BIG HAIR THEATER

Someone with taste has been hanging around lately. The telltale sign was seeing Little Richard currently on the Boss 10 list. It was just what I needed to remind me that there's a documentary about him tonight on PBS. I'm not sure where or when it might air in other locations but I went looking and you can actually view it online on the PBS American Masters site (linked below). The leaves me off the hook for biographic background info. Suffice it to say that he was one of the elite early rockers along with Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent and Jerry Lee Lewis. Here's some of his early work to get you juiced.

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Listen:
Little Richard - Slippin' and Slidin' mp3 at Stolen Records
Little Richard - Keep-A Knockin' mp3 at The New LoFi
Little Richard - Rip It Up mp3 at Kid America Club
Little Richard - The Girl Can't Help It mp3 at Blog Rage
Little Richard - Tutti Frutti mp3 at Rocky 52
Little Richard - Long Tall Sally mp3 at Rocky 52
Little Richard - Jenny Jenny mp3 at Rocky 52
Little Richard - Lucille mp3 at Rocky 52
Little Richard - Good Golly Miss Molly mp3 at Rocky 52
Watch:
American Masters – Little Richard: King and Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll at PBS

EIGHTEEN SONGS? WHY BOTHER?

I was checking out the NME site just to see what's going on over on that side of the pond. Wouldn't you just know it, what I landed on was an article about an American record label. It was about Specialty Records, the label that most people recognize as the early home of Little Richard. But, man, they had so much more. Sam Cooke (before his breakout) and Lloyd Price you may know about. But, holy shit, they had Don and Dewey, Guitar Slim, Percy Mayfield, Art Neville and tons of others. The reason for the article is a new compilation, Rip It Up: The Best of Specialty Records. Alas, the compilation has only eighteen songs. What the fuck. That's like being on a desert island and receiving an airdrop of food consisting of one M&M. Here's some assorted stuff from Specialty Records that I was able to round up. There's a link to the article at NME and a Specialty discography that you fiends should peruse.

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Listen:
Don & Dewey - Farmer John mp3 at Rock Town Hall
Larry Williams - Slow Down mp3 at Mercury Paradise
Larry Williams - Short Fat Annie mp3 at The New LoFi
Art Neville - Arabian Love Call mp3 at Office Naps
The Holidays - Aw-Aw Baby mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
Little Richard - Slippin' and Slidin' mp3 at Stolen Records
Little Richard - The Girl Can't Help It mp3 at Happy Parts
Visit:
The Story of Specialty Records, the Most Influential Label of All Time: “Songs never die” at NME
Specialty Records discography at Global Dog Productions From 1948 to 1985

LOCK DOWN THEATER NIGHT 38

Tonight's a double feature, because I'm know I've posted one of these movies before, possibly multiple times. That said, I can't believe I haven't yet milked it for a Lock Down Theater. So I am. And you can't go away pissed because you've seen it before, there's another flick.



First is the seminal 1956 rock 'n' roll flick The Girl Can't Help It. A relatively big budget film, it has what has got to be the best quality color footage of Gene Vincent, Little Richard and Eddie Cochran that exists. Oh, and Fats Domino too. I'd guess the reason for the big budget was because it starred Jayne Mansfield who was at her peak about then. She was the star power on this one, due to her hourglass figure. So, yeah, Jayne Mansfield's tits are the reason we have this quality footage of early rock icons.



The other movie is Rock All Night from 1957, that doesn't have quite the star power but Quentin Tarantino said that it was his favorite Roger Corman flick. Corman was pretty much the king of B movies. Whether you care what Tarantino's taste is or not, he likely knows more about B movies, grindhouse films and Roger Corman than you or I. Hell, I'll give it a shot.

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Listen:
Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps - Cat Man mp3 at LYWL
Little Richard - Keep A Knockin' mp3 at The New LoFi
Eddie Cochran - C'mon Everybody mp3 at Rocky 52
The double feature:
The Girl Can't Help It at YouTube
Rock All Night at YouTube

SHIT WEEK CONTINUES

Little Richard just died. This one really, really hurts. I'll do another post, but for now, re-upping an old post from a year ago, the original title of which was "This Man Is Still Alive". Unfortunately, that's no longer true.

