CD REVIEW
Big Joe Turner’s Greatest Hits, Big Joe Turner, Atlantic Records, 1989
A few years ago there was a little controversy about whether songs like Joe Turner's Shake, Rattle and Roll or some early Elvis Presley tunes like Hound Dog or It's All Right, Mama represented the genesis of rock and roll. That might be an interesting discussion for musicologists with time on their hands but if you really want to know the answer listen here. If you do not find the base line here for all later classic rock then I am afraid it is lost in the mist of time. Musical trends draw from many influences but the rhythm and blues of the early 1950's seems to have been the real jump point for the turn to rock.
This compilation, that is moreover a technically competent one unlike others from this period, is a case study for the above stated propositions. It all comes together here on Shake, Rattle and Roll- the rest just complete the argument.
Jazz Legends: Rhythm and Blues At The Apollo Theater, Storyville Films AB, 1989
One of the questions that I have been posing to myself over the past several months as I trace the roots of rock ‘n’ rock, the music of my youth is to see what prior musical trend was most influential in its development. An argument can be made for old country black blues, for black city blues and for white rockabilly. However I am coming more and more to a view that rhythm and blues of the late 1940’s and early 1950’s was critical. Furthermore, one of the performers here, Big Joe Turner and his Shake, Rattle and Roll of 1954 was probably is the most influential in driving that form of music. Thus there is no accident that Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Haley, Elvis and many others covered the song.
So much for that. Here we have an all-star cast of jazz, rhythm and blues and just plain blues artists at New York City’s fame black musical Mecca- The Apollo Theater. We get full-bore performances from Big Joe, Dinah Washington and the legendary Ruth Brown, among others. A little old time humor is thrown in by the Emcee and some novelty songs as one would expect in a variety musical show. One interesting sidelight is that repeated scans of the audience show it is to an integrated but from the looks of it mainly white. This is one time that composition is good- that is the transmission belt to bringing that taste for black music to white audiences. If you need to see one aspect of the history of our common musical experiences look here. Rock on.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
*Where Have All The Anti-War Protesters Gone?
Commentary
October 11, 2008 marked the sixth anniversary of the United States Senate’s signing off on authorization for President Bush’s war on Iraq. That date and March 20th (the date of the start of the actual invasion of Iraq in 2003) seem to be the focal points for the spring and fall “anti-war” campaign seasons each year. As such one would have expected a huge outpouring of anti-war sentiment on Saturday to “keep fire” under the feet of the various so-called ‘anti-war’ Democrats in the struggle to end the war. Or, at least, to end the funding of the war that so many of them had promised to stop in the Congressional campaign of 2006.
Not so, at least at the local gathering here at the Boston Common. At most a few hundred protesters showed up, mainly the tried and true veterans of the movement. I found myself talking mostly to old anti-warriors from past campaigns. The rather ‘shocking’ part of this sad spectacle was that in the very first lead up action in opposition to the war in the summer of 2002, when the Bush Administration started seriously beating the public tom-toms for war, there were actually more (and varied) people present at the first local demonstration. What has happened to that vaunted ‘street’ anti-war movement?
Well, the short answer, as always in a presidential election year, is that the focus shifts to parliamentary politics. Especially true this year, as year Barack Obama, the Democratic standard bearer, is “committed” to ending the war in Iraq (and shifting the forces and resources to Afghanistan, as the small print of his position reads. But who are we to quibble over such a detail). Moreover, the main anti-war coalitions like Troops Out Now and United For Peace and Justice (or is it justice and peace?) have purposefully, as they do in every presidential fall season, refrained from mass demonstrations in Washington and other major cities so as not to upset people (read, mainly Democrats) with such wild and outlandish slogans such as immediate withdrawal from Iraq AND Afghanistan.
That is the real nub of the matter. The vast majority of the “movement”, such as it is, really believes that one of the lessons that should have been learned from the vast Vietnam War-era protest was to keep off the streets and let the parliamentary road work its ‘magic’ as the way to end the Iraq war. We know now, painfully, the results of that strategy- almost six years of non-stop war. And if we are at all honest no end is in sight. Of course, to be fair there are other reasons for the dwindling number of protests and protesters but let’s address the one reason that we have control over. A new anti-war leadership has to be thrown up and a new strategy of serious opposition has to be embarked on (The odd thing is that even the vaunted current commitment to the parliamentary road has not been seriously organized). In any case- until that day- Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal of All U.S./Allied Troops and Their Mercenaries from Iraq and Afghanistan is still the order of the day. Forward.
