Blue Moon

Tonite is an astrologer's wet dream. Did I just say that? I know very little about astrology, but the moon in our skies is a blue one, or more precisely the second full moon of the month, with a partial eclipse, and it's made of (blue) cheese. It's also New Years Eve. The term, "once in a blue moon" has come to mean seldom, rarely, or perhaps never. Apply this as you wish, to whatever may be your current milieux. A full moon is prone to wreak emotional intensity or mahyem. Wolves howl at them, and singers sing about them.

"Blue Moon" is a Rogers and Hart standard. Lorenz Hart wrote four different sets of lyrics to it for four different Hollywood films. The one that stuck, has been recorded by hundreds of artists, and the Elvis Presley version of 1954, is in my mind, one of the most beautiful and haunting records ever recorded. Sam Phillips summoned up some real magic that day in Memphis. Another beautiful and different song of the same name, was recorded by Big Star, in the same city twenty years later with another shaman producer--the late great Jim Dickinson--at the helm.

Bill Monroe's 1947 hit, "Blue Moon of Kentucky" is also a standard, in bluegrass, country, and rock 'n roll. Elvis recorded it in the same sessions that yielded "Blue Moon." In Monroe's version, it's a sad and plaintive waltz to a lost love, ("It was on a moonlight night/ The stars were shining bright/ and they whispered from on high/ Your love has said goodbye"). The stars are whispering to Monroe and he asks the moon to shine on the one that's gone and left him blue. Bill Monroe was a spiritual man, and made some of the spookiest records I know. In some folktales, a blue moon has a face and talks to those in it's light. Elvis, states the same, but asks a favor of the moon in a new set of lyrics for the introduction, "Keep on shining bright and bring me back my baby tonite."

What does all this mean? I haven't a clue. Consult an astrologer.

Happy New Year, and may the moon shine on you and yours, brightly, tonight.




Download:

"Blue Moon" mp3
by Elvis Presley, 1954.
available on Elvis at Sun

"Blue Moon" mp3
by Big Star, 1974
available on Keep An Eye On The Sky



"Blue Moon of Kentucky" mp3
by Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys, 1947.
available on Bill Monroe: Anthology

"Blue Moon of Kentucky" mp3
by Elvis Presley, 1955.
available on Elvis at Sun

Nine

This is the squalid, or moving, part of the story, ... and the scene changes. The people change, too. I'm still around, but from here on in, for reasons I'm not at liberty to disclose, I've disguised myself so cunningly that even the cleverest reader will fail to recognize me.

J.D. Salinger
"For Esmé - with Love and Squalor" 1950.
from Nine Stories Little Brown and Company © 1953.


Download:

"Nine Pound Hammer Is Too Heavy" mp3
by The Monroe Brothers, 1936.
available on Anthology Of American Folk Music Volume 4

"Blue Yodel No. 9" mp3
by Jimmie Rodgers, 1930.
with Louis Armstrong
available on Jimmie Rodgers: Recordings 1927-1933

"Apartment No. 9" mp3
by Keith Richards, 1977.
Out on Bail (and out of print).

"Number Nine Train" mp3
by Tarheel Slim, 1958.
available on Fire/Fury Records Story

"Riot in Cell Block No. 9" mp3
by the Robins, 1954.
available on Smokey Joe's Cafe

"Love Potion Number Nine" mp3
by the Coasters, 1971.
available on Down Home

"Cloud Nine" mp3
by The Temptations, 1969.
available on Cloud Nine

"If 6 Was 9" mp3
by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, 1967.
available on Axis: Bold as Love

"Revolution 9" mp3
by the Beatles, 1968.
available on The White Album

Recent Acquisitions From The Fluville Museum of American Song

Here's something to be thankful about as you baste and bake your Thanksgiving dinner. This may be the greatest collection of songs ever assembled under one post here at the Boogie Woogie Flu. No turkeys. All certified Grade A meat.

Hear The Reverend Satchel Mouth Armstrong ask the musical question: "What kind of church is this?" Well, it's the kinda church where the parishioners smoke Louis Armstrong Special cigars. "More power to you, boys," says the Reverend.

Hear Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup take an early stab at a song that later became "That's Alright, Mama," long before the Tupelo Flash got his hands on it.

Hear Bill Monroe sing Jimmie Rodgers and The Stanley Brothers sing Bill Monroe.

Hear Tampa Red demonstrate what the Stones would've sounded like if they hired a clarinetist as a sideman on Beggars Banquet.

Hear Bo Diddley have his way with a violin and make it sound like a blues harp.

Hear all this and more, with at least three sides featuring the late great Earl Palmer on drums, including two by Professor Longhair with his Blues Scholars, the band he hired to replace The Shuffling Hungarians.

Glory, Hallelujah!


