BLUESMUSE49. Start spreading the news. The world’s first blues recording, The Memphis Blues, was laid down three times in New York 100 years ago this coming July. But as I’ve written enough about Memphis Blues’ centenary (see 11 December 2013 post), how about finding out what other interesting musical events happened exactly 100 years ago?
Let’s start with the second calypso ever recorded and the first recorded in the West Indies, which made its debut in 1914.
The earliest calypso recorded, however, actually came along in 1912, which was a good two years
before the first recorded blues. Like the first blues, the first calypso, called Mango Vert, was recorded in New York. Here’s a YouTube link:
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| Trinidad's Lovey's String Band |
As you’ll have seen, the first calypso was cut in 1912 by Lovey’s String Band, who hailed from calypso’s birthplace, Trinidad. Active from the 1890s to the 1920s, other songs in the Lovey’s (sound like British actors, don’t they?) catalogue included a smoking version of a number called Mari-Juana. And, as an example of the infancy of
the recording industry, by 1914 the release of blues records had outstripped the calypso records released: by three to two.
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| Ballin' the Jack sheet music |
While pop music records released in 1914 were few and far between, one of the most popular was a disc called Ballin’ The Jack by Prince’s Orchestra. Ballin’ The Jack was an American dance craze of the era, as you’ll see from its lyrics below.
First you put your two knees close up tight,
Then you sway 'em to the left, then you sway 'em to the right,
Step around the floor kind of nice and light,
Then you twis' around and twis' around with all your might,
Stretch your lovin' arms straight out in space
Then do the Eagle Rock* with style and grace
Swing your foot way 'round then bring it back,
Now that's what I call "Ballin' the Jack."
Of the hundreds of performers who have since recorded
Ballin’ The Jack, this Brenda Lee version from 1960 is my favourite:
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| Little Miss Dynamite, Brenda Lee |
*In an interesting aside (to me, anyway), when I arrived in Australia from England in 1973, a great Aussie band called Daddy Cool was all the rage down under and one of their tracks was Eagle Rock. Little did anyone know Eagle Rock was first mentioned on record in 1914, except Daddy Cool, of course. For those interested in hearing a top song, here’s the link:
I joined Daddy Cool’s record label in Oz and remembered the band being promoted in London as an American band, would you believe. Their
management didn’t want anyone to know they were Aussies. Daddy Cool also had quite a bit of exposure in the USA at the time, I believe. Anyone remember them?
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| Daddy Who? Daddy Cool: worth a listen |
Another rare record from 1914 that you might know was Aba Daba Honeymoon by the comic duo, Arthur Collins and Byron G. Harlan. If you don’t know the song, you proably know the chorus:“Aba daba daba daba daba daba dab, Said the chimpie to the monk; Baba daba daba daba daba daba dab, Said the monkey to the chimp.” Collins & Harlan’s 1916 song
That Funny Jas Band from Dixieland, incidentally, featured one of the first recorded uses of the word "Jas," which eventually became known as jazz.
The comedy hit of the year in the USA in 1914 was a record called The Little Ford Rambled Right Along by Billy Murray. Listening to this novelty song about the new Model T Ford, I can hear Murray’s vocal influences on the English comic songster, George Formby. If you’re a bit of a motor head, why not take a listen:
Highlights of the many songs published in 1914 (as opposed to being recorded) were two W.C. Handy compositions: St. Louis Blues and The Yellow Dog Blues. 1914 was also the year, the Georgia
Peach, Lucille Hegamin, moved to Chicago where she worked with pianists Tony Jackson and Jelly Roll Morton, before marrying another pianist, Billy Hegamin. Lucille Hegamin once said: “I think I can say without bragging that I made the St. Louis Blues popular in Chicago”.
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| Lucille Hegamin and her band in Chicago c. 1914 |
Also in 1914, Gertrude and Will Rainey (Ma and Pa) started touring America as Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues; while the biggest song on the South’s black vaudeville circuit was still Baby Seal’s Blues. This song had the distinction of being the second blues ever published (in August 1912), the first blues published with vocals, and the first blues published that was written by an African American. Tellingly, the sheet music instructed the musicians to play the tune very slowly, just as Hart Wand’s Dallas Blues sheet music had six months’ earlier in March 1912.
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| Sonny Boy 1: born in 1914 |
Finally, the first and original Sonny Boy Williamson was born John Lee Williamson near Jackson, Tennessee, in 1914. The original Sonny Boy Williamson’s blues harmonica-playing set the standard for the traditional Chicago blues harp sound for generations to come.
Overshadowing everything in 1914, of course, was the outbreak of World War One and a host of tunes now associated with that war were published that year including, It’s a Long, Long Way To Tipperary. A British music hall song by Jack Judge that topped America’s Billboard chart for 13 weeks, It’s a Long, Long Way To Tipperary was recorded by the American Quartet with Billy Murray, who seems to have been having a good year in 1914.
It’s a Long, Long Way To Tipperary has since lost one of its “longs” and is now referred to simply It’s a Long Way To Tipperary.
For more on the history of the blues, packed with hundreds of photographs, why not check How Blues Evolved now at Amazon. Even better, why not buy it. It’s going for a song.
In the UK, preview How Blues Evolved on this link below:http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=how+blues+evolved+volume+one
In the USA, get your free previews on this link:
