Proto RnB: Merline Johnson

For months now, proto RnB strains of Eastern Seabord/ Piedmonte plus Bluebird Blues have eagerly been awaiting their turn. Just for being by-passed by 'the Yas-Yas girl', ms Merline Johnson.
Merline who? Er, well...obviously some Miss. femme recording late 30s in female blues-shouting style of 15 yrs prior. Must admit never 'eard of dame, much less the fact that Ma&Bessie's style was kept very much alive right up to WW2. But thru' Erika Lewis' patronship (songstress of NOLa's own Tuba Skinny- of more later) I got to know ms Merline of 'leg' & 'bama mines' fame. Surely 'leg' borders on risque toones, but de'Missus stays clear of such labelling as with lotsa un-vice songs too. Or maybe not, as for her Yas-Yas moniker?
Merline b.1912, was considerably younger than her musical parallel Memphis Minnie (b.97)- both aunties of LaVern Baker btw.
Her musical style, as illustrated here, was straightforward 20s blues- just stomped considerably up. Main stompin' perpetrator is standing bass/bull fiddle, played in dampend pizzicato way (conf. Hamfats of earlier entry) and I'm betting my bottle o'claret on that being a young Ransom Knowling paving the way for 50s small combo RnB.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHv5QPaOXss     merline/ don't you make me high(don't you feel my leg)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZySinwIRs    merline/ sold it to the devil

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4FZa0I_PKk    merline/ 'bama mines

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffXQ6qH3gwU    tuba skinnies/ 'bama mines

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnkyjdYoZ-o   merline/ bad whiskey

As for Hamfats, I've been asked if I really play 78rpm shellac out? (some comments of mine seem to point in that direction). Answer is no, don't even own Hamfats (or any prewar artist) in 78rpm mode. Do own UK Ace of Hearts -63 Hamfats comp.LP and that's the one I spin. As for Memphis Minnie, I have the Austrian reissues of her 60s Flyright LPs and am eagerly planning to make active use of them, too.

QUILTY's kitsch'n'crazy mix 9.2.2013 Mono (Q)

TWIZZLE & THE HOT ROD ALL-STARS - THE GRADUATE - UK TORPEDO
THE PYRAMIDS - DRAGONFLY - UK PRESIDENT
HELLO PEOPLE - (AS I WENT DOWN TO) JERUSALEM - PHILIPS
MOUSE & THE TRAPS - CRYIN' INSIDE - UK PRESIDENT
STEVE ALAIMO - NEW ORLEANS - ATCO
LEN BARRY - CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS - AMY
WAYNE FONTANA - WAITING FOR A BREAK IN THE CLOUDS - FONTANA
JACKIE THOMPSON - BAD WOMAN A DIME A DOZEN - COLUMBIA
LOU EDWARDS & TODAY'S PEOPLE - TALKING 'BOUT POOR FOLKS - COLUMBIA SPECIAL PRODUCTS
JERRY WASHINGTON - SET YOUR SOUL ON FIRE - EXCELLO
CLYDE BROWN - (THE MORE I GIVE) THE MORE YOU TAKE - ATLANTIC
LAMONT DOZIER - BREAKING OUT ALL OVER - UK ABC
SHIRLEY BROWN - YES SIR BROTHER - UK PYE/STAX
JACKIE MOORE - HEART BE STILL - KAYVETTE
MICKEY MOONSHINE - NAME IT YOU GOT IT - UK DECCA
RIMSHOTS - HARVEY WALLBANGER - UK ALL PLATINUM
SILVETTI - SPRING RAIN - POLYDOR
LENNY WILLIAMS - CHOOSING YOU - UK ABC
NORMAN CONNORS feat PHILLIP MITCHELL - ONCE I'VE BEEN THERE - BUDDAH
ESTHER PHILLIPS - MAGIC'S IN THE AIR - KUDU
BOTTOM LINE - THAT'S THE WAY TO GO - GREEDY
LIGHT OF THE WORLD - TIME - UK PHONOGRAM
ORLANDO RIVA SOUND - MOON BOOTS - SALSOUL
SKIP MAHONEY - JANICE - SALSOUL DEMO
DIANE JENKINS - TOW-AWAY ZONE - CREATIVE FUNK
CREATIVE FUNK ORCHESTRA - FUNK POWER - CREATIVE FUNK
EASTSIDE CONNECTION - YOU'RE SO RIGHT FOR ME - RAMPART
MIAMI feat ROBERT MOORE - PARTY FREAKS - UK JAY BOY
BENNY TROY - I WANNA GIVE YOU TOMORROW - DE-LITE
ROCK GAZERS feat GORDON GRODY - I BELIEVE IN LOVE - SIXTH AVENUE
BOBBY BYRD - BACK FROM THE DEAD - INTERNATIONAL BROTHERS
TONY VALOR SOUNDS ORCHESTRA - NEVER GONNA LEAVE YOU - ZAFIRO (SPAIN)
CLARENCE MURRAY - DON'T TALK LIKE THAT - SSS INTERNATIONAL

