Why should the Devil have all the good music

We all know what Gospel music is, but why is it called Gospel? The word is derived from 'God' and 'spel', an old English word for story. The word first appeared in print in 1874 with the publication of ‘Gospel Songs’ by Philip Bliss.

While this dichotomy existed for some there were many back in the first half of the twentieth century, who knew absolutely where they sat, they were very definitely in the Lord’s house. Everything and anything happening in the jukes, barrelhouses, vaudeville theatres or tents, in fact anywhere the Blues were heard was the Devil’s work, pure and simple.
“I'll tell you that, I never sung the blues because we sing by inspiration. God is who we serve, he makes us feel. We don't need no drugs, we don't need no nothing to hype us up, we just sing, by the spirit of God.”

Clarence Fountain
The Five Blind Boys of Alabama 

If you've never heard the 5 Blind Boys of Alabama check them out - brilliant. Some others to look into, The Sounds of Blackness, The Four Internes, Take Six, Clara Ward Singers, Violinaires and the Soul Stirers.

Rollin' & Tumblin'

Sleepy John Estes was taught to play guitar by his cousin Willie Newbern, both men also played medicine shows in Mississippi. Newbern was a master of the ‘personal blues’, style that Estes made his own over his long recording career. Newbern on the other hand had a very short recording career; it comprised of 6 songs recorded over two days in March 1929. On the second day, Hambone Willie as he was known, recorded what has become a standard in the Blues cannon, Roll & Tumble Blues.

Roll and Tumble Blues

Hambone Willie Newbern

Recorded 14^th March 1929 Atlanta Georgia for Okeh Records

And I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long

And I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long.

And I rose this mornin’ mama and I didn’t know right from wrong.

Did you ever wake up and find your dough roller gone?

Did you ever wake up and find your dough roller gone?

And you wring your hands and cry the whole day long.

And I told my woman lord, before I left the town.

And I told my woman lord, before I left the town.

Don’t she let nobody tear her barrelhouse down.

And I fold my arms lord, and I walked away.

And I fold my arms lord, and I walked away.

Says that’s all right sweet mama your own trouble gonna come some day.

Newbern's tune was used by Sleepy John Estes on The Girl I Love, She Got Long Curly Hair in September 1929. Robert Johnson adapted the song for If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day, which was cut in 1936, lyrically very similar to the original.

And I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long,

And I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long,

Boy I woke up this morning, my biscuit-roller gone.

Twenty one years after Hambone Willie recorded the song that probably goes back way further, Muddy Waters went into the studio with Little Walter Jacobs on harmonica and Leroy Foster on drums and second guitar to cut eight sides including Rollin’ and Tumblin’. Muddy remembered the song from his youth. There was a slight snag with Muddy recording, he was at the time under contract to Chess and this recording was going out on the Parkway label. To get around his contractual problem it came out as a Baby Face Leroy Trio record.

The record features Muddy’s wonderful slide guitar playing which probably got him noticed by the Chess brothers who were unhappy that one of their artists was recording for another label. Muddy was soon in the studio cutting a version for the Chess owned Aristocrat label. Muddy’s version of the song was essentially the same as Hambone’s in the first verse, but Muddy changed it around in the second verse

Well, if the river was whiskey, and I was a divin’ duck

Well, if the river was whiskey, and I was a divin’ duck

Well, I would dive to the bottom, never would I come up

Well, I could a had a religion, this bad old thing instead

Well, I could a had a religion, this bad old thing instead

Well, all whiskey and women, would not let me pray

Muddy’s version of Rollin’ and Tumblin’ was never a hit, nor was Baby Face Leroy’s version. Ironically when Muddy rewrote the song as Louisiana Blues and slowed it down it became his second chart success when it made No.10 on the U.S. R & B Chart. Muddy had also used the slide guitar riff from Rollin and Tumblin on his 1948 recording of Down South Blues, which Chess did not release for over ten years.

