THROWBACK THURSDAY: Did You Ever Hear That Coffin Sound?

Last week when eulogizing B.B. King, I included "See That My My Grave Is Kept Clean," the title song, sort of, from his final studio album. It's a song known by at least three names -- the one King used; "Two White Horses," and "One Kind Favor" -- which was the actual title of King's last album.

Blind Lemon Jefferson, a bluesman from Texas, recorded the song  in 1928, but I first heard it in the version by Canned Heat. The song, part of Heat's 1968 album Living the Blues, wasn't a huge hit. But it was the flip side of "Going Up The Country," which probably was their biggest hit. They played it on KVSF here in Santa Fe ever so often and I liked it right off.

But I didn't really get into it until the early '70s, when, as a college kid  I started making trips to Juarez, Mexico with my buddies. it was always on the jukebox at El Submarino nightclub, and I always played it several times as my friends an I sat there loading up on 35-cent margaritas. The crazy energy of the song -- not to mention the fatalistic, somewhat morbid lyrics with strange images of white horses coffin sounds and graves in need of cleaning -- seemed to capture the Juarez spirit of those happier times.

Blind Lemon died two years after recording "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean." But the song is allive and well. Blind Lemon's version was included on Harry Smith's more-than-influential Anthology of Folk Music in 1952.

Even before then, it was recorded by a bunch of other blues artists including fellow Texan Lightnin' Hopkins, Furry Lewis and Mississippi Fred McDowell. And it keeps popping up in the realms of folk, rock, soul and the blues.

Here are some of the better versions of the song. Let's start with Mr. Jefferson's:



Bob Dylan, whose career owes a lot to Harry Smith's Anthology, was one of several folk revivalists who recorded it. His fiery version of  "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" was on his first album. (Notice on this one, the two white horses aren't just "in a line" as in most renditions of the song. In Dylan's, the white horses are "following me.")



Dylan's version inspired this electric rendition by The Dream Syndicate in 1988.



Lou Reed performed a growling, menacing take on the tune at a Harry Smith tribute concert in 2001.



Mavis Staples did it in the "Lightning in a Bottle" concert at Radio City Music Hall in 2003



Also in the early part of the century, folkie Geoff Muldaur (a former member of Jim Kweskin's Jug Band), recorded a haunting two-part saga in which he and some pals take literally Blind Lemon's odd request.



Here's Part 2


But still the best version of "One Kind Favor" is the version that brought the boogie to El Submarino. Viva Canned Heat!





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

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Let There Be BBQ!

There was so much rain in Santa Fe last weekend, I hate to think how many would-be  BBQers were discouraged. So I'm going to try to work a little magic here and try to appease the rain gods with some great songs about barbecue.

The art of barbecue has been linked to American music since the early part of the last century.

In 1927 Louis Armstrong & The Hot Five recorded a tune called "Struttin' with some BBQ." But as the Onion A/V Club pointed out a couple of years ago, Satch's song probably wasn't about pork ribs. Cab Calloway's Jive Dictionary defines "barbecue" as "the girl friend, a beauty."

Also in 1927, one of the first musicians to sing about smoked meat was an Atlanta bluesman named Robert Lincoln, a chef in a high-class BBQ joint who recorded under the name Barbecue Bob. His very first record, recorded in 1927 was called "Barbecue Blues."

But I prefer another Barbecue Bob song recorded in the same session, "It Won't Be Long Now," credited to Barbeque Bob and Laughing Charley (Charley Hicks, Bob's older brother.)

Jas Obrecht,  editor for Guitar Player magazine for 20 years and the founding editor of Pure Guitar magazine, writes that the song "began with a spoken dialog about Bob’s job as a barbecue chef; this was pure minstrel shuck-and-jive. This was also the first record to feature Charley’s signature laughter. It was an old shtick dating back at least to George W. Johnson’s 'Laughing Song' cylinders of the 1890s, but it was a good way to get Charlie’s name out there. Near the end of the song, the brothers sang a verse in unison."

"Shuck and jive" or not, I've always loved this dialogue, how Bob tries to explain his cooking technique ("I'm makin; it good and juicy. That's the way people like it these days, you know with gravy runnin' out") before the conversation turns to their women who have left them. ("Same dog that bit you must have snapped at me ...")

And thus, barbecue forever became intertwined with the blues, with the smoke blowing over into the fields of jazz, country, rockabilly and rock 'n' roll.

So here's a Spotify playlist of BBQ songs, beginning and ending with Barbecue Bob -- and a lot in between: Satch, ZZ Top, Mojo Nixon, Lucille Bogan, Pere Ubu and more.

So hear these songs, gods of rain, and let there be some sunshine, at least for the coming weekend.