They do not get much more textbook than Little Richard. All of the original fifties rockers had their strong points and little (or big) things that distinguished them from the rest of the pack. Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, the list goes on and on. But little Richard was a unique package. Flamboyant to the point of swish, sharp dresser, mile high hair, and that band he had behind him smoked. Earl Palmer on drums, Lee Allen on tenor sax and Alvin "Red" Tyler on baritone sax, Frank Fields on bass and Edgar Blanchard on guitar, that's the line up on most of his early hits. Just Palmer or Allen alone are enough to make you pay attention, not that you need more than Little Richard himself. But it's all there on  those early records, the driving beat, the honking sax, the piano pounding, and that glorious screaming without screaming voice. Well dressed gravel.

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Listen:
Little Richard - Slippin' and Slidin' mp3 at Stolen Records
Little Richard - Keep-A Knockin' mp3 at The New LoFi
Little Richard - Rip It Up mp3 at Kid America Club
Little Richard - The Girl Can't Help It mp3 at Blog Rage

YEP. HIM AGAIN.

There's a handful of rock 'n' roll artists that should be considered required listening if you want to have any inkling of where that crap it is that you listen to came from. One of those artists is Little Richard, the screaming, shouting, piano pounding Georgia motherfucking peach. Without getting too into it, thus relieving myself of the dutiful gushing the man deserves, let's just leave it this: he's in the top five of OG rockers, no question. He may not have kept up the Grade A shit for years on end, but he did it when it needed being done.

I've posted his stuff before, but I just ran into a thirty two song compilation, including all of his Specialty whoppers. You've got no excuse. If you don't eat these up, you need to face it, you're a poseur.

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Listen:
Little Richard - Hey Hey Hey Hey mp3 at Internet Archive
Little Richard - Tutti Frutti mp3 at Internet Archive
Little Richard - Rip It Up mp3 at Internet Archive
Little Richard - Good Golly Miss Molly mp3 at Internet Archive
The whole thing:
Little Richard - The Collection at Internet Archive Thirty two individual mp3s
NOTE: Once there scroll down to "Download Options" on the right side of your screen click on that, then select "VBR MP3" 

BEFORE THE BUG

The Tempo Toppers featuring Little Richard, 1954, a year before his first hit, "Tutti Frutti". Something must've snapped.

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Listen:
The Tempo Toppers featuring Little Richard - Rice, Red Beans and Turnip Greens mp3 at Boogaloo Time
Rock 'n' Roll:
Earlier Little Richard posts Scroll down this page

RESPITE NIGHT

Enough of the bad news and people dying. Tonight I need me some jubilant. It's time to turn that frown upside down. Here's a nice thought. These guys are still alive. Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. They still walk among us. If that doesn't remove part of your funk, I give up. These are fundamental. The salt on a slippery road. If you don't see it, screw your damn head on.

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Listen:

Little Richard - Keep A Knockin' mp3 at Beware of the Blog

Little Richard - Rip It Up mp3 at Kid America Club

Little Richard - The Girl Can't Help It mp3 at Happy Parts

Jerry Lee Lewis - Great Balls of Fire mp3 at Bousculade

Jerry Lee Lewis - High School Confidential mp3 at Beware of the Blog

Jerry Lee Lewis - Lewis Boogie mp3 at iHow 

Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode mp3 at Tune the Proletariat

Chuck Berry - Promised Land mp3 at Archive.org

Chuck Berry - Maybellene mp3 at Rocky 52

BO DIDDLEY MEETS THE SEARCH BOX.

