I'm Movin' On
dcutrer
for 50 or so candidates, one of 'em Hank Snow's "I'm Movin' On."
"In March 1950 RCA Victor set up its first serious Nashville recording
sessions on the second floor of Brown Radio Productions, a soap opera
record transcription service. An engineer flew in from New York with
up-to-date equipment and magnetic tape, a new recording format which RCA
hoped would replace the bulky 16 inch transcription disc. The company
brought many of its top country artists into Nashville to record during that
week: the Blue Sky Boys, Kitty Wells, Johnnie and Jack, and others.
Hank's session was slated for the evening of Mrach 28, from seven to ten
o'clock.
A year earlier, during his first American recording sessions, which had
taken place in Chicago, Snow had recorded eight numbers, but Steve Sholes
wouldn't let him cut one song he'd written called "I'm Movin' On." 'We
snuck I'm Movin' On in at the end of the night. We changed it around a
little, maybe he didn't remember it.'
"Listening to the song, it's hard to imagine that only four men were
bunched around the microphones. Joe Talbot, playing an electrified six
string Gibson lap steel guitar, shared a mike with Tommy Vaden. Ernie
Newton, from Red Foley's band, slapped bass on another mike, and Hank Snow
played his acoustic guitar and sang into a third. To 'fatten' the sound,
Sholes told Joe Talbot to turn up his amp to what Talbot considered an
uncomfortable level. After the session, Sholes told Talbot, 'I don't
think we've got a single side here that we'll be able to use."
(I assume that's Big Joe Talbot, featured on the Glaser Bros. "Gone On the
Other Hand ... right?)
Snow recorded "With This Ring I Thee Wed", which was to be the "A" side.
DJ's went for the flip. I'm Movin' On was number one on the country charts
for an amazing 21 weeks, the record sold to pop customers too. It became
sort of an unofficial marching song among US troops in Korea.
Hank, of course, was the one who got Steve Sholes interested in signing a
kid named Elvis Presley to RCA Victor in late '55, Hank's business partner,
one Tom Parker, realized which star shined the brightest (and had the best
hair) and Moved On himself.
The success of the record led to two followups, "Golden Rocket" stayed a
couple of weeks at number one, "Rhumba Boogie" was number one for eight
weeks even though it was almost a note-for-note remake of "Movin' On", with
only a slight rhumba rhythm woven into the boogie-woogie to distinguish the
two.
TOM KAN PA
I'll say as I did many times before (in this ng), I'll say Hank Williams' "Move
It On Over." Listen to this song, then listen to Bill Haley's "Rock Around the
Clock."
An amazing similarity!
First rock song?
I gotta go with Jackie Bersten (sp?) "Rocket 88".
Definitely a rock and roller!
tom kan pa
Zeb†¬
leeharrisonline.com
>I gotta go with Jackie Bersten (sp?) "Rocket 88".
>Definitely a rock and roller!
>tom kan pa
That's the one I go with too. produced by Sam Phillips at Sun Studios in
1950-That was actually Ike Turner and his Rhythm Kings. The record label
changed the artist listing on the record unbeknownst to Turner.
lee
The Hundred Song Album Project: http://www.mp3.com/leeharris100
Online Diary, yada yada: http://www.leeharrisonline.com
TOM KAN PA
As I understand it, Jackie Brenston did record Rocket 88, a song that he had
written. It was recorded by Brenston in early 1951 at the Sun Studios in
Memphis. Ike Turner's band backed up Brenston. I believe around that time, Bill
Haley had a recording of it also.
tom kan pa
dcutrer
"TOM KAN PA" <tomk...@aol.comic> wrote in message
news:20020729080743...@mb-cu.aol.com...
Y'all are on the money. It was one of the 50 choices.
Tommy Harwell
"leeharrisonline.com" <juven...@aol.compople> wrote in message
news:20020729031419...@mb-mi.aol.com...
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dcutrer
"Tommy Harwell" <to...@kidblast.net> wrote in message
news:3d456...@corp.newsgroups.com...
> I believe Fats Domino recorded "The Fat Man" in 1949
>
Also listed as one of the 50 candidates. I didn't know that 'twas Fats
playing piano with Dave Bartholomew's band (Dave being Fat's brother-in-law,
Imperial Records A&R man, based in New Orleans, produced Ricky Nelson,
among others, it's Dave's band on all Fats recordings, virtually
everything recorded at Cosimo Mattea's J&M Studios in New Orleans,
including Little Richard, Guitar Slim, Frogman Henry, etc.) on yet
another candidate, Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy." Story of Price
working as a porter at the New Orleans Airport, a relative calls, "I just
heard you singing on the radio." "What was I singing?"