Fresh Cream

Cream recorded Rollin’ and Tumblin’ on their 1966 album ‘Fresh Cream’. It features Jack Bruce’s harmonica as the lead instrument. The Twenty one year old Eric Clapton provided the rhythm, along with Ginger Baker’s tasteful drum work. It is one of the numbers where Cream came closest to capturing the sound of Delta Blues…even with Ginger’s drums.

It’s typical in the story of the blues that songs, riffs and ideas, both lyrical and musical are constantly evolving

The Animals – one of the 60s UK Blues boom's best bands

In the beginning, there were three members of the Alan Price Combo, Chas Chandler (real name Bryan James Chandler, who was an engineer by trade, (b.18.12.38 Heaton, Tyne & Weir) bass; Alan Price (b.19.4.42 Fatfield, Co.Durham) organ and John Steel (b.4.2.41 Gateshead, Co.Durham) on drums; they played modern jazz around the clubs in the Newcastle-upon-Tyne area.  With the addition of vocalist Eric Burdon (b.4.5.41 Newcastle) and lead guitarist Hilton Valentine (b.22.5.43 North Shields), who had a band called The Wild Cats, they changed their name to The Animals and began playing R&B. Burdon and Steel had originally played together in a trad. jazz band, the Pagan Jazz Men. In January 1964, their manager, Mike Jeffery, a Newcastle club owner, went to London with a four track demo. Record producer Mickie Most was impressed and put them in the studio.  Their first single Baby let me take you home made No.21 in spring ‘64. They changed the overtly sexual lyrics of the Snooks Eaglin original, Moma, Don’t You Tear My Clothes to get some radio airplay.

The follow-up made them a household name in Britain. The House of the Rising Sun was on Bob Dylan’s first album and the Animal’s version topped the UK chart in July ‘64 for one week, before being replaced by The Rolling Stones It’s all Over Now.  By September it was at the top of the American charts, a position it held for 3 weeks. House of the Rising Sun was recorded mid way through a UK tour by the group. They drove to London overnight, went into Soho’s DeLane Lea studio at around 8 a.m. and within half an hour had finished the recording. For their third single Burdon and Price wrote I’m Crying which although not as successful as their previous single still managed to make No.8 in the UK. Their fourth 45 was a cover of Nina Simone's Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood. It got to No.3 in the UK and No.15 in the US. Their next single a cover of Sam Cooke’s Bring It On Home To Me got to No.7 UK, but could only get to No.32 in the US.

In 2001 Hilton made a guest appearance at Meriden, Connecticut’s Daffodil Festival (an annual event that draws thousands of people from all around the state and neighbouring states) with his friends The Manchurians.  A man came up to him and said "Hey, I know you!  You recorded my song Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood ."  That man was Horace Ott.   He proceeded to tell the story of how that song came about.  "We (pointing to his wife - who's maiden name was Gloria Caldwell) had a bit of a falling out.  She was my girlfriend at the time.  I was feeling low and this tune came into my head (he hums a few notes and sings " I'm just a soul who's intentions are good..... oh lord please don't let me be misunderstood").  I brought it to my writing partners who helped me finish the song."  Looking at the credits, one will notice that the name Ott appears nowhere.  "I used her name because I was signed to B.M.I. at the time and my writing partners were signed to  ASCAP.  Back then a B.M.I member couldn't co-write with a member from ASCAP.  After that I had a saying 'Just call me Gloria' " he says laughing.

Alan Price left the group in May 1965 to go solo just prior to the release of Bring It On Home To me and was replaced by classically trained former computer programmer, Dave Rowberry (b.1943) from the Mike Cotton Sound. The next single was the Barry Mann/Cynthia Weill composition We've Gotta Get Out Of This Place, it got to No.2 in the UK and No.13 in the US, it was kept from the top spot by The Beatles Help. Their final Columbia single It’s My Life reached No.7.