A few days ago, I was in one of those happy go lucky fancy free moods that are all too rare. In my car, in no particular hurry, and not in the doghouse, not anywhere that I knew of anyway. For whatever reason, Chuck Berry's "You Never Can Tell" started playing in my head. I don't know why, it just did. It set into motion a rewind of sorts, and for the last few days I've been revisiting songs that I've heard a thousand times, but haven't listened to in a while. Not necessarily to maintain that mood, but that's what it ended up doing. Bo Diddley, Liverbirds, Don and Dewey, wait...Bo Diddley? 

In the middle of all of the meandering, it occurred to me that I might have lost a link to a set of photos of early rockers and country and western artists taken by a young girl armed with a Brownie camera back in the fifties. (She took the photo above.) When I realized that I hadn't properly tagged that in an earlier post, and not remembering the gal's name, semi-panic set in. Thankfully that little search box on the top left of this and every other page saved the day. So, before I go any further, let me introduce you to the search box. Up there at the very top left hand corner (scroll up dummy). It is your friend. As many tags as there are in the right column (under "Index"), there are many posts here that lack proper tags. And being that there are 1857 posts here, I'm not about to start checking.

Anyway, just listen to these. This is some Grade A shit. And by all means, check the guitar solo on the Valiants' cover of "Good Golly Miss Molly". It's seriously fucked up, somewhere between awful and pure genius. I don't know about you, but the Wild-O-Meter here goes in both directions.

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Listen:
Chuck Berry - You Never Can Tell mp3 at David Fulmer (?)
Bo Diddley -  Pretty Thing mp3 at Boogaloo Time
The Liverbirds - Talking About You mp3 at The Rising Storm
Don and Dewey - Justine mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Nick Curran and the Low Lifes- Kill My Baby mp3 at KEXP.org
Little Richard - Rip It Up mp3 at Kid America Club
Esquerita - Crazy, Crazy Feeling mp3 at Rocky 52
The Valiants - Good Golly Miss Molly mp3 at De Discos y Monstruos
Visit:
Carol Coleman (née Mangham) - The Girl With the Brownie 

THE SELECTOR FROM BEYOND

Every year I pause on January 13, for two reasons. One is that it is my late brother's birthday. He was the best rock 'n' roll friend I've ever had. Which brings up reason number two for pausing. It was on the day he was born that "Good Golly Miss Molly" by Little Richard was released, something he'd point out to you if he was still around. Guess what? In this dump that I call home, he is still around, and I'll be damned if he hasn't deemed it Little Richard Night. Fu-huck yeah.

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Listen:

Little Richard - Good Golly Miss Molly mp3 at Internet Archive The A side

Little Richard - Hey Hey Hey Hey mp3 at Internet Archive The B Side

Little Richard - The Girl Can't Help It mp3 at Happy Parts
Little Richard - Keep A Knockin' mp3 at Beware of the Blog

Little Richard - Jenny Jenny mp3 at Internet Archive
Little Richard - Rip It Up (Rehearsal and Take 14) mp3 at Electric Adolescence

Little Richard - I Got It mp3 at Teenage Kicks USA (?) Different version of "She's Got It"

MOVIE NIGHT

After mentioning the film The Girl Can't Help It yesterday, I figured I'd look for the prime musical moments for you. I know, if you're like me, you'd put it on the back burner until you have the time, Well, you lazy sapsucker, I did the legwork for you. Along the way I ran into the whole move, along with high resolution scans of stills of Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps and Little Richard, good enough to print on that fancy paper, pop into a frame and give to your friend, the aging old school diehard.

Note: If you're inclined, I wouldn't lag. Clips from this movie don't stay online for long. You could always start a search from scratch, but that's another thing you may never get around to. While the film isn't exactly high art, where else are you going to see Gene Vincent, Little Richard and Eddie Cochran in the same movie? There's a bunch of other acts in it as well (complete list here). Plus, a bonus for you dogs, Jayne Mansfield. Like I said, it's not high art. 

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The title song:
Little Richard - The Girl Can't Help It mp3 at Happy Parts
Video:
Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps - Be Bop A Lula at YouTube
Little Richard - Reddy Teddy, She's Got It at YouTube
Eddie Cochran - Twenty Flight Rock at YouTube
Fats Domino - Blue Monday at Dailymotion
Publicity material:
Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps - High resolution movie still at All Things 50s
Little Richard - High resolution movie still at All Things 50s
More promotional material - Photos, posters, etc at All Things 50s

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.

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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

ROCK STAR

Cosimo Matassa died today. Most of you probably don't know who he is, because the people who do know who he us don't show up here. Rather than visit a digital shit hole that writes about how the "I stubbed my toe today, and by the way, here's Gene Vincent" they go to places that more closely match their musical eggheadedness. That is, if they don't host their own place online. But here's the deal, Cosimo Matassa is a name you should know. Matassa was there at the inception of rock 'n' roll, when rhythm and blues got legs. In a modest studio behind a record shop, he recorded some of the most influential sides of early rock 'n' roll and New Orleans R&B. Listen to the songs below, and keep in mind that it's just a random sampling. I had to stop at a few because there's no good place to quit, there's hundreds and hundreds of them. Check out the Cosimo Code site and you'll see what I mean. Trust me, this is a cool rabbit hole.

Update 9/15/2014: Funky 16 Corners posted a twenty two song Cosimo Matassa mix. Go there to get it.

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Listen:
Roy Brown - Good Rockin' Tonight mp3 at Rocky 52
Professor Longhair - Mardis Gras In New Orleans mp3 at Shimmy She Wobble
Little Richard - Tutti Frutti mp3 at Neverest
Guitar Slim - The Things I Used To Do mp3 at DJ Perro
Big Bo and the Arrows - Big Bo's Twist mp3 at Craft Reunion
Barbara Lynn - Oh Baby! (We Got A Good Thing Goin') mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
Smiley Lewis - I Hear You Knockin' mp3 at DJ Perro
Poka-A-Dot Slim - Trick Bag (streaming) at YouTube 
Matassa mix:
Cosimo Matassa: The Master - 22 song mix at Funky 16 Corners
Visit:
The Cosimo Code
Cosimo Matassa - Profile at Know LA
Cosimo Matassa at Wikipedia

SHAKE IT OFF

Alright already, back in business. (In case you're wondering, the culprit was a fried motherboard in the juice box.) After a few unplanned days away from here, I figured it'd be a good idea to dance with the one that brought me, in other words, rock 'n' roll. Straight up, no mop tops, hippies, spikey hair or phony hyphenated offshoots. No extended solos, bell bottoms, gongs, wah-wahs, or any other extraneous bullshit. A return to the womb, so to speak. So here you go, a mix of what should be considered essentials. If you dig any particular artist, check the index to the right. There's probably more of each floating around here.

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Listen:
Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps - Cat Man mp3 at LYWL
Chuck Berry - It's My Own Business mp3 at the Rising Storm
The Rockin' R's - Crazy Baby mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Billy Lee Riley - Flying Saucers Rock n' Roll mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
Hank Mizell - Jungle Rock mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Johnny Carroll - Crazy, Crazy Lovin' mp3 at Rocky-52.net
Warren Smith - Ubangi Stomp mp3 at DavidFulmer.com
Bo Diddley - Mona mp3 at Mark Allen Interested Person
Eddie Cochran - Nervous Breakdown mp3 at Uusikaupunki.fi
Roy Orbison - Go! Go! Go! mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Little Richard - Keep A Knockin' mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Jerry Lee Lewis - Great Balls of Fire mp3 at Bousculade
Don & Dewey - Justine mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Johnny Burnette & the Rock n' Roll Trio - Honey Hush mp3 at RocknDog.com

SLACK CUTTING SPECIAL

You know Little Richard, you know his rockin' sides and, if you've been hanging around here for any length of time, you know he's royalty in these parts. Absolutely, the shit. Because he recorded so much essential early rock 'n' roll, there is a tendency to overlook his later stuff. I'm guilty of that. Whenever I see anything that isn't on Specialty, I don't exactly recoil, but I don't go running either. I just don't cut him enough slack. The guy raised his bar, his rock 'n' roll bar, so high, that it's hard to listen to his other stuff objectively, particularly if you tilt toward wild stuff. 

