BIG WEDNESDAY

Big Bopper

Big Jay McNeely

Big Joe Turner

Big Joe Williams

Big John Patton

Big Mama Thornton

Big Maybelle

I gotta say, I was surprised when I started rounding up the artists that used "Big" as a prefix to their name. Not surprised at the quantity, but surprised that the short list I could come up with without much effort contained more than its share of all-timers. Most are rhythm and blues artists with one jazz "Big" (Big John Patton) and one blues (Big Joe Williams). Even the Big Bopper laid off the "Hello baby" schtick long enough to boogie. Hey, this "Big" thing is an admittedly weak thread, but check the goods. It's some pretty good shit.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Big Bopper - Bopper's Boogie Woogie mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People
Big Jay McNeely - Nervous Man Nervous mp3 at Internet Archive
Big Joe Turner - Shake Rattle and Roll mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People
Big Joe Williams - Baby Please Don't Go at Internet Archive
Big John Patton - Hot Sauce mp3 at Groove Addict
Big Mama Thornton - Wade in the Water mp3 at Joshua Vorbis (?)
Big Maybelle - Ocean of Tears mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People

HOW BIG WAS THE FISH JOE?

Ahh, that fertile period when rhythm and blues was being pilfered for rock 'n' roll. How many early rockers gave proper credit to the original artists? How many introduced a song "Now were gonna do a song from a record by Tiny Bradshaw, who really is sumpin', you should check him out."? Uh, none. Or even "Paul here is going to knock it out with a killer guitar tone which is really the thing that makes it all okay for you crazy white kids to get off on it" for that matter? Too busy counting their cover version semi-ill gotten gains, touring and combing their goddamn duck tails, shit, and getting laid. The injustice.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Tiny Bradshaw - Train Kept A Rollin' mp3 at Internet Archive
Big Joe Turner - Shake Rattle and Roll mp3 at Internet Archive
Big Mama Thornton - Hound Dog mp3 at Internet Archive
Wynonie Harris - Good Rockin' Tonight mp3 at Internet Archive

THE CUSP

Big Joe Turner, thirty cuts, enough to keep you busy. I don't have to elaborate do I? At this point I would think most of you have some idea what's going on. This is kind of like a club, not an elite club, but not a club with babysitters. Do some legwork. You have Google. We had to go to the library if we wanted to know who the hell Big Joe Turner was. Wow, I'm kinda pissy tonight.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Big Joe Turner - Honey Hush mp3 at Internet Archive
Big Joe Turner - Shake, Rattle and Roll mp3 at Internet Archive
Big Joe Turner - Flip, Flop and Fly mp3 at Internet Archive
All thirty:
Big Joe Turner - The Collection at Internet Archive NOTE: In the right hand column, where it says "Download Options", click on "VBR MP3" for thirty individual mp3s.

THE GIRL WITH THE BROWNIE

In case you don't know what a Brownie is (besides a dessert and a sneaky way to get stoned), it was a cheap plastic camera in the fifties. One of the first affordable mass produced cameras. Everybody had one, my Grandmother had one. They were super popular, like an Instamatic, Oh, wait, you don't know what an Instamatic is, do you? Okay, fuck, Brownie Cameras were like your damn phone, okay? Except they were cheap and they didn't have all that other shit on them.

Carol Coleman (née Mangham) had a Brownie camera. Back when she was in her mid-teens, she went to the Louisiana Hayride regularly with friends, the parents taking turns driving. She took photos with it, and has kept them for over a half century. I know what you're thinking, "Louisiana Hayride, so it was a bunch of photos of country and hillbilly acts." Though there are some (Webb Pierce, June Carter, Hank Snow, George Jones, etc), one thing you need to know is that this teenager with a cheap camera initially went to the Hayride to see a young Elvis Presley, She was into rock 'n' roll. Think of it, a stash of photos taken by a budding teenage rocker, at the Louisiana Hayride, in the mid-late fifties. Yeah. And despite the lack of any formal composition, or actual photographic quality, these are some of the coolest photos of some of these artists I've ever seen. Why? Because they're not staged, they're not professional at all. Because they were taken by a teenager just discovering rock 'n' roll. Oh hell yeah, I'm all in.

