WACKY WEDNESDAY: Happy Birthday Redd Foxx

 

On Dec. 9, 1922, John Elroy Sanford was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He grew up to be known by another name, Redd Foxx. But he didn't forget the surname of his birth. Probably more people know him from the hit sitcom Sanford & Son than his previous decades as a raunchy "party records" comic. (His character's name, Fred Sanford, also happened to be the name of his father and his older brother.)

Although he's far better known as a comedian, Foxx also was a singer. When he was just a 13-year-old kid, according to his website, Fox "supported himself by playing the washboard in a band."

Soon he began his career as a stand-up comedian on the Chitlin Circuit. To put it mildly, he wasn't afraid to "play blue." By the mid 1950s his nightclub career led to a recording career, with Foxx creating an avalanche of "party albums" that sold admirably, despite the fact that none of his records ever had any chance of actual radio play.

But even before that, Foxx recorded five R&B singles for Savoy Records. Here's one from 1946, a tune titled "Fine Jelly Blues."

He also sang with bands like the Kenny Watts Hot Five. (Pianist Watt with Kenny Watts & His Brooklyn Buddies backed Foxx on his Savoy singles.)  

This one's called "Shame on You" from 1947.

Foxx recorded some more R&B singles in the mid '50s. Here's  "It's Fun To Be Living In The Crazy House," from 1957.

As Fred Sanford, Foxx often sang on his TV show. This one, "All of Me"  is a duet with Scatman Crothers.

And in honor of the season ... 

Happy birthday, Red!

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, December 6, 2020
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist :

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

Behind the Barn by Demon’s Claws

Can’t Be Brought Down by Roky Erikson

You Got That Thing by Holly Golightly

Leave Me Alone So I Can Rock Again by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Sookie Sookie by Steppenwolf

Speed Limit by Dot Wiggin Band

Language is a Virus by Laurie Anderson

(Background Music: Riff Blues by Skip Martin)

Ill Wind by Dinola

Johnny Voodoo by Empress of Fur

In the Rex by Churchwood

Eat Your Heart and Wear Your Face by The Cavemen

Roam by The B-52s

When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again by Big Al Downing

(Background Music: Spooky Bongos by Beach Girls & The Monster)

Florentine Pogen by Frank Zappa 

Platypus by Mr. Bungle

Horrorshow by The Blacks

Cry Cry, Laugh Laugh by The Krayolas

Shake Shake by The Bluetones

Go! Go! Go! by Roy Orbison

Bamalamalicious  by Rattanson

There Oughta Be a Law Against Sunny Southern California by Terry Allen

(Background Music: Lonely Guitar by Bert Weedon)

The Old Main Drag by The Pogues

Rose Tattoo by Dropkick Murphys

Polka Christmas by The Polkaholics

Since I Met You Baby by Asylum Street Spankers

What Is Love by Cheetah Chrome

Moonglow, Lamp Low by Eleni Mandell

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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THROWBACK THURSDAY: Happy Birthday Gussie Davis!

 

Goodness Gussie, it's the birthday of one of the most successful African-American songwriters of the 19th Century, the first Black Tin Pan Alley composers, Mr. Gussie Davis. 

Though he died when he was just 35, many of his tunes lived on into the 20th Century and eventually were recorded by early country music stars. He also wrote a song that's become an American classic -- though Davis hasn't received proper credit for it. (Keep reading to the bottom.)

An article about the songwriter by Wayne Erbsen in Native Ground  quotes Tin-Pan Alley historian Maxwell Marcuse:

“Gussie Davis reached for the tender spots that lurk deep within all of us, no matter how thick or tough our outer crusts may be. In an era of ‘sing-em-and-weep’ melodies, Davis did more than his share to open up the tear ducts of America.”

Born in Dayton on Dec. 3, 1863, Davis wanted to attend the Nelson Musical College in Cincinnati. But his application to the school was rejected because of his race. 

But, according to Eileen Southern in her 1997 book, The Music of Black Americans: A History, Davis found a workaround. He got a job as a janitor at the school and was paid in part with private music lessons from the instructors there. 

He self-published his first song in 1880, when he was only 18, a sentimental ditty called "We Sat Beneath The Maple On The Hill." 

In Ernsen's piece Davis was quoted saying:

I was just eighteen years old, and not caring to enter in the rear, I set to work to study music, and before long I managed to get together a pretty air and had it arranged. It was the ‘Maple on the Hill,’ and became quite popular throughout the West. Music publishers are not over generous in taking to publishing or even handling music from an unknown person, and I found a great deal of trouble, but I gave one publisher money to get it out, and he took pity on me. The song proved a great go.”

Let's hear a 1926 recording of that song by Vernon Dalhart, a pioneering country singer (He's the first to record "The Wreck of the Old 97" back in the 1920s.) But hey Vern, you don't sound that country here!

Davis kept writing and publishing songs. Before long, he hooked up with Cincinnati publisher George Propheter, who in 1886 moved to New York. Davis followed him. Davis kept writing as well as performing. In 1895 he was invited by the New York World to enter the paper's contest to determine the 10 best songwriters in the U.S. Davis came in second with his song, "Send Back the Picture and the Ring", and won a prize of $500 in gold.