But, damn, today I heard him doing a Don Covay song, "I Don't Know What You Got, But It's Got Me", that, if it was done by anybody else, would be seen as the great, great record that it is. I'm sure Covay's version kicks ass. But I gotta tell you, this Little Richard version, the raw production of it, and the spare instrumentation (guitar, bass, drums sax, and a little organ) and the pace just kinda sucks you in. Being Little Richard, he does of course insert some tomfoolery, in this case an extended melodramatic monologue, in which, in just over a minute, he manages to name-drop himself in the third person about a half dozen times. The guy just can't help himself. Even with that, if this song was by anybody else, the soul mob would be doing backflips. That the guitarist on it is a pre-fame Jimi Hendrix (1965) is icing on the cake. His work on this is just tasty enough, and remarkably restrained, particularly knowing what he was capable of.

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Listen:
Little Richard - I Don't Know What You Got, But It's Got Me mp3 (via DivShare) at On The Flip-Side

NOTE: Once you get to DivShare, click on the green "Download" button, and scratch your head for fifteen seconds while the timer counts down. When the button reappears, you're good to go. (From On The Flip-Sides post, click on the streaming thing where it says "share", a "download" button will appear. Click on that and it'll take you to the DivShare page.)
More Little Richard- If you need a rock 'n' roll chaser, scroll down to the older posts. A lot of the links are still good.

TOTALLY VISCERAL

You know how it is (or was). If you scour thrift stores, garage sales, 99 cent bins, and record swaps long enough, you develop an obsession with certain labels. Particularly labels with a high keeper quotient. You get a glimpse of a yellow gold label with rays emanating from the center? "Sun!" Snapping finger on a yellow background?, "Stax!", light blue with a stack of records? "Early Stax!" Blue with silver? "Chess!" And so on. Obviously, it's not nearly as fruitful these days, digging through picked over stacks, with everybody and their mothers selling them on the secondary market. No one keeps anything, The prices are driven up to the point that no average Joe can afford a decent collection. It's that flipper disease, just like house flippers. Who cares if it kills the little guy's chance to buy a home (or a record), it's everyman for themselves.

Anyway, back to these 45 labels. Despite the fact that I rarely see the physical vintage product, outside of the few that I have, I still have that same reaction. One of the biggees for me is seeing the unmistakeable yellow, black and white logo with the classic hand lettered "Specialty" across the top. That's one of the handful of labels that's never let me down. So when I saw it splashed across On The Record's recent post, it had me going on a Specialty binge.

Here's some top shelf Specialty sides. You may also want to check out the all-Specialty mix from Diddy Wah, (streaming or download). To the cooler than ice twelve year old Norwegian kid who just presented their Power Point take on Moondog to the English class today (read the first comment below this post), you are cooler than ice, as I said. Being so, you may one day wish to read this lengthy piece on Specialty Records. By all means, stay away from that death metal stuff.

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Listen:
Don & Dewey - Justine mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Don & Dewey - Farmer John mp3 at Rock Town Hall
Larry Williams - Slow Down mp3 at Mercury Paradise
Larry Williams - She Said Yeah mp3 at Beware of the Blog 
Larry Williams - Dizzy Miss Lizzie mp3 at Joe Troiano's Blog 
Little Richard - Keep A Knockin' mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Little Richard - Rip It Up (Rehearsal Take 14) mp3 at Electric Adolescence
Lloyd Price - Lawdy Miss Clawdy mp3 at Jordan Hatch
Ben Hughes - Sack mp3 (via DivShare) at On the Record
The mix:

Specialty Records Radio Show Special at Diddy Wah Streaming and download. About SoundCloud: If the embedded streaming widget has a visible downward pointing arrow on the right side of the bar (in this case it does) downloading is enabled. Click on the arrow.

