I was disappointed to learn that the song “Tom Sawyer”, which was one of my favorite “Monday songs” and the inspiration for this blog title, does not include the words “Monday Warrior”. Apparently it is “Modern Day Warrior”. Too late, I’m not changing it ;).
Sylvia Wright wrote an essay for Harpers Magazine in 1954. In it she explained the term she coined. As a child she misinterpreted some of the words from the Scottish ballad “The Bonny Earl of Murray.” When she heard the line “laid him on the green,” Sylvia thought it was “Lady Mondegreen.”. The term would be popularized by Jon Carroll, a San Francisco columnist.
Filling in gaps when we can’t figure out words is something our brains do. When it comes to popular songs there are some commonly known ones out there and often the interpretation is pretty funny. Sometimes much of the song becomes a bit of a Mondegreen like The Kingsman’s version of “Louie, Louie” that became a huge hit in 1963.
But it’s also a personal thing, we listen to songs and fill in words ourselves when we can’t understand the lyrics. Sometimes our creation fits the song and other times not, and we may never know the right words. Often we all hear the same thing, even though it is not what is being said. Hence the popularization of the Mondegreen. also known as oronyms.
So I would like to explore this phenomenon and talk about some of the more famous ones and if you tip me off as to one of your personal mondegreen’s, I may write about that as well. So let’s just stick with some real/popular ones to begin with. Or are they? When researching these I ran across some that make you wonder, ok someone made that up and is taking people along for the ride. Some of them may be – the words sound like something else, but does anyone actually hear it that way? Some it seems just make for a good meme.
There are other songs where we don’t mishear the lyrics, we just can’t make them out. In this case we can’t necessarily substitute a word or words. An example of this for me personally is Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets”. In this case we have a word that some have misheard, combined with a word I could not replace, so I just kind of mumble if I was singing along.
The line is:
She’s got electric boots, a mohair suit.
I think we can use our imagination to figure out the misheard word here. But what about the “mohair suit”? I could not make out what he was saying, even if I did, I would have no idea what a “mohair suit ” would be. In my mind it sounded something like “a mo ha sue”.
That said there are the obvious ones. So let’s get them out of the way shall we and then see if this idea of mine “has many eggs” (has any legs)? Leave the writing to the professionals Randy.
The Jimi Hendrix song he wrote and released in 1967 “Purple Haze” has some of the most famous misheard lyrics.
“Excuse me while I kiss the sky” was often misheard as “Excuse me while I kiss this guy” (s’Excuse me, it’s sometimes written).
The Bruce Springsteen song “Blinded by the Light” that he released on his debut album “Greetings from Asbury Park” in 1973, contains a well known mondegreen. The song was covered by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band in 1976 and reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1977.
The line often heard was “Wrapped up like a douche”. The actual line is “Revved up like a deuce” As is a deuce coupe car ala The Beach Boys song from 1963 “Little Deuce Coupe”.
And in the case where the singer himself sang the mondegreen once while explaining it, as a joke mind you. John Fogerty wrote and sang the lead in the CCR song “Bad Moon Rising” released in 1969.
Often heard was “There’s a bathroom on the right”. The real line is “There’s a bad moon on the rise” which based on the song title, maybe we should have figured that out.
I have several more popular ones and maybe one or two of my own but if I get any tip-offs on your private misheard lyric I may include that one as well. So we will see how many Mondegreen Mondays I can squeeze out.
As I mentioned in the first post on Boogie Woogie things were happening in New Orleans. One of the standouts in the style was the great Fats Domino.
When it comes to Boogie Woogie and hybrid styles there are so many other notable names from New Orleans, that could play some mean piano; Tuts Washington did it all from Blues and Ragtime to any Jazz style you want. Names like Willie Hall, Champion Jack Dupree, and Alan Toussaint. Some of these names have strong connections to early Rock and Roll as well.
In part one I quoted the Dr. John song “Down in New Orleans”, and that title kind of fit the narrative more than the genre. Below is a clip of Dr. John and Jools Holland (The Squeeze) with some evidence of unequivocal Boogie Woogie. They are hamming it up but laying down some truly amazing piano playing.
As described in the introduction by David Sanborn in the Jools/Dr. John clip, here are Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson, pictured in the video and the recording they are playing is “Yancy Special” composed by Meade Lux Lewis (1936). You have to love that announcer’s introduction!
