On The Sixtieth Anniversary Of Her Death-Lady Day-Billie Holiday- She Took Our Pain Away Despite Her Own Pains- A Jeff Bridges Retrospective- In The Time Of The Small Time Lounge Lizard Act- “The Fabulous Baker Boys”

Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of Michelle Pfeiffer performing  the song Making Whoopee in the film The Fabulous Baker Boys. Whoa!

 DVD Review

The Fabulous Baker Boys, Jeff Bridges, Beau Bridges, Michele Pfeiffer, 1984

In what has now become my standard opening line doing this retrospective of Jeff Bridge's film work I will simply repeat here what I have said before. I have spilled much ink this year, in the wake of his Oscar victory in the role of broken down country singer-songwriter, Bad Blake, in the film Crazy Hearts , arguing that Bridges had been preparing for that role since he first broke out as the future good ol' boy, Duane Jackson, in The Last Picture Show. That thread in his work comes to something of halt here as Bridges, and brother Beau, play a brother team of lounge lizard show tune piano-players going nowhere fast in the hard scrabble work of small venue musical gigs. East Coast version, mainly New York City and its environs. Bridges' here plays a more abstracted, more world-weary and wary, catch in a place that he doesn't want to be, life has passed him by, more existential anti-heroic role.


You know, now that I think of it, what this low rent brother act could use is a female singer, a torch singer. And of course the plot line in what would otherwise be an unexceptional film brings in just such a singer in the person of Michelle Pfeiffer to spice up the act. The tensions, including the obvious sexual tensions between Jeff and Michelle drive most of the film. And at that level this becomes a better than average film. But the real reason that I liked the film is, as I have mentioned in other reviews, I am a sucker for a torch singer. From Bessie Smith to Billie Holiday to Peggy Lee in her Benny Goodman days, hell, even Rosemary Clooney when she was in the mood could (can) always chase away the blues. Now enter one fetching torch singer, one slinky, fetching torch singer, one cry me a river fetching torch singer and I am a goner. Add in a scene with said torch singer dressed in a come hither devilishly red dress singing atop old Jeff's piano on New Year's and, well, be still my heart. I could add more but under doctor's advice I have to wait until my blood pressure subsides Oh ya, before I forget Jeff (and Beau) did a good job acting here. But it's really about that silky-voiced, sultry dame, okay. Enough said.

Happy Birthday Keith Richards- *"I Am The Blues”- The Music Of Blues Man Willie Dixon

Click On Title To Link YouTube's Film Clip Of Willie Dixon Performing " Blues You Can't Lose".


DVD Review

Willie Dixon: I Am The Blues, Willie Dixon, Quantum Leap Productions, 2002


Readers of this space will, probably, already be familiar with the name of Willie Dixon if one is the slightest bit familiar with Chicago blues, Chess Records, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf or even The Rolling Stones’ cover of his “Little Red Rooster”. In this one hour presentation you get a very quick overview of his major songs, his take on the ups and downs of the blues as a genre and his performance of a number of his classics written while at Chess and at other venues. Outstanding is his classic “I’ve Got The Blues” and the song that Koko Taylor and Howlin’ Wolf made famous, “Wang Dang Doodle”. This is a serious piece of blues, especially Chicago blues, history by a man at, or near, the center of it in its hey day as he nears the end of his own career (1984).

*Etta James Is In The House- One More Time

Click on the title to link to YouTube's film clip of Etta James performing "I'd Rather Go Blind". Sorry, I could not find ""Please, No More" except by Joe Cocker.

CD Review

Let’s Roll, Etta James, Sony BMG Europe, 2003



The name Etta James goes back in my memory to associations with my first listening to rock music on the old transistor radio in the late 1950’s. At that time, I believe, her music was in the old doo wop tradition of the late 1950’s, a music that I was fairly soon to dismiss out of hand as the ‘bubble gum’ music that was prevalent in that period between the height of Elvis/Jerry Lee/Carl Perkins classic rock & rock and the Beatles and The Rolling Stones. That is where things were left until a dozen years ago or more when Etta ‘stole the show’ at the Newport Folk Festival. Well, we live and learn.

The stand outs here include: the rocking “Business Is Good,” the saucy “Lie No Better,” and Etta at her gospelly, bluesy best on “Please, No More”. Wow on that last one. That is worth the price of admission here.

"Please No More"- Joe Cocker Lyrics

We start a fight, who knows what for
Who knows who's winning, or who's keeping score
You say it's all right, as you slam the door
All I can say is, "Please no more, please no more."