Dave gave Fats the best advice any singer of that era could get: Don't take
the $50 cash per song for ALL your rights to a song, insist on the label
paying you royalties. They're gonna shaft you, but it'll mean some money
coming in. Fats used to have a "compound" in New Orleans, a couple houses
with a Big High Fence All Around, I assume he still does. Very shy,
afflicted with deadly high blood pressure and diabetes. Guess that goes
along with being Fats. I think I recall hearing that Dave had died. An
unsung musical legend.
leeharrisonline.com
>playing piano with Dave Bartholomew's band (Dave being Fat's brother-in-law,
>Imperial Records A&R man, based in New Orleans, produced Ricky Nelson,
>among others, it's Dave's band on all Fats recordings, virtually
>everything recorded at Cosimo Mattea's J&M Studios in New Orleans,
>including Little Richard, Guitar Slim, Frogman Henry, etc.) on yet
>another candidate, Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy."
There's a couple of good compilations of this stuff
"Crescent City Soul" is a nice box set
"Chess records New Orleans R and B is another (2 CD set)"
4 Midline CD's were released a few months back-"The Big beat of Dave
Bartholomew" being one of them hilighting the new orleans guys.
Also drummer Earl Palmer from that storied band wrote a book called "Backbeat"
with a CD released seperately on ACE records with 30 tracks mister Palmer plays
on (Something Else by Eddie Cochrane, Rockin' Robin by Bobby Day, La Bamba by
Richie Valens) go to allmusic.com and look up earl palmer. He has a weekly
gig in LA these days, Dave Bartholomew is 80 years old and alive in New
Orleans-released a CD a few years back.
Lee
BJPruett
I just found a new book in my local book store yesterday that contains the lyrics
to most of Merle Haggard's songs! Not just the hits, but just about everything.
For example, it has the lyrics to "Big Time Annie's Square" which is one of my
favorite songs from a long-ago Merle album. I haven't seen any announcements about
the book or seen it reviewed any place, so finding it on the shelf was quite a
surprise. I would guess it has the lyrics to 200-250 of his songs. I've been
waiting for this book for a LONG time!
The book is: Merle Haggard: poet of the common man: the lyrics. Don Cusic,
editor. Published by Hal Leonard, 2002, 171 p.
Barbara
By the way, I no longer have a copy of "Big Time Annie's Square." Does anyone have
a copy they can send me? Is it on any of Merle's CDs? I have gone through the CD
listing on Amazon.com and it's not on any of the CDs there as far as I can tell.
dcutrer
Thanks! Earl got a paragraph or so on the story of each of the songs
nominated that he drummed on.
Anybody know if Dave or somebody from that era ever did a book? I had hoped
Cosimo might do one ... Dave is equally well-qualified. Somewhere around
here I have a live recording of Fats, on "I Want to Walk You Home", band
member in falsetto says "I want Dave Bartholomew to walk ME home!", Fats
replies fast over piano, "Dave ain't gonna walk you hommmeeeeee."
Introduces "Fat Man" with "Here one me and oneah my band member done up in
1949." I've mentioned before, Fats grew up speaking French, didn't learn
English till he went to school.
Tommy and I been swapping Jimmy Donley stuff, it's Dave's band's horns on
those sessions, all from Cosimo's. Jimmy wrote with/for Fats ... "What a
Price" is one of his songs. Credits are interesting, a snake-chunking
preacher, Rev. J. Charles Jessup, bought a half-interest in every song
Jimmy wrote for the rest of his life for $10k or so. You'll see him listed
as co-writer on some of them. Rev. J. Charles ran afoul of a Federal
Prosecutor, did some years in the Big House for 'fraudin' folks. Nothing
is ever simple down that way.
leeharrisonline.com
>nominated that he drummed on.
To be fair Earl's book didn't get great reviews, but I never read it myself.
Sure to be some interesting info in there.
Little Richard's bio touches on Cosimos a little bit, in between tawdry tales
of debauchery and mayhem-and Jesus talk.
The Crescent City Soul box set has a booklet...
heres some books listen on amazon
Up from the Cradle of Jazz: New Orleans Music Since World War II
by Jason Berry
Legends of New Orleans
by Pableaux Johnson, Blue Marble
Rhythm and Blues in New Orleans
by John Broyen, John Broven
The Soul of New Orleans: A Legacy of Rhythm and Blues
by Jeffery Hannusch
CD wise-
The Big Beat Of Dave Bartholomew: 20 Of His Milestone New Orleans Productions
1949-1960
New Orleans Big Beat
In the Alley [IMPORT]
1947-1950
Those are all listed under Dave's name.
Jon Weisberger
"dcutrer" <dcu...@swbell.net> wrote in message
news:p4_09.11402$af1.30...@twister2.starband.net...
> Interesting book, WHAT WAS THE FIRST ROCK 'N ROLL RECORD??? makes a case
> for 50 or so candidates, one of 'em Hank Snow's "I'm Movin' On."
> "The success of the record led to two followups....
> "Rhumba Boogie" was number one for eight
> weeks even though it was almost a note-for-note remake of "Movin' On",
with
> only a slight rhumba rhythm woven into the boogie-woogie to distinguish
the
> two.
"Almost a note-for-note remake" is a pretty serious overstatement. The
rhythms are quite distinctly, not slightly, different, the melodies are
different, too and while the chord sequence is the same, the timing of the
chord changes isn't. No one who's heard 'em more than once is likely to
have any problem confusing the two.
--
Jon Weisberger
Thorndike Pickledish
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