Oh Be Cruel!

“I don’t sing in church because I’m no hypocrite. I don’t think a fellow ought to go out cussing and drinking and gambling all week long and then come and sing in church on Sunday.”
- T-Bone Walker

“When I heard T-Bone Walker play the electric guitar I had to have one.”
- B.B. King

“All the things people see me do on the stage I got from T-Bone Walker.” 
- Chuck Berry

Click the box above to watch a 1962 performance by T-Bone Walker playing “Don’t Throw Your Love On Me So Strong”.  T-Bone was a true pioneer of the blues as one of the first to play an electrified guitar and to record it as a centerpiece of his records. This blues legend also took stage performance to the next level - doing the splits, playing guitar with his teeth and encouraging the crowd to go wild. Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix both admit that their work is but echoes of T-Bone’s style and charm. Even B.B. King admitted that he refused to pick up an electric guitar until he heard ol’ Walker and knew it was the way of the future. 

“I heard this guy in Las Vegas - Billy Ward [Jackie Wilson] and his Dominoes. There’s a guy out there who’s doin’ a take-off of me; ‘Don’t Be Cruel’. He tried so hard, till he got much better, boy; much better than that record of mine”
-Elvis on Jackie Wilson 

Click the grey box above to watch Mr. Excitement Jackie Wilson perform “Baby Workout” in 1964 on Shindig!. This was one of Jackie’s last ‘huge’ hits although he remained an epic performer until the mid-70s. Poor Jackie never got much of a break. In 1961, a crazed female fan shot him and took out his kidney and, later in 1975, he was put into a 10 year lethal coma after suffering a heart attack on stage. Despite these tragedies, Wilson was a key performer who inspired the likes of Elvis, Tupac, James Brown and Michael Jackson. Get down!

“With my little band, I did everything they did with a big band. I made the blues jump.”
-Louis Jordan

Click above to watch the King of the Jukebox, the Grandfather of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the Father of Rhythm and Blues, Mr. Personality Louis Jordan and his band perform “Buzz Me”. While not his best hit, this jump blues, big band, swing performance narrows in on Jordan’s energy and charm that was emulated not only by his big band contemporaries in the 40s and 50s, but also rock n’ rollers from the onset of the movement. In fact, Bill Haley and the Comets, long-cited as some of the earliest rock n’ rollers, constantly cited their labelmate Jordan as their on-stage inspiration. You may recognize a few other rock ‘n’ rollers who prayed at the alter of Louis Jordan: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, B.B. King and James Brown. And if that wasn’t enough, some argue that Jordan recorded one of the earliest examples of rap!

“Jimmie Rodgers of course is one of the guiding lights of the 20th  Century whose way with song has always been an inspiration to  those  of us who have followed the path.  A blazing star whose sound was and remains the raw essence of individuality in a sea  of conformity, par excellence with no equal….His is the voice in the wilderness of your head…only in turning up the volume can we determine our own destiny.”
-Bob Dylan on Jimmie Rodgers  

Click the box above to listen to the Singing Brakeman, the Blue Yodeler, and the Father of Country Music Jimmie Rodgers play “Blue Yodel” in 1929. Yes, you read that right, the music video above is taken from The Singing Brakeman - a 1929 film that saw Jimmie play three songs in exchange for a cup of coffee. Jimmie was in fact a Brakeman but fell ill to consumption, costing him his job but setting him and his guitar on a road that saw him battle cyclones and play with Louis Armstrong. Jimmie died at the age of 35 of TB after literally singing himself to death in his final recordings. It is fair to say that without Jimmie Rodgers, country, blues and later rock music would have been at a loss. Rodgers inspired Lefty Frizzell, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Jerry Garcia, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis himself.

“Fats Domino is the real King Of Rock ‘n’ Roll”
- Elvis Presley, 1969, when asked about holding the mythical title himself.

“My earliest influence in music comes from Fats Domino”
- Bob Marley.

“The first song I learned was ‘Ain’t That A Shame’ by Fats Domino”
- John Lennon, on his musical education.

