I'm not sure where I first heard that Mickey Baker was a hot shit guitarist. I do know that everything I've heard him play on has been better than "Love Is Strange" the hit he had as the Mickey in Mickey and Sylvia (Sylvia Vanderpool). Their hit wasn't bad but it didn't really highlight his playing. His playing on "No Good Lover" is a much more, uh, rockin'. I kept on the lookout for more. Then I pretty much hit a wall. Recording credits back in the fifties were minimal, and really minimal on 45s. Finding things that definitely had Baker on them was next to impossible. I heard cuts that sounded like they had Baker playing, but there was no way to confirm it. Until today.
I ran into a compilation that had Mickey and Sylvia's "No Good Lover" and thought "If this is on it, the rest might be worth a listen." I listened to snippets of two other songs and they sounded like they had Baker. Now I'm interested. Then the heavens parted and there were liner notes. At the end of the first paragraph it says "A garland should be handed to Mickey Baker, whose gutsy guitar work is in the matrix on nine of these titles." Yee haw! "He was a great influence and his name should be a household word," Here, here!!! "accordingly we dedicate this album to him." Awesome. Here's the nine.
Mickey and Sylvia - No Good Lover mp3 at Internet Archive
Tiny Kennedy - Strange Kind Of Feeling mp3 at Internet Archive
"Big" John Geer - Bottle It Up and Go mp3 at Internet Archive
The Du-Droppers - Talk That Talk mp3 at Internet Archive
The Five Keys - Lawdy Miss Mary mp3 at Internet Archive
Roy "Mr. Guitar" Gaines - Worried 'bout You Baby mp3 at Internet Archive
Mr. Bear - Radar mp3 at Internet Archive
Mr. Bear - How Come? mp3 at Internet Archive
The Du-Droppers - Speed King mp3 at Internet Archive
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