Your favorites?

I know this is probably annoying, but I'm bored, so here goes:

10 Songs I'd take with me into an MRI casket:

Ralph Nielsen & The Chancellors: Scream
Howlin' Wolf: Smokestack Lightnin'
Hasil Adkins: I Wanna Kiss Kiss Kiss Your Lips
Iggy Pop & The Stooges: I Got a Right
Roky Erickson & The Aliens: Two-Headed Dog
The Legendary Stardust Cowboy: Paralyzed
Young Jesse: I Smell a Rat
The Sonics: He's Waiting
The Swamp Rats: Hey Freak
The Gun Club: Run Through the Jungle

Albums for the island

The Stooges: Fun House
Bo Diddley
The Centurions: Surfer's Pajama Party
Johnny Burnette and The Rock 'n' Roll Trio
Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers
Champion Jack Dupree: Blues from the Gutter
Radio Birdman: Radios Appear
The Sonics: Introducing
Link Wray and The Wraymen
The Rolling Stones: 12x5

I'm going to show my age here:

For the MRI

Honkytonk Hardwood Floor - Johnny Horton
Try Me - James Brown & the Famous Flames
R-O-C-K - Bill Haley & The Comets
Smoke on the Water - Deep Purple
What Am I Living For - Chuck Willis
I Was the One - Elvis Presley
Dancing in the Street - Martha & The Vandellas
In My Life - Beatles
Wee Wee Hours - Chu Berry
Low Spark of High Heeled Boys - Traffic

For the Island:

Bringing It All Back Home - Bob Dylan
Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan
Blonde on Blonde - Bob Dylan
Surrealistic Pillow - Jefferson Airplane
After Bathing at Baxter's - Jefferson Airplane
Music From Big Pink - The Band
The Doors - The Doors
Procol Harum - Procol Harum
Beggar's Banquet - The Rolling Stones
Electric Music for Mind and Body - Country Joe and the Fish

Mind you none of this is any other order that how it popped into my head while preparing the list. Also, there are hundreds of others that could just as easily have been on the first list. No so much, the second.

It seems to show about the same vintage as my own! I like a lot of Johnny Horton's stuff - the one you mentioned and things like "I'm Ready and I'm Willing" - lots of good "rock and roll" songs as well as the familiar ballads. And speaking of Bill Haley. I found a copies of Rock and Roll Stage Show and Rocking Around the World in a local thrift shop. Noy exactly mint condition, but very playable. I really like Rock and Roll Stage Show - the slap bass rattles the window-panes. What little I know of Chu Berry is great - especially the recordings with Cab Calloway - but I think you mean Chuck Berry? It would be hard for me to choose a favorite song - so many great ones.

Enjoyed your list a lot. I envisioned a 5ft glasshead propped against a palm tree on that Isle!

Gosh. I thought rock & roll was "my era." At least I recognized a couple in list #2. :-)

What is your era? Any gems not mentioned from it? Mine was late 60s-mid 80s (as far as active interest in what was going on goes). Started out listening to whatever was on AM radio as an elementary schooler (CCR and the Osmond brothers were two favorites at age 10 - before discovering Alice Cooper at 11 which evoked an unfortunate interest in my nascent sensilbilities from Sisters of St. Joseph Schutz-Staffel) - on the big local stations of the day: WEEL and WEAM. The FM 70s (and various high quality-low cost street confections that came with it) steered me toward a cadre of folks who listened to Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Aerosmith, Lynyrd Skynyrd etc. Great times, no permanent record.

From mid-50s to about 1970, when I started to lose interest. :-) Don't mind me . . . I'm not even sure of the correct classification of the music, let alone of what is a gem. A lot of my favorites were folk, I reckon. I listened to the top 40 countdowns on the radio, watched American Bandstand a few times, bought a few records. . . .