I've had enough after how I swore
I'd never give you up
Loving you was easy, but one thing's for sure
It ain't me, it ain't me, you're trying to please no more.

Passions will burn, burn endlessly
All that's left behind are these broken dreams
While I still got some pieces laid out on the floor
I'm asking you baby, "Please no more, please no more."

I've had enough, after how I swore
I'd never give you up
Loving you was easy, but one thing's for sure
It ain't me, it ain't me, you're trying to please no more.

***From Out In The Be-Bop Blues Night- Sippie Wallace's "Women Be Wise"

Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of Sippie Wallace performing her classic, Women Be Wise (also covered by Bonnie Raitt and Maria Muldaur among others).
Markin comment:

Well I will just let Sippie tell it like it is for once. Truth. Without further comment. Okay. lol in cyber-slang.
******
Wallace Sippi

Women Be Wise

Women be wise, keep your mouth shut
Don't advertise your man
Don't sit around gossiping
Explaining what he really can do
Some women now days
Lord they ain't no good
They will laugh in your face
They'll try to steal your man from you

Women be wise, keep your mouth shut
Don't advertise your man

Your best girlfriend
Oh she might be a highbrow
Changes clothes three time a day
But what do you think she's doing now
While you're so far away?
You know she's lovin your man
In your own damn bed...
You better call for the doctor
Try to investigate your head

Women be wise, keep your mouth shut
Don't advertise your man

Women be wise, keep your mouth shut
Don't advertise your man
Now don't sit around girls
Telling all your secrets
Telling all those good things he really can do
Cause if you talk about your baby
Yeah you tell me he's so fine
Honey I might just sneak up
And try to make him mine

Women be wise, keep your mouth shut
Don't advertise your man --
Don't be no fool!
Don't advertise your man
Baby don't do it!

*The "Earthshaker" Is In The House- The Blues Of Koko Taylor

Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of Koko Taylor Doing "Wang Dang Doodle". Wow!

CD REVIEW

Koko Taylor: The Earthshaker, Koko Taylor, Alligator Records, 1978.

In the modern era of blues, mainly electric blues, say from the post-World War II period women blues singers, especially black women blues singers, are probably underrepresented. One thinks of “Big Mama” Thornton, Ruth Brown, Etta James, and the artist under review, Koko Taylor. There are other lesser lights but not nearly the numbers that I can, and have, recounted in this space from the 1920’s and 1930’s. Nevertheless for sheer energy, volume and flat out “good time” dancing blues Ms. Taylor will do quite well, against male or female. The title of this CD, “The Earthshaker” is not mistaken or out of place.

That said, I remember in one of the segments of Martin Scorsese six-part PBS tribute to the blues a few years back that when Ms. Taylor was interviewed concerning the influence that Chicago’s Chess Records and its management, the Chess brothers (the guys that discovered her), had on the blues scene she was less that complimentary with the “shake” that that pair had given her. The whole question of the exploitation of black blues talent (and not only of that musical genre) deserves separate coverage and is beyond what I want to look at in this CD. However, I would point out, there is probably more truth that meets the eye concerning the Koko’s gripes about proper promotion, accreditation and payment (in short, the correct distribution of the dough, okay) and that Koko was not just being abstruse in the matter. That may also explain, a little at least, the dearth of women blues singers that come readily to mind.

But enough of that, for now. Here Koko belts out her standards, accompanied by a fine back up band made up of well-known, and in the case of “Pinetop” Perkins on keyboards legendary, musicians including Johnny Moore and Sammy Lawhorn on the guitars. Nice right, for those who know those names? Hits here include the Willie Dixon classic “Spoonful” that Howlin’ Wolf ripped up. Well, Koko does the same here. My favorite on this CD is the slow mournful blues “Walking the Back Streets” (needless to say crying in those back streets about a two-timing man). But so much for my favorite because the reason you get this CD is Koko’s signature Willie Dixon classic “Wang Dang Doodle”. Howlin’ Wolf covered that tune as well. Koko wins that duel though. Listen up.

Wang Dang Doodle
Howlin' Wolf, Koko Taylor

Tell Automatic Slim , tell Razor Totin' Jim
Tell Butcher Knife Totin' Annie, tell Fast Talking Fanny
A we gonna pitch a ball, a down to that union hall
We gonna romp and tromp till midnight
We gonna fuss and fight till daylight
We gonna pitch a wang dang doodle all night long
All night long, All night long, All night long

Tell Kudu-Crawlin' Red, tell Abyssinian Ned
Tell ol' Pistol Pete, everybody gonna meet
Tonight we need no rest, we really gonna throw a mess
We gonna to break out all of the windows,
we gonna kick down all the doors
We gonna pitch a wang dang doodle all night long
All night long, All night long, All night long

Tell Fats and Washboard Sam, that everybody gonna to jam
Tell Shaky and Boxcar Joe, we got sawdust on the floor
Tell Peg and Caroline Dye, we gonna have a time
When the fish scent fill the air, there'll be snuff juice everywhere
We gonna pitch a wang dang doodle all night long
All night long, All night long etc.

by Willie Dixon


SPOONFUL

Could fill spoons full of diamonds,
Could fill spoons full of gold.
Just a little spoon of your precious love
Will satisfy my soul.

