Risque Rhythm (1950s)

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Dirty, suggestive, "blue" - or just good fun - every song on this collection received a lot of attention from self- appointed guardians of public morality. The liveliness and raw earthiness of rhythm & blues had been tolerated until the music was discovered by white teenagers, and Mom and Dad suddenly noticed that the words were a bit explicit and direct. A fierce campaign to stamp out "suggestive" records swept the country in 1954 - R&B records were the only target of the crusade.

Almost every R&B artist recorded a naughty song once in awhile, simply because those songs had always been part of the music. Long revered as the "Queen Of The Blues," Dinah Washington made several deliciously lascivious records in her early days; one, "Long John Blues," was a sizable hit in the summer of 1949. Dinah's note-bending style was well suited to the blue lyrics, written by Tommy Hilliard, son of the respectable A&R chief at Coral Records, Jimmy Hilliard. Her 1954 ode to an absent trombone player, "Big Long Slidin' Thing," was one of the rawest and cleverest of the risque genre, but changing times kept it from getting any airplay.

Benjamin "Bull Moose" Jackson, saxophone player and reluctant vocalist, had some fine ballad hits and often expressed the wish to be remembered for those songs. No such luck. Moosey, who passed away in July 1989, made some scorchers, among them "I Want A Bowlegged Woman" and "Big Ten-Inch Record." "Bowlegged Woman had an 11- week run on the R&B charts in 1948, but the marvelous "Big Ten -Inch Record" was much too hot for the times and didn't chart in 1952. After a period out of the

business, Moosey returned with an album in 1984 that included such rib-ticklers as "Get Off The Table, Mable (The Two Dollars Is For The Beer)."

Julia Lee, pianist and singer from Kansas City, indulged the public love of good old smut with two huge hits: "Snatch And Grab It" and "King Size Papa," both of which hit #1 and lasted 28 weeks apiece in 1947 and 1948. Another one, "I Didn't Like It The First Time," reached #4 in 1949 but was quickly squelched. The rare track "My Man Stands Out" has Julia, who died in 1958, at her suggestive best.

Saxman Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, who made his 1949 tribute to that snack of kings, "Mountain Oysters," with the Bill Doggett Trio, usually directed his raunch into rough and funky jazz sax solos. By the time of his death in 1986 he had earned a place in jazz history via fine work with his own trio and the Count Basie band.

While Davis carved out a niche in jazz, Roy Brown was always "Mr. R&B," since he practically invented the music with his "Good Rockin' Tonight" in 1948. "Butcher Pete," issued as a two-parter in 1949, is a Roy Brown tour de force that manages to combine sex and gore with some of the finest R&B music ever put on wax. Fortunately, the "main-yak" (maniac) who is the subject of the song didn't get a chance to inspire too many copycats, since the record was considered too raw for airplay. On the other hand, the Billboard record reviewer loved the song, pronouncing it "loaded with imagination, humor and vitality." New Orleans-born Roy was just 55 years old when he died in 1986.

Vitality could be the middle name of Wynonie Harris, a hard- drinking, hard-loving, arrogant superstar whose rendition of Roy Brown's "Good Rockin' Tonight" was the launching pad for rock music. Harris, who died in 1969, was categorized as a blues shouter, and got his first break with the Lucky Millinder band. He went out on his own in 1945, and his jaunty approach to songs like "Keep On Churnin'" and "Wasn't That Good" made him a jukebox favorite in the very early 1950s.

Millinder's band was one of the toughest big R&B orchestras, spotlighting many jazz-greats-to-be and fine vocalists such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Annisteen Allen, and Big John Greer. Millinder, himself no musician, ended his days as a salesman for a liquor company in New York City, where he died in 1966. On "Silent George," Myra Johnson delivers a memorable, evocative performance.

