Griddle Greasin' Daddies & Dirty Cowboys (2007)

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1.     Take Your Hands Off It (The Birthday Cake Song) (Hughes) - BILLY HUGHES [2:28]

2.     Motel Time (Miller, Shelton) - EDDIE MILLER AND HIS OKLAHOMANS [2:16]

3.     Ice Man Song (Unknown) - ROY LEE BROWN AND HIS MUSICAL BROWNIES [3:22]

4.     Hollywood Mama (Unknown) - BILLY CASTEEL WITH SILVER SAGE BUCKAROOS [2:54]         

5.     Who Winds Your Clock (Hughes) - BUCKY BATES [2:00]                    

6.     Sell The Coldest Stuff In Town (demons) - HOMER ZEKE CLEMONS [2:56]

7.     Let Me Play With Your Poodle (Hudson, Whittaker) - HANK PENNY [2:48]

8.     I Want To Learn To Do It (Wesley, Tyler) - T TEXAS TYLER & THE OKLAHOMA
MELODY BOYS [2:50]

9.     Kinsey's Book (Aldrich) - CHARLIE ALDRICH [2:50]

10.    Butcher Shop Blues (Edwards) - THE NOV-ELETTES [2:37]

11.    Tain't Big Enough (Montgomery) - BUFFALO JOHNSON AND HIS HERD [2:55]

12.    If The Blues Don't Kill Me (H. Hill) - DOYLE FRANKLIN AND HIS RED RIVER

VALLEY BOYS [2:58]

13.    Operation Blues (Taub) - HOMER CLEMONS AND HIS TEXAS SWINGBILLIES [2:51]

14.    The Freckle Song (Vincent) - HANK PENNY [2:59]

15.    Chicken Plucker (Montgomery) - JIMMIE BALLARD [2:16]

16.    Sixty Minute Man (Ward, Mann) -YORK BROTHERS [2:26]

17.    Tappin' That Thing (Hart, Burk) - RANDY HUGHES [2:35]

18.    Chilli Dippin' Baby (McCollister) - BETTY CORAL with RAYMOND McCOLLISTER
& HIS ORCH [2:41]

19.    I Like What You Got (Miller) - EDDIE MILLER AND HIS OKLAHOMANS [2:19]

20.    She's Got Something (Ballard - Hart) - JIMMIE BALLARD [2:47]

21.    The Tattooed Lady (McDonald) - JOHNNY WHITE & HIS RHYTHM RIDERS with
SKEETS McDONALD [2:47]

22.    Eskimo Nell (Skyles) - COTTON HENRY AND HIS OKLAHOMA HILLBILLIES [2:01]

23.    Griddle Greasing Daddy (Starr) - JOHNNY BUCKETT AND HIS CUMBERLAND
RIVER BOYS [2:19]

24.    Birthday Cake Boogie (Hughes) - JIMMIE BALLARD'S HILLBILLY SWINGMASTERS [3:04]

2

GRIDDLE GREASIN' DADDIES and DIRTY COWBOYS

The hardest part of putting together this compilation was coming up with a title for the CD which would convey the nature of the material, without causing offence to the more sensitive soul. Why "Griddle Greasin' Daddies", especially when one of the artists is female? Simply because "Griddle Greasin' Daddies" has an evocative ring to it. It is of course a euphemism for ...., ah! well!, perhaps you should take a listen to Johnny Buckett's "Griddle Greasin' Daddy" where all, we hope, will become clear!

Double entendre has always been a feature of popular entertainment, albeit more often than not it was associated with the more raucous performer. It was a genre that was frowned upon by the establishment, nevertheless, it a held a certain appeal for the masses, and there was a steady stream of material to satisfy that fascination. This type of material flourished both in the spoken word and in song; no one particular generation could lay claim to having invented this style, which is as old as time itself, witness the Bawdy Ballads of the Middle Ages as just one example of the timeless nature of this kind of material. In terms of recorded music, it was primarily the Black performers who excelled at the Double entendre material, perhaps because they were less inhibited by the pressures brought about by society in general. However, the genre was not exclusively the preserve of the Black Blues, R&B, or Jazz singers, White bands dabbled in it a little too. The Pre War Hillbilly recordings by Hartman's Heart Breakers leave little to the imagination, the early sides by Gene Autry, and Jimmie Davis are also somewhat earthy. Whereas the chancy Pre War material, both Black and White, pushed the boundaries of "good taste" to the limit, Post War performers, especially the Hillbilly ones, seemed much more cautious in comparison. Whilst any given Hillbilly composition of this nature might imply some such sexual activity, there was invariably a disclaimer in the lyric, normally at the end, to make it clear to the listener that it was he or she that had conjured up the image supposedly conveyed within the song, and not the songwriter who would never dream of sullying his or her trade with such smut. In the late forties any Hillbilly record that could remotely be described as risque regularly bore the legend on the label NOT RECOMMENDED FOR RADIO BROADCAST, although by and large that practice died out in the early fifties. Although the risque songs that the White Hillbilly performers recorded are docile in comparison with those recorded by their Black counterparts in the Blues,  R&B, or Jazz fields, they do have a certain charm of their own.