The band had been anxious to break with Mickie Most and Columbia, despite it having been a very successful arrangement. They wanted to try more adventurous material. Their first single for Decca was Inside Looking Out, which ironically turned out to be the least successful single since their debut. It only reached No.12 in Britain and only made No.34 in America

Drummer John Steel left the band in February ‘66 and was replaced by Barry Jenkins (b.1944) from the Nashville Teens.  Chart success improved with their 9^th hit Don't Bring Me Down in the summer of 1966, it reached No. 6; It was the final hit for the original Animals. Eric Burdon had become infatuated with the psychedelic music scene on America west coast and wanted to take the band in a new direction.  Burdon formed a new Animals and they were billed as Eric Burdon and The Animals, they went on to have a separate chart career. After the demise of the original Animals, Chas Chandler went into management, guiding the careers of Jimi Hendrix and Slade amongst others, he died in 1996. Hilton Valentine released a solo album. 

There were two brief Animal reunions, one in the mid 70's and again in the 80's with the original members. For the last 20 years various incarnations of the band have toured the oldies circuit, cruise ships and all the usual places that 60s bands can be found.

Recording the Blues – Field Trips

Today, records (interesting that many of us still call them that despite CDs and downloads) can be made in someone's bedroom or some other room in a house, or wherever, using sophisticated recording technology that is available on lap tops and home computers. Of course they can also be made in state of the art recording studios with huge sound-proof studios like Abbey Road. When the blues started to be recorded it was all very different.


In the early 1920s the major record companies recorded the women blues singers in studios in New York City, catching them when these artists worked the city’s theatres. By 1921 the sale of record  reached 100 million for the first time and by 1923 Columbia Records was more active in the Race recording field than their main rival Victor. It was Bessie Smith, Clara Smith and Papa Charlie Jackson that gave Columbia the edge. Paramount Records were also on the ascendancy it was Paramount that were the most effective of all the labels in exploiting the vast untapped market for recordings by black performers.

Paramount’s artists from the South went to their recording studio in Grafton, Wisconsin, the other labels all maintained studios in New York City. After the initial success of the Classic Blues singers - women like Bessie and Clara Smith – the labels had to look farther afield for new artists to record. Their solution for finding new talent was not to bring them all the way to New York City but to send mobile field recording units to see out new talent. The first field trips were in 1923, with more taking place in 1924 and 1925. But it was the discovery, in 1926, of Blind Lemon Jefferson, which stirred the labels into a frenzy of field recording. Interestingly, although Blind Lemon was discovered in Dallas he, in true Paramount fashion, was taken up North to record.

Scouts from the record companies travelled throughout the South in the search for new artists. These men would either arrange for an artist to travel north to a company’s home base or alert the company so that a mobile recording unit could record the artist the next time they were in the area. Neither were these field trips exclusively to record black artists, or blues singers. They recorded gospel and religious music, as well as HillBilly artists, the forerunners of country performers.

The mobile units visited cities for periods ranging from a few days to a few months, often setting up their recording unit in a hotel. The time taken to alert potential recording artists of the labels visit somewhat dictated the length of time they spent in any one city. Some artists would recall when a company made their annual or bi-annual visit to the town, and made sure they were around. Field recording also inadvertently encouraged the practice of artists adopting pseudonyms in order to record more sides for different labels. It was on a field trip to Dallas that Robert Johnson was recorded on two separate occasions, a year apart.

Sporadic field trips took place late into the 1930’s, the Library of Congress were also running their own, more academic, trips in the 1930’s and 40’s . The opening of local recording studios helped to put an end to the trips. This also gave raise to another phenomena that would drive the whole history of the Blues and Rock and roll, the local independent label.

Field trips were a very important aspect in the history of the Blues and popular music. Without them the story of the Blues would have been very different, some artists would never have recorded; history would have passed them by.   