Men lies about it.
Some of them cries about it.
Some of them dies about it.
Everything's a-fightin' about the spoonful.
That spoon, that spoon, that spoonful.
That spoon, that spoon, that spoonful.
That spoon, that spoon, that spoonful.
That spoon, that spoon, that spoonful.

Could fill spoons full of coffee,
Could fill spoons full of tea.
Just a little spoon of your precious love;
Is that enough for me?

Chorus

Could fill spoons full of water,
Save them from the desert sands.
But a little spoon of your forty-five
Saved you from another man.

by Willie Dixon

Let The Good Times Roll

Hey everybody, let's have some fun
You only live for once
And when you're dead you're done
So let the good times roll, let the good times roll
And live a long long
I don't care if you are young or old no no,
\get together and let the good times roll

Don't stand there moaning, talking trash
If you wanna have some fun,
You'd better go out and spend some cash
And let the good time roll
Let the good time roll
I don't care if you young or old,
Get together and let the good times roll

Don't stand there moaning, talking trash
If you wanna have some fun,
You'd better go out and spend some cash
And let the good time roll
Let the good time roll
I don't care if you young or old,
Get together and let the good times roll

Hey mister landlord, lock up all the doors
When the police comes around,
Tell them Johnny's coming down
Let the good times roll
Let the good times roll
And Lord I don't care if you young or old,
That's good enough to let the good times roll

Hey everybody!
Tell everybody !
That B.B. and Bobby's in town
I got a dollar and a quarter
And I'm just raring to clown
Don't let nobody play me cheap
I got fifty cents to know that I'm gonna keep
Let the good times roll
I don't care if you young or old
Let's get together and let the good times roll

*In The Time Of The Chicago Blues Explosion- The Blues Of Earl Hooker

Click on title to link to Earl Hooker's lyrics and rendition of "You Shook Me Baby"

CD Review

Blue Guitar, Earl Hooker, Blues Interactions, 2001

I have spent a fair amount of time in this space running through the legends of the Chicago blues explosion that hit its high point in the period just after World War II and continued to the advent of serious rock ‘n’ roll in the mid-1950s, a period that saw the mass migration from the southern farms and plantations of blacks (and poor whites) to the north in search of better paying, and mainly, unionized industrial jobs. Thus, such names as Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and so on have gotten plenty of ink here. But those names hardly exhaust the sheer mass of blues artists who fled the South (with a stopover down river in Memphis in many cases) to make their names on Chicago's Maxwell Street. The name Earl Hooker, under review here figures prominently, if not famously, as part of that plethora of talent.

Naturally, in my attempts in this space to link up the names of the blues artists who I fell in love with in my youth I have used many sources, or have been led to them in various ways. The case of Earl Hooker is illustrative. I, some time ago, did a review of a documentary on the late Clifford Antone’s Club Antone down in Austin, Texas where many of the great then still standing blues artists, who came of age in the 1950s, found a second home, and an extended career. As part of that documentary coverage the name Earl Hooker, naturally enough, came up. And hence I went scurrying back to my archives to check his work out again. This, unfortunately, is the only album of his that I still possess after all these year but it is rather indicative of his style and is a good primer.

Outstanding here are the smoking “Will My Man Be Home Tonight”, the classic “Calling All Blues”, his signature and title track “Blue Guitar”, and another smoking “Off The Hook”. For a close look at one of the guys who jammed with the likes of Muddy and Howlin’ Wolf, after hours when they got down and serious and played the music for keeps, here is a your first look.