October 11, 2008 marked the sixth anniversary of the United States Senate’s signing off on authorization for President Bush’s war on Iraq. That date and March 20th (the date of the start of the actual invasion of Iraq in 2003) seem to be the focal points for the spring and fall “anti-war” campaign seasons each year. As such one would have expected a huge outpouring of anti-war sentiment on Saturday to “keep fire” under the feet of the various so-called ‘anti-war’ Democrats in the struggle to end the war. Or, at least, to end the funding of the war that so many of them had promised to stop in the Congressional campaign of 2006.
Not so, at least at the local gathering here at the Boston Common. At most a few hundred protesters showed up, mainly the tried and true veterans of the movement. I found myself talking mostly to old anti-warriors from past campaigns. The rather ‘shocking’ part of this sad spectacle was that in the very first lead up action in opposition to the war in the summer of 2002, when the Bush Administration started seriously beating the public tom-toms for war, there were actually more (and varied) people present at the first local demonstration. What has happened to that vaunted ‘street’ anti-war movement?
Well, the short answer, as always in a presidential election year, is that the focus shifts to parliamentary politics. Especially true this year, as year Barack Obama, the Democratic standard bearer, is “committed” to ending the war in Iraq (and shifting the forces and resources to Afghanistan, as the small print of his position reads. But who are we to quibble over such a detail). Moreover, the main anti-war coalitions like Troops Out Now and United For Peace and Justice (or is it justice and peace?) have purposefully, as they do in every presidential fall season, refrained from mass demonstrations in Washington and other major cities so as not to upset people (read, mainly Democrats) with such wild and outlandish slogans such as immediate withdrawal from Iraq AND Afghanistan.
That is the real nub of the matter. The vast majority of the “movement”, such as it is, really believes that one of the lessons that should have been learned from the vast Vietnam War-era protest was to keep off the streets and let the parliamentary road work its ‘magic’ as the way to end the Iraq war. We know now, painfully, the results of that strategy- almost six years of non-stop war. And if we are at all honest no end is in sight. Of course, to be fair there are other reasons for the dwindling number of protests and protesters but let’s address the one reason that we have control over. A new anti-war leadership has to be thrown up and a new strategy of serious opposition has to be embarked on (The odd thing is that even the vaunted current commitment to the parliamentary road has not been seriously organized). In any case- until that day- Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal of All U.S./Allied Troops and Their Mercenaries from Iraq and Afghanistan is still the order of the day. Forward.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
*That Other Musician From The Hills Of Oklahoma-The Music Of Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys- “Western Swing's Greatest Hits"
Click on title to link to YouTube'sfil clip of Bob Wills And his Texas Playboys performing "Faded Love".
CD Review
The King Of Western Swing:Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, Bob Wills and various artists who made up his Texas Playboys bands, ASV, 1998
Every once in a while I like a little change of pace from my main folk/rock/mountain music interest. Usually, that entails getting out the old jazz classics like Duke Ellington or Benny Goodman. However, every so often it also includes getting up a little dust with old Bob Wills. His countrified swing from the heyday of that genre is a pleasant surprise taken in small doses. Remember not everyone who needed to swing in order to drive away those Great Depression and World War II blues was in the city. Wills played around with and adapted the swing idea to that rural Saturday night barn dance milieu. From ballads like "Right or Wrong" to stompers like "Sugar Blues" to the haunting "Lone Star Rag" you get a good beginner mix with this album. That is as far as I am willing to take you. If you need more then you are on your own.
Faded Love
As I look at the letters that you wrote to me
It’s you that I’m thinking of
As I read the lines that to me were so sweet
I remember our Faded Love.
I miss you darling more and more every day
As heaven would miss the stars above.
With every heartbeat I still think of you
And remember our Faded Love.
As I think of the past and all the pleasures we had
As I watch the mating of the dove
It was in the springtime that you said goodbye
I remember our Faded Love
I miss you darling more and more everyday
As heaven would miss the stars above
With every heartbeat I still think of you
And remember our Faded Love
You're From Texas
Pardon me, stranger I hope there's no danger
You'll think I'm getting' off my range
But I calculate that you're from my state
And thought you may think it strange.