If you don't mind me, I'm happy enough to oblige ;^) By my definition (always loose), a gem is anything that has value to you - for whatever reason. Love the stuff from that time frame you gave. I also enjoy quite a bit of the Folkways records from the 50s-mid 60s - blues, mostly - but Pete Seeger and others as well (I shouldn't fail to mention Kathy Fire, the "Lesbian Anarchist Folk Singer" Quite a wide spectrum the folks at Smithsonian covered).

Johnny Cash is my all-time favorite folk singer. The Blood Sweat and Tears album is amazing (to say nothing of the earlier Columbia lps and his output at Sun records). "Another Man Done Gone" captures the same mood and is every bit on par with Skip James' "Hard Times Killing Floor".

Anything by Tom Waits, Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, early Bob Dylan, Ian & Sylvia, Neil Diamond, PP&M, Judy Collins, The Kingston Trio, and -- just to show I'm not dead yet -- Dave Matthews Band and Bruce Springsteen.

#7
Well now, that's more like it. I've heard of Cash. Even have a few albums. :-) And went to a BS&T concert once. :-)

#8
When you say Kingston Trio you are definitely talking my language! The Merry Minuet never gets out of date, does it?

Since y'all have mentioned some of "the folk song army," and by way of musical variety (Grin), how about Tom Lehrer?

I'm afraid that my current favorite is The Rock Bottom Remainders, formerly known as The Band Formerly Known as the Rock Bottom Remainders, but back to plain RBR last I heard. Love Stephen King's "Teen Angel" rendition.

"...how about Tom Lehrer?"

I still love quoting from "Smut" ... it's so remarkably appropriate in the Internet age!

I'm only seventeen, I've got a ruptured spleen and I always carry a purse...

I never understood why Charlie's wife didn't just hand him a damn nickel.

Oh, well, remember, don't solicit for your sister, that's not nice - unless you get a good percentage of her price - be prepared...

If I had known it was alright to step out of the purely rock and roll genre my list might have been different.

benwaugh # 3 Ouch, that WAS supposed to be Chuck Berry!

Anyway, love me, love me, love me I'm a liberal.

Well, I started the group - I prefer r & r, don't know a lot about folk music, though I have listened to my share of it (I dated a flaxen-haired hippie maiden who made me pottery and herbal tea. Till I fed her after midnight. To this day I go fetal at the sound of Jacquie McShee's voice). - but could hardly interest myself in imposing, suggesting, etc. rules of any kind. All are welcome to frolic as they will in the garden of my expansive largesse.

That said, I don't love anybody for free.

OK. Rock and roll. The first group of inductees in the Hall of Fame were Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, James Brown, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, and the Everly Brothers. I've heard of them. :-)

Looking through the lists of inductees, I can see why I get confused about "genres." Otis Reading? I thought his music was "soul." But then, I don't think of all of the people in that first group as rock & roll performers either. Ray Charles?

Edited to add: Oy vey! Johnny Cash is in the Hall of Fame. Is the Rock & Roll label meaningless?

P.S. We need some touchstones here. :-) From BTRIPP's favorite: "I could tell you things about Peter Pan, and The Wizard of Oz --- there's a dirty old man!"

Ah yes, the keepers of the Almanack of yob Gotha, those clowns in Ohio. Miles Davis gets knighted, but not Link Wray. Sir Elton gets in but not Iggy and The Stooges.

Oscar Brand - is he folk? I seem to remember a few smutty lp covers and adult lyrics. I suspect he was largely a novelty act?

In the filth vein, I have a 45, from the 50s or very early 60s, on the "Fun" label: Tappin' that Thing / Yo-yo - credited to Boliver Shagnasty http://rcs.law.emory.edu/rcs/artists/s/shag5000.htm - very blue for the time, rockabilly. I've always been curious about the label and who the band was - not much data out there.

I think we had an Oscar Brand record or two when I was a kid. Pretty mild stuff, whatever it was. :-)

Btw, while we are on mild smut, anyone remember a song called "She Come Rollin' Down the Mountain"? No idea who or when; learned it at my mother's knee. :-)

I missed Boliver Shagnasty. Precursor of The Hot Nuts?