Download:



"The Lonesome Road (El Camino Solitario) " mp3
by Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra, 1931.
available on 1931-1932



"St. James Infirmary" mp3
by Hot Lips Page, 1947.
available on Jump For Joy!



"The Honeydripper" mp3
Roosevelt Sykes, 1943.
available on The Honey Dripper



"If I Get Lucky" mp3
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, 1941.
available on 22 Greatest Songs



"Blue Yodel #4" mp3
Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys, 1947.
available on All the Classic Releases 1937-1949



"Blue Moon of Kentucky" mp3
The Stanley Brothers, 1954.
available on The Stanley Brothers and The Clinch Mountain Boys: The Complete Mercury Recordings



"New Bad Luck Blues" mp3
by Tampa Red, 1946.
available on Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 13, 1945-1947



"Tollin' Bells" mp3
by Lowell Fulson, 1956.
available on The Complete Chess Masters



"The Clock Strikes Twelve" mp3
by Bo Diddley, 1958.
available on I'm a Man: The Chess Masters, 1955-1958



"Boogie Uproar" mp3
by Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, 1953.
available on Dirty Work at the Crossroads 1947-1954



"Jump Children" mp3
by Dave Bartholomew, 1954.
available on 1950-1952



"Heeby-Jeebies" mp3
by Little Richard, 1956.
available on The Georgia Peach



"In The Night" mp3
by Professor Longhair and his Blues Scholars, 1953.
available on New Orleans Piano




"Tipitina" mp3
by Professor Longhair and his Blues Scholars, 1953.
available on New Orleans Piano

The Paradoxical Waltz

The waltz is magnificently improper -- the art of tone turned lubricious. There is something about a waltz that is irresistible. Try it on the fattest and sedatest or even on the thinnest and most acidulous of women, and she will be ready, in ten minutes, for a stealthy smack behind the door -- nay, she will forthwith impart the embarrassing news that her husband misunderstands her and drinks too much and is going to Cleveland, O. on a business trip tomorrow.

H.L. Mencken, 1919.


Sorry for the lull, but I've been dealing with some complications of the heart here in Fluville, and fearing that perhaps I may be toeing the line toward the maudlin, I've restrained myself from dragging you listeners through my personal life.

However, there's just too much good music to ignore, and for reasons too complicated to explain I got to thinking about waltzes. So, forgive me while I indulge myself here for a bit - and then we shall resume our regularly scheduled programming - whatever that may be.

Today, we'll listen to some sad songs composed in a time signature that exists for an intimate dance. Therein lies the paradox. Not all waltzes are sad, yet 3/4 time or 6/8 - the imperfect waltz - lends itself well to songs of sadness, longing and loss.

The waltz, originated as a peasant folk dance - La Volta meaning "the turn" from Volver "to revolve." Louis XIII found it to be immoral for its sensual movements. The German word for this is waltzen, and it was from Austria where it emerged as a musical form most notably through Johann Strauss.

That's not what we're gonna listen to here.


Download:

"The Old Country Waltz" mp3
by Neil Young, 1977
available on American Stars 'n Bars



















"I'm So Lonesome, I Could Cry" mp3
by Hank Williams, 1951
available on 40 Greatest Hits

"Weary Blues From Waitin'" mp3
by Hank Williams, 1952
available on 40 Greatest Hits

"Alone And Forsaken" mp3
by Hank Williams, 1949
available on The Complete Hank Williams Box Set


















"The Last Waltz" mp3
by Webb Pierce, 1951.
available on More and More



















"Kentucky Waltz" mp3
by Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys, 1948.
available on Anthology



















"I Wonder If I Care As Much" mp3
by The Everly Brothers, 1958.
available on The Complete Cadence Recordings

"Dancing With Tears in My Eyes" mp3
by X, 1982.
available on Under The Big Black Sun

"Waltz #2 (xo) mp3
by Elliott Smith, 1998
available on XO

"Long, Long, Long" mp3
by The Beatles, 1968
available on The Beatles

*********************************************************
A pair of songs written in 4/4 and covered in the ternary meter.

"Oh, Lonesome Me" mp3
by Neil Young, 1970.
available on After The Gold Rush

"Girl Don't Tell Me" mp3
by Jay Sherman-Godfrey, 2006.
available on Twoscore

*********************************************************

"You Don't Miss Your Water" mp3
by William Bell, 1961.
available on The Soul of a Bell

*********************************************************
And finally, a pair of songs that walk hand in hand down life's lonely highways and an early John Fogerty number that starts in 6/8 and takes off after the break when it switches to 4/4...

"Edge Of Town" mp3
by Clare Burson. 2007.
available on Thieves

"I Found A Reason" mp3
by The Velvet Underground, 1970.
available on Loaded

"You Better Get it Before It Gets You"
by The Golliwogs 1967.
available on Creedence Clearwater Revival Box Set