It’s probably not a revelation to many of my readers that this is a song much better known by another artist, but here is a little love for the original by the Zutons. Principally written by Dave McCabe, but credited to the whole band, Boyan Chowdhury, Abi Harding, Sean Payne and Russell Pritchard. First released in 2007 and there are 73 versions of the song.
There are two versions with Amy Winehouse, the first released as Mark Ronson, feat. Amy Winehouse on April 16 of 2007.
The version I very much prefer is the live recording by Amy Winehouse released April 30, 2007, Recorded at BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, London.
More rare than a leap year day was Amy Winehouse. She did many brilliant covers, speaking of my obsessions, I think I will post a few more of my favorites.
Here is the first in the names of the Delta Blues series, to keep things moving along, I wanted to keep these posts a bit more compact which for me on this topic is a challenge. Lets just say I left a lot more on the cutting room floor, not to be confused with the “killing floor”. If you don’t get the lame attempt at a joke, the reference will be explained in a later post, but there’s a clue in here today.
Charlie Patton (sometimes spelled Charley) was born perhaps between April of 1887 and 1891 and died April 28, 1934. Guitarist and a forerunner of the slide guitar style he was a great singer and a songwriter. He’s considered by many to be the “Father of the Delta Blues”. So before there was Robert Johnson, there were bluesmen like Patton who traveled the Delta region and inspired and taught many others in the style. Not that it should have mattered but being of mixed heritage including White, Black, Mexican and Cherokee he was destined for work on a Plantation or to become a Share Cropper.
One of Patton’s first recordings “Pony Blues” from 1929
The very talented Duke Robillard with a cover of “Pony Blues” (1999)
After being tutored by (most likely one of the very first) Delta Bluesman Henry Sloan, Charlie had some big ideas. As to Sloan, he lived on the same Dockery Plantation as Patton and would have been in his forties when he taught Patton and they played together as well. Sloan was never recorded and little is known what became of him, some say he left for Chicago. I also read that a man from Cleveland, Mississippi (closest community to Dockery) named Earl Harris gave Patton some lessons but I can’t corroborate that claim.
Whatever Charlie was taught he most certainly improved on it, he was by all accounts a very smart man and he could write songs, and great ones at that. He was the consummate entertainer, while his slide playing was impressive he could whip up a crowd by playing guitar behind his head and back and with his tongue (take that Jimi). He did not just play the Blues, he did popular songs of the day, Gospel, Ballads, Hillbilly and Country Folk songs.
Patton in 1929 with “Frankie and Albert” his version of the traditional song better know as “Frankie and Johnny” that currently has 331 versions.
Patton was so well known that he could book gigs in advance, a luxury rarely afforded Black musicians at that time. However his venues were most often other Plantations and Juke Joints and the audience was almost exclusively Black. As we know, this was a population of very low income, yet relatively speaking it seems he was also well paid, another luxury that afforded him a certain lifestyle. He loved to live it up and he was married eight times and only lived to age 43 (if we go with the 1891 birthdate). He was always dressed in a fine suit and brought along other people to play with him.
Those ‘others’ at one time or another, included fellow Dockery Plantation residence that benefited from his tutelage such as Willie Brown, Eddie ‘Son’ House, Roebuck ‘Pops’ Staples, Chester Burnett (Howlin’ Wolf), Fiddlin’ Joe Martin, and Tommy Johnson (no relation to Robert). Although Robert Johnson would play at the Dockery Plantation I found no reference that he and Patton ever met. Some of these will appear in future posts of their own. This is where Patton’s biggest influence lies, other musicians watching him perform could learn a lot.
Patton and the names I just mentioned were not the only Bluesmen around at that time; Buddy Boy Hawkins did a bit of recording, Gus Cannon was a jug and banjo artist that played in W.C. Handy’s band, Franks Stokes travelled as a singer/songwriter. A rarity at that time were two women; Louise Johnson and Edith North who recorded at the same time with Patton at the Grafton Sessions. There was certainly cross pollination going on as I eluded to in my Texas Blues posts with the likes of Blind Lemon Jefferson and Henry Thomas.
“Peavine Blues” 1929
The talent Blues guitarist Rory Block “Peavine Blues” (1995)
It was in 1929 that he travelled to Chicago to plan his first recording sessions. He would make records in Richmond, Indiana, Grafton Wisconsin and his last session in New York City. It would be 70 songs in total, some for Paramount and some for Vocalion. If we listen to the clips you will find the quality is low, in part a product of the times, but his vocals are very hard to make out. It takes work to listen. Consequently his records did not sell very well outside of the Black community. Despite this fact his influence was vast, musicians knew of his reputation and as you may have noticed, some of those names above are legendary. I do not want to attempt to diminish his importance but he was a real time influence and by comparison his songs are not as well covered as say Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf’s or Son House.
There is one such latent artist that he made an impression on and that was John Fogerty who says he learned a lot by listening to Patton’s records. It was Fogerty that donated funds to have a gravestone placed at Patton’s unmarked grave in 1991. Not the only now legendary artist to have died in such obscurity, Sister Rosetta Tharpe immediately comes to mind.