Chorus
I 'low as how you're from Texas
You talk a lingo I understand
I'll bet my kale that you hail from Texas
'Cause there's no mistakin' the brand
You've got a smile like an acre of sunflow'rs
And your eyes are a blue bonnet blue.
Shake hands, it's grand your from Texas
'Cause I'm from Texas too.
CD Review
The King Of Western Swing:Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, Bob Wills and various artists who made up his Texas Playboys bands, ASV, 1998
Every once in a while I like a little change of pace from my main folk/rock/mountain music interest. Usually, that entails getting out the old jazz classics like Duke Ellington or Benny Goodman. However, every so often it also includes getting up a little dust with old Bob Wills. His countrified swing from the heyday of that genre is a pleasant surprise taken in small doses. Remember not everyone who needed to swing in order to drive away those Great Depression and World War II blues was in the city. Wills played around with and adapted the swing idea to that rural Saturday night barn dance milieu. From ballads like "Right or Wrong" to stompers like "Sugar Blues" to the haunting "Lone Star Rag" you get a good beginner mix with this album. That is as far as I am willing to take you. If you need more then you are on your own.
Faded Love
As I look at the letters that you wrote to me
It’s you that I’m thinking of
As I read the lines that to me were so sweet
I remember our Faded Love.
I miss you darling more and more every day
As heaven would miss the stars above.
With every heartbeat I still think of you
And remember our Faded Love.
As I think of the past and all the pleasures we had
As I watch the mating of the dove
It was in the springtime that you said goodbye
I remember our Faded Love
I miss you darling more and more everyday
As heaven would miss the stars above
With every heartbeat I still think of you
And remember our Faded Love
You're From Texas
Pardon me, stranger I hope there's no danger
You'll think I'm getting' off my range
But I calculate that you're from my state
And thought you may think it strange.
Chorus
I 'low as how you're from Texas
You talk a lingo I understand
I'll bet my kale that you hail from Texas
'Cause there's no mistakin' the brand
You've got a smile like an acre of sunflow'rs
And your eyes are a blue bonnet blue.
Shake hands, it's grand your from Texas
'Cause I'm from Texas too.
*That Other Musician From The Hills Of Oklahoma-The Music Of Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys- “Fiddlin’ Man”
Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys performing "Sitting On Top Of The World"
DVD Review
Fiddlin’ Man: The Life And Times OF Bob Wills, Bob Wills and various artists who played with him under the name Texas Playboys, VIEW Video, 1996
I have spent an inordinate amount of time in this space reviewing the work of that quintessential product of the hills of Oklahoma, Woody Guthrie. And that has been appropriate in my long time search for the roots of American music, if for no other reason than, his decisive influence on such later folk revivalists as Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan (to speak nothing of son, Arlo Guthrie). But those Oklahoma hills (and Texas) also produced in an almost contemporary time frame a very different kind of roots music, western swing, that will always be associated with the name Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. I may, personally be more at home with the 1930s city-driven swing music of Mr. Benny Goodman but only a complete fool would deny Bob Wills his place as a seminal influence in American roots music. This hour long musical documentary gives a rough biographic sketch of that career, and along the way some toe-tapping footage of Bob Wills and his various Texas Playboy configurations doing their swing music.
To set the tone for the DVD I post a paragraph from an entry that reviewed one of Bob Wills CD compilations:
“Every once in a while I like a little change of pace from my main folk/rock/mountain music interest. Usually, that entails getting out the old jazz classics like Duke Ellington or Benny Goodman. However, every so often it also includes getting up a little dust with old Bob Wills. His countrified swing from the heyday of that genre is a pleasant surprise taken in small doses. Remember not everyone who needed to swing in order to drive away those Great Depression and World War II blues was in the city. Wills played around with and adapted the swing idea to that rural Saturday night barn dance milieu. From ballads like "Right or Wrong" to stompers like "Sugar Blues" to the haunting "Lone Star Rag" you get a good beginner mix with this album. That is as far as I am willing to take you. If you need more then you are on your own.”
Bob Wills was, like Woody, a product of the dirt poor Greta Depression-era who latched onto the idea of mixing up a whole bunch of genres of music including what today is called Tex-Mex (or Tejan) , a whole bunch of instruments, and an uncanny sense of which way the rhythm trends were heading. Some country, some jazz, some city swing, a little mountain and, as always in early American recorded music, some kind of blues those are the influences heard in this film from cowboys movie songs to square dance type tunes to love ballads. And all, as the interviewees here, including various ex-band members, make clear led by the charismatic and demanding Wills.