The first Billboard Harlem Hit Parade - February 1941

World War 2 marked a sea change in the music industry. The requirements of the war for men, machinery and raw materials caused a dramatic shift in the entertainment industry. Music and entertainment did not stop, records continued to be manufactured and to sell. In fact it was in February 1941, while war raged across Europe, that Billboard introduced its first chart exclusively for Black music. They called it ‘The Harlem Hit Parade’, the first song to top the chart, of just ten records, was Take it and Git by Andy Kirk and His Clouds of Joy. Kirk, a 44 year old Kentuckian, and his twelve piece swing band from Kansas City had been playing together, in one form or another, since 1929 and by 1935 Mary Lou Williams, a gifted pianist, was a featured artist. 

Like many other swing bands they had  foot in jazz, another in pop but their blues influences were strong, as was boogie woogie. In 1942 Kirk issued Boogie Woogie Cocktail, a showcase for Mary Lou’s swinging left hand. That boogie woogie beat was steeped in the Barrelhouses across the Southern states and was a primary link between blues and rock 'n' roll.

Robert Johnson – The Facts

Whenever anyone talks or writes about Robert Johnson they tend to spend more time on the myth than the man. The facts of his life are somewhat sketchy, and have in their own way contributed to his legend. This is what we know. . .

Johnson's Mother, Julia, had ten children before Robert was born on 8th May 1911, all ten being born in wedlock, her husband’s name was Charles Dodds. Julia was probably around forty years old when Robert was born illegitimately; his Father was a plantation worker called Noah Johnson. Charles Dodds had moved to Memphis as a result of problems he was having with some prominent Hazelhurst landowners. Robert was sent to live with him when he was around three or four years old, by which time all of Dodd’s children had moved to Memphis.

Robert grew up in Memphis and first learned the basics of the guitar from his brother. Then, aged around eight or nine, Robert moved back to the Delta to live with his Mother and her new husband Dusty Willis. He became known as Little Robert Dusty. By all accounts Robert was more interested in music than he was on working in the fields, which put him at odds with his stepfather. By the time he was nineteen Johnson had married a girl of sixteen, who died shortly afterwards as she was giving birth. Around this time, in 1930, Son House moved to live in Robinsville, which is when young Robert would have first heard him play.

Son House recalled many years later that “he blew a harmonica and he was pretty good with that, but he wanted to play guitar.” It was from House and Willie Brown that Robert learned. He would watch them play and when they took a break he would use one of their guitars, according to House he was not good at all, “…such a racket you never heard!……get that guitar away from that boy” people would say, ”…..he’s running people crazy with it.”  By 1931 Robert had married again while continuing to travel the Delta, improving his guitar playing and playing at Juke joints and picnics. A year or so later Robert played for Son and Willie; they were staggered by his improvement. “He was so good. When he finished, all our mouths were standing open.” 

Robert resumed his Delta wanderings, his reputation growing as he played. He also went further afield, visiting Chicago, New York, Detroit and St Louis that we know of. All the while he developed his ‘audience technique’, it was this too that added to his reputation as a womaniser. He would often concentrate his performance on just one woman in the audience; this appears to have led to him forming relationships, of varying duration, with various women. Robert travelled and played with Johnny Shines, who later recalled that Robert was always neat and tidy, despite days spent travelling dusty Delta highways. Johnny also recalled that Robert was just as likely to perform other’s songs, as he was his own. He did everyone from Bing Crosby to Blind Willie McTell and Jimmie Rodgers to Lonnie Johnson. Robert, like many others, performed the songs that earned him money, songs his audiences requested.

By the time Robert was in his mid twenties he went to H.C. Speir’s store in Jackson Mississippi, like many of his influences and contemporaries, he wanted to record. Speir contacted the ARC label and by late November 1936 Robert was in San Antonio to record the first of his twenty-nine sides. On Monday November 23^rd he cut Kind Hearted Woman Blues, the first of thirteen takes of eight different songs. Three days later he was back and cut 32-20 Blues and then the following day he cut nine more takes on seven different songs. He then took a train back to Mississippi and his life as an itinerant musician, although he was temporarily richer having pocketed money from his recording session; it is doubtful whether it was more than $100.  

