a blues guitarist and [...]
"Creole Gal" (P. Gayten) Paul Gayten, DeLuxe, 1949 "Creole Gal" is similar in style to many jump blues numbers that were popping out of New Orleans and elsewhere around this time. But performer/pianist, songwriter, producer, and bandleader Paul Gayten spices it up with references to certain feminine and culinary amenities of his hometown. Making perhaps his first recording date with Gayten's swinging outfit, a young and, later, legendary Lee Allen blows a jazzy tenor sax solo on the tune. My copy comes from the Creole Gal LP on [...]
"Look At The Clock" (W. Harper - T. Royal) Willie Harper, un-issued, 1970-71 Since my original post about this song, I have learned more about events surronding its writing and recording, but still do not know much about the artist himself. I discovered Mr. Harper back in the 1980s on a cut from the 1969 Instant LP, Solid Gold , a retrospective put together by Joe Banashak of songs that had appeared on Instant and several other labels he operated during the decade. In Harper's [...]
Home of the Groove
Sleigh Bells - Demons (Official Music Video)
The Rains of Castamere by The National
A-Trak & Dillon Francis - "Money Makin'" (Official Video)
DIIV "How Long Have You Known?" (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
Nas - Daughters
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Shinichi Osawa – Big Beach Mix 2012
Mr Fogg - Eleven