I come back to this next clip every once in a while as I find it incredibly endearing. Jools Holland with Fats Domino. A perfect interactive demonstration of the New Orleans Boogie Woogie piano style.
There are different techniques used by Fats Domino in his songs. Not all of them are Boogie Woogie. In this way, Fats is the perfect segue here, and when we bring in Little Richard we see another shift in technique. Add Jerry Lee Lewis into the mix, and the conversation has to change.
“Boogie Woogie Baby” was Fats Domino’s second single, released in 1950.
Boogie Woogie had not one but several “babies”. While related, they are not by definition the same genre, so I will move two of them to separate follow-up posts to arrive in the near future. Firstly, Rock and Roll Piano (as in Jerry Lee Lewis) is not Boogie Woogie. Secondly, as I suggested in Part 1, don’t get me started on that, well that would then be a new post on Boogie Guitar.
If we go back to the first post, some of the music’s early songs in particular were dance instructionals. Not unlike the Square Dance Caller, in the live performance the singer told the dancers when to “mess around” and so forth. Boogie Woogie was very much about what Fats was saying in the above song “Boogie Woogie Baby”, a carefree expression on the dance floor. So the dancing style(s) became increasingly popular and varied.
This is not a ‘baby’ so much as a full-grown adult of Boogie Woogie, Disco. It’s not so much of a mystery when you take a look back. Let’s Boogie!
Earth, Wind & Fire with “Boogie Wonderland”, the very definition of the left hand “walking bass” of Boogie Woogie piano.
If you saw the post on Winifred Atwell whose Boogie Woogie playing springboarded her to great success and importance in the UK, well, more traditional American Boogie Woogie piano players found a place there. Blues artists of all stripes were finding an audience there, in large part to people like the Jazz Band Leader Chris Barber. This was because as Rock and Roll ramped up, things slowed down in the US for the Blues, so Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis, and many others would tour Europe. Names such as Lafayette Leaque and Big Joe Duskin for example would come a bit later and were keeping it alive in both the US and the UK. The style was also very popular in Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, The Netherlands and elsewhere.
I started this topic with Meade Lux Lewis and somewhat followed his timeline, unfortunately he kind of “lost his chops” as they say toward the end of his life. It ended tragically when he was rear-ended by another car and crashed into a tree. That was in 1964 and he was 58.
I do want you to know he was not a one-trick pony, even though his Boogie Woogie recording catalog is impressive. In 1936 he learned to play the celesta (suh·leh·stuh) which is a keyboard instrument that uses metal tines for the sound instead of strings. Sometimes spelled celeste. Very similar to the piano but with a completely different sound, hence a different touch on the keyboard.
While Jazz players like Earl Hines started to use it occasionally in 1928, Meade was the first Blues/Boogie Woogie artist to take it up and he played it beautifully. “Breezing at the Celeste” is the on the clip below.
The song I started the first post with by Meade was released in 1929 but recorded in 1927, so we are just a few years shy of a century. It continues to be played today and is a must-know song for the boogie-woogie piano player. So I will go out the way I came in, here are some covers of his song “Honky Tonk Train Blues”.
I could list many great artists but I will finish with just four clips from some remarkable Boogie Woogie piano players. They can and do play other styles but some are best known for Boogie Woogie. A genre that is alive and well, especially in Europe. It will knock your socks off. I will list the names first then the four clips at the end.
Keith Emerson of Emerson Lake and Palmeris well known for his abilities at the keyboard and the mellotron and more, but he can lay down some impressive Boogie Woogie. So he is in the first clip that allowed me to sneak in the late and great pride of Canada, Oscar Peterson. While playing the same song the contrast will not be lost on you.
The next will be a guy who is quite busy on social media, known for his public playing and antics, some I could do without but Brendan Kavanagh from the UK is amazing. If you fast forward to 1:25 on the clip he does an excellent job on the song.
Then we have Ladyva from Switzerland. She started playing when she was 14, which for piano is very late. Well, she caught up in a hurray and has been playing fast ever since. And and now at age 36, she is one of the best in the world at Boogie Woogie among other styles.
I will finish with Axel Zwingenberger from Germany who is one of the greatest of the genre. He and his jazz drumming brother first performed in 1973 and have not stopped since.
Romeo Nelson (March 12, 1902 – May 17, 1974) was born in Tennessee but another musician that ended up in Chicago. There are very few recordings of him but he had some of the fastest fingers going on the piano. There are other clips that are a piece of history but unfortunately, the quality is extremely poor as is the next one.