If you are not interested in the Wills story though you must watch this film for the vintage footage of Wills and the boys (women are, as far as I could tell, used only for backup singing) on locale in Hollywood as background to the ubiquitous cowboy movies that many of us older devotees cut our teeth on watching (or watching the television re-runs). As well, here you will see and hear the Western swing treatment of the classic “San Antone Rose”, “Sitting On Top Of The World” , “Milk Cow Blues”, and the signature “Take Me Back To Tulsa”. See, even I know it was not only about Woody back in the days.
Note: I would point out that while Bob Wills, over a long career spanning almost half a century, is truly identified as the originator of western swing he was not the only “hot” swing man of the period. An argument can be made and has, by folk singer Geoff Muldaur, that the work of Wills contemporary Milton Brown whose career was cut short by his death in an automobile accident, was perhaps better than Wills’ during that period. I have heard some of Brown’s work. I would say the jury is still out on this question.
Bob Wills, San Antonio Rose Tabs/Chords
F7 F+ Bb
A song of old San An - tone.
Bb7 Eb C7
Where in dreams I live with a memory,
F7 Bb
Beneath the stars all alone.
Bb7Eb C7
It was there I found beside the Alamo
F7 Bb
Enchantment strange as the blue up above.
Bb7 Eb C7
A moonlit pass only she would know,
F7 Bb
Still hears my broken song of love.
F Fdim C7 F C7 Abm C9
Moon in all your splendor, know only my heart
C Abm C9 F
Call back my Rose, Rose of San Antone.
Fdim F C7 F C C9
Lips so sweet and tender, like petals falling apart.
C Abm C9 F F7
Speak once a - gain of my love, my own.
Bb Bb7 Eb C7 F7 F+ Bb
Broken song, empty words I know still live in my heart all a - lone
Bb Bb7 Eb C7 F7 Bb
For that moonlit pass by the Alamo, and Rose, my Rose of San Antone.
DVD Review
Fiddlin’ Man: The Life And Times OF Bob Wills, Bob Wills and various artists who played with him under the name Texas Playboys, VIEW Video, 1996
I have spent an inordinate amount of time in this space reviewing the work of that quintessential product of the hills of Oklahoma, Woody Guthrie. And that has been appropriate in my long time search for the roots of American music, if for no other reason than, his decisive influence on such later folk revivalists as Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan (to speak nothing of son, Arlo Guthrie). But those Oklahoma hills (and Texas) also produced in an almost contemporary time frame a very different kind of roots music, western swing, that will always be associated with the name Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. I may, personally be more at home with the 1930s city-driven swing music of Mr. Benny Goodman but only a complete fool would deny Bob Wills his place as a seminal influence in American roots music. This hour long musical documentary gives a rough biographic sketch of that career, and along the way some toe-tapping footage of Bob Wills and his various Texas Playboy configurations doing their swing music.
To set the tone for the DVD I post a paragraph from an entry that reviewed one of Bob Wills CD compilations:
“Every once in a while I like a little change of pace from my main folk/rock/mountain music interest. Usually, that entails getting out the old jazz classics like Duke Ellington or Benny Goodman. However, every so often it also includes getting up a little dust with old Bob Wills. His countrified swing from the heyday of that genre is a pleasant surprise taken in small doses. Remember not everyone who needed to swing in order to drive away those Great Depression and World War II blues was in the city. Wills played around with and adapted the swing idea to that rural Saturday night barn dance milieu. From ballads like "Right or Wrong" to stompers like "Sugar Blues" to the haunting "Lone Star Rag" you get a good beginner mix with this album. That is as far as I am willing to take you. If you need more then you are on your own.”
Bob Wills was, like Woody, a product of the dirt poor Greta Depression-era who latched onto the idea of mixing up a whole bunch of genres of music including what today is called Tex-Mex (or Tejan) , a whole bunch of instruments, and an uncanny sense of which way the rhythm trends were heading. Some country, some jazz, some city swing, a little mountain and, as always in early American recorded music, some kind of blues those are the influences heard in this film from cowboys movie songs to square dance type tunes to love ballads. And all, as the interviewees here, including various ex-band members, make clear led by the charismatic and demanding Wills.
