Hank Williams B-sides + Luke The Drifter

I can clearly remember the first time I heard Hank Williams. I was probably 9 or 10 and in my father's car listening to WIL in St. Louis. Country radio was still listenable in those days. It was the mid-70's. In between Donna Fargo and Glen Campbell, they played an oldie. I think it was "Why Don't You Love Me" or maybe "Your Cheatin' Heart." Anyway, it was so real and so great, I was transfixed. I stored that information away, and five or six years later bought Hank's 40 Greatest Hits and that was what I knew of him for quite a while. Today's selections are B-Sides of some of Hank's MGM singles, none of which are on that 40 Greatest Hits record, which if that's all he did in his short life, it would have been remarkable. But as I found out later, that's just the tip of the iceberg. In addition we get a Luke The Drifter single, which was Hank's alter-ego for his spoken word recordings.














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Buy: Hank Williams and Luke The Drifter at Amazon
or at your local independent record store

Jerry McCain

Jerry McCain, AKA "Boogie" McCain made his first recordings on Trumpet Records before moving over to Excello, where he released this as his first single. "That's What They Want" takes it's cue from Bo Diddley's "I'm A Man", but it's money that he's talking about. By the time we get to the b-side, he's demonstrating his point and out cavorting and "Courtin' In A Cadillac."














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**** BONUS ****

Upon further listening, it's clear that "That's What They Want" is what you would call an answer song to the Bo Diddley track mentioned above, so without further ado here's "I'm A Man."



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And as requested by the good folks at Airform Archives
Muddy Waters' take: GONE mp3

Buy at Amazon or at your local independent record store

Gene Vincent

In 1956, looking for competition to RCA's recent signing of Elvis, Capitol Records signed Gene Vincent and released this as his first single. While Elvis was seen as a threat to the middle class American values, Capitol raised the bar with Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps who exuded a more menacing hillbilly degeneracy and made Elvis look tame by comparison. Vincent was allegedly thrown in jail for performing "Woman Love" on charges of public obscenity. The b-side, "Be-Bop-A-Lula" is one of the greatest songs of the rock 'n roll era. Check out the great Cliff Gallup on guitar.














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**** Bonus ****

Gene Vincent on YouTube: HERE

And a loving tribute to GV by one of rock's greatest oddballs via YouTube: HERE

Buy at Amazon or at your local independent record store

The Singer Not The Song

Alex Chilton photograph: New York, 1985 © Ted Barron

In 1978, Alex Chilton entered Phillips Recording Service in Memphis Tennessee, with Jim Dickinson, Sid Selvidge, Lee Baker, Richard Rosebrough, and few other friends to record his first post-Big Star LP, Like Flies On Sherbert. The results of these sessions were mixed over the following year and released on the small Peabody label in a pressing of 500 copies. The record is made up of mostly covers, including these two singles below. It's a great and messy rock 'n roll record with an eclectic collection of songs ranging from the Carter Family to K.C. and the Sunshine Band. It's also a difficult record that some people just don't get. It's long been one of my favorites. Like on Big Star's 3rd, which was still unreleased at the time, rather than strive for perfection, Dickinson's production stresses the mistakes, although it is perfect in it's own unorthodox way. It's also a document of a time and place, that being midtown Memphis, late 1970's. The band sounds fucked-up because they are fucked-up. Still, that's only half the point, or not the point at all. It's complicated. Chilton had been burned by the record business not once, but twice. He was a jaded and slightly burnt-out veteran and only in his late 20's. I won't attempt to put my finger on what it is that is so compelling about it, as much better writers have done so more eloquently than I could do. I will however suggest reading It Came From Memphis, by Robert Gordon, which ties together the disparate elements of the music and culture of Memphis into what reads like a secret history of rock 'n roll. So here it is, some of the source material for Chilton's overlooked and misunderstood classic. Hope you like it, I do.




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Buy: The Bell Notes, Troy Shondell, Alex Chilton.

Sonny Boy Williamson

When it comes to post-war delta blues, no one was more original than Sonny Boy Williamson. You could make a case for Elmore James, Muddy Waters or Howlin' Wolf, but Sonny Boy was not only a great singer and instrumentalist (blues-harp), no one else wrote lyrics like:

Been so long until I just can't sleep at night.
I could eat my breakfast in the morning,
and my teeth and tongue begin to fight.

This verse followed by a highly expressive harmonica solo, where he's actually using his teeth and tongue to play it. These Trumpet sides are as good as anything I know of. The band sounds half-drunk yet totally lucid. Elmore James is on guitar on at least some of these and Leonard Ware plays some great swinging upright basslines.

Dig it.















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Buy these sides at your local independent record dealer or at Amazon

Smiley Lewis

A few weeks ago, I posted a couple of rockin' sides by Fats Domino, and was reminded of Smiley Lewis by a cat named Chedwick, over at Tangled Up In L' Heure Bleue, where there's something happening- but I don't know what it is. Sadly, I don't have Smiley's version of Blue Monday, but I do have this to offer, which is in my opinion his best single. From 1955, his biggest hit, with Huey Smith on the piano. Ched, here you go.














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************** Bonus ***************

Lazy Lester: GONE mp3
Dave Edmunds: GONE mp3


Buy at Amazon: Smiley Lewis, Lazy Lester, Dave Edmunds.

Wee Willie Wayne

Photograph: © Robert Frank, New Orleans, 1955.

I couldn't find any actual photographs of James "Wee Willie" Wayne, so instead you are looking at a fine and iconic image image by Robert Frank, made at about the same time and place as this Imperial recording. Not much information on him either. He's originally from Texas, recorded a handful of sides for a handful of labels, and among those are two very influential recordings of New Orleans Rhythm and Blues: "Travelin' Mood" and "Junco Partner." There's a weird drum part on "Travelin' Mood," that almost sounds like a crack in the shellac- it is not.














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*** Bonus ***

More versions at THIS Post.

Buy these recordings and more HERE