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Friday, February 3, 2012
JOE TEX - Rock and Roll Cowboy: The Ace Years
After Joe moved on from King records he released a half a dozen singles on the New Orleans label ACE. All of them are comped on this early 70s (Post-"I Gotcha") Pride budget label comp "History of Joe Tex".
caveat emptor - rechanneled stereo!!
The Ace recordings continue to see a Tex in development - heavily under the thrall of Little Richard and not penning a whole lot of his own tunes. Nickname king Joe was this time billed as "The Rock 'n' Roll Cowboy" and the persona didn't always suit him. But, like the King recordings, there are hints here of things to come, and some pretty great music in its own right.
On his first single for Ace - the Chuck Willis penned "Cut It Out" - we hear what as far as I can tell is the first appearance of one of his most crucial performance techniques - the mid-song laugh. On the self-penned Mother's Advice, the B-side of the hot "You Little Baby Face Thing", Joe seeks counsel from his mom, launching a long series of songs about moms, grandmas, dads and granddads and really sticking in the autobiographical details (the bit at the end about his dad dying early shows up in later songs). The song's narrative style of balladry is of course, with a few tweaks, what eventually made him a star.
sorry for the crappy photo above and for no photo for Mother's Advice
I tragically don't actually own these records!
But what's probably the hottest performance Joe released on ACE didn't even come out under his own name! The smokin' hot and DJ-scaringly short "Open the Door" was released by Little Booker as the flip of the instrumental "Teenage Rock". Little Booker was in reality NOLA piano and organ MEGAGENIUS James Booker, but the vocal on the flip was actually sung by an uncredited Tex.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
JOE TEX on KING: 1955 - 1957
It took Joe about 10 years and half a dozen labels before he truly found his voice. He doesn't really start preaching (on record, anyway) until a couple of magnificent 45s he cut for Anna in the early 60s. And although his good humor is always present, he doesn't really start incorporating the folksy wisdom that makes him so unique until he gets to Dial and Nashville knob-twiddler Buddy Killen starts producing him.
But even on his earliest hits for his first label, King, you can hear some of his later writing and performing tics loud and clear.
On "Pneumonia" for instance, we get to hear his love for the one-upping "answer record" (in this case to "Fever", obviously), his fondness for writing songs about funny diseases, and his strange and slightly uncomfortable tendency to use comedic domestic violence as a, uhm, punchline.
On "Davey, You Upset My Home" we can hear his skill with funny social commentary, a little bit of his country influence, and . . . his strange and slightly uncomfortable tendency to use comedic domestic violence as a, uhm, punchline.
Do you like the Chipmunks?
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Battle Of The Blues
Joe Williams and T-Bone Walker duke it out, with Della Reese serving as ref. It's another incredible photo from the JET archives.
February is JOE TEX month!
The New Boss. The Dapper Rapper. The Soul Preacher. The Clown Prince of Soul. There's lots of stuff to know about Joe Tex - whose career spanned the entirety of the classic soul era and peaked with some of the most consistent, hilarious and wise soul LPs of the 1960s. But the first thing you need to know is that Joe didn't play.
I'm serious! Dude quit school in the very first grade because they had recess every day!
He's got a bulldog jaw...
50 years ago Dick Tracy was everywhere - especially thanks to his short lived but memorable 1961 cartoon adventures.
He almost got back on the tube in 1967 but the live action pilot didn't get picked up as a series...
despite the KICKASS theme music by the Ventures!
Everyone's fave arm of the law was even immortalized on 45 earlier in 1961 by NY group The Chants during the height of Dick Tracy-mania.
Have a listen and remember group, crime doesn't ever pay.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Wynonie Harris, 1954
No matter where he goes, no matter what he does, the law enforcement ladies want to bust up Wynonie's party! Ten hours later: "Good morning, judge!" Photo courtesy the JET archives.
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