Arthur Alexander Month

The Fame Gang

"You Better Move On" was the first chart hit for FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

ARTHUR ALEXANDER MONTH

Hank Ballard

Hat tip: Sweeney Todd's Barber Shop.

Itchy Bon?

Itchy_Bon_Mash

Look who's back in town!

 

Although in order to escape personal demons Arthur Alexander ended up dropping out of music & driving a bus in Cleveland for most of the eighties, he did get to experience a comeback of sorts before his passing in 1993. At the time of his death he had just released a new album and was playing many well received shows around the country.
Nice that Arthur got to see a little good luck at the end instead of more of the bad luck that seemed to dog his entire career.

He's one of my faves of southern soul & this is going all the way back to his first...

June (Arthur) Alexander - Sally Sue Brown

Happy Arthur Alexander month - SHO'NUFF!!!

December Is Arthur Alexander Month!

Alabama Music Hall Of Fame

Esquerita Awareness Month: "As Time Goes By"

    It's time for the closing ceremonies of Esquerita Awareness Month, so if you start listening to this as soon as it's posted, it'll end right on time a few seconds before midnight. We're going to play you out with the B-side of Esquerita's last single (the flip can be heard here), his version of the 1931 standard better known for Dooley Wilson's version from ten years later, as heard in Casablanca. I was going to offer up my 78 of that version as well, but I can't seem to locate it, and I have a vague memory that it might have cracked beyond playability some years ago. C'est la guerre. And it's not as if you haven't all heard it, anyway.

    Self-indulgent personal note: As a kid growing up in upstate South Carolina in the '70s and '80s, there wasn't much evidence of anything good ever having happened there, so getting my copy of Kicks #3 and learning that Esquerita was from right up the road in Greenville... well, that was pretty gratifying. At last, a fellow South Carolinian who wasn't an embarrassment. I've learned a lot more about local music history since then , -- maybe sometime I'll tell you about the Monstabuckings, from Anderson, for instance-- but that was the first indication that maybe my homeland had spawned something greater than the Marshall Tucker Band*. And for that I'm grateful.

Magnificent Malochi - "As Time Goes By"


*To be fair, there's a lot worse to be found along the "Southern Rock" spectrum, but growing up in a redneck college town (the worst of both worlds!)gave me an exceptionally low tolerance for all AOR music, whether British- or Southern- accented, which has remained with me throughout life.

Esquerita Awareness Month: "Mama Your Daddy's Come Home"

As Esquerita Awareness Month draws to a close, we offer up the great man in another of his many aliases (to refresh your memory: Stephen Quincy Reeder, Jr. AKA Eskew Reeder/Eskew Reeder, Jr. AKA Esquerita AKA Esqrita* AKA S.Q. Reeder AKA Eskew "Esque-Rita" Reeder AKA Magnificent Malochi AKA Mark Malochi AKA Fabulash, and probably more that aren't documented) with a fine entry from 1968. The last solo record he'd release during his lifetime, it doesn't seem to have charted anywhere I can find, despite Billboard's prediction:

On a personal note, this is a particular favorite of my lovely wife. I hope you like it , too!

Magnificent Malochi - "Mama, Your Daddy's Come Home"



*This is how it's rendered in the songwriting credits on Little Richard's "Dew Drop Inn" and "Freedom Blues". Richard apparently nicknamed him "Excreta", so I guess we should add that one to the above litany of names.