His first release was Terraplane Blues coupled with Kind Hearted Woman Blues; it would be the only one that sold in any great number at the time. Next up came 32-20 Blues coupled with Last Fair Deal Gone Down, followed by I’ll Believe I’ll Dust My Broom and Dead Shrimp Blues. While his sales were not prolific they were clearly good enough for Robert to be summoned back for some more recording. This time he went to Dallas and recorded three more sides on 19^th June 1937, the following day he cut thirteen more takes of ten more songs.

After his recording session Robert went ‘touring’ in Texas, along with Johnny Shines. They played Jukes, parties and dances, as they had in the Delta, before heading back to Mississippi via Arkansas. Precise details of the last year of his life are somewhat imprecise, although it is known that Robert spent some time in Memphis and Helena, Arkansas. Gayle Dean Wardlow, a Mississippi journalist, went in search of Robert Johnson’s death certificate, finding it in 1968 it confirmed that Robert had died in Greenwood on 16^th August 1938 aged twenty seven years old. 

Even pre-war white men played the Blues

I’ll warrant most of you will have heard of Jimmie Rodgers, he’s revered and admired today by everyone from Willie Nelson to Bono. He was a huge star and back in the 1930s he had many imitators, including Cliff Carlisle, but Cliff was more than just an imitator; he was a brilliant slide guitar player. Many of Cliff’s recordings either had a direct link to Jimmie or were strongly derivative, like Memphis Yodel a cover of a Jimmie Rodgers 1928 record. Songs like Hobo Blues were so much like a Jimmie Rodgers train song that you would be forgiven for thinking it was a cover. Cliff, and his long time partner Wilbur Ball who played Spanish guitar and sang harmony, also covered the Darby and Tarleton hit, Columbus Stockade Blues.

In 1931 Cliff accompanied Rodgers on a yodelling Blues track, Looking For A New Mama, later that year they teamed up and toured Kentucky, Illinois and Michigan. By 1934 Cliff’s brother Bill had replaced Wilbur, they cut That Nasty Swing in 1936, 5 months before Robert Johnson’s Phonograph Blues, which is very similar in feel. That Nasty Swing is another of those songs with a thinly veiled sexual code, Cliff sings about “winding the motor” and “putting his needle in the hole”; White country and Black country Blues had more in common than just a shared 12 bars. In 1937 Cliff cut Trouble Minded Blues, it was a remake of Chippie Hill’s 1926 recording, Trouble in Mind. Cliff wound up recording over 300 sides in the 30s and 40s, and besides his records he promoted the sale of his songbooks through his radio appearances. By the 50s Cliff had retired but he did make a brief comeback in the 60s, even recording once again with Wilbur Ball. The man billed as the ‘Yodelling Hobo’ died in Kentucky in 1983, aged 79.

So have you been down to the Crossroads?

There is no more potent musical myth than Robert Johnson selling his soul to the Devil at a Delta crossroads. Yet many blues fans who make a pilgrimage to the Delta, and Clarksdale Mississippi in particular, want nothing more than to visit the ‘real crossroads’. Many a local resident will roll their eyes when asked by eager Blues tourists to tell them where they can find the crossroads.

Other over eager visitors don’t even bother asking, they just head for the junction of Highway 61 and Highway 49  – pretty soon the cameras are out and they’re asking a passer by the “please take our photograph”.  What few of these people realise is that the current crossroads of the two highways is at least half a mile from the one that would have existed in Johnson’s lifetime. The point is, there is no actual crossroads.

In Cross Road Blues Johnson is singing of man’s need to make choices, the fundamental choice between good and evil.