BARRETT STRONG - MAN UP IN THE SKY - CAPITOL

Fadern playlist Mono Q (Oslo) february 2013

- Gene Ammons: "Jungle soul pt.2"   (US Prestige -62)

't'get into rite groove' (is that how they said it?)
- McKinley Mitchell: "Party across the hall"   (US Black Beauty -70?)
- Steve Mancha: "Hate yourself in the morning"   (US Groove -68)
- McKinley Travis: "You've got it..."   (US Pride -70)
- Earl King: "Always a first time"   (US Imperial -62)
flip of Treme'd 'Trick Bag'. This REALLY rolls
- Albert Collins: "Defrost"   (US Hallway -65 demo)
- Bill Deal&Rhondells: "What kind of fool..."   (US Heritage- 68)
usually Tams and Tymes OGs, Bill D. was surely carolinin' too
- Syl Johnson: "Try me"   (US Twilight -67)
- Jr.Parker: "Reconsider baby"   (US Blue Rock -68)
really the Lowell Fulsom -54 monster RnB hit
- Johnny Adams: "More than one day" (US Atl. 71 promo) Walt Q!
- Solomon Burke: "Save it"   (US Atl.-68)
- Adventurers: "I don't mind"   (US Ran-Dee -62)
- Spencer Davis Group: "Looking back"   (US UA -68) US 7"only
- Chuck Berry: "Nadine"   (US Chess-64)
- Slim Harpo: "Gonna keep to what I've got"   (US Excello -67)
- Bobby Rydell: "World without love" (US Cameo -64 promo)L&McC
- B B King: "Easy listening"   (US Kent 64?)
- Susan Morse: "Funky hunk'a'guy"   (US Ampex -70)
- Sonny Knight: "Need your love so bad"   (US W-P -65)
- Temptations: "Don't look back"   (US Gordy -65)
- Patti Page: "Custody"   (US Col. -66 promo)
- Rubber Band: "Let love come between us"   (US Col. -67 promo)
- Syl Johnson: "Kiss by kiss"   (US Twinight -70)
- Vernon Garnett: "Lonely, lonely nights"   (US Kapp -70)
Earl King's NoLa hit of -55, covered by Guitar Watson&lotsa others
- Ruby Andrews: "Whatever it takes...pt 2"   (US Zodiac -72)
- Tyrone Davis: "Is it something you got"   (US Dakar -68)
- Lionel Hampton: "Lady, lady, lady"   (US Brunswick -74)
- Isley Bros.: "Work to do"   (US T-Neck -72)
- Eddie Harris: "Live right now"   (US Atl.jazz -69?)
- Little Walter Hammond: "We go together.."   (US Duo -65)
- Syl Johnson: "Dresses too short"   (US Twinight -68)
- Don Covay: "Take this hurt of me"   (US Rosemart -64)
- Freddy King: "Sen-sa-shun"   (US Federal -62)
- Jimmy McCracklin: "You ain't nothing but a devil"   (US Minit -68)
- Jr.Walker: "Shake&fingerpop"   (US Soul 65)
- Tams: "Silly little girl"   (US ABC-Paramount -64 promo)
- Miracles: "Whole lot of shaking..."   (US Tamla -66)
- Magic Sam: "I'll pay you back"   (US Minit -67) saw Sam perform,
Oslo UniHall Oct-69. Obv.of poor health, around Xmas he was gone

 

"Folksy postpunk: Ebba Forsberg"

Many a voice have been raised to the fact, that 80s postpunk
owed more to Scots' and Appalachian folk than to expected
RnR/RnB. In case, This Mortal Coil/ Cocteaux rendering of
Buckley Sr 'song of siren' (see end of snub).
Seem to be still going strong, these similarities. Here's
Sweden's great Ebba Forsberg, freely Fairporting & doing
Sandy Dennies as good as ever 06-09