Song Lyrics: Sweet Home Chicago
Written and recorded by: Robert Johnson (1936)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh baby don't you want to go
Oh baby don't you want to go
Back to the land of California
to my sweet home Chicago

Oh baby don't you want to go
Oh baby don't you want to go
Back to the land of California
to my sweet home Chicago

Now one and one is two
two and two is four
I'm heavy loaded baby
I'm booked I gotta go

Cryin baby
honey don't you want to go
back to the land of California
to my sweet home Chicago

Now two and two is four
four and two is six
You gonna keep monkeyin round here friend-boy
you gonna get your business all in a trick

But I'm cryin baby
honey don't you wanna go
Back to the land of California
to my sweet home Chicago

Now six and two is eight
eight and two is ten
Friend-boy she trick you one time
she sure gonna do it again

But I'm cryin hey hey
baby don't you want to go
back to the land of California
to my sweet home Chicago

I'm goin to california
from there to Des Moines Iowa
Somebody will tell me that you
need my help someday

cryin hey hey
baby don't you want to go
back to the land of California
to my sweet home Chicago

© (1978) 1990, 1991 Lehsem II, LLC/Claud L. Johnson
Administered by Music & Media International, Inc.

Robert Johnson
(Robert Leroy Johnson)
May 8, 1911 - August 16, 1938



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also recorded by:
Johnny Shines, Foghat, Lonnie Pitchford,
Peter Green with Nigel Watson Splinter Group,
The King, Status Quo, Rocky Lawrence, Pyeng Threadgil,
Eric Clapton, Jim Belushi and The Sacred Hearts

*Today's Burning Question Of The Class Struggle- The Search For The Great Working Class Love Song (In English)- A Late Entry-"James Alley Blues"

Click on title to link link to YouTube's film clip of Rabbit Brown performing his James Alley Blues".

Markin comment November 17, 2009:

This is a late addition to the great working class love songs contest. This is from the famous "Harry Smith's Anthology Of American Folk Music". It is a classic. I note that the three selection are all male-voiced (ouch). Well, what about it? If women have a selection I would me more than happy to put it in the contest.


Markin comment:

No, old Markin has not gone off the deep end. But every once in a while I like to get a little whimsical, especially if I have music on my mind. Let’s face it , communist political realists that we are we cannot (or should not go) 24/7 on the heavy questions of health care, the struggle against the banks and other capitalist institutions, the fight for a working wage and the big fight looming ahead on Afghanistan without a little relief. So, for this moment, I ask this question –what is the great working class love song (in English)?

Now there are plenty of them I am sure but I control the stick today. You have to choose between my two (now three, see above)selections. Richard Thompson’s classic motorcycle love song (which, of course, if you read the lyrics, borders very closely to the lumpen proletarian-but so does working class existence, especially down among the working poor, for that matter). Or, Tom Waits’ version of the classic weekend- freedom seeking “Jersey Girl”. And, after that……… Obama, Troops Out Of Afghanistan- Free Quality Health care For All- Down With The Wall Street Bankers. See, I told you I had not gone off the deep end.




James Alley Blues

Times right now ain't nothin' like they used to be
Well times right now ain't nothin' like they used to be
You know I'll tell you all the truth, won't you take my word from me

Well I seen better days, but I ain't puttin' up with these
Well I've seen better days, but I ain't puttin' up with these
I had a lot better time with those women down in New Orleans

Well I was born in the country so she thinks I'm easy to lose
Well I was born in the country so she thinks I'm easy to lose
She wants to hitch me to a wagon and drive me like a mule

I bought her a gold ring and I pay the rent
I bought her a gold ring and I pay the rent
She tried to get me to wash her clothes but I got good common sense

Well if you don't want me then why don't you just tell me so?
Well if you don't want me then why don't you just tell me so?
It ain't like I'm a man that ain't got nowhere else to go

I give you sugar for sugar, but all you want is salt for salt
I give you sugar for sugar, but all you want is salt for salt
Well if you can't get along with me, then it's your own fault

Well, you want me to love you, but then you just treat me mean
Yea, you want me to love you, but then you just treat me mean
You're my daily thought and you're my nightly dream

Well, sometimes I think that you're just too sweet to die
Ah, sometimes I think that you're just too sweet to die
And other times I think that you ought to be buried alive


found on: The Harry Smith Connection: A Live Tribute

words: Rabbit Brown (traditional)

***Preserving The Roots Anyway We Can- The Last Of The Mississippi “Jukes”-But Also, Once Again-"Mississippi Goddam"

Click on title to link to "Last Of The Mississippi Jukes Director's Notes" (Robert Mugge).

DVD Review

Last Of The Mississippi Jukes, Morgan Freeman and various artists, a documentary by Robert Mugge, 2003

Apparently, from the subject matter of the reviews that I have penned lately I have fallen into something of a roots music preservationist kick. Recent reviews have included a saga about the trials and tribulations of Austin, Texas blues club owner, the late Clifford Antone of “Antone’s” fame, in his attempt to save and expand the rich blues tradition that area of the country. I have also highlighted the attempts of Joe Bussard down in Maryland in his seemingly eternal quest to find every relevant old roots 78 rpm record ever produced. In the current review we are faced with the attempts, apparently unsuccessful, to save from the wrecker’s ball an old Jackson, Mississippi "juke joint”, the Subway Lounge (and attached separately historically important hotel, Summers Hotel) a location that is significant for the blues and for the civil rights struggle in the 1960s, as well.