I went to the crossroad, fell down on my knees

I went to the crossroad, fell down on my knees

Asked the Lord above “Have mercy, now save poor Bob, if you please”

In the Delta there was a story that went the rounds suggesting that if a Bluesman waited by the side of a deserted country crossroads in the dark of a moonless night, then Satan himself would come and tune his guitar. It’s a  story made more relevant, in the construction of the Johnson Legend when coupled with his frequent references to the Devil. In songs such as, Me And The Devil Blues, he sings “Me and the devil, was walkin’ side by side”, Preachin’ Blues (Up Jumped The Devil) and Hell Hound on My Trail all cover aspects of Johnson’s deal with the Devil that have fuelled the myth these last seventy or so years

The Blues Foundation

Founded in 1980, The Blues Foundation's mission is to preserve Blues history, celebrate blues excellence and support blues education. They promote the appreciation of the Blues through their Blues Hall of Fame induction, which seeks to honour the pioneers. Through its annual W.C Handy Blues Awards and international challenge the foundation also celebrates the best in current Blues. Through the blues kids competition and development of programmes it explores how the blues can take its rightful place in the school’s curriculum.

A few years ago the Executive Director of the Blues Foundation was Howard Stovall, maintaining his family’s link with the Blues – it was on his family's farm that Muddy Waters lived and worked. This was what he had to say about the evolution of the Blues and where it might all be going.

“Musicians are musicians regardless of the genres, they will take the best of what they hear around them. With the incredible communication in the world today blues artists are getting bombarded by influences that you wouldn’t have found in Mississippi in the 1920s, 30s or 40s.  So the music continues to evolve and any attempt to draw a line in the sand and say whatever is on the other side of this line is no longer blues is just killing a real dynamic and evolving art form.  You can’t put it under a bell jar and say this is blues and everything else isn’t. The fact that blues has an identity, separate from other genres for as long as it has, is a testament to the fact that the Blues is an art form that you can’t dilute or compromise, no matter how many influences come into it.”

So true. . .

Check out their Facebook page
 http://www.facebook.com/TheBluesFoundation

Music's most culturally significant concert?

Sometime in 1938, jazz fan, producer and critic John Hammond had the idea of arranging a concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall with the ambition to celebrate Black music from its earliest days to the very latest in jazz. To us, today, this seems like an ambitious and exciting event, well worth attending. In 1938 it was an audacious idea, for it was the first major concert at s a prestigious venue to feature Black artists, performing to an integrated audience. Hammond faced views ranging from antipathy to out and out hostility and to make it work he needed a sponsor. Having tried just about everyone he finally got ‘New Masses’ to put up the money; ‘New Masses’ was the journal of the Communist Party.

Two days before Christmas 1938 Hammond walked on stage to start the evening he had named,

From Spirituals to Swing

It was sold out, and for those lucky enough to be at this  “socially significant event” they witnessed legendary performers at “a musical milestone”. Fortunately, for later generations, Hammond had the foresight to record the concert; acetates of almost every performance were taken.

In 1959 Hammond wrote about the concerts saying, Big Bill Broonzy left his Arkansas farm and mule to come to New York.  “William ‘Big Bill’ Broonzy bought a new pair of shoes and got on a bus in Arkansas to make his first trip to New York” wrote John Sebastian (not the Lovin’ Spoonful member) in a review that appeared in ‘New Masses’. It was his first trip to NYC if you ignore the eight days of recording on three separate sessions in 1930 and 1932!

Hammond also told of having signed Robert Johnson to appear, who failed to make it because he was killed in a bar room brawl (further fuel to the Johnson legend). The concert was dedicated to the memory of Bessie Smith who had died 15 months previously; her niece Ruby accompanied by James P. Johnson sang her songs.

One of the star turns were the pianists, Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson and Meade Lux Lewis all playing together Their appearance proved to be sensational and New York’s Café Society went wild for these charismatic performers. The Count Basie Orchestra, Hammond had originally signed Basie to MCA in 1936, were also on the bill. Mitchell’s Christian Singers and sister Rosetta Tharpe represented Gospel, while Sony Terry, Joe Turner, Jimmy Rushing and Helen Humes played the Blues.

On Christmas Eve following year there was another concert. Many of the same stars were on parade including, Basie, Big Bill, Sonny Terry, James P. Johnson and Helen Humes. Additionally the Golden Gate Quartet, The Benny Goodman Sextet, featuring Charlie Christian, and Ida Cox performed. Ida had cut her first Blues sides in 1923.