Jerry Blaine's Jubilee label operation in New York City was built on the super hits of The Orioles, with their matinee-idol lead singer, Sonny Til. Efforts to get a little more depth in the R&B roster never seemed to pan out for the label, however, and "Lemon Squeezing Daddy" by The Sultans didn't help matters at all.

The song was simply too raw for radio stations to play, even in early 1951 when it was released, and it quickly sank without a trace. Equally lost in the sands of time, The Sultans remain a mystery wrapped in an enigma. They made only the one session for Jubilee and are not related to the later group on Duke. Whoever and wherever they are today, we can only hope some "lemon squeezing" is still going on.

Piano-playing Todd Rhodes came out of Kentucky and built a large following in Detroit in the mid-'40s. His band backed Wynonie Harris and also had some hits with Lavern Baker before she went solo. Baker was replaced in the band by Connie Allen, who did the jump blues vocal on 1952's "Rocket 69," a long-lasting hit on the jukeboxes.

Another band singer, Fluffy Hunter, vocalist with Jesse Powell, recorded "The Walkin' Blues (Walk Right In, Walk Right Out)" in New York in late 1951, bringing this ancient naughty blues chant right up to date with help from jazz stars Buck Clayton, J.J. Johnson, Cecil Payne, and Bill Doggett. The classic fill-in-the-blanks lyric didn't win much radio play, but saxman Powell later landed a spot as music director and house band leader at Jubilee/Josie Records, putting his stomping tenor sax behind almost all the hits by The Cadillacs.

The explosion of R&B vocal groups in 1950 was ignited by The Dominoes, a group carefully crafted by classically trained pianist Billy Ward. Bass singer Bill Brown listed the credentials of Lovin' Dan, the "Sixty-Minute Man," in 1951, and the record spent 14 weeks in the #1 slot on the R&B charts. Ex- Dominoes lead singers Clyde McPhatter and Jackie Wilson both maintained stunning careers of their own after leaving the group.

Directly from the "cool" school of vocal groups, The Swallows of Baltimore broke their chain of dreamy ballads with "It Ain't The Meat" in 1951, a sly opus led by bass singer Norris "Bunky" Mack. It didn't have a prayer of ever getting on the radio.

Forsaking gospel singing for a lucrative career in R&B, The 5 Royales were riding high in 1953 when they backed their chart hit "Too Much Lovin'" with the double- entendre         rhythm classic "Laundromat Blues." Although lead singer Johnny Tanner was suds-master on that one, founding member Lowman Pauling from Winston-Salem wrote the big Shirelles/Mamas & Papas hit "Dedicated To The One I Love."

Hank Ballard's Midnighters caused a nationwide cardiac arrest with "Work With Me Annie," a song denounced from podium to pulpit. A lot of people must have bought it just to denounce it; the record stayed on the R&B charts for half of 1954 and spent seven weeks at #1. It also sold well enough to make the pop charts. The Midnighters gleefully reacted to the outcry by releasing a sequence of follow-ups, including "Sexy Ways" and "Annie's Aunt Fannie." All sold strongly.

By 1954, the hysteria against "blue" lyrics was at gale force, and "Toy Bell" by The Bees did a lot to bring on the storm. The Bees were a New York Group led by Billy Bland, former big-band vocalist from Wilmington, North Carolina. Bandleader Dave Bartholomew brought them down to New Orleans, where they recorded a song he had written and recorded twice before: early in 1952 for King Records as "My Ding-A-Ling," and later that year for Imperial as "Little Girl Sing Ting-A-Ling."

The Bees took their ding-a- lings back to New York City in 1954 and Billy Bland went solo. He had a minor hit, "Let The Little Girl Dance," in 1960. "Toy Bell" a.k.a. "My Ding-A-Ling" was a million- seller for Chuck Berry in 1972, as good an example of changing times and morality as any.