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn2vxZbXZ80
(boy you owe me)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KU7UVMqkzY (keep it plain)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofFQYJ8qLqA    (most of all)
well, of course she also has her past/ her 'førflutande'. Which
at end of last century was rather on klubbin' side
(well, I'm on a diet- but to hell with it)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y75abyXAXQU (cold like hell)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMor2We-Pgs   (committed)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpglCsmET4w   (angelina)
about 05 she joined folk-politico Mikael Wiehe for subsequent
Dylan and Cohen projects 'på svenska', further strengthening
modal-tonal 'folk' strain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K1ikjLqhCI  (har ar det)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXfAcNv9ajI
(allra minst en morgon/one too many mornings)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asA6_tJAffk
(må din vilja ske/if it be your will)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EdHaW2ctjA
(bare om min elskade ventar/ if only my true love)
Swedish showband/dansband- style was ever open for the
right folksy-cowboy tune. No wonder 'only my true love'
stays staple diet on that scene for forty+ years. Pinko
dansband Nationalteatern's version from 73 may be the
better known? (see furter down)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvtqEbbadzU
(ta min vals/take this walz)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKjqrkR2EC0  (johnna)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt_ewcztHZk  (sparv)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GEPrBb5VkE
(bare om min alskade) Nationalteatern
just love that Brecht'ian dansband vocals!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mUmdR69nbM
this mortal coil (siren's song)
have vivid memories of This Mortal Coil at Expressen
(or was it Venstres Hus?), Oslo 81 or 82. Just Liz Fraser
and that lean 4AD guy on keyboards. My main problem
is that no one else recalls. I may have been daydreaming,
but those dreams rarely came with pints and sig butts?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b49YfsjXw5E
tim buckley (siren's)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMTEtDBHGY4
for good measure...Buckley Sr on prog Monkees' 68 show

Jug bands proto-RnB

Memphis and upper Miss. jug bands of late 20s, were another important lead to chicagean RnB/electrifies blues of 40s. Really kinda vaudeville act reaching out to ragtime dancing, their use of drone bass (jug or stove pipe in didgereedoo-style) is pointing towards late 40s Fender'd bass lines of Muddy and Wolf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwo6HVTacYs whistler's foldin' bed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXcvfgGKIVg whistler's tiger

now, Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers (of 'walk right in' hootennanny fame) are to me j.b. par exellence. Cannot find'em on YT, but I suspect Whistler's J.B. are them. Nice late 30s reconstruction of 'tiger', poss. LoC/Charters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2mvaIsl6FE mjb kc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ove3rtdU9Wc mjb mov'dat'ding

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTriKbYl-pk mjb cc habit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH6ZpWMR2co mjb insane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY5J2TA11HA mjb stealin'

If Gus Cannon's hardly on YT, Will Shade is. Will's Memphis Jug band, that is. Lasted longer (longest?) of the memphis groups- even incorporating our Joe&Minnie of later Hamfats fame.

'stealin' is of course the Dead song, group starting out as revival jug band in 62 (cannot recall name).

Must admit not having played any J.B. out, as such. But the occational Jim Kweskin Vanguard 7" has surfaced

Memphis minnie proto-RnB

After break up with spouse Joe McCoy, Memphis Minnie commuted between home town and Chicago for nearly two decades - finding audiences as well as financial funding for further recording work. In this aspect we're all grateful to Great Lakes' boomtown of late 30s, enabeling this remarkable femme artist to develop her personal strand of RnB


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH8_WH5aRqo kissin' in the dark early 50s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSno_4LhXOQ killer diller late 40s both late period outings, easily reaching back twenty years to Memphis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lzDXIo4nWg crazy cryin' 1931

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhis33IOXN0 hoodoo lady mid 30s most prob. ChiTown, though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZm__okfkmA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQwGhSiEMzE rader see'im ded 1938

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiRoNuw5x4M me&my chauffeur 1941 maybe her best known song?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uv6_xkPDG8 you is one black rat late 30s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkUp2AQKEFE down by riverside

Hamfats' proto RnB

Gettin' Harlem Hamfats' songs thrown in among younger 50s 60s RnB tunes, are such treats!

Hamfats, who? See, this was kinda blues&ragtime supergroup of mid to late 30s around Great Lakes - catering to growing Miss. expat community of Chitown and Detroit. Best known for their 'weedsmoker's dream' of later Peggy Lee and Benny Goodman fame http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyjW8FTGxbI weedsmoker's

and otherwise showing their revv'd up & modernized jug band style, freshly up from Memphis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2heVEC2djCE oh red

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqs-R0NptEc pitch boogie woogie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5iWPL4_hQ8 little girl

Hamfats' guitarist Joe McCoy may illustrate the musical trek of southern hire hands, from Miss. Delta- via Memphis in late 20s- and up to industrial North http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuQR9gboSAI

Joe & Charlie mcCoy evil woman blues (skip james/robert johnson hellhound-theme, really)

Joe left spouse Memphis Minnie behind, heading for richter pastures up North

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSeosDahbTw Joe mcCoy& Memphis Minnie pile driver blues

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meo36F8-PCY Joe + Minnie levee breaks of later Zep fame

Minnie kept on own career in native Memphis of 40s and even early 50s, creating her very own version of
proto-RnB (of more later). While Joe/Hamfats' stomp became staple diet of Bluebird/Chicago type electrified blues of Washboard Sam/Big Bill during war years.