Read:
Art Rupe's Specialty Records at History of Rock
Specialty Records at Wikipedia

BONE UP PUNK

Now, this is what I'm talkin' about. Diddy Wah, the UK DJ and host of the Diddy Wah blog, has put together a killer radio show featuring only Specialty Records releases, presented in chronological order. Every few songs he pipes in with a few factoids, which makes for a quick overview of the label and some of the artists that recorded for it. Quick, in that the hour duration just wets your appetite. This is a real good one you guys, and it's available streaming, or as a download. I raided old link drawer for some other Specialty singles as a teaser.

Listen:
Specialty Records Radio Show Special at Diddy Wah Streaming and download
Individual songs:
Don & Dewey - Justine mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Larry Williams - Slow Down mp3 at Mercury Paradise
Little Richard - Long Tall Sally mp3 at One Sweet Song

THE PACKAGE

I would certainly hope that the man pictured above is well represented in your record collection. I have no clue how in tune to this sort of essential stuff some of you may be. Let's just say this, if you like rock 'n' roll, you have Little Richard to thank. End of story. There were other early rockers, but he was the one who pushed the envelope when it mattered. He made lightweight crooners irrelevant, and kept Elvis on his toes. Radio DJ, bandleader and singer Johnny Otis once said "Little Richard is twice as valid artistically and important historically as Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones put together." It would be hard to argue with that, particularly in a historical sense. He was the catalyst that hardened the foundation of rock 'n' roll.



All of the stuff below was on Specialty Records. Stick to that label and you'll have the damn Book of Genesis. There's an excellent box set, The Complete Specialty Sessions (or something like that) that would take a good long time to digest, although it may be out of print (it's pricey, even used). It includes alternate takes, a few of which are posted below. Just hearing the studio chatter from a classic Specialty session is worth hearing. Yeah, you know it is.

A tip of the hat here, in the general direction of DJ and blogger Diddy Wah, a top notch true believer, who's post of an early Specialty 45 started tonight's buffet. I've said it before, bookmark his site. Visit it regularly. Believe.

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Listen:
Little Richard - Rip It Up mp3 at Diddy Wah
Little Richard - Rip It Up (Rehearsal Take 14) mp3 at Electric Adolescence
Little Richard - Long Tall Sally mp3 at One Sweet Song
Little Richard - Slippin' and Slidin' mp3 at Stolen Records
Little Richard - Keep A Knockin' mp3 at The New LoFi
Little Richard - Ready Teddy mp3 at Diddy Wah
Little Richard - The Girl Can't Help It mp3 at Happy Parts
Little Richard - I Got It mp3 at Teenage Kicks
Little Richard - Heebie Jeebies (undubbed) mp3 at Teenage Kicks
Little Richard - Poor Boy Paul mp3 at Teenage Kicks
Video:
Little Richard - Long Tall Sally at YouTube
Little Richard - Ready Teddy (from The Girl Can't Help It) at YouTube
Little Richard - Tutti Frutti video at YouTube
Little Richard - Lucille/Good Golly Miss Molly (live, 1966) video at YouTube
Visit:Little Richard at Wikipedia

REFRESHER COURSE

A couple of nights ago, I had the good fortune to catch the movie The Girl Can't Help It on TV, and it started all sorts of thoughts, none of them regarding the films star, Jayne Mansfield (well, maybe fleeting). If you know the movie, you know why. Amongst many R&B and rock 'n' roll acts appearing are Little Richard, Eddie Cochran, and Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps. It's great footage, and is it damn good to see in higher resolutions. For some reason, it was made better by the fact that it was a chance viewing, and that I didn't own the DVD.

Little Richard - Reddy Teddy, from The Girl Can't Help It

One of the big things that struck me is that the performances in the film preceded the Sex Pistols and the Ramones by only about twenty years, preceded the Stooges by about twelve, and the Velvet Underground by roughly ten years. That's just crazy. Lest we need reminding, here's some early rock 'n' roll.