If you are not interested in the Wills story though you must watch this film for the vintage footage of Wills and the boys (women are, as far as I could tell, used only for backup singing) on locale in Hollywood as background to the ubiquitous cowboy movies that many of us older devotees cut our teeth on watching (or watching the television re-runs). As well, here you will see and hear the Western swing treatment of the classic “San Antone Rose”, “Sitting On Top Of The World” , “Milk Cow Blues”, and the signature “Take Me Back To Tulsa”. See, even I know it was not only about Woody back in the days.
Note: I would point out that while Bob Wills, over a long career spanning almost half a century, is truly identified as the originator of western swing he was not the only “hot” swing man of the period. An argument can be made and has, by folk singer Geoff Muldaur, that the work of Wills contemporary Milton Brown whose career was cut short by his death in an automobile accident, was perhaps better than Wills’ during that period. I have heard some of Brown’s work. I would say the jury is still out on this question.
Bob Wills, San Antonio Rose Tabs/Chords
F7 F+ Bb
A song of old San An - tone.
Bb7 Eb C7
Where in dreams I live with a memory,
F7 Bb
Beneath the stars all alone.
Bb7Eb C7
It was there I found beside the Alamo
F7 Bb
Enchantment strange as the blue up above.
Bb7 Eb C7
A moonlit pass only she would know,
F7 Bb
Still hears my broken song of love.
F Fdim C7 F C7 Abm C9
Moon in all your splendor, know only my heart
C Abm C9 F
Call back my Rose, Rose of San Antone.
Fdim F C7 F C C9
Lips so sweet and tender, like petals falling apart.
C Abm C9 F F7
Speak once a - gain of my love, my own.
Bb Bb7 Eb C7 F7 F+ Bb
Broken song, empty words I know still live in my heart all a - lone
Bb Bb7 Eb C7 F7 Bb
For that moonlit pass by the Alamo, and Rose, my Rose of San Antone.
*That Other Musician From The Hills Of Oklahoma-The Music Of Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys-“Still Swingin’”
Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys performing "Take Me Back To Tulsa".
DVD Review
Still Swingin’: 100th Anniversary Special Edition: Bob Wills, , hosted by Red Steagall with various artists, VCI, 1994
The first two paragraphs of this review have been used in reviews of other Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys material.
I have spent an inordinate amount of time in this space reviewing the work of that quintessential product of the hills of Oklahoma, Woody Guthrie. And that has been appropriate in my long time search for the roots of American music, if for no other reason than, his decisive influence on such later folk revivalists as Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan (to speak nothing of son, Arlo Guthrie). But those Oklahoma hills (and Texas) also produced in an almost contemporary time frame a very different kind of roots music, western swing, that will always be associated with the name Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. I may, personally be more at home with the 1930s city-driven swing music of Mr. Benny Goodman but only a complete fool would deny Bob Wills his place as a seminal influence in American roots music. This hour long musical documentary gives a rough biographic sketch of that career, some toe-tapping footage of Bob Wills and his various Texas Playboy configurations doing their swing music, and unlike another Wills documentary, “Fiddlin’ Man”, that I have reviewed in this space spends some time on his influence on later artists and later covers by the likes of Tracy Bird and Asleep At The Wheel who carry on the tradition as best they can.
To set the tone for the DVD I post a paragraph from an entry that reviewed one of Bob Wills CD compilations:
“Every once in a while I like a little change of pace from my main folk/rock/mountain music interest. Usually, that entails getting out the old jazz classics like Duke Ellington or Benny Goodman. However, every so often it also includes getting up a little dust with old Bob Wills. His countrified swing from the heyday of that genre is a pleasant surprise taken in small doses. Remember not everyone who needed to swing in order to drive away those Great Depression and World War II blues was in the city. Wills played around with and adapted the swing idea to that rural Saturday night barn dance milieu. From ballads like "Right or Wrong" to stompers like "Sugar Blues" to the haunting "Lone Star Rag" you get a good beginner mix with this album. That is as far as I am willing to take you. If you need more then you are on your own.”