And to you, the reader: If you get the chance to grill outside Saturday or Sunday, be sure to play this then.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, May 17, 2015 
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

OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres 

Daddy Rockin' Strong by The Dirtbombs

Heavy Honey by Left Lane Cruiser

Save the Planet by The Sonics

Amazons and Coyotes by Simon Stokes

She's the Bad One by The Rezillos

Funeral by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

The Crab-Grass Baby by Frank Zappa

You Don't Love Me Yet by Roky Erikson

The Strip Polka by The Andrews Sisters

Shake Me by Motobunny

Mo' Hair by The Hickoids

Old Folks Boogie by Jack Oblivian

Watching My Baby by The Reigning Sound

Die in the Summertime by Manic Street Preachers

Crackpot Baby by L7

Rock 'n' Roll Murder by Leaving Trains

B.B. King Tribute: All songs by B.B. King

Please Love Me

Paying the Cost to Be the Boss

Saturday Night Fish Fry

Old Time Religion

Early Every Morning

How Blue Can You Get?

Three O'Clock Blues with Bobby "Blue" Bland

When Love Comes to Town

Who Stole the Kishka by The Polkaholics

My Shadow by Jay Reatard

You're the Only One, Delores by Cub Koda

Little Rug Bug by NRBQ

To Bring You My Love by PJ Harvey

Port of Amsterdam by David Bowie

Precious Lord by B.B. King

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, May 15, 2015 
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:

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens

Angel Along the Tracks by The Dirt Daubers

Banana Pudding by Southern Culture on the Skids

Mr. Musselwhite's Blues by Ray Wylie Hubbard

Walk It By Myself by Blonde Boy Grunt & The Groans

A Box of Grass by Buck Jones

Rest of Our Lives by Mike Ness

Golden Grease by The Banditos


The Union Dues Blues by Chipper Thompson

Lookout Mountain by Bobby Bare

The Lonely Room by The Revelers

Oooeeoooeeooo by 6 String Drag

Dreaming Cowboy by Sally Timms

Reprimand by Joe West

Jam Bowl Liar by Homer & Jethro

The Kicked Me Out of the Band by Commander Cody 

Big Fake Boobs by The Beaumonts

Third Rate Romance by The Amazing Rhythm Aces

Shit Happens by The Lonesome Heroes

Mary Mack by Al Duvall

I Miss My Boyfriend by Folk Uke with Shooter Jennings

Half Broke Horse by Eilen Jewell

Honey You Had Me Fooled by The Defibulators

The Rubber Room by Porter Wagoner

Sam's Place by Buck Owens

Satan's  Jewled Crown by The Louvin Brothers

Perfect Stranger by Eleni Mandell

Man About Town by Tony Gilkyson

You've Never Been This Far Before by Freakwater

Old Rugged Cross by Jim Kweskin

CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets


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R.I.P. B.B. King

UPDATED with link to a 2008 album review.

Bluesman B.B. King, one of the most influential blues guitarists in the past century, died Thursday at his home in La Vegas, Nevada. He was 89.

A short obit from the Associated Press is HERE,

His death wasn't unexpected. He'd been in hospice care for a couple of weeks following a reported heart attack.

I first saw him in concert in early 1972 at the UNM basketball arena, a place I still call "The Pit." He headlined a bill that also featured a new band called Z.Z. Top, as well as Black Oak, Arkansas. The crowd was an odd mixture of well-dressed middle-class African-Americans and scuzzy hippies.

Before King went on on, some guy a few rows in front of me got in an argument with another guy and pulled a pistol. Nearly everyone in out whole section ducked or scattered, I was a newly initiated blues fan. I just figured it was part of the experience. But no shot was fired. No blood was shed. The show went on.


And B.B. came out and killed. He sounded as wonderful as Black Oak sounded wretched.

About 10 years later I saw B.B. at the Paolo Soleri here in Santa Fe.  He was just as good if not better than he was the first time I saw him. After the show I got to interview him back stage. I was just a freelancer for the local weekly, The Santa Fe Reporter, but he treated me like i was the most important music journalist in the country. Seriously, he was one of the sweetest musicians I've ever interviewed. We talked for what seemed like an hour, him telling stories of his life, which he'd told hundreds of other reporters.

So here's to Riley "B.B." King. Bluesman, gentleman, inspiration.

UPDATE: Here is a link to my review of his last studio album, One Kind Favor:

Here are some songs to remember him by.

The first B.B. King album I ever had was Live in the Cook County Jail. Here is my favorite song from that:




Back when I was in college, the KUNM Wednesday night blues show used this as their theme song.



And here's a Blind Lemon Jefferson song from a fairly recent album, One Kind Favor.



Goodbye, Mr. King.