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Listen:
Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps - Cat Man mp3 at LYWL
Chuck Berry - It's My Own Business mp3 at the Rising Storm
The Rockin' R's - Crazy Baby mp3 at Beware of the Blog

Billy Lee Riley - Flying Saucers Rock n' Roll mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
Hank Mizell - Jungle Rock mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Johnny Carroll - Crazy, Crazy Lovin' mp3 at Rocky-52.net
Warren Smith - Ubangi Stomp mp3 at DavidFulmer.com
Bo Diddley - Mona mp3 at Mark Allen Interested Person
Eddie Cochran - Nervous Breakdown mp3 at Uusikaupunki.fi
Roy Orbison - Go! Go! Go! mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Little Richard - Keep A Knockin' mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Jerry Lee Lewis - Great Balls of Fire mp3 at Bousculade
Don & Dewey - Justine mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Johnny Burnette & the Rock n' Roll Trio - Honey Hush mp3 at RocknDog.com
Video:
Eddie Cochran - Twenty Flight Rock, from The Girl Can't Help It at YouTube
Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps - Be Bob A Lula, from The Girl Can't Help it at YouTube

JUST THE SAX, MA'AM

Maybe it's happened to you at one time or another. You have a Forrest Gump type moment, where you find yourself in the presence of some sort of celebrity, or someone significant for some other reason, and just kind of take a step back, and try to wrap your head around the situation. It's happened to me an a number of occasions over the years and I've always prided myself on keeping my cool, like it's no big deal. There was one time though, that I became a gushing fan boy.

A friend of mine was one of the founding members of the early Paladins, when they were a four piece. In the late eighties, when he was no longer in the band, but still tight with them, he took me to a show they were playing, opening for the Blasters. After the show, he took me backstage. Now, I was really familiar with the Blasters and had seen them on multiple occasions. All was going well, "Hi, enjoyed the show Phil,..." and so on. Then, lurking in the corner I spotted Lee Allen. The Lee Allen; the sax player all over early rock n' roll and New Orleans R&B classics. I was in the presence of royalty. And I was stinking drunk. I don't remember much of the conversation, but it was something like, "Man, I can't believe it! You're the man! You're on Little Richard's stuff,.. Fats Domino! All that New Orleans stuff!" He just took it all in. I've tried to recall more of the event over the years, and he was either friendly, or just plain tolerant. One thing I do remember is that he didn't try to get away, nor did he make me feel like the knucklehead I probably was.

If you're wondering why a sax player would make someone a stammering goon, check out the profiles below. In a nutshell, he was in the New Orleans session band. Much like the Wrecking Crew or the house bands at Sun, Stax, or Motown, the group that he played with (which often included Allen Toussaint and legendary drummer Earl Palmer) had a distinct sound. So much so that acts were flown to New Orleans to record with them. It also bears mentioning that the brand of New Orleans R&B they laid down was part of what morphed with traditional Jamaican music to become ska. Yeah, royalty.

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Listen:
Lee Allen - Walkin' With Mr. Lee mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Lee Allen solos:
Little Richard - Good Golly Miss Molly mp3 at SMU
Little Richard - Lucille mp3 at On the Spur of the Moment
Professor Longhair - In the Night mp3 at DJ Perro
Fats Domino - I'm In Love Again mp3 at Bill Capes
Shirley & Lee - Feel So Good mp3 at Rocky-52.net
LP download:
Lee Allen - Down on Bourbon St at Be Bop Wino This LP includes all of his "Walking With Mr. Lee" album and a handful of singles. (Alternate link with high resolution scan of cover and liner notes here.)
Video:
The Blasters with Lee Allen - So Long Baby Goodbye at YouTube
The Blasters with Lee Allen - I'm Shakin' at YouTube
Visit:
Lee Allen - Profile at Offbeat
Lee Allen - Bio & partial discography at Black Cat Rockabilly
Lee Allen - Profile & interview at Taming the Saxophone