Listen to the handful of songs down there, and consider this was music teenage girls listened to, albeit only those with rocker tendencies. But still, what do kids that age listen to now? I don't care, but it's not this and is therefore, in all likelihood, inferior, I'd say that's a safe bet.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

The photos:
Portraits of the Fifties: Carol Coleman at Let's Keep the Fifties Spirit Alive NOTE: Many are high resolution. Click 'em.
Listen:
Little Richard - Keep A Knockin' mp3 at The New LoFi
Jerry Lee Lewis - High School Confidential mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Larry Williams - Slow Down mp3 at Mercury Paradise
Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps - Cat Man mp3 at LYWL
Bo Diddley - Who Do You Love? mp3 at Rocky 52
Ray Charles - I've Got A Woman mp3 at Rocky 52
Big Joe Turner - Honey Hush mp3 at Rockndog

REMINDER #247

When was the last time you actually sat down and listened to Big Joe Turner? Here's a handful of his that you should know. Lee Allen and Red Tyler on sax, at least on the first one. Pete Johnson on the piano on all of them. They sound good, so you should listen to them. Yes, they've been posted before, and, yes, I'm being lazy. Take a break from the funny haircuts. Get off my lawn and such.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Big Joe Turner - Honey Hush mp3 at Rockndog
Big Joe Turner - Shake, Rattle and Roll mp3 at Kiss Atlanta
Big Joe Turner - Well Alright mp3 at Probe is Turning-On the People
Big Joe Turner - Corrina Corrina mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
Big Joe Turner - Boogie Woogie Country Girl mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
Big Joe Turner - Sun Rising Blues mp3 at Jazzpla.net
Big Joe Turner - Chains of Love mp3 at Probe is Turning-On the People
Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson - Roll 'em Pete mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Pete Johnson - Death Ray Boogie mp3 at AMRF
Lee Allen - Walkin' With Mr. Lee mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Johnny Burnette and the Rock n' Roll Trio - Honey Hush mp3 at RockinDog.com
Visit:
Big Joe Turner at Wikipedia

PUT THE BAT DOWN

Cruised by Diddy Wah's last night, and thanks to him, I now know who plays the filthy sax solos on Big Joe Turner's "Honey Hush": Lee Allen and Alvin "Red" Tyler. That, of course, led to way too much obsessing about a two and a half minute song.  First off, I loves me my Lee Allen.  You might remember him from his days with the Blasters, but he's had his finger in it since the fifties, (including sessions with Little Richard), After repeated listenings to try to discern which part of the sax solo was his (I'm thinking the first half), I realized that, in the song, Turner is kind of a dick. If you're familiar with the lyrics, you'll no doubt remember him telling his woman to quit crying (or "shut off the waterworks" as he poetically puts it), and not to keep jabbering because he's holding a baseball bat. If you were his real life woman you'd be pissed, right?  Here's the punch line: Turner wrote it, but gave songwriting credit to his wife. She must have had a bigger bat.

Here's a whole mess of Turner's stuff, and because I can't leave well enough alone, a Lee Allen cut, a couple from Turner's piano player Pete Johnson (a boogie woogie pioneer), and a cover of "Honey Hush" by Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio. Don't be a dick.

 

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Big Joe Turner - Honey Hush mp3 at Diddy Wah With glorious pops
Big Joe Turner - Honey Hush mp3 at Rockndog Antiseptic digital version
Big Joe Turner - Shake, Rattle and Roll mp3 at Kiss Atlanta
Big Joe Turner - Well Alright mp3 at Probe is Turning-On the People
Big Joe Turner - Corrina Corrina mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
Big Joe Turner - Boogie Woogie Country Girl mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
Big Joe Turner - Sun Rising Blues mp3 at Jazzpla.net
Big Joe Turner - Chains of Love mp3 at Probe is Turning-On the People
Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson - Roll 'em Pete mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Pete Johnson - Death Ray Boogie mp3 at AMRF
Lee Allen - Walkin' With Mr. Lee mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Johnny Burnette and the Rock n' Roll Trio - Honey Hush mp3 at RockinDog.com
Visit:
Big Joe Turner at Wikipedia
Pete Johnson at Wikipedia

PIANO: PETE JOHNSON

It's about effing, friggin, fucking time for Big Joe Turner. Really, the man is a major reason we listen to the music we do. His mixing of big band, jazz and blues would morph into early R & B, much of which, once covered, became early rock n' roll as we know it. And his boogie woogie style has to be credited in large part to his long time partner, pianist Pete Johnson. If you have any doubts as to who was playing the boogie woogie style piano in popular music earliest, don't bring Jerry Lee Lewis into the conversation. He was in grade school when Johnson was already playing the style that he, along with a few others (namely Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis), helped popularize. Although Turner had a distinctive voice and style, it's unlikely that he would have had the career he did without Johnson.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Big Joe Turner - Well Alright mp3 at Probe is Turning-On the People
Big Joe Turner - Honey Hush mp3 at Rockndog
Big Joe Turner - Shake, Rattle and Roll mp3 at Kiss Atlanta
Big Joe Turner - Flip, Flop and Fly mp3 at 4Shared
Big Joe Turner - Corrina Corrina mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
Big Joe Turner - Boogie Woogie Country Girl mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
Big Joe Turner - Sun Rising Blues mp3 at Jazzpla.net
Big Joe Turner - Chains of Love mp3 at Probe is Turning-On the People
Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson - Roll 'em Pete mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson - Boogie Woogie Prayer mp3 at 4Shared
Visit:
Big Joe Turner at Wikipedia
Pete Johnson at Wikipedia