The King Of The Jukebox auditions a new band member. Courtesy of the JET archives.
Below, Jordan can be seen still going strong in a 1966 appearance on The !!!! Beat.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Louis Jordan, 1954
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Joe Tex Month: The Coasters/Sleepy LaBeef Connection
Joe Tex covers show up in the oddest places. Buddy Killen was one busy song-selling-son-of-a-gun from next door.
Both bands cover Joe's Buying a Book-era snotty little ode to germophobia, "It Ain't Sanitary". It's tailor made for the Coasters, and they really ham it up. It makes me wonder if he wrote it for them. A Coasters Sing Joe Tex album would have been great.
But it's kind of weird when Sleepy Labeef covers the same song on his Sun LP, the bull's night out.
Sleepy must have liked Buying a Book, because this album's also got a cover of the title track. Since the song is mostly one of JT's sermons, it's pretty weird to hear him cover it in his Sleepy baritone, word for word.
Joe Tex's Green Green Grass Of Home
Yesterday, Dr. Filth put up a fine post examining the intersection of the worlds Joe Tex and Roger Miller, which reminded me of another Joe Tex effort that came out of the country field.
The Green, Green Grass Of Home begins with a man happily recounting his eagerness to return to the familiar comforts of home after a long absence. There is, however, a catch. As the song unfolds, we learn the man is actually a Death Row prisoner and he's only been dreaming of going home. In reality, he is to be executed the following morning.
It's become something of a standard in the years since 1965 when singer Johnny Darrell released the original version of the song, followed almost immediately by Porter Wagoner's definitive interpretation, in which he added an extra layer of intensity by doing the final verse as a recitation. Tom Jones took the song to #1 in the UK in '67 and Merle Haggard, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Hank Snow, among many others, also recorded memorable versions.
So, all that said, check out Joe Tex's moving version of The Green Green Grass Of Home, performed live on Spanish television in 1968.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Joe Tex month day 17: Dang Me/Show Me! The Joe Tex/Roger Miller connection
"If I were a silly grin, I'd like to be worn on Roger Miller's face."
-Joe Tex-
Buddy Killen was the Joe Tex/Roger Miller connection. He was lifelong buddies with Miller, brokered several of his record deals, managed his publishing and sat the crazy laughing ADD genius down to complete his songs.
According to "I Love You Drops" singer Bill Anderson, "Roger would come in with seven or six lines of a song. It'd be something fabulous, and Buddy would just have to almost take him and chain him to the table to make him finish."
Killen was also one of the snappers on the giant Miller hit "King of the Road".
Joe Tex covered three different Roger Miller songs throughout his Dial career, and it wasn't just the fact that Killen helped make them the successful artists they were that made them simpatico. Both singers managed to say deeply profound things in often ridiculous contexts, and conveyed both happiness and humor in their performing style in a way that is absolutely captivating and infectious. And they were both funny as do-wacka-do.
JT covered "King of the Road" on The New Boss, "Half a Mind" on I've Got to Do a Little Bit Better, and "Engine Engine #9" on Soul Country.
And on Hold What You've Got, he wrote his own Roger Miller homage/parody, "Are We Ready?", the last verse of which goes out to Newt Gingrich.
Joe Tex with Buddy (right) and journalist Charles Lamb (center)
And just because it's too long to wait until Roger Miller Month, here's Roger and Johnny Cash.
I just told myself a dirty joke!
For more information on Roger Miller and Buddy Killen, check out the informative bio on the official Roger Miller website.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Ichiban One-Liners!
Here are some fun facts that you may not know about WFMU:
• We have made our signal available worldwide via the internet.
• We now offer podcasts, blogs, alternate webstreams and an enormous programming archive,
providing our online listeners with countless forms of entertainment.
• And we have done all of that without accepting money from corporations or underwriting.
• WFMU is completely independent, which is a claim that few
other non-commercial stations can make. We have to pay for everything
ourselves, from headphones to rent to electricity, roof maintenance,
telephones, etc. There's no "them" to give us any kind of support
whatsoever.
• WFMU DJ's do not get paid. No one gets reimbursed for labor, travel, expenses, "Santo research", parking tickets, 45s.
• We're economical and resourceful. When a piece of equipment
breaks, we try and fix the old one. Our headphones are held together by
duct tape and our turntables are supported by inner tubes.
• WFMU does not take money with strings attached. We don’t accept money from a university or underwriting.
Once a year we throw a big fundraising party and invite every listener to throw in a few clams to keep us on the air for one more year. That means you!! We even offer fabulous prizes and swag for your pledge of support.
A $50 pledge gets you entered in the drawing for Ichiban One-Liners, complied by artist extraordinaire, J.R. Williams!!! Pledge here before Friday, February 24th at 5:00 PM EST.
More infos coming your way next week!!
Joe Tex month day 16: Soul Country
“You wanna know my secret for getting a cross-over hit? I used the same formula every time – half soul musicians, half country.” - Joe Tex
Once Joe Tex and Buddy Killen started collaborating, country music became an essential part of JT's sound. Killen was an ex-bass player at the Grand Ole Opry, and was also a Nashville song publisher with vested interest in Tree Publishing. Under Killen's influence, some of the country elements present in Tex's early music were brought front and center. Most of his LPs included a straight(ish) country number or two, and countrified arranging techniques added surprising elements to hits like "I've Got to Do a Little Bit Better Than I've Been Doing".