Patton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021 as an Influencer, in his time it was required to have some real talent to be called one.
“Spoonful of Blues” (1929) is a fine example of his incredible guitar playing.
Happy Birthday to a very dear friend of 50 years, a dedicated blog follower and Blues aficionado, have a great one Shayne! Thanks for the introduction to Duke Robillard buddy. It was ten years ago now but I recall you and I were like “kids in a Candy Store” when The Boys (sans Mike) visited Buddy Guys Legends in Chicago!
This was basically the show we saw a Buddy Guy’s, it was the Delta (Dublin, Mississippi) born Jimmy Burns (who I got to meet) featuring Kate Moss on guitar, great stuff!
I did two posts in 2018 on the Delta Blues and since then I have mentioned a number of the names to come from the area. Not long ago I did several posts on regional Blues such as Texas, Piedmont and West Coast. There are so many important names to come from the Delta I decided to dedicate some more individual posts. This will be an introduction to those unfamiliar with the region and a bit of history.
It cannot be overstated how important the artists that came from this area are to Popular Music today. These Singers and Songwriters were integral in the development of so many genre. The music from the area was not identifiable as one single entity. There was a strong element of Folk Music and even some Country here. Apart from the Blues genre itself, R&B, Rap, Hip Hop, Rock and Roll, Jazz and yes even (as mentioned) good ole’ Country Music owes much to this region.
Where to start on this topic is difficult, but it seems to me the geography is perhaps best. What we now know as the Delta Blues came from (not surprisingly) the Mississippi Delta. This is a region of the United States that stretches from north to south between Memphis, Tennessee, and Vicksburg, Mississippi, and from east to west between the Yazoo River and the Mississippi River. The river being the blood that feeds the land which at one time was not only the heart of slave country but the fertile soil, the farms, plantations and agriculture that brought them there to begin with.
The Delta Blues Trail
Born of hardship, the life of a slave, subject to discrimination, indentured servitude, sharecropping, and mostly just being very poor the Delta Blues has travelled a long long way in more ways than one. First, the survival of the Blues Singer was dependent on getting gigs, and for that one had to travel from town to town. This was the life of the itinerant musician.
The second aspect of the the ‘travel’ came en masse in the form of the Great Migration, identified as beginning around 1910 and lasting through to nearly 1970. Blacks from the south (not just the Delta) travelled north by the millions for higher paying jobs in the industrialized northern United States, but also the West and Midwest. In this group of weary travelers were musicians from the Delta region and they had guitars on their backs, harmonicas in their pockets and a unique story to tell. Landing in Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit and New York City in particular they took up jobs in foundries, factories and slaughterhouses.
As hard as the work was and as long as the hours were, many still found time for music and thankfully some of this music got to be recorded so we can still enjoy it today. In terms of how this music was captured there were what is referred to as “Field Recordings” made by Musicologists, Folklorists and many from the Record industry. But somewhat ironically in the early days there were no recording studios in the Delta where the music originated, and the first records in the genre came from Chicago. Possibly the first was by Freddie Spruell in 1926.
As to the first actual “Blues” song recorded, that is a very long story. Short version is that it was written by W.C. Handy (p.1912), who sold it to Theron Bennett, eventually we got “Memphis Blues” by the Victor Military Band, July 15, 1914. It was a Brass band put together by the Victor Talking Machine Company that put out recordings up to 1920. All this and more is a topic for an upcoming post I am still researching titled The Blues.
Freddie Spruell in 1926 with “Muddy Water Blues”
From my research on the Delta there are three key names that keep coming up and much has been written about them. Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson and Son House are the names I will use as a baseline. I will follow with individual posts on them and more.
This topic is not of a deep interest to everyone. Although I plan on an ongoing series I shall intercede with posts on other songs and topics as well.
Thanks for reading and a warm welcome to my new subscribers!
Follow this link to Music Mondays by Leon and travel back to 1986!
“A1 On the Jukebox” by Dave Edmunds from his 1978 Album Tracks on Wax 4
There are actually hundreds of songs with “Jukebox” in the title and probably hundreds more that give it a mention. It has pretty much gone the way of the Dodo bird but people are still singing about it. The thing was invented by Louis Glass and William S. Arnold in 1889 but it was when the player-piano maker, Justus P. Seeburg got the idea in 1928 to bring the coin operation, the speaker and rotating turntables together when the Jukebox really took off. Apparently Juke Box and Jukebox are both acceptable spellings.
Today I am really only interested in the Jukebox titled songs, I found a list compiled by Gert J. Almind that has 492 titles on it! Obviously a tremendous amount of research, I mean when I sat down to make a list I could only think of eight songs.
While looking at the list I can see different era’s and genre, but the overwhelming majority are Country Songs. I’d guess you are with me in thinking this makes sense. Country + booze is a pretty common theme and there are studies to back that up. In 2018 there was a Towards Data Science study that found 40% of the Top 40 Country songs from 2013-2017 mentioned alcohol.
So now I am thinking of an equation that looks like this, Country + booze + bars + nostalgia = jukebox songs.
I can’t think of anyone who ticks more of the boxes than Johnny Paycheck, he has at least two songs “Jukebox Charlie” and “The Meanest Jukebox in Town”.
I admit my search was not exhaustive but here are a couple of early Jukebox songs, Ray Whitley used the tune of Wabash Cannonball to make “Jukebox Cannonball” in 1946.
“Juke Box Blues” by June Carter, released in 1953.
How about an instrumental? The Ray Anthony Orchestra with “Juke Box Special” (1955)
That’s six songs so only another 486 to go! There are a lot of great Rock and Roll songs, Jump Blues likes the Jukebox as well.
Ok a couple more cause this one is irresistible “June Box Annie” by Kitty Kallen (1950)
Rory Gallagher feels a bit different about “Juke Box Annie”
Update: John from The Sound of One Hand Typing and quite the music expert sent me this song, “Juke Box Saturday Night” from 1944, two years before “Juke Box Cannon Ball”.
You were waiting so patiently for “Juke Box Hero” by Foreigner in 1981
Jolé Blon by Gary U.S. Bonds from his 1981 album Dedication
This song was on the “come back” album released by Gary U.S. Bonds in 1981. It was the first of two albums for Bonds thanks to Bruce Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt and recorded with the E Street Band. The song is in fact a duet with Bonds and Springsteen.
The lead single from Dedication was “This Little Girl” that did very well and peaked at #11 on the Hot 100 and #5 on the R&B charts. While “Jolé Blon” reached #65 and #29 respectively.
At the time I knew enough about the song to know it was not an original tune but it was not until about six years ago that I did some serious research on it’s roots. As we go down this trou de lapin (rabbit hole) we need a lesson in French language, Acadian, Canadian, Creole and Cajun history just for starters. Too much? Yes I agree. So just how does one unravel a song with a 200 year old history? I mean this song has as many versions as a female rabbit has babies, which in the wild is not unreasonably about 1,000 bunnies!
Just what or who is a “Jolé Blon” anyway? Here is the opening line and that’ll give you a good idea.
“Pretty blond, look at what you’ve done, You left me to go away”
Let’s get back to Bruce and Gary for a moment. Bruce had been playing around with a version(s) of “Jolé Blon” for a while, he had done it live but he did not record it. It was destined for The River but did not make the cut. Hence he thought it would be a good match for he and Gary.
Just where Bruce first heard the song I can’t say. But if we backtrack a bit we can trace the songs history to a possible version or versions.
This was Waylon Jennings first single (1959) “Jole Blon”. Recorded in 1958 with his mentor, Buddy Holly on guitar and the legendary King Curtis on saxophone. Sang in an adulterated Cajun French.
Waylon could have been inspired by a number of versions of the song but by all accounts and based on the lyrics he used we can go back to the first recording of “Jolé Blon” by Harry Choates in 1946. Here is the English version below.
Jolé Blon by Harry Choates & His Fiddle (1946)
The Choates version spawned a number of covers and similar songs in the Country genre that includes Red Foley who had a #1 hit and Moon Mullican went #2 with “New Pretty Blonde” and he also bought the publishing rights, hence he shows up in the Gary U.S. Bonds song credit. But none of these names can actually take credit for authorship of the song. While Choate’s appears to have been the first to translate and record it in English, it was originally written in Cajun French and according to Secondhandsongs.com it is credited to Amidie (Amedée) Breaux and Luderin Darbone.
Even as I say that, it’s not even close to the beginning of the songs history.
If you are interested, by all means read on and learn a bit more about the song.
The first known recording of a Traditional Cajun song is “Allons à Lafayette” by Joe e Cléoma Falcon in 1928. Joe Falcon was an accordionist and his wife Cléoma (Breaux) was a guitar player. We can give thanks to Musicologist and Folklorist Alan Lomax for recording and preserving this music. Sometime in the late 1920s, Cléoma wrote the lyrics to what has been referred to as the ‘Cajun National Anthem’, the song “Jole Blon”.
From a very musical family, Cléoma’s three brothers formed the performing and recording group the Breaux Brothers. One of the brothers, Amedée Breaux, is the only one who got credit for the song. It appears (from what I’ve gathered) he composed or more accurately arranged the music as it’s based on a traditional melody. The song was originally titled “Ma blonde est partie”. There is also some connection to an earlier song “La Fille de la Veuve” also composed/arranged by Amedée Breaux that may be based on older Traditional Cajun/Creole songs.
I have also read there are connections to Angelas Lejeune who was an inspirational Cajun and Creole singer and musician in the New Orleans area. However you spell it, it seems the melody and the story have connections back to settlements known as Acadia. This are included what is now the Canadian Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, along with the U.S. state of Maine. Acadians arrived in Louisiana from this area, that history you can read about in Wikipedia if you like. Expulsion of the Acadians.
Here is the version that introduces the lyrics by Luderin Darbone of the Hackberry Ramblers.
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