This compilation kicks of with one of the "Classic" Hillbilly risque songs "Birthday Cake" (a.k.a. "Take Your Hands Off It") sung here by its composer Billy Hughes. The subdued rasping moans mid way through the song hint at some taxing exertion by the singer, although it must be said that Hughes' efforts pall in contrast to the Seven Rowe Brothers version of the song! Songwriter / Bandleader Eddie Miller cut it pretty close to the bone with "Motel Time". Unfortunately for Miller the label of "Motel Time" carried the legend NOT RECOMMENDED FOR RADIO BROADCAST, unfortunate in so much that the flip side of the disc was the original version of "Release Me", which Jimmy Heap had a substantial hit with a few years later, and a song that gave Engelbert Humperdinck a big hit in the sixties. As a result of that word of warning the record was unceremoniously "Binned", no one thought of flipping the disc and spinning "Release Me". I guess Eddie Miller didn't really mind, because as one of the co-writers of the song he must have done pretty well from the royalty cheques over the years. Roy Lee Brown, younger brother of Western Swing maestro Milton Brown, recorded the "Ice Man Song" in Fort Worth in 1947. "The Ice Man" theme features in quite a few Western Swing Flavoured Risque songs, although to be honest I'm not sure quite what the "suspect nature" of the song is. A real obscurity next with Billy Casteel's "Hollywood Mama", recorded for the Detroit HOT WAX label in the early Forties. The listener might detect a similarity between "Hollywood Mama" and The York Brothers' "Hamtramck Mama", however to be fair the York Brothers did record their ditty first, way back in 1939 in fact. Casteel sails pretty close to the wind with the line "She lost her shimmies in the country and her panties in town". Bucky Bates entertains us next with another much loved perennial risque favourite "Who Winds Your Clock", which is a further Billy Hughes composition. The song clearly remained popular over the years, for it was reissued on more than one occasion. Homer Zeke Clemons resurrects the "Ice Man" theme with "Sell The Coldest Stuff In Town", which he recorded for the IMPERIAL label.

By all accounts Hank Penny was somewhat irate when "Let Me Play With Your Poodle" was released. Apparently Penny was given an undertaking by Syd Nathan, the owner of KING Records, that the recording, and its flip "The Freckle Song", would be released under a pseudonym to disguise Penny's identity, but when released the disc was credited to Hank Penny. Although it must be said that would have been pretty hard to hide the fact that it was Hank Penny, as he had such a distinctive vocal style. Having mentioned Syd Nathan, poor old Syd had a brush with the law in the late forties when he was accused of manufacturing the so called "Stag" or "Party" Records. T Texas Tyler "The Man With A Million Friends", as he billed himself, no doubt made himself a few more friends with "I Want To Learn To Do It". To do what you may ask? To dance of course, what else! Charlie Aldrich's "Kinsey's Book" is not so much a risque song, more a commentary on Dr. Kinsey's weighty analysis of sexual behaviour in the USA. Whilst there is little to offend in Aldrich's song, many Radio Station's banned the record solely because of its reference to Kinsey's work. The Nov-Ettes, were an ad hoc ensemble put together for a single KENTUCKY session, this outfit appears to feature the doyen of Hillbilly Risque singers, Jimmie Ballard. That particular songster is also to be found as the vocalist on Buffalo Johnson's "Tain't Big Enough", the subject matter here one could, tongue in cheek, describe as a perpetual fixation of males worldwide.

