Hartman's Heartbreakers
Carol
love with Hartman's Heartbreakers. What's the story on these guys? Is
all their music hokum? Did they record much more? Is anything
available that isn't on 78 (any CD releases, for example)? If this
song is any indication I'd like to hear everthing they've ever done.
Carol
vagabond9
78s and he wrote the annotations for an LP reissue of many/most/all of
those tracks in, I believe, the late 1970s. I don't have my
discographical bible here with me at the moment, but perhaps TR is
lurking and can fill us in. I remember most of their material being
'double entendre' songs, though often there seemed to be only one
meaning... I was working in a record store when the LP came out and we
stocked it, but I never bought a copy.
ok, I found this with a quick google...
"Hartman's Heartbreakers "Give It To Me Daddy" (Rambler, 1981)
Compiled by Marty Pahls, one of R. Crumb's old record collecting
cronies, this set of country-oriented '30s hokum is all pretty classic,
if shamelessly dumb, material, and a longtime favorite of good old
Doctor Demento. The basic gag is that "Pappy Hartman" whips his raspy
old stringband up into a fervor as he goads the mousy-voiced "Betty
Lou" along in her interpretations of suggestive ditties such as "Fetch
It On Down To My House," "Feels Good," "Give It To Me Daddy" and "Let
Me Play With It" (otherwise known as "Let Me Play With Your Little
Yo-Yo"). Her character is the playful. sex-positive nympho, he's the
dirty old man, cat calling in the background; who the original
musicians were, I'm not sure, but their characters are pretty
unforgettable. This album is a perfect example of the form -- and the
appeal -- of old-fashioned hokum blues, as well as where the genre
cross-connected with country and hillbilly music. I'm pretty sure this
is out of print, but the LP is definitely worth looking for. "
http://www.slipcue.com/music/jazz/hokum.html
Best regards,
Kerry
Lyle Lofgren
I always interpreted Betty Lou's voice as an imitation of an under-age
nymphet, which makes the album even more perverted. With the recent
resurgence of Puritanism, an old geezer could be arrested just for
owning the album. I wonder who bought the original 78s?
Lyle
Louis Claeson
Pankake bought a copy when it came out. We never passed up a
Heartbreaker cut at a buying session. Bud
Tony Russell
essentially Dick Hartman's Tennessee Ramblers, a popular stringband on WBT
and on Bluebird Records in the mid-'30s. For the two HHB sessions in 1936
they devoted themselves exclusively to risqué material, which, according to
"Betty Lou", whom I phone-interviewed in the late '70s, were sold "under the
counter", though since they were regular Bluebird releases, she may have
been embroidering a little. Ten sides were issued, and a bunch more weren't,
including such teasing titles as "Dick And I" and "Cuban Appetizer". I think
the track I put on the "Hillbilly Blues" CD is the only one currently in
print, though most of the others were at one time on a British CD of
otherwise western swing material, now deleted.
According to "Betty Lou", there were photographs of her with the band, in
which she wears a swimsuit and a large piano accordion, so that it looked as
if behind the accordion she wasn't wearing anything. I regret to say I have
not yet succeeded in finding one of these.
TR
On 1/11/06 14:45, in article
1162392309.9...@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com, "Lyle Lofgren"
Louis Claeson
playing with our little yoyos just who was Betty Lou? What was her real
name? Bud
St. Louis Jimmy
On Nov 1, 8:45 am, "Lyle Lofgren" <lofgr...@maroon.tc.umn.edu> wrote:
> "mousy-voiced Betty Lou"?
>
> I always interpreted Betty Lou's voice as an imitation of an under-age
> nymphet, which makes the album even more perverted. With the recent
> resurgence of Puritanism, an old geezer could be arrested just for
> owning the album. I wonder who bought the original 78s?
>
> Lyle
>
Me.
JN