Bob Wills was, like Woody, a product of the dirt poor Great Depression-era who latched onto the idea of mixing up a whole bunch of genres of music including what today is called Tex-Mex (or Tejan) , a whole bunch of instruments, and an uncanny sense of which way the rhythm trends were heading. Some country, some jazz, some city swing, a little mountain and, as always in early American recorded music, some kind of blues those are the influences heard in this film from cowboys movie songs to square dance type tunes to love ballads. And all, as the interviewees here, including various ex-band members, make clear led by the charismatic and demanding Wills.
If you are not interested in the Wills story though you must watch this film for the vintage footage of Wills and the boys (women are, as far as I could tell, used only for backup singing) on locale in Hollywood as background to the ubiquitous cowboy movies that many of us older devotees cut our teeth on watching (or watching the television re-runs). As well, here you will see and hear the Western swing treatment of the classic “San Antonio Rose”, “Sitting On Top Of The World” , “Milk Cow Blues”, and the signature “Take Me Back To Tulsa”. See, even I know it was not only about Woody back in the days.
Note: I would point out that while Bob Wills, over a long career spanning almost half a century, is truly identified as the originator of western swing although he was not the only “hot” swing man of the period. An argument can be made and has, by folk singer Geoff Muldaur, that the work of Wills contemporary Milton Brown whose career was cut short by his death in an automobile accident, was perhaps better than Wills’ during that period. I have heard some of Brown’s work. I would say the jury is still out on this question.
Bob Wills, San Antonio Rose Tabs/Chords
F7 F+ Bb
A song of old San An - tone.
Bb7 Eb C7
Where in dreams I live with a memory,
F7 Bb
Beneath the stars all alone.
Bb7Eb C7
It was there I found beside the Alamo
F7 Bb
Enchantment strange as the blue up above.
Bb7 Eb C7
A moonlit pass only she would know,
F7 Bb
Still hears my broken song of love.
F Fdim C7 F C7 Abm C9
Moon in all your splendor, know only my heart
C Abm C9 F
Call back my Rose, Rose of San Antone.
Fdim F C7 F C C9
Lips so sweet and tender, like petals falling apart.
C Abm C9 F F7
Speak once a - gain of my love, my own.
Bb Bb7 Eb C7 F7 F+ Bb
Broken song, empty words I know still live in my heart all a - lone
Bb Bb7 Eb C7 F7 Bb
For that moonlit pass by the Alamo, and Rose, my Rose of San Antone.
DVD Review
Still Swingin’: 100th Anniversary Special Edition: Bob Wills, , hosted by Red Steagall with various artists, VCI, 1994
The first two paragraphs of this review have been used in reviews of other Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys material.
I have spent an inordinate amount of time in this space reviewing the work of that quintessential product of the hills of Oklahoma, Woody Guthrie. And that has been appropriate in my long time search for the roots of American music, if for no other reason than, his decisive influence on such later folk revivalists as Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan (to speak nothing of son, Arlo Guthrie). But those Oklahoma hills (and Texas) also produced in an almost contemporary time frame a very different kind of roots music, western swing, that will always be associated with the name Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. I may, personally be more at home with the 1930s city-driven swing music of Mr. Benny Goodman but only a complete fool would deny Bob Wills his place as a seminal influence in American roots music. This hour long musical documentary gives a rough biographic sketch of that career, some toe-tapping footage of Bob Wills and his various Texas Playboy configurations doing their swing music, and unlike another Wills documentary, “Fiddlin’ Man”, that I have reviewed in this space spends some time on his influence on later artists and later covers by the likes of Tracy Bird and Asleep At The Wheel who carry on the tradition as best they can.
To set the tone for the DVD I post a paragraph from an entry that reviewed one of Bob Wills CD compilations:
“Every once in a while I like a little change of pace from my main folk/rock/mountain music interest. Usually, that entails getting out the old jazz classics like Duke Ellington or Benny Goodman. However, every so often it also includes getting up a little dust with old Bob Wills. His countrified swing from the heyday of that genre is a pleasant surprise taken in small doses. Remember not everyone who needed to swing in order to drive away those Great Depression and World War II blues was in the city. Wills played around with and adapted the swing idea to that rural Saturday night barn dance milieu. From ballads like "Right or Wrong" to stompers like "Sugar Blues" to the haunting "Lone Star Rag" you get a good beginner mix with this album. That is as far as I am willing to take you. If you need more then you are on your own.”