"Sir Elton gets in but not Iggy and The Stooges."

By the way, has anybody here had a chance to pick up the new Stooges album (hey, what's 30 years between releases?) ... The Weirdness?

Yes - good one. I think Doug Clark and all were 1960s. But whoever the Shagnasties were, they had nothing on the copulation blues. I think everyone missed them. Fortunately, this is the age of surfeit - everything is available, if not permitted. Norton records carries "Tappin' that Thing" on a compilation of off-color rockabilly songs.

For good old thinly disguised trash talking, there is nothing like the Blues: Big Maybelle, Memphis Minnie and god knows... (I have a Sonny Boy Williamson song in which he vibrantly upbraids his band for messing up a take).

re: Message 16. I have an order in for it from Music Direct. Direct, in their usage means Eventually. I should have put up the extra $3 and ordered from Elusive Disc. Anyway, the tracks I have heard are, considering that 30 years, pretty good. Better, at least, than most of what's coming out these days (Jesus, I think that's my grandfather's Old Spice talking...).

Here's a link to The Stooges homepage - where you will be instantly bombarded with the favored track: http://www.myspace.com/iggyandthestooges

The DC concert, by the way, sold out immediately. I have paid less for Rolling Stones tickets than what tickets are selling for now ($120 and up, last I checked).

Ticket prices are unbelievable nowadays. I saw Jefferson Airplane in San Diego in 1972 for under $10, and it was a good thing, too, as I was an E-2 in the Navy and made about $100 every two weeks.

Last concert I saw was a benefit for Hurricane Iniki victims in December 1992. CSN, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and a guest performance by Jimmy Buffett. I think that ticket was about $65.

Yes - tickets in the mid-late 1980s as well were often under $10 - for the "major" bands of the day: Black Flag, The Chameleons UK, etc. The venues were small clubs like the 930 Club and DC Space, but still.

Speaking of small venues: In the late sixties there was a club in one of the older, turn of the century houses in Atlana called The Twelfth Gate. A very small venue. I saw the Allman Brothers in there one night when it seemed as if there was more of them than us.

During the early fall of 1972 (as my memory serves me) The Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers put on a free concert at Piedmont Park. Those were the days, my friend. We thought they'd never end...

i'm currently in a early - mid sixties white-boy blues collection phase, picking up John Hammond, the Blues Project, the few Electric Flag, Paul Butterfield and the whatnot, up to the first Blood, Sweat & Tears.
anyone have an artist suggestion from that era that i might enjoy?

For white blues bands? Try Siegel-Schwall, John Mayall and The Blues Breakers, Johnny Winter, Roy Buchanan, Canned Heat, The Blues Explosion, Catfish Hodge - on and on.

Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper and Steven Stills had a couple of albums entitled Super Session 1 and 2. I own both, and they're good.

Don't forget Koerner, Ray and Glover. This was the first white boy blues band I ever hear. They were definitely great.

thanks for the suggestions, i've got a handful of John Mayall's & Johnny Winters stuff, the Kooper-Bloomfield sessions, and a touch of Canned Heat, but yeah, i'm looking forward to Koerner etc and the others.

too cool.

shakin my tamborine at the recommendation of Koerner, Ray, & Glover. spent the weekend blasting their "rags & Hollers" disc into the unholstery of my car.

thanks for the tip!

Currentlyu listening to The Charlatans, the first of the San Fran Bands of the sixties They went off to the mountains to chill and learn a few more tunes then when they came back the Dead and the Airplane had taken over. What a shame. They were really great for the time they worked in. Their drummer was Doug Hicks of Doug Hicks and the Hot Licks. The earliest Airplane sounds like them. they also were masters of jangly rock. If you were around in the sixties you know what jangly rock is.

Anybody out there remember what they did before After Bathing at Baxters?

Well, for one thing, they didn't have Grace Slick, did they? As I recall the first female lead singer for Airplane was Signe Anderson (or maybe -en).