The 1968 Country Soul LP is all country songs, and with the exception of "If I Ever Do You Wrong" they're all covers. I suspect that part of the reason for the song selection on this LP, and part of the reason for some of the cover choices on other LPs ("Heartbreak Hotel", for instance) is because Tree Publishing owned the rights to the songs, so Killen got some bread coming and going.
But the results are a pretty good LP - maybe some of the cover choices could have been better suited to Joe's natural abilities, but it was still one of the first full-length country LPs by a soul artist. And while folks like Ray Charles, Arthur Alexander and Solomon Burke were working similar veins, Joe's approach as always made the best of the songs uniquely Tex. Many of the notable numbers got posted in the "Joe Tex Show" post of February 15, so you should just go watch them there.
But there are a couple of other real winners on the record that deserve extra attention. His version of "Time Slips Away" is pretty hilarious - underneath the ordinary lyric of the Nelson standard, a second JT mumbles unspoken words of resentment. It's like Joe's dueting with his own subconscious.
But the track I love most is his chitlin' circuit version of "Ode to Billy Joe". I don't know whose idea recording the Bobbie Gentry megahit was, but the results are inspired. The funky soul arrangement drives the song from a lazy lope to a solid mid-tempo dance number, and Joe makes a number of lyrical modifications to personalize it. These make the song even weirder than it already was.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Joe Tex month day 15: The Joe Tex Show - complete! - THIS IS GENIUS
We've mainly been talking about Joe's recordings here on Inchiban, but today what we have for you is the best video and audio evidence available for his legendary status as a live performer. This video was recorded for a TV Special in Scandanavia in 1969, post Happy Soul, and it is 20 minutes of excellence. Great picture and sound quality, with spectacular dancing, singing, and an incredibly cooking band. Even the camera work is passable. Seriously - there are not many better live videos on YouTube than this.
Almost everything that makes JT my favorite soul guy is right here - the only thing missing is a slow "Hold What You've Got" style sermon. Check out that 1000 mph version of "Show Me"! And do not miss the workout on "Papa Was Too", where Joe defies gravity with the microphone stand.
"Man That's Your Baby", an extremely funny satire about delinquent baby daddies, is from Happy Soul. A whopping three songs from Country Soul (tune in tomorrow!) make up the bulk of the set, including the classic original, "I'll Never Do You Wrong". I love the sweat glistening on his forehead while he earnestly deadpans "I hope a sore come on my elbow/I hope a rock fall on my big toe./I love my toe/and my elbow/so you know I'll never do you wrong." Unassailable logic, that.
It all caps with a jive talkin' "Skinny Legs and All". Stick around past the credits for the best mic trick yet.
Unfortunately, the only "live" recording of Tex that's been officially released, Live and Lively, is a studio + overdub job. It's not a bad record, parts of it are, in fact, great - but it certainly isn't close to that video footage above. I can't help but think a real live album would put JT's rep up there in the highest tier, like he deserves. But, oh well. That's Life!
And what the heck - here's a crummy rip I made a couple of years ago, for my own devices, of that version of "Show Me" that leads the Joe Tex Show. Use it for your own devices.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Joe Tex month day 14: The Original Tex-Ter
We all know that Joe Tex was rapping before anyone called it rapping, but that's not the only "modern innovation" that JT foresaw and performed with both style and wit above and beyond the level it's normally practiced today.
I'm talking about Tex-ting.
Sure, we all occasionally, perhaps to our embarassment, LOL or TTYL in our random wordphone/ chatpane conversations. And if you don't, IMHO you've had to make the conscious decision to hate on the practice, probably for sound or perhaps just reactionary reasons.
But in "The Letter Song", Joe took the art of the abbreviation/acronym to such a high level that I propose we adopt some of them for Joe Tex month.
Particularly on today, Valentine's Day, how much better would it be to send one of Joe's messages to your sweetheart, rather than a silly less than sign with a three stuck on the end of it?
Check out Joe's personal Texicon:
YCCMAOT = You can call me any old time.
SYSLJFM = Save your sweet love just for me.
DKWIMTM = Don't know what it means to me.
DETYSLA = Don't ever take your sweet love away.
ICLMLTW = I can't live my life that way.
TCAHYTU = To come and help you to unwind.
So on Valentine's Day - don't just send your loved one a text. Send 'em a Joe Text.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Joe Tex Month, Day 13: I've Got to Do a Little Bit Better
It's a hit!
Joe's fourth Atlantic/Dial LP is, for me, his best - and one of the best soul LPs I've heard, period. Joe's performances are infectiously joyous, the arrangements on the tunes are exciting (and loaded with guitar!) and it's his best collection of original material ever. The two covers only add to the good natured, hilarious vibe of the entire record.
It starts with one of Joe's patented responses to a current hit, this time the "Tramp" rewrite "Papa Was, Too" (more on this one on Wednesday) and never lets up. "Watch the One (That Brings the Bad News)" is a great blues vamp about shoe shops, eating chicken, and rattling bags. "Lying's Just a Habit John" is a funny and instructional riff on the "Twistin' the Night Away" melody - it seems there are good lies and bad ones and John's are no good.
And the three that start side two are total jaw droppers. The countryish bowed bass fiddle hook that breaks up the title track is Buddy Killen arranging at its best. "The Truest Woman in the World" is one of JT's greatest sermons ("98% of us are jealous and suspicious and the other 2% are sneaking around!"). And what can be said about the soldier so in love with his girlfriend that he uses her letters to inspire him to get him some more enemies in "I Believe I'm Going to Make It" except maybe . . . "Batman and Robin!"
And then there's "S.Y.S.L.J.F.M" a song so good it gets its own post tomorrow.
Tip top! Get it at the record shop.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