Bob Wills was, like Woody, a product of the dirt poor Great Depression-era who latched onto the idea of mixing up a whole bunch of genres of music including what today is called Tex-Mex (or Tejan) , a whole bunch of instruments, and an uncanny sense of which way the rhythm trends were heading. Some country, some jazz, some city swing, a little mountain and, as always in early American recorded music, some kind of blues those are the influences heard in this film from cowboys movie songs to square dance type tunes to love ballads. And all, as the interviewees here, including various ex-band members, make clear led by the charismatic and demanding Wills.
If you are not interested in the Wills story though you must watch this film for the vintage footage of Wills and the boys (women are, as far as I could tell, used only for backup singing) on locale in Hollywood as background to the ubiquitous cowboy movies that many of us older devotees cut our teeth on watching (or watching the television re-runs). As well, here you will see and hear the Western swing treatment of the classic “San Antonio Rose”, “Sitting On Top Of The World” , “Milk Cow Blues”, and the signature “Take Me Back To Tulsa”. See, even I know it was not only about Woody back in the days.
Note: I would point out that while Bob Wills, over a long career spanning almost half a century, is truly identified as the originator of western swing although he was not the only “hot” swing man of the period. An argument can be made and has, by folk singer Geoff Muldaur, that the work of Wills contemporary Milton Brown whose career was cut short by his death in an automobile accident, was perhaps better than Wills’ during that period. I have heard some of Brown’s work. I would say the jury is still out on this question.
Bob Wills, San Antonio Rose Tabs/Chords
F7 F+ Bb
A song of old San An - tone.
Bb7 Eb C7
Where in dreams I live with a memory,
F7 Bb
Beneath the stars all alone.
Bb7Eb C7
It was there I found beside the Alamo
F7 Bb
Enchantment strange as the blue up above.
Bb7 Eb C7
A moonlit pass only she would know,
F7 Bb
Still hears my broken song of love.
F Fdim C7 F C7 Abm C9
Moon in all your splendor, know only my heart
C Abm C9 F
Call back my Rose, Rose of San Antone.
Fdim F C7 F C C9
Lips so sweet and tender, like petals falling apart.
C Abm C9 F F7
Speak once a - gain of my love, my own.
Bb Bb7 Eb C7 F7 F+ Bb
Broken song, empty words I know still live in my heart all a - lone
Bb Bb7 Eb C7 F7 Bb
For that moonlit pass by the Alamo, and Rose, my Rose of San Antone.
Grifters, Drifters, Midnight Shifters- The Music of Tom Wait
CD REVIEWS
Mule Variations, Tom Waits
If, as I do, every once in a while from a distance you need to hear about boozers, losers, dopesters, hipsters, fallen sisters, grifters, drifters, the driftless, small-time grafters, hobos, bums, tramps, the fallen, those who want to fall, Spanish Johnnies, stale cigarette butts, whiskey-soaked barroom floors, loners, the lonely, sad sacks, the sad and others at the margins of society then this is your stop. Tom Waits gives voice in song to the characters that peopled Nelson Algren’s novels (The Last Carousel, Neon Wilderness, Walk on the Wild Side, and The Man with the Golden Arm). In short, these are the people who do not make revolutions, far from it, but they surely desperately could use one. If, additionally, you need a primordial voice and occasional dissonant instrumentation to round out the picture go no further. Finally, if you need someone who, with far more justification that ex-President Bill Clinton could possibly muster, “feels your pain” for his characters you are home. And that, my friends, is definitely a political statement.
Mule Variations, Tom Waits
If, as I do, every once in a while from a distance you need to hear about boozers, losers, dopesters, hipsters, fallen sisters, grifters, drifters, the driftless, small-time grafters, hobos, bums, tramps, the fallen, those who want to fall, Spanish Johnnies, stale cigarette butts, whiskey-soaked barroom floors, loners, the lonely, sad sacks, the sad and others at the margins of society then this is your stop. Tom Waits gives voice in song to the characters that peopled Nelson Algren’s novels (The Last Carousel, Neon Wilderness, Walk on the Wild Side, and The Man with the Golden Arm). In short, these are the people who do not make revolutions, far from it, but they surely desperately could use one. If, additionally, you need a primordial voice and occasional dissonant instrumentation to round out the picture go no further. Finally, if you need someone who, with far more justification that ex-President Bill Clinton could possibly muster, “feels your pain” for his characters you are home. And that, my friends, is definitely a political statement.
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