As to jangly rock, I still own a Rickenbacker six.

Signe Anderson does a terrific job on "My Chauffeur" on Airplane Takes Off. My first Airplane album. If Grace hadn't brought her hubby's songs to the Airplane they wouldn't have needed her.Just like in 1962 I was the first kid in Town to have a Bob Dylan album I was the first to have an Airplane album, too.

Back to the white guy blues bands - I seem to have neglected to mention Love Sculpture (featuring a young Dave Edmunds on lead guitar and vocals). The lp I have, Blues Helping (1969), is mostly covers (good ones - Slim Harpo, Elmore James, Freddie King, etc.) with 3 or 4 originals.

Dave Edmunds is a much under-rated artist, "Repeat When Necessary" is a great rock and roll album. The track "Sabre Dance" from 'Blues Helping' was a top 10 single in the UK and still occasionally pops up on the radio.

No mention of Fleetwood Mac yet in white guy blues bands - before they exploded with problems the orginal group were one of the best British blues groups. Peter Green was a fantastic talent in the 60's - singer, guitarist, and songwriter - but sadly was never the same after his mental issues.

jargoneer, a friend of mine burned a copy of "Buckingham Nicks" and sent it to me. It's a lot easier to admire LB's guitar skill when it's not buried behind Fleetwood Mac's other voices.

Mick Fleetwood is putting together a new band out here in Hawai'i, where he lives now. He just performed at the revived Diamond Head Crater Festival.

Good call re 32: Total oversight. I love English Rose (and a couple of other lps whose names I can't recall. What a change they went through....). Mick fleetwood had a restaurant-club around here for years - not sure whether it's still in operation.

Peter Green's work with John Mayall is good as well.

Being a big fan of the San Francisco bands of the '60's don't forget the obvious, Big Brother. Janice was one of the very best blues singers, white or black, ever. Another San Francisco blues group, although they mixed some rock into their sound, was Moby Grape.

Another white boy blues band of the late '60's I enjoyed was from England, Savoy Brown. Blue Matter is one of the great LPs of all time.

Another white boy blues band that come to mind is the group that made Blonde on Blonde. Over the space of about a year maybe just a tad longer Dylan was pure magic. Blonde on Blonde is a baedeker of the blues.

Iggy Pop, Hasil Adkins, and Link Wray are favorites. My all time favorite is Wanda Jackson- the queen of rockabilly. She toured with Elvis in the early days and is best known for her songs "Fujiyama Mama" and "Let's have a Party".
A favorite punk list for me would begin with the queen of punk - Nina Hagen, and The Dead Boys.

Wanda Jackson is great - and was quite the knockout.

"...and The Dead Boys"

Ah ... what a great, under-appreciated band!

"Ain't Nothin' to Do"... I still think of that song as my personal anthem.

"Aint Nothin to Do" is a great song. "I Need Lunch" is a nice tune as well. The Dead Boys forever. Stiv Bators R.I.P.

Wanda Jackson is from Maude, Oklahoma; where they celebrate Wanda Jackson Day every year on her birthday. They have a parade down the main street, a bake sale to benefit the high school football team, and then Wanda performs in the high school auditorium.

Wanda is touring again and still brings down the house.

We've lost rockabilly goddess Janis Martin - but I'm glad Wanda Jackson's still going - and, of course, the lovely Laura Lee Perkins:

http://www.lauraleeperkins.com/ - her voice still sends a current down my spine.

Post #32, Jargoneer wrote - Dave Edmunds is a much under-rated artist,

agreed. Recently picked up a 'best of' type CD and love it when I'm in an old fashioned rock and roll mood.

But, back on topic. My island bands are -

David Bowie
Warren Zevon
The Clash
Neil Young
Monster Magnet
Primus
Dire Straits
Social Distortion
Rob Zombie
Black Sabbath

Yeah, I know. Freakishly weird list that doesn't seem to go together, but there it is.

what's an MRI coffin? only MRI i know is the one i go in occasionally to get my spine checked. What island?