Click above to watch a great performance of Fats Domino and his band playing ‘Ain’t That A Shame”. Fats is an understated hero of 1950s who had been playing a distinct boogie woogie New Orleans for years before it was reclassified as rock n’ roll. Despite his pioneering ways, it took until 1955 for Fats to make it to the mainstream - having had many of his hits covered by Pat Boone (who a career out of covering black artists to segregated white audiences). Thank god for Fats, for he inspired Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Elton John, Bob Marley, Lou Reed, and Bruce Springsteen.

“I bumped into George Harrison in Abbey Road studios and he told me how much he loved the single. ‘Take my advice,’ he said, ‘forget about being an instrumental group and follow up on the vocals.’  We didn’t. We were idiots. Nice boys, but idiots.”
-Hank Marvin, The Shadows

Click the grey box above to listen to The Shadows perform “Apache” in their seminal early 1960s music video. While the song was actually written songwriter Jerry Lordan, it was the Apache’s who brought a distinctive sound and guitar playing that turned the song into a masterpiece. George Harrison, Neil Young, Tony Iommi (Black Sabbarth), Randy Bachman (The Guess Who), Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits), David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) and Eric Clapton have all cited The Shadows as a key step in rock ‘n roll guitar history.

“The name of my cat was ‘Wooly Bully’, so I started from there. The count down part of the song was also not planned. I was just goofing around and counted off in Tex-Mex. It just blew everybody away, and actually, I wanted it taken off the record. We did three takes, all of them different, and they took the first take and released it.”
-Sam the Sham

Click the box above to watch Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs perform “Wooly Bully” live on television in ‘65. A classic bar band staple, the song was originally banned from the radio because its lyrics were difficult to understand and thus suspect. Sam’s inability to pronunciate his words was actually the reason he received the nickname “the Sham” - a knock against his skills as a vocalist. Sam’s early successes were limited by the band’s tendency for novelty - starting with their turbans, pharaoh outfits and eventually their female side group ‘the Sham-Ettes” (see video below).

“People have learned how to strum a guitar, but they don’t have the soul. They don’t feel it from the heart. It hurts me. I’m killin’ myself to tell them how it is.”

-Lightnin’ Hopkins

Click the grey boxes above to watch the original Texas country blues man Lightnin’ Hopkins lay down a full session of down home dusty blues in the mid-1960s. While you wouldn’t be able to tell from a quick watch of the videos above, most of Lightnin’s lyrical work was improvised from life experience. His guitar work was another matter - his quick fingers made the toughest riffs look like a piece of cake and his style made his solo work sound like he had a full backing band. Lightnin’s life was as colourful as his music - he went from serving time in a country prison farm and playing back alley gin shops in the ’30s to touring Europe and being the subject of films in the ’60s and ’70s. However, to the end of his life in ‘81, Lightnin’ was still a ‘look you in the eye’ type of fella’ - he demanded his money up front and square. Beyond his music, why should we thank Lightnin’? The man influenced Jimmy Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Grateful Dead, Erykah Badu and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

“A fellow named Jody Rich, an ex-marine and taskmaster was originally the leader of the group. We recruited a young Hispanic fellow, stage name Benny King, on drums, plus Tony Valentino and myself. Our first gig was in Hawaii for three months. Jody, who was married at the time, was jealous of the younger band members scoring on all the babes. He became an absolute tyrant, setting a curfew, demanding spit-shined shoes, and freshly ironed clothes. Benny was the first to drop out. He went back home to his mother. Tony and I openly rebelled and Jody fired us…wait a minute…he didn’t have a band left. We re-formed and fired him.”
-Larry Tamblyn on the Standells’ early days

Click the box above to watch the Standells’ play “Dirty Water” and “There’s a Storm Comin’ ” on the Mike Douglas Show in 1966 - a rare performance of theirs without then-mandatory lip-synching. The Standells were a band of misfits from various backgrounds, but they managed to put together an early garage punk sound that would later be covered by hardcore legends Minor Threat (“Good Guys Don’t Wear White”). While “Dirty Water” brought the band a ton of success, members admit that they have always thought the song was a dud.