Whereas most of the songs hitherto rely on a degree of innuendo, Doyle Franklin dispenses with any sense of pretence and tells it as it is "That Man Only Loves You From Your Apron Strings On Down. He Gonna Get You Into Trouble And Then He's Gonna Leave This Town", Little for the imagination there then! Homer Zeke Clemons make a welcome return with "Operation Blues", an old song with an interesting pedigree dating back well before the Second World War. Blues singer Thomas Andrew Dorsey recorded an early version of the song, entitled then "Terrible Operation Blues" as Georgia Tom; White Jazz / Western Swing musician John "Smokey" Wood, "The Houston Hipster", also cut a version. It's likely that Homer Zeke Clemons had heard the latter's version, and he turns in a nice Blues flavoured version, re-titled here as simply "Operation Blues". Clemons rendition of the song was originally recorded for Art Rippa's Dallas based BLUE BONNET label. Initial sales were very promising, so much so that the West Coast MODERN label leased the master from Rippa and re-issued the recording on their own label. Although Clemons recording of "Operation Blues" never became it hit, it was a steady seller over the years and was repressed on numerous occasions, the last time being in 1963 (almost sixteen years after its initial release) when the recording turned up on the ROYALTY label (a MODERN subsidiary) credited to one Hank Brown!

Cumberland Valley Barn Dance star Jimmie Ballard, was a veteran of the Country music scene. Born in Middlesboro, Kentucky in 1932, Ballard turned professional when he was eighteen. Whilst better known these days for his risque material, Ballard was also a devout Christian with a string of sacred recordings to his credit. Ironic perhaps, but Georgia Tom, whose early repertoire contained several risque songs, is cited by many as one of the founding fathers of contemporary Black Gospel music. Thankfully "Chicken Plucker" is a song that the Very Reverent Dr. Spooner was never asked to sing! Ballard has two further songs on this compilation, his original (Pre KING) recording of "She's Got Some Something", and his reading of Billy Hughes' "Birthday Cake". The practice of Hillbilly artists covering R&B numbers, and Visa Versa, was quite common place at KING records. The York Brothers, George and Leslie, waxed their version of the Dominoes "Sixty Minute Man" in 1951. Whilst their version of "Sixty Minute Man" is admittedly a pale imitation of the Dominoes original, it was still considered somewhat daring at the time. Like Jimmie Ballard, Tennessean Randy Hughes, no relation to Billy Hughes, carved out a reputation for himself as a master of the suggestive song, having recorded a string of innuendo laden numbers for the Nashville based TENNESSEE label. For collectors of trivia, Randy Hughes was the pilot of the ill fated flight in 1963 that ended in tragedy, killing Pasty Cline, Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and of course Randy Hughes himself. Betty Coral is the only female artist on this compilation, and is one of the few chanteuses in the Hillbilly field who dabbled in this genre. Here she performs her version of Chilli Dippin' Baby", a song which is obviously different lyrically to some of the other versions that were recorded earlier, as her interpretation was from a female perspective, but there are some lines in Betty Corals' offering which are noticeably absent from other versions of the song, the reference to Gene Autry for example.

"Tattooed Lady" is another of those "Smutty" classics, a song which now days one seems to readily associate with Skeets McDonald, although the concept itself does appear to have been around for quite sometime, but McDonald was one of the first to record the song in the Hillbilly idiom. McDonald's tour de force around the female anatomy was a firm favourite with the discerning purchaser of such material, and the original recording, which is featured here, was so popular that the song was re-recorded (with different instrumental backing) and re-released with the same issue number!

"Eskimo Nell" is one of those almost legendary ditties much beloved by the rugby fraternity, although when you get to hear an abridged, and much sanitised version, it leads to more than a little disappointment, nice instrumental accompaniment though. A Cashbox reviewer wrote "Eskimo Nell is saucy, but not that saucy". That reviewer's observation certainly could not have been applied to Johnny Bucketts' "Griddle Greasing Daddy", which by comparison to the previous track has a total lack of any subtlety at all; Mind you after listening to the Bucketts' desirous entreaty I doubt if any of us will ever be able to look at a jar of Maxwell House Coffee without a rye grin! It should be noted that the original recording of "Griddle Greasing Daddy" featured here, ends abruptly. Johnny Buckett did later re-record "Griddle Greasing Daddy", and that recording was released on a FORTUNE EP.

We hope you enjoy this compilation, running at just over sixty five minutes, that's five minutes more than the York Brothers performance - OooooooohYou Are Awful!

AL TURNER, 2006

 


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