Having said that, my passion is Bill Haley and the Comets. I heard my first real rock and roll song in January, 1955, when I was in the theatre for a showing of "Blackboard Jungle.

come with me: You are 12 years old and sitting in a darkening theater. The red curtains are pulling aside and, just before the air turns jet black, a drum crash breaks the anticipation and there it is:

one, two, three, four o'clock,rock

five, six, seven, eight o'clock rock

nine, ten, eleven, twelve o'clock rock.

we're gonna rock
around
the clock tonight

moments to remember until death. the beginning of it all.

Oh any island will do, but mostly I get to go to the one I work on.

Well Strauss discovered waltzes
Handyman found the blues
Haley came along with a brand new song
Crazy man crazy crazy new

Rock around the Clock was recorded in 1954 and is the first white boy rock and roll song. The guitar solo is possibly the most technically brilliant guitar solo in all of R&R, and it's got some good licks to boot.

BTW, I was living on an island when I heard my first R&R song, which was ABC Boogie by Bill Haley & The Comets.

First R&R songs are a bit hazy for me since my mom & dad always had something going (late 60s, early 70s). Mom liked Neil Young and Santana while dad sort of leaned towards Pink Floyd & Clapton. I used to play mom's old 45s, too. Buddy Holly. Elvis. Little Stevie Wonder. Bobby Darin. It was cool.

Definitely some Roky Erikson - my 3 year old, who shares a lot of my tastes as well as my sense of humor, enjoys listening to the "You're Gonna Miss Me" anthology while riding around in the car. I struggle to find the optimal volume level...don't want to diminish his hearing at such a tender age, but some volume IS required.

Under white boy blues, and also apropos of the Austin scene in the early 80's, there was Stevie Ray Vaughn - an excellent live act who paid homage to his forebears.

I was honored to see both these gentlemen back in the day. Erikson surrounded by his punk progeny, and SRV before he took one last flight...

I know I'm off topic, but the weirdest stage shows I ever saw involved the Butthole Surfers in the rain, after, uh, overindulging... Strange that I saw them often, but never bought an album. Might be a good topic for another thread sometime...acts who electrified/terrified on stage, but maybe didn't cut it on vinyl.

>5 Randy_Hierodule:

Osmonds?!

And let's not forget the Partridge Family, a very early enthusiasm. I remember periodically breaking into my brother's rare coin collection for the 15 -25 cents needed for a pack of PF trading cards. This will probably be the act that ultimately sends me to hell...

I'd like to think the attraction was Susan Dey, but it was probably really Shirley Jones (she was SO nurturing!).

I've seen SRV (twice), but not the Butthole Surfers & I have 2 of their CDs. Funny.

Yes, the Surfers shows with the penis dissection slides and the truly scary frontman (Gibby Haynes?)were something to behold. Do you enjoy the CDs? I haven't heard anything by them in years.

Never saw the Partridge Family live (sob!), but I believe I saw Mike Nesmith live in Austin in the early 80's. I should have mentioned earlier that the Monkees were one of the earliest groups I have consciousness of, along with my big sister's Lovin' Spoonful albums. She also had albums by a banjo-picker/songwriter named John Hartford. I really enjoyed those albums when I was still in single digits. But she owned ABSOLUTELY NO Dylan albums. In retrospect, I find that very strange.

I do like the CDs actually. They're quirky to say the least and a tad experimental (nothing like The Residents or Mr. Bungle, but still odd) and musically pretty tight. I have ElectricLarryLand (their hit Pepper is on this one, but I prefer Jingle of a Dog's Collar) and also Independent Worm Saloon which features the brilliant Who Was in my Room Last Night. Also a cool song called Some Dispute Over T-shirt Sales which at first sounded to me like a rip off of Ministry's Jesus Built My Hotrod. As it turns out Gibby & Al wrote JBMH together & Gibby did his own version, with gibberish and all.