New Orleans Shakedown With Richard D

DJ Richard D (mp3)

Guest DJ New Orleans Shake Rock & Soul 8
   Tracks:  60:22 minutes playtime         

*** richard - intro -Drits and Gravy - Talk that Talk
Chris Kenner - (Baton 220 1956) Grandma's House
Eddie Bo - (Chess Uniss 1957) Walk that Walk
                (Chess 1698 1957) Oh-Oh
Paul Marvin - (Ron 322 1959) Hurry Up
Boogie Jake - (Minit 602 1959) Early Morning Blues
Irma Thomas - (Ron 330 1960) A Good Man
Irma Thomas - (Bandy 368 1961) Look Up
Joe Cook - (Apollo 1202 1963) Dish Rag
Donnie Elbert - (Deluxe 6168 1958) Come On Sugar
Robert Parker - (Ron 327 1959) All Night Long Pt 1
Robert Parker - (Ron 327 1959) The Laughing Monkey
*** richard - set recap
Joe Jones - (Ric 972 withdrawn 1960) You Talk Too Much
Lee Dorsey - (Fury 1053 1961) Ya Ya
Ernie K-Doe - (Minit 661 1962) Easier Said Than Done
                       (Minit 645 1962) Hey Hey Hey
                       (Instant 3260 1963) Baby Since I Met You
Betty Harris - (Sansu 480 1968) Trouble with My Lover
Diamond Joe (Minit 629 1961) Moanin' and Screamin' Pts 1 & 2 
Irma Thomas - (Minit 633 1961) It's Too Soon to Know
Betty Harris - (Sansu 461 1967) Bad Luck /
                                 Lonely Hearts
Cyrille Neville - (Josie 1014 1970) Tell Me What's On Your Mind
*** richard - set recap
Skip Easterling - (Instant 3309 1970) I'm Your Man

Eskew Reerer Awareness Month

Tell me what's behind the green door.

Esquerita Awareness Month: Little Richard - "Dew Drop Inn"

Little Richard - "Dew Drop Inn"

     Today's tune, released in Spring 1970 by Little Richard and co-written by "Esqrita," was the first single off of The Rill Thing, his first new album in three years and was the flip side of "Freedom Blues", also co-written by Mr. Reeder, . It was Richard's biggest hit in the post-Specialty era, charting in Billboard at #47, and in Cashbox at #62, which I suppose makes it the best-selling disk that Esquerita was ever involved in.

     While the song is a tribute to the famous New Orleans night spot (located at 2836 LaSalle Street), it also serves as something of a eulogy, since it was at about this same point that the club breathed it's last gasp.  Jeff Hannusch has a good article about it's history at the Iko Iko website that I recommend.

     Esquerita's own version of this tune was recorded in the '60s. but not released until 1991 by the good folks at Norton Records. It can be had either as a 7'' or as a bonus on the CD version of Vintage Voola. Maybe you should just get both, to be safe!

Little Richard - "Dew Drop Inn"

Gary Garcia 1948-2011

The media coverage of Gary Garcia's death on November 17th was understandably  focused on his status as half of Buckner & Garcia (I'm not going to embed "Pac-Man Fever" here, but if you simply must hear it, you can see them perform it on American Bandstand here). Here in Ichiban-land, though, we mourn him as the leader of Akron, Ohio's Outlaws. You can hear them perform "The Scavenger" here, courtesy of Bob the Sponge. Side note: the still-living Jerry Buckner was apparently a member of the Rogues, who made a couple of records backing up Harvey Russell, the "Singing Cop".  Here's the first one-- a fine Isley Brothers cover.

Photo swiped from Buckeye Beat

  While they met in Akron as students at Perkins Jr High School, Mr. B and Mr. G plied their trade in Atlanta from the mid-'70s on, and that's where they created their most important contribution to American culture. Any Southerner-- or anyone who's ever gotten hungry on the interstate in the South, for that matter-- is familiar with the row of site-specific singles on every Waffle House jukebox. Most of those singles are produced or performed by Buckner and/or Garcia. Here's a label shot of one, courtesy of our own Greg G. 

  So, next time you're eating hash browns by the off-ramp at 2:45 AM, punch up a couple of WH anthems and raise your glass of sweet tea in a toast to Mr. Garcia. Make sure your food's already on the table, though... I've encountered Waffle House employees who aren't all that thrilled to hear "Waffle House Woman" or "844, 739 Ways to Eat a Hamburger" yet again, and they're not willing to say that they won't spit in your food. Fair warning.