He was one of the first to record the Blues standard “1129 Blues (The Midnight Special)” but not in a Boogie Woogie style. I saw a picture of the record and it does say “1129” not sure what that might mean, as misspellings were very common then it could be a typo for 1929, as the year it was recorded was definitely one for the blues. Typically just called “The Midnight Special”.
Ivory Joe Hunter (October 10, 1914 – November 8, 1974) is one of my favorite artists, and he knew his way around the piano. He did it all, a band leader with a great voice he also composed many songs, and his “Since I Met You Baby” was a #1 hit on the R&B chart in 1956. Not necessarily known for Boogie Woogie, but he did it with his usual flare and sophistication.
Ivory Joe Hunter’s “We’re Gonna Boogie” featuring Wardell Gray on tenor sax.Some blistering trumpet in there, I have three possible names from the liner notes; Howard McGhee, Ernie Royal, or Ray Linn. Anyone who knows for sure please comment.
Meade Lux Lewis with his original composition first recorded in 1927 “Honky Tonk Train Blues”
Anderson Meade Lewis was known as Meade Lux Lewis (1905-1964). While he did not invent Boogie Woogie, he is a good place to start the conversation. Meade was from Chicago which in the 1920s was becoming a leading center for Boogie Woogie music.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Just what is Boogie Woogie anyway?
As I often say when trying to explain anything to anyone (who is not my wife), “I am no expert”. Surprisingly she is still not convinced, where was I? Yes, a definition.
Boogie Woogie Beginnings
It’s a bit hard to define precisely from what I have read over the years. Carnegie Hall played a very important part in the genre so I looked to their website for a definition. I can’t find a better one, and my reading and notes just won’t gel for me so here it is from Carnegie.
“Boogie-woogie, primarily a piano-based style, is one of the most rhythmically intense forms of blues music. Its evolution began in the late 1800s among pianists in the rough-and-tumble city taverns and rural juke joints, and it spread to the traveling vaudeville shows. It was a feature in the barrelhouses in the logging, sawmill, turpentine, levee, and railroad camps throughout the South. In Texas the piano style was known as “fast western.” The basic boogie-woogie rhythm, an outgrowth of ragtime and rural blues, is said to have been inspired by the rhythmic clacking of steam locomotives throughout the Deep South”.
We know a few things more specifically, the suggestion is the origins may be from Piney Woods, Texas. It was there in the 1870s that Black piano players seemed to have developed the style while playing at the nearby camps mentioned in the definition. It’s typified by the left hand holding a bass pattern (a walking bass line), and the right hand playing a counter pattern with more variety. You may have heard the term “Left Hand of/like God”1.
Some reading I did suggests it and the sort of low-level Barrelhouse (cheap saloons) music is one and the same. It’s true in the early days there were similarities and many played in a hybrid of Barrelhouse/Ragtime/Boogie Woogie with the latter evolving far beyond, having a distinctive style.
This sound gave a great dance beat and small buildings were erected at these camps and a piano was put in place for the workers to let off some steam. The piano players began to travel from camp to camp and more and more people, both blacks and whites were learning the style. Oh, and that Meade Lux Lewis song “Honky Tonk Train Blues” was a real thing, trains with pianos and no seats, just a dance floor. By the early 1900’s the music was now ubiquitous throughout the South and players shared stages with the other Blues players of the day.
Well, it turns out you just can’t keep a good thing to yourself and that right hand was adding more melodies, riffs, licks, and any number of fancy things (technical term). Like other forms of The Blues, it was transported North during the Great Migration. St. Louis, Detroit, and Chicago in particular were really boogie-woogie-ing. We had stuff going “Down in New Orleans”2 as well.
Now, a hundred things were going on with Boogie Woogie, but I am writing a blog post here so I am compressing things a lot. For example, apart from as mentioned above, there is an intersection here with Stride Jazz. And don’t get me started on the guitar players like Blind Lemon Jefferson and Big Bill Broonzy who were exposed to it and incorporated this style.
“Pine Top’s Boogie Woogie” by (Clarence) Pinetop Smith. You could not have a better instructional audio. Among other things, he tells people to “mess around” which is a dance move. That’s what Boogie Woogie was all about.
Early Names
I could toss you dozens of names from Romeo Nelson to Cripple Clarence and Roosevelt Sykes but let’s follow one particular path. Practitioners such as the Composer George Washington Thomas (“The New Orleans Hop Scop Blues“) and his brother Hersal, brought it to Chicago. This is where pioneer Jimmy Yancy would come into the picture and influence Meade Lux Lewis and his childhood friend Albert Ammons. A third player, Pinetop Smith who had played in Ma Rainey’s band came to Chicago on the advice of another very important early boogie-woogie-style piano player known as Cow Cow Davenport. Smith’s “Pinetop’s Blues” and “Pinetops Boogie Woogie” from 1928 are genre standards. As it happens Meade and Albert would also learn from Pinetop and at one point they were rooming together in Chicago.
The Depression arrived and the dollars for buying records were few and Boogie Woogie piano was rarely recorded and mostly relegated to shows in the South. The whole live entertainment industry was suffering along with almost everyone else. So for Meade and other musicians, there were no venues in Chicago where he could get a gig. That would change in 1938 when John Hammond found him washing cars for a living and gave him an invitation.
How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
Sometime back I did a guest piece for Turntable Talk 11 where I wrote about the important event called the FromSpirituals to Swing concerts, the first (one at least) was a tribute to the late Bessie Smith and held at Carnegie Hall on December 23, 1938, and a second show a year later on December 24, 1939. As part of many legendary leaders in music, that first event featured Count Basie, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and the first concert was the setting for a debut performance of some of the recently deceased Robert Johnson’s songs. The second show it was the Benny Goodman Sextet and returning was Count Basie and this time with vocalist Helen Humes.
The event was organized by John Hammond who I have spoken about many times and his importance to American music cannot be understated. When he found Meade in Chicago he asked him to play this gig at Carnegie Hall. Among the many Blues, Big Band and Gospel artists singing/playing, were his friends Albert Ammons and Pinetop Smith. Along with Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson, over the two shows they would perform Boogie Woogie Piano for the first time before a New York audience. This led to appearances at many New York venues including the swanky Café Society nightclub, which opened in 1939.
The Proliferation
The Andrew Sisters “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”
Soon Boogie Woogie, sometimes more in name than style was showing up everywhere. Yes, I do mean everywhere. And why not, the music was a lot of fun. From The Andrew Sisters “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” (1941) to Judy Garland and Novelty Songs and it had already found its way into Texas Swing. We even had Country and Western Music star Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “Shotgun Boogie”. It was in Big Band music, Tommy Dorsey, etc., and in a small way, other forms of Jazz Music (the purists hated it). You had Cab Calloway using it in his act to any number of songs with some kind of “Boogie” and or “Woogie” in it or in the title. And movies, of course.
Sugar Chile Robinson was born in 1938 and is still with us today at age 85.
On the downside you had Meade Lux Lewis refused membership into ASCAP, the publishing organization that would have allowed him to collect royalties from his song that I started the post with “Honky Tonk Train Blues”. It now has nearly 100 versions. After a bit of a battle he was allowed to join ASCAP in 1942. Unfortunately this was after Bob Crosby and His Orchestra had sold many records with his “Honky Tonk Train Blues” in 1939 and “Yancy Blues” in 1938.
Until it was reversed after he was exposed by John Hammond, Decca Executive Jack Kapp copyrighted the words “Boogie Woogie” in an effort to control (collect royalties) from all the so-named songs including the pioneering Smith’s “Pinetops Boogie Woogie”, which was the first time the words were used in a recorded song title.
The amazing Martha Davis. “Martha’s Boogie”. That’s her husband Calvin Ponder on Bass.
As with any good thing, the high never lasts. Remember that Swifties. There was a downturn and of course, there had been and still are the detractors as well. Jelly Roll Morton, said to be an early proponent had a clause in his contract stating he could not be asked to perform a Boogie Woogie song. Others would call it rudimentary music and lacking in any artistic merit.
Still, the style now included tunes from the guitar, ensembles, and whole orchestras. As for the piano players some more than others were adept at many styles but if Boogie Woogie was your forte you needed to find an audience.
Despite the lack of interest in most of the US, as I alluded to earlier some people in New Orleans were feeling differently. So were many Europeans. You may have heard about some of that, and this whole Rock and Roll thing, something familiar there as well.
It sounds like we need a Part 2. This has been a long one so we will give it a few days before I write/post it. In the meantime, over the next while, I will just send out a couple clips of some of the great names in Boogie Woogie. Thanks for reading as always.
Further reading: The Story of Boogie-Woogie: A Left Hand Like God by Peter J. Silvester ↩︎
Mostly Music Covers 