Great stuff, but decidely weird. The concert sounds very scary.

Being fortunate enough to have grown up musically in the late forties and fifties, I have the advantage of hearing many kinds of music both before and after the birth of R&R. This also gives me another advantage, unlike my younger days, I could care less about what people think of my favorite tunes. So. . .

The original "hey, let's all learn to play instruments, jump in the VW Bus and be rock stars (not the Beach Boys) were the Cowsills. They are best known for "The Rain, the Park, and Other Things", which I did not care for, I thought their song "Indian Lake" was great. In fact today, it is nestled between "Desolation Row" and "Streetmasse" on my mp3 player.

The Cowsills are the family the TV show was patterned after, more or less.

52 - Yeah, considering the audience was by and large as whacked out as the band! If memory serves, Gibby had a radio show in San Antonio for a while. Thanks for advice on essential Surfers albums.

53 - You get a cigar! I forgot the Cowsills were the inspiration for the Partridges. Did they make any money off of it? The David Cassidy poster sales by themselves would have been millions! For that matter, I wonder if Piet Mondrian made any money off of the bus? (semi-obscure pop culture/art reference)

I always associate the Butthole Surfers with Half Man Half Biscuit due to the perchant for comedic song/album titles. Unfortunately virtually no-one in the US has heard of HMHB (mind you, not many people have heard of them in the UK) and I'm not sure how well their humour travels.

Their last album, "Achtung Bono", or "Trouble Over Bridgewater", is probably a good place to start if anyone is interested. A good example of the lyrics is from 'Shit Arm, Bad Tattoo' (about English rock band, the Libertines) -

If you're going to quote from the Book of Revelation
Don't keep calling it 'The Book Of Revelations'
There's no 's' - it's the Book of Revelation
As revealed to Saint John the Divine
See also: Mary Hopkin
She must despair

Well, "Biscuit" was the name of the singer of another 80's Texas funk/punk band, The Big Boys. He was a big guy, so half-man half-biscuit would still be pretty huge.

Dread Zeppelin also had some pretty witty titles, but I can't remember ever actually having heard them.

But thanks for the heads up on HMHB. My all-time favorite British humor band would be The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. Back when I worked at a record store, we used to play one of their albums at midnight to clear the store out. If that didn't work, we'd bring out Florence Foster Jenkins.

# 55 jargoneer,

Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way

"I remember periodically breaking into my brother's rare coin collection for the 15 -25 cents needed for a pack of PF trading cards. This will probably be the act that ultimately sends me to hell..."

Agreed.

Being claustrophobic, i suppose "I Wanna Be Sedated" would help for an MRI..and Big Stars 3rd...and the Raspberries 4 lp's...and withered stacks of Creem magazines...not that reading works in an MRi,but...

re 58: My little brother did that as well. For weed money. Of course, my sympathies were with his cause - god knows my own methods were not always clean and considerate. But I still hope he goes to hell for it.

My top ten albums:

All three Iggy & the Stooges LPs
All four Velvet Underground LPs up to & including 'Loaded'
Any three HMHB albums, they're all great, but I'll go with 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Road', 'Trouble Over Bridgewater' and 'Cammell Laird Social Club'

Pleased to report that I have finally gotten around to ordering the Atlantic Rhythm and Blues 1947- 1974 (?) Anthology. I had a couple of the individual records on vinyl for a long time, but I've finally broken down and ordered the expanded set on cd.

Although pretty mainstream, Atlantic released some essential R&B over the years. Not as poppy, to my ears, as the Motown sound that the older boomers hit me over the head with for so many years (think "The Big Chill"). Anyway, this anthology would definitely be up in my top 10-20. I especially like the earlier years.

Big Joe Turner, Sticks McGhee and Champion Jack Dupree were on Atlantic, I believe. Mighty fine stuff, popular or not (one of my all-time favorite Blues lps is Blues from the Gutter.

I agree - I prefer music closer to the 40s than the 70s on that (and any other) anthology. Specialty Records put out a nice collection, with some much less refined stuff, in the late 60s (one set was country and urban blues, the other was R&B).