I couldn't find a recording of this online, but here's a melodramatic1893 song -- composed by Davis and lyricist William H. Windom -- called "The Fatal Wedding." This was Davis' first national hit The performer here is another white country singer, Bradley Kincaid.

Vernon Dalhart also recorded another Davis tune, "The Baggage Coach Ahead." This is a more recent live version by the late Mac Wiseman.

This is "My Creole Sue," which Davis published in 1898, a year before his death. This recording is from 1923 by a group called The Shannon Quartet.

None of the above songs are very familiar to modern audiences, but chances are you've heard this one. A 2000 report by NPR says Leadbelly always attributed "Goodnight Irene" to his uncle. However, Davis composed the song he titled "Irene, Good Night" in 1886. It became a favorite of traveling minstrel shows.

So goodnight, Irene and happy birthday Gussie!

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, November 29, 2020
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist :Circus Freak by The Electric Prunes

Dead Moon Night by Dead Moon

Haint Blue by Churchwood

Hunker in My Bunker by Dave Del Monte & The Cross Country Boys

Heart Attack and Vine by Lydia Lunch

Secret Agent Man by Devo

(Background Music: Mental Strain at Dawn by David Murray)

Loch Lomand by Richard Thompson

I Don’t Know by The Hipshakes

Bittersweet Romance Song by The Dirtbombs

El Jefe/Mucho Trabajo by Lone Monk

Carry Me Home by The Hentchmen

Daniel Webster & The Devil by Big Daddy

Apartment 9 by Ricky Hell & The Voidboys

Just Like Eddie by Heinz

First We Take Manhattan by Warren Zevon

Two Lovely Black Eyes by Charles Coburn 

(Background Music: The Phantom by Bubba Thomas & The Lightmen Plus One)

Gator Gator by The Krayolas

Jail in San Antone by Mitch Webb & The Swindles

Lockdown Blues by The Moonlight 5

Twój Mój Czas by Kult

Ratz by Pussy Gillette

Black Diamond Express Train To Hell Part One by John Schooley & His One Man Band

Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall by The Waco Brothers with Paul Burch

People Who Died by Drive-by Truckers

(Background Music: Bye Bye Blues by Esquivel)

No Reply by The Beatles

All I Have to Offer You Is Me by Ted Hawkins

All’s Well in Roswell by Harvey McLaughlin

Roswell Town by Jack Clift & His Illuminati Assassination Orchestra

Barbry Allen by Chipper Thompson

Tomorrow Wendy by Concrete Blonde

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


CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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    Want to keep the party going after I sign off at midnight?
Go to The Big Enchilada Podcast which has hours and hours of music like this. CLICK HERE

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WACKY WEDNESDAY: She Was a Barroom Smash

Today, November 25, 2020, would have been the 174th birthday of radical prohibitionist Carrie Nation. 

Happy birthday, Carrie.

Mrs. Nation -- who also was known as "Carry Nation," in case you think I'm guilty of a typo -- became famous for leading attacks on saloons in which she and her followers used axes to smash up these dens of inequity. She showed that Lizzie Borden wasn't the only 19th Century woman to "take an ax." 

According to History.com, Nation described her June 6. 1900 raid on a saloon in Kiowa, Kansas:

“I ran behind the bar, smashed the mirror and all the bottles under it; picked up the cash register, threw it down; then broke the faucets of the refrigerator, opened the door and cut the rubber tubes that conducted the beer,” she recalled. “I threw over the slot machine…and got from it a sharp piece of iron with which I opened the bungs of the beer kegs, and opened the faucets of the barrels, and then the beers flew in every direction and I was completely saturated.”

She seems nice ...

As is the case of many American fanatics, Nation was inspired by The Bible and direct messages from God. In her own Bible, she wrote the word "smashing" besides this inspirational passage (Jeremiah 1:10):

"See, I have this day set thee over the nation and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant."

She was either the John Brown of her time, or the Eric Rudolph, depending on your point of view.

Nation's dream of national alcohol prohibition came true in 1919. We all know how that worked out...

But this is a music blog, so to honor Carrie or Carry or whoever she was, here are some songs inspired by the temperance movement.

Let's start with "The Lips That Touch Liquor Will Never Touch Mine," with a melody by George T. Evans and words by Sam Booth. Unfortunately this 2016 recording bythe Women's Choir at Concordia College only includes the first verse.

This temperance tune, recorded in 1916 by singer/evangelist Homer Rodeheaver "Molly and the Baby Don't You Know" was about wives and children who suffered from an alcoholic husband and father.

Along those lines is "Father's a Drunkard and Mother is Dead," written in 1866 by one Mrs. E.A. Parkhurst. This recording is by Cincinnati's University Singers on an album released in 1997.

I couldn't do a post about temperance songs without including this Kinks klassic:

And I can't help but wonder how Mrs. Nation would feel about her name being used by a fictitious rock 'n' roll band in a notorious outrageously sleazy movie, Beyond the Valley of The Dolls. Ladies and gentlemens I present The Carrie Nations!

Tip a glass to Carrie Nation on her birthday!