After The Midnighters stirred up a hornet's nest of protest, radio stations all across the country tripped over themselves to get on the bandwagon and publicly ban records with 'suggestive" lyrics. Lost in the shuffle, The Toppers, from Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant section, pumped out "(I Love To Play Your Piano) Let Me Bang Your Box" as the flipside to an innocuous ballad, and created an instant party classic. The junior high school students led by Jerry Halfhide had no success with either side, however, and spent the rest of their brief recording career under the names The Hurricanes and The Memos.

Bowing to extreme pressure, R&B and its younger brother rock'n'roll got cleaned up. Unfortunately, most of the good humor and real-life atmosphere went out of the music at the same time.

PETER A. GRENDYSA

Produced for Release by: .JAMES AUSTIN • Research: DAVID McLEES. GARY PETERSON • Art Direction; GEOFF GANS • Design: MONSTER X • From Cover Photo. - MORGAN & MAKVIN SMITH/ The Schomburg Ctr. For Research In Black Culture • Photos: MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES, Venice, CA. & BILLY VERA COLLECTION • Remastering: BOB FISHER & JOE GASTWJRT/OCEAN VIEW DIGITAL MASTERING • Project Assistance: BILLY VERA. DAVID BOOTH/SHOWTIME MUSIC. JAN DAVIS * Recommended Reading: Jookin The Rise Of Social Dance Formations In African American Cultures by Katrina Hazzard-Gordon. Temple University Press. Philadelphia and Honkers And Shunters The Golden Years Of Rhythm & Blues by Arnold Shaw, Collier Books, A Division Of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. New York

 

  1. BIG TEN-INCH RECORD - Moose Jackson with Tiny Bradshaw's Orchestra (Weismantely) (King single#4580,12/52)
  2. BIG LONG SLIDIN' THING - Dinah Washington
  3. LAUNDROMAT BLUES - The "5" Royales with Charlie "Little Jazz" Ferguson & His Orchestra (Medley)(Apollo single #448,8/53)
  4. THE WALKIN' BLUES (WALK RIGHT IN, WALK RIGHT OUT) - The Jesse Powell Orchestra with Fluffy Hunter (Powell/Bass) (Federal single #12056, 2/52)
  5. WASN'T THAT GOOD - Wynonie Harris
  6. BUTCHER PETE— PT. 1 - Roy Brown & His Mighty-Mighty Men (Brown/Bernard) (DeLuxe single #3301, 2/50)
  7. IT AIN'T THE MEAT - The Swallows (Mann/Glover) King single #4501, 1/52)
  8. SIXTY-MINUTE MAN - The Dominoes (Marks/Ward} (Federal single #12022, 3/51)
  9. LEMON SQUEEZING DADDY - The Sultans (Gurhasn) (Jubilee stable #5054.4/51)
  10. WORK WITH ME ANNIE - The Royals (Ballard) (Federal single #12169, 2/54; later pressings are credit as by "The Midnighters")
  11. KEEP ON CHURNIN' - Wynonie Harris with Todd Rhodes- Orchestra (Hairston/Mann/Glover) (King single #4526, 4/52)
  12. SILENT GEORGE - Lucky Millinder & His Orchestra; Vocals by Myra Johnson (Glover/Nix) (King single #4418, 12/50)
  13. LONG JOHN BLUES - Dinah Washington with Cootie Williams' Orchestra (George) ( Mercury single #8148, 7/49)
  14. MOUNTAIN OYSTERS - Eddie Davis with The Bill Doggett Trio (Bernard) (King single #4321, 11/49)
  15. MY MAN STANDS OUT - Julia Lee & Her Boy Friends (Yates) (Capitol single #1111, 7/50)
  16. TOY BELL - The Bees (Bartholomew) (Imperial single #5314, 10/54)
  17. ROCKET 69 - Todd Rhodes & Orchestra; Vocal by Connie Allen & the Band
  18. (I LOVE TO PLAY YOUR PIANO) LET ME BANG YOUR BOX - The Toppers with Orchestra (Wyche/McCrae) (Jubilee single #5136, 2/54)


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