Makifat, I have the second and third volumes (1954 - 1959) which is right in my wheelhouse, R&B wise. I like all types of music, but none more than this.

Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters
Ray Charles
Chuck Willis
Solomon Burke
The Clovers
The Coasters
Ben E. King
Joe Turner
Ivory Joe Hunter
Carla Thomas
Laverne Baker
Ruth Brown
The Bobbettes
William Bell
The Mar-Keys
Booker T. and the MGs

There may be one or two more artists on these two albums, but just let your mind roam over the possibilities from the names on the list. These may be the two very best CD's I have. Not a clinker in the bunch and many of them are, to me, the very definition of Rythm and Blues.

I have a four disk Okeh set that picks up their R&B in 1947 with more Chuck Willis and Screamin' Jay Hawkins among many others.

This era, 1945 - 1959 is the sweet spot for all the genres that went into the creation of Rock and Roll. Much of the best jazz, country, R&b, gospel, and pop from this era when put together in one piece of music yields Elvis' cover of "That's all right, Mama", and "Rock Around the Clock" and of course the greatest little cover band on earth, the Beatles, recorded many of the great R&B and country tunes from this era, as well.

The music had pretty much left me behind when KISS and other mid to late '70's bands came out and The Allman Brothers, Lynard Skynard, Marshall Tucker, and the Outlaws brand of Southern Rock became Boot Scootin' Boogie and wound up on the Nashville tip.

63
I suppose I'll have to put "The Specialty Story" on my wish list. I'd forgotten that this was Little Richard's label (i.e., the label he recorded for) - looks like there is a lot of other good songs on the anthology.

64
Gene, I have the Okeh set also, but on cassette (gawk!). Consequently I haven't listened to it in years.

I don't know what about this era that excites me, other than what I think of as its "authenticity", the juke joint feel. When I lived in Austin, there was a great program on KUT called "Twine Time", which specialized in this music.

I agree that it was a great time for country as well, because of the close lineage with early rock and roll. Which reminds me that the Sun Records anthology (3 or 4 discs) is also worthwhile. Some of that music defies easy categorization, which is fine by me.

While we're on the subject, I not that I also have Columbia's "Roots n' Blues Retrospective, 1925-1950" on CASSETTE. I can only attribute this poor judgement regarding format to my state of penury when these sets came out. Now when I want to listen to them, I have to poke at the broken "tape" button with a distended paper clip to get the stereo to switch over, and then poke again when I want to listen to lp or cd.

I am at the age where my equipment all seems to be breaking down...

"Pleased to report that I have finally gotten around to ordering the Atlantic Rhythm and Blues 1947- 1974 (?) Anthology."

Good for you! The CD edition available these days has more on it than the original release.
Of course, you will want to have a decent collection of Louis Jordan, Louis Prima, and Wynonie Harris to name just a few.
Years back Rhino had a Blues series containing a couple of CDs worth of Jump Blues. These are worth getting.

Speaking of Louis Jordan, I have some latter day stuff of his (e.g.: "I Got Bills") that is more like electric r&b than the jump blues of Choo-choo-cha boogie, etc. Do you know if there was a large output of this sort of material and if it is available.

And speaking of Louis Prima, etc. - don't forget Ella Mae Morse and Freddie Slack!

>68 Randy_Hierodule: - I have a French CD called Rock 'N' Roll which collects some of his Mercury recordings from 56-7 and it contains a mixture of new songs and versions of his earlier hits in a more r&b vein. The guitarist on them is Mickey Baker, half of Mickey & Sylvia and house musician on a number of early Atlantic classics: the sessions were arranged by Quincy Jones. I know he recorded for Ray Charles label in the 60s but I'm not sure any of that material is currently available.

Thanks! Mickey Baker got around. I have him on all sorts of stuff, from rockabilly to The Five Royales - but had no idea he worked with Louis Jordan.