Life Before Rock 'n' Roll, Part 1

Ahhhh... Saturday. 86 degrees, humid. Perfect day to stay indoors. Which is great, as there's much work to do--mopping, waxing, cat-box-emptying, etc. You might call it perfect timing.

And you may (or may not) wonder how much litter we use, on average, per week. Let's see: five boxes, 20 lbs. per box. One hundred pounds. (Believe it or don't!)

We have 20 or 21 cats (I keep forgetting which), so that's five pounds per cat. Luckily, our felines are indoor and outdoor pets, so the boxes are pretty manageable. Throughout the week, that is. Past the seven-day mark, it's a different box o' litter. Or several thereof.

Most frequently heard comment by cashiers as we check out with lots of cat stuff: "You must have a lot of cats." I've been thinking of saying, "No, just one really huge one." But I never have.

But enough real life--it's time for rock and roll. Or, rather, it's time for the days before rock and roll. The question is, what did people do for their rock and roll fix before rock and roll? In a previous series, we listened to examples of pre-ragtime-revival ragtime and discovered that, in the days before The Sting reintroduced ragtime to the public, there wasn't much of a raggy nature going on pop music, save for recordings of The Maple Leaf Rag, The Temptation Rag, The Black and White Rag, and so on. Thank God for The Sting.

Similarly, before rock and roll, record buyers had little beyond The Midnighters' Work with Me Annie, Bill Haley's Crazy, Man, Crazy, or Red Prysock's Rock 'n' Roll. Stuff like that. Elvis, please recall, didn't invade the pop charts until early 1956.

Two years earlier, of course, Elvis invented rockabilly at Sun Studios (during a soda break, no less). No argument from me--I'm not about to doubt the judgment of Peter Guralnick, and neither are you. However, there were some rockabilly-like sounds to be heard in the days prior to the great blues/country marriage that occurred on Sam Phillips' watch. These first two sides, from 1945, sound like Scotty Moore with lots of extra chops, no?:

Cannonball Rag, Merle Travis, 1945.

Pigmeat Strut, Merle Travis, 1945.

And here's a side that sounds straight out of Sun Studios, all the way to the paper-behind-the-strings sound and plunky, Moore-style guitar, courtesy of a young performer named Chet Atkins:

No Help Wanted, The Carlisles, 1952. From Mercury 45.

This next track is referred to as "rockabilly" at more than one Internet site, but it can't be--it was made just before Elvis invented the style. Anyway, another example of country before country rocked:

Go Boy Go, Carl Smith, 1954. From Columbia 45.

Another pre-rocking-country country track. We'll be taking a closer look at the tune next time. Or a closer listen, anyway:

Rock Around the Clock, Sonny Dae and His Knights, 1953.




Lee

"Make Money Blogging"

For the second time, that's what the AdSense ad reads--the little Google ad above the post. Quite a coincidence, too--I was going to ask everyone to click on the ads that appear in that spot, as I'm paid a little bit of money per click. A few pennies or so. You don't have to buy anything, of course. And because these are Google-generated ads, you can be assured you won't end up at Hot Chicks International, or anyplace like that.

Unless, of course, you want to end up at Hot Chicks International.

And here's the weird thing: you'd think "Hot Chicks International" would bring up a string of hits, no? Nope. One match on Google. Hard to believe. The good news is that the name, apparently, is up for grabs. Probably one of the few phrases of that type not currently in use. Better grab it quick.

Anyway, if you could take a second or two each visit to click on the AdSense ad, I'd be most grateful. It would mean some blog income for me--not a lot, but who knows? Enough to keep my Claritin-D supply up for this most sinus-unfriendly summer.

This blogger thanks you. Coming very soon--a Rock Around the Clock mini-history, once I find a file I'm looking for. I may have to re-rip the record.

The problem with CD-Rs in mini-cases is that there's no jewel case spine--hence, no way to title the things. That's the history of technology, in a nutshell: convenience traded for inconvenience. Over the long haul, I guess we break even. Or... maybe not.

The jury's still out. (Where the heck are they??)


Lee

"Brother Fats"

From 1951, my favorite Ray Anthony record. One of my favorite records, period. This showed up in a local Goodwill along with any number of equally cool sides by The Clovers, Big Joe Turner, Peggy Lee, Tennessee Ernie Ford, and I forget who else. My impression was that the collection had all belonged to one person--someone who loved music that rocked. Unfortunately for that person, music wouldn't rock until Elvis Presley made his first records for RCA Victor in 1956. Or at least not until Presley made his first sides for Sun in 1954. Luckily, though, he or she didn't know that.

Pity the poor pre-Elvis crowd. They had to make do with stuff like this. If you find yourself tapping along, or if you find yourself believing, even for a moment, that Brother Fats has a beat and feel that could be called, well, rocking.... Well, I don't know what to say for you. Nothing rocked in 1951, and certainly not Ray Anthony:

Brother Fats (Skylar), Ray Anthony and His Orch., with Gloria Craig and The Skyliners, 1951. From Capitol 45.

Ha! You tapped along, didn't you? I'm calling the Rock History Police. On all of us. We're suffering from rhythmic delusions.

While we're on the subject of killer pre-Elvis rock and roll, here's another white bandleader who could boogie in the best Buddy Johnson/Johnny Otis manner:

All Night Long, Buddy Morrow Orchestra, 1954. Frankie Lester, vocal (I think). From RCA Victor LP.