I had initially intended to review this DVD mainly on the basic of the roots aspect of the documentary. Something along the lines, as I have done in the past, of paying tribute to those like Bobby Rush and King Edwards who continue the roots traditions down at the base without much hope of great recognition or riches. However, after viewing the footage of the up close and very personal indignities suffered by the older performing artists here back in Jim Crow days, day after day, as they were trying to keep the blues alive as an expression of the black cultural gradient that forms the American experience I feel more strongly the need to put on my political hat on this one.

Although there are plenty of references to blues, old and new and several performance from the new crop of blues devotees I was struck, and powerfully so, about the insights that this documentary put forth about the nature of Jim Crow society that existed in the not distant past down in Mississippi (and not just Mississippi and not just in the deeply segregated South). This policy struck the famous and those not so famous among the black population, homegrown or tourist. There are many anecdotal stories here about a number of events that revolved around the hotel, the “juke joint”, and just the every day of black experience and what Jim Crow was down at the base for black people. Yes, get this one for its slice of black history. But also get it to remember as I have said it before but Nina Simone’s old lyrics brings out so strongly. Once again, "Mississippi god dam".


Mississippi Goddam Lyrics
(1963) Nina Simone

The name of this tune is Mississippi Goddam
And I mean every word of it

Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

Can't you see it
Can't you feel it
It's all in the air
I can't stand the pressure much longer
Somebody say a prayer

Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

This is a show tune
But the show hasn't been written for it, yet

Hound dogs on my trail
School children sitting in jail
Black cat cross my path
I think every day's gonna be my last

Lord have mercy on this land of mine
We all gonna get it in due time
I don't belong here
I don't belong there
I've even stopped believing in prayer

Don't tell me
I tell you
Me and my people just about due
I've been there so I know
They keep on saying "Go slow!"

But that's just the trouble
"do it slow"
Washing the windows
"do it slow"
Picking the cotton
"do it slow"
You're just plain rotten
"do it slow"
You're too damn lazy
"do it slow"
The thinking's crazy
"do it slow"
Where am I going
What am I doing
I don't know
I don't know

Just try to do your very best
Stand up be counted with all the rest
For everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

I made you thought I was kiddin' didn't we

Picket lines
School boycotts
They try to say it's a communist plot
All I want is equality
for my sister my brother my people and me

Yes you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie

Oh but this whole country is full of lies
You're all gonna die and die like flies
I don't trust you any more
You keep on saying "Go slow!"
"Go slow!"

But that's just the trouble
"do it slow"
Desegregation
"do it slow"
Mass participation
"do it slow"
Reunification
"do it slow"
Do things gradually
"do it slow"
But bring more tragedy
"do it slow"
Why don't you see it
Why don't you feel it
I don't know
I don't know

You don't have to live next to me
Just give me my equality
Everybody knows about Mississippi
Everybody knows about Alabama
Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

That's it for now! see ya' later

*A Bluesy Slice Of Neo-Film Noir- The Film “Dark Streets”-A Review

Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of the trailer for "Dark Streets"

DVD Review

Dark Streets, starring Gabriel Mann, Sony Entertainment, 2009

Admittedly it is tough, very tough to make a modern film noir in color that gives that gritty feel of something like Bogart and Bacall in the 1940s classic age of film noir in the “Big Sleep”. And this small film doesn’t try to do that. However, its does have a very bluesy feel to it as advertised. The plot line is a familiar one of a good guy (here in the guise of a debt-ridden nightclub owner dealing with his father’s mysterious death) of greed , intrigue and treachery, in this case involving the nefarious doings of covering up a crime in the process of cornering the electric market of an obviously corrupt and wide open city (and state). The dialogue is also somewhat stilted. One would think that such a combination calls for a thumbs down. Not so. Why? Go back to that bluesy feel. From the two fetching femme fatale torch singers who vie for said night club owner’s attentions, to the chorus girls doing, well doing their thing, to the black dancer/singer/narrator who holds the whole thing together (and puts on amazing Michael Jackson-like song and dance performances to boot). And here’s the topper- a sound track with the likes of Etta James, Solomon Burke and Doctor John in the back. My friends, this is a no-brainer in these quarters.