Thursday, November 20, 2014

Throwback Thursday: Make a Dumb Man Speak, Make a Lame Man Run

Yesterday I started "Wacky Wednesday" on The Steve Terrell Music Web Log. Today I'm starting "Throwback Thursday." No, it's not like the Facebook deal where I post my junior high pictures or whatever. These will be musical throwbacks where I'll feature a song, artist or musical phenomenon to eras gone by. And some might be even wackier than Wacky Wednesday.

So let's start with one of my favorite songs that has been kicked around jazz, blues and jug band circles for more than 80 years: "Beedle Um Bum."

It's a little tune about a girl named Cindy -- or is it Simmy? Or Jenny? -- who works in a "meat shop" where she serves a meal called "southern eel" -- or is "tadpole heel" ? Either way, every time you pass by this business establishment, you can hear Cindy, or whoever, crying:

Oh, my beedle–um–bum,
Come an’ see me if you ain’t had none.
Make a dumb man speak make a lame man run,
Sure miss somethin’ if you don’t get some of my,
Beedle–um–bum, oh, my beedle–um–bum,
It’s the best beedle–um that’s made in Tennessee

To be blunt, this a whorehouse song, first recorded in late 1928 by a group called The Hokum Boys, actually Tampa Red (Hudson Woodbridge) on guitar and Georgia Tom (Thomas A. Dorsey) on piano. Georgia Tom in later years would become famous under his real name as one of this country's greatest composer of gospel songs. He wrote "Peace in the Valley" and "Precious Lord, Take My Hand."

But, getting back to the whorehouse, Dorsey also is credited with writing "Beedle Un Bum."

Here's The Hokum Boys doing the song.



It didn't take long for others to pick up on "Beedle Un Bum." Just a few months after The Hokum Boys, a Detroit-based jazz band called McKinney's Cotton Pickers recorded it.



Other bluesmen recorded it also. One of the earliest was Big Bill Broonzy. Blind Willie McTell also did a version in 1956.



In the 1960s "Beedle Un Bum" became a favorite of the hippie neo-jug bands after Jim Kweskin's Jug Band recorded it. In California, Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, which featured future Grateful Dead members  Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan did a Kweskin-influenced cover. Later Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks picked it up.

Here's a version from a recent Hicks album, Live at Davies guest-starring Kweskin. I'm not sure where the weird verse about Johnson City, Texas came from, but it's goofy enough for the song.



If these don't make you hungry for tadpole heel I don't know what will.

For more deep dives into songs, check out The Stephen W. Terrell Web Log Songbook

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Introducing "Wacky Wednesday" on This Here Blog

I'm starting a new feature on my music blog: WACKY WEDNESDAY, where I'll introduce you, the reader to strange, funny and/or confounding music -- the type of "unclaimed melodies" that the Firesign Theatre's Don G. O'Vani was talking about when he said , "if you were to go into a record store and ask for them they would think you were crazy!"

Let's start out with an album I stumbled on over at the Free Music Archive., The Many Moods of Bob Purse.

No, I'd never heard of him either. But I bet we'd be friends if we ever met. Purse, an Illinois resident whose day job is in the mental health field, is a blogger, responsible for a site called The Wonderful and The Obsure, which is devoted to song-poems and other obscure and wonderful musical finds.

And he also writes strange tunes himself, some of which were released on an album by Happy Puppy Records a few years ago.

Here's what Happy Puppy had to say about Purse's music:

On the occasion of his 50th birthday, he posted some of his original material on his blog that he had recorded privately over the years. They came from a cassette he originally shared with friends and family back in 1997 called The Many Moods Of Bob. ...

What follows is a truly fantastic DIY album, up there with the likes of R. Stevie Moore, the weird 4-track stuff by Ween, etc. Not only does Bob has a knack for writing off-the-wall tunes, but he's also covered a song-poem [that's  "The Watusi Whing Ding Girl" --swt ] , a handful of obscure commercials, and a couple of parodies, recalling my younger-days of hearing this kind of stuff on Dr. Demento ("Bad TV Acting" was even played by Dr. D on May 16, 1999).


Right now, my favorite one here is the perverse but lethally catchy "The Man Who Licks Your Ears." I'm also digging the bizarre Bee Gees tribute "Three People Pouring Orange Juice."

I'm sure there's a favorite for you too. Play the whole thing below.

Happy Wacky Wednesday!





Sunday, November 16, 2014

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST


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Sunday, November 15, 2014 
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

Here's the playlist below

Check out some of my recently archived radio shows at Radio Free America
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Right in Time For Sunday Dinner, The NEW Big Enchilada Podcast


THE BIG ENCHILADA






It's that time of year to feel thankful for your blessings, so here's an hour of sonic blessings for all of us. This month's offerings include lots of crazy rock 'n' roll, including a lot of wild, stomping  blues-based sounds. Gather together to give thanks for the music.

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Here's the playlist:

(Background Music: Banshee by The Derangers)
Psychotic Reaction by Brenton Wood
Boo Hoo by John Schooley
Wild Little Rider by The Bloodhounds
Bloodhound by The Suicide Shifters
Have a Cow by Bichos
Kick You in the Face with My Size 10 Buster Browns by The Distortionists
(Background Music: Latin Quarter by John Zorn )

Climb Inside of This Bottle by The Blue Giant Zeta Puppies
Keep On Believing by Buzzcocks
Naapusissa by The Shangri Blahs
Bucket of Juice by Big Ugly Guys
The Magic in Your Eyes by The Legendary Stardust Cowboy
Too Many Cooks by Jesse Fortune
(Background Music: Phantom Surfer by Mr. Gasser & The Weirdos)

Cement Mixer by Jim Jones Revue
Fury by Los Straitjackets with Deke Dickerson
Samson and Delilah by Edison Rocket Train
Saved by Boss Hog
Hobo Wine by Kim Fowley
Baron of Love Part 2 by Ross Johnson with Alex Chilton

Play it here:

Friday, November 14, 2014

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST


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Friday, November 14, 2014 
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM 
Webcasting! 
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell 
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist below:


Check out some of my recently archived radio shows at Radio Free America
Like the Santa Fe Opry Facebook page 

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

  Sunday, March 24, 2024 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM, 101.1 FM  Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell E...