Otherwise, no rockin' sounds were to be heard on pop discs until Elv the Pelv sang Heartbreak Hotel. Which reminds me--I have some cool versions of Rock Around the Clock I'm fixing to post. (Bill Haley--another guy who recorded rock and roll prior to that style's invention by Sam Phillips.)


Lee

Stairway to Mystery

My latest Stairway. Weirdly enough, today's AWAD (A Word a Day) is "gumshoe."

Fascinating background: I was going to call this Stairway to Suspense, but opted for Mystery.


Stairway to Mystery (Hartsfeld), Concocted on Noteworthy Composer, sound-FXed on MAGIX, 2006.

Here's the same selection with different MAGIX sound contouring. I can't decide which file sounds best:

Stairway to Mystery (Hartsfeld), 2006.

Lee

"Chopsticks" for Tuesday

Chop Sticks dates from 1877. It was composed by a sixteen-year-old British girl named Euphemia Allen, though the sheet music was credited to one Arthur de Lulli (or, in some cases, de Lulli). Now you know....

Here are three versions of Sticks, including my relatively unembellished treatment. (In my defense, let me note that F&T have me outnumbered four to two, hands-wise):

Like Chopsticks (Rene), Joe Rene and His Orchestra, from RKO LP.

Chopsticks, Ferrante and Teicher, 1952. From Columbia LP Hi-Fire Works.

Stairway to Chopsticks (Hartsfeld), Lee Hartsfeld, using Noteworthy Composer®, 2006.



Lee

"Tamboo"--the original version?

So, I ordered a cassette tape by Francisco Cavez, the bandleader-accordionist who wrote the famous exotica instrumental Tamboo, which was made famous in 1955 by Les Baxter (on an LP of the same name). The performances on the tape are credited to "Francisco Cavez and His Latin-American Orchestra." Year: 1987. Label: Caravelle Records.

Eleven of the twelve monaural tracks sound as if they were recorded around 1970, and the performances could pass for Lawrerce Welk on the Ranwood label--say, Lawrence Welk Plays Latin-American Favorites (if such a collection existed). That is, the musicianship and arranging are first-rate, and the results blander than bland.

One track, however, is earlier than the rest and obviously from a different source (which sounds like a mildly scratchy 78). And it's anything but bland. The small group on this one is no "orchestra"--I believe this to be the Francisco Cavez Quintet, which, according to this site, was "resident during 1953 in London's Copocabana club. The members consisted of: Drums: Francisco Cavez; Piano: Gordon Franks; Guitar: Chic Lovell; Bass: Bob Howard; Vocals/Maracas: Ronnie Harris."

I'm guessing the credits should have read "Accordion: Francisco Cavez"--that's Cavez playing the fancy, impressive figures on said instrument. In fact, Tamboo makes much more "sense" as an accordion piece, in that the arpeggios are so at home on that instrument:

Tamboo (Cavez), Francisco Cavez (Quintet?), circa 1953.

And, making its second appearance, here's the famous band arrangement of Tamboo, as recorded by the American Symphonic Band of the Air. Pretty superbly transcribed, ilo (in Lee's opinion):

Tamboo (Cavez, arranged by Floyd Werle), American Symphonic Band of the Air, 1955. From Decca 45.

Much of Tamboo is a tonic-chord vamp a la Cumana. In other words, the chords change, but they function purely in terms of the tonic. They might even be called an embellishment of it.

Which gives me the perfect opportunity for reposting the ultimate stay-on-the-tonic workout ever to appear on vinyl--Eddie Kirk's Freight Train Breakdown, whose tune you might recognize as that of Ida Red/Maybelline. The final solo is my choice for the killer guitar break of all time. Who, in God's name, was the guitarist??:

Freight Train Breakdown, Eddie Kirk, 1951. From Capitol label 45.

Who needs Elvis at Sun when you've got country records like that? Every time I listen to that side, it kills my appetite for mere rockabilly....


Lee

Stairway to Liberty

Oh, well. The only title dumber than Stairway to Liberty is Stairway to Independence. I opted for the lesser of the two dumbs. Sometimes one has to do that.

The idea being that I've arranged STH as a patriotic anthem, or to sound like same. Percussion would help, but I think it sounds majestic enough without triplet snare drum figures. That, plus there's no snare drum in my software's arsenal of noises, dang it. Not one I can use, anyway.

I'm going to go through and test every last percussion effect on the list. Maybe I can find something that will function as a snare drum--it's not inconceivable. On my Casio, for instance, I use a pan pipe patch for calliope effects. Reason being, it sounds more like a calliope than the calliope patch.

Another example: on the following file, the lower two voices were achieved with a contrabass patch. Sounds like an organ to me, and when my ears are pleased, I'm pleased:

Stairway to Liberty (Hartsfeld), 2006. Concocted on Noteworthy Composer® software and edited/sound-doctored by MAGIX®.

Wish the melody sang out more, but you can't have everything. I sort of like the way that the bass voices dominate, in fact. The final track was ripped from four edited-together sections--two repeats, plus the intro, which I'd originally forgotten to write. On my commitment papers, under Cause of Insanity, it will read, "Music software."

Enjoy! An early 07/04/06 offering for your ears.


Lee