Little Junior Parker's survey looked at his singles recorded in Memphis and Houston for the Sun and Duke labels. Those sessions included either Ike Turner or Pat Hare on guitar: two men with a genuinely menacing edge to their sound. Most rock'n'roll fans will know Parker as being writer and originator of "Mystery Train" whose arrangement was purloined note-for-note by a certain Elvis A.P.. They'll also know the name Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup who started recording for Bluebird in 1941 - five years before those seminal songs like "That's Alright Mama". He was destined never to get his financial dues in his lifetime that royalty cheque only arrived to his family after his death.
Pick of the three (just) was the 3-cd set on Johnny Otis in the "Pioneers of Rock'n'Roll" series that Fantastic Voyage is running. 83 tracks span 3 discs covering the 40's 50's and early 60's, each one showing Otis as songwriter, player, arranger, producer or mentor. We slipped in a couple of examples but you can bet we'll be back for more. Etta James was launched by Johnny Otis while barely out of her teens and they worked together going forward it was somewhat fitting they died within days of each other in 2010. Etta's album "Queen of Soul" is reissued by the Kent label but we took one of the dozen bonus tracks for STAR BLUES yesterday.
The 1001 feature had both Crime and Punishment: Lead Belly's true story of John Hardy cut in 1942 and the hope of dodging the deserved justice of the hangman as told by Odetta in 1957 (on a song usually credited to Lead Belly). The Staples Singles did gospel duty with tremulous voice and guitar from Pops Roebuck; while Scrapper Blackwell superbly accompanied Leroy Car in 1928. Perhaps more evidence to support the bold claim in Living Blues a few years ago regarding the breadth of Carr's influence?
Tapes of Magic Sam's 1969 gig a few months before his death have just surfaced and though the bass and drums are murky to put it kindly but Sam's guitar cuts through to remind us why he was so great. It is a rare chance to hear what it was like in the clubs on the West Side of Chicago in 1969. Both Carl Marshall and Curtis Salgado have had serious health worries and now seem to be making good progress, we sent them all our best wishes with a track apiece from current albums.
The white upper body apparel showed up well on the webcam I'm told but I still didn't get an answer on why we had mascots from Hitch Hikers Guide on our stairs (or is it a sinister invasion of yellow plastic ducks that look at you strangely in the dark. To be safe I didn't dare turn my back on them, the small ones were far worse than the bigger ones). Next week I'll be prepared, but will you? Find out at 10pm (BST) on Sunday, until then take care of yourselves ad take care of those that take care of you).
| My Only Good Thing | Kenny Neal | 7 | Walking On Fire | Kenny Neal | Alligator |
| The Good The Bad The Blues | U.P. Wilson | 6 | The Good The Bad The Blues | U.P. Wilson | JSP |
| You Don't Love Me | Magic Sam | 3 | Live 1969 Raw Blues | Magic Sam | Rock Beat |
| I.C.U. (Saw Me) | D.C. Bellamy | 2 | Give Some Body To Somebody | D.C. Bellamy | Stackhouse Recording |
| Travelin' Alone | Eric Clapton | 1 | Clapton | Eric Clapton | Reprise/Warner Music Japan |
| John Hardy | Lead Belly | 17 | Crime And Punishment | Various Artists | Fantastic Voyage |
| The Gallows Pole | Odetta | 20 | Crime And Punishment | Various Artists | Fantastic Voyage |
| She Ain't Nothing But Trouble | Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup | 3 | My Baby Left Me The Definitive Collection | Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup | Fantastic Voyage |
| Mercy Mercy | Wailers, The | 9 | Have Mercy! The Songs Of Don Covay | Various Artists | ACE |
| You're So Good Looking (Jin 112) | Otis Smith | 16 | R&b Humdingers Volume 13 (Compiled By Mark Lamarr) | Various Artists | Vee-Tone Records |
| A Big Fat Saturday Night | Gene Vincent | 21 | Have Mercy! The Songs Of Don Covay | Various Artists | ACE |
| heebie jeebies | larry williams | 1 | Great Googa Mooga | Various Artists | ACE |
| A Woman Or The Blues | Curtis Salgado | 11 | Soul Shot | Curtis Salgado | Alligator |
| Payback | Etta James | 19 | Queen Of Soul With Bonus Tracks | Etta James | Kent |
| Double Crossing Blues | Johnny Otis Quintette, The Robins & Little Esther | 22 | That's Your Last Boogie! | Johnny Otis | Fantastic Voyage |
| I'm Gonna Whale On You | Little Arthur Matthews | 19 | That's Your Last Boogie! | Johnny Otis | Fantastic Voyage |
| Natural Man | Taj Mahal | 11 | In Progress And Motion | Taj Mahal | SONY |
| Rabbit In A Log | Arzo 'Gearshifter' Youngblood | 6 | Gearshifter | Arzo 'Gearshifter' Youngblood | SMP |
| I Wanna Ramble | Little Junior Parker | 18 | Ride With Me, Baby: The Singles 1952-1961 | Little Junior Parker | Fantastic Voyage |
| Jack, That Cat Was Clean | Dr. Horse | 26 | Uk Sue Label Story, Vol. 2: Sue's Rock 'N' Blues | Various Artists | ACE |
| the last time | staple singers | 2-25 | gospel celebrities | various Artists | fantastic voyage |
| Naptown Blues | Leroy Carr | 7 | Naptown Blues | Leroy Carr | ORBIS BLUES COLLECTION |
| I Won't Let You Take Nothing From Me | Carl Marshall | 8 | Going Back To The Blues | Carl Marshall | |
| if you dont love me | artie bluesboy white | 4 | home tonight | artie bluesboy white | wakldoxy |
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