Thursday, July 29, 2021

Thibeaux Steak-Out Dept.

Note strap over right shoulder. Note slub silk suit, display kerchief. Note turtleneck. Perfection.

T-Bone Walker got his name from a sly play on his middle name, Thibeaux. Perfect. As a kid he guided Blind Lemon Jefferson around Dallas. Perfect. He quit school at ten to become a musician, and was playing the blues clubs professionally at fifteen. Perfect. He pioneered amplified electric blues guitar and had a riotous stage show using techniques later copied by Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix. There is nothing the guy did that's less than perfect. But what gives him a unique edge is his cool, jazz-inflected delivery. From slow blues (Stormy Monday is his) to juke joint jumps, everything he did was fun and swung like a donkey's nuts. Not for him the anguished howls of the oppressed, the flirting with the dark side. T-Bone put on a show, but he could sing like smoke curling from a cigarette, like silk stockings slipping off a warm thigh.

Luckily for us, he left a bunch of swell records behind so we can have our own T-Bone show whenever we want. T-Bone Jumps Again is an impeccably compiled and fantastic-sounding collection.  Like, digsville!

59 comments:

  1. To qualify for this Bumper Blues Bonus Bonanza, do the following: if you have what The Young People™ are calling a "device" that can play a stack o' records in a random order, tell the other 3/4g© what the top five rando picks are. I'll start, from my portable telephone:

    The Beetles - Tomorrow Never Knows
    George Benson - Jaguar
    The Searchers - Almost Saturday Night
    Led Zeppelin - D'yer Mak'er
    Grateful Dead - Shakedown Sreet

    (You can of course lie to make yourself look hip - but why bother? Nobody actually cares overmuch what you listen to)

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    1. The most played on my device is a bit of a shock to me, with the exception of the last track, interesting.

      Pink Floyd - Any colour you like
      Prince - Partyman
      Wishbone Ash - Come in from the rain
      Bevis Frond - Dolly Bug (Live)
      Wishbone Ash - Doctor

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    2. I'm asking for a rando selection, the first five to play, but "most played" is good, too.

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    3. ooops, I should read properly before commenting.

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    4. Goin' to Okinawa - Ry Cooder
      The Glorious Om Riff - Steve Hillage
      Cambodia - Brand X
      Egyptian Tomb - Mighty Baby
      Bemsha Swing - Thelonious Monk

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    5. That's a pretty winning rando, Mr. Shark. Mighty Baby's Egyptian Tomb came up on rando today, and it always stops me in my tracks. That album is one of a very few UK albums that can hold its own with the best of the West Coast. (Foamfeatured Antecedently - search feature advisory)

      Brand X me no have!

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    6. Also love the offshoot of Mighty Baby - Chilli Willi & the Red Hot Peppers. Warped country/rock courtesy (mainly) of Phil "Snakefinger" Lithman, who went on to become a Resident and also record one of the greatest ever white boy blues albums.

      Brand X...a bit widdly widdly fusiony, but with a levening dose of humour as revealed here.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K6OvrKyoGU


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    7. Heard any Man, Farq?
      Had that West Coast vibe, too.

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  2. I Got Loaded - Lil Bob & The Lollipops
    A Row Of Fools On A Row Of Stools - Russ Mann
    Swingin Safari - Bert Kaempfert
    A Wah Dat - Junior Dread
    Ain't Got A Clue - The Lurkers

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    1. Your second place: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9ynYcBle2M

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    2. That's the one. Fwiw I am always on random... I have 2 playlists, "all" and "5*"... I play "all" (c.88k) and ones I like get added to "5*" as I go along (c.2800 at the moment)... those were the next 5 up on my "5*" random....

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    3. I have my iPod on shuffle, and it's like listening to the greatest radio show ever aired.

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    4. I always thought the album was an accident of storage/format... preferred songs as my unit of consumption... above even "artist" - though obviously I have some favourites, a lot of my 5* is by folk whose name I barely recognise

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    5. I have a kind of creeping horror of Spotify and music streaming services that use an algorithm to determine your tastes. Even purely online, I discover new (and it's mostly old) music in the same way I always did - picking up and following clues. But albums have always been the base unit for me. Base unit of living, for many years (a lot of them with my first wife).

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    6. totally agree about spotify and algorithms etc... and that doesn't just go for music, I don't want some marketing w*nker telling me what to buy/what they are pushing that day thank you very much... random it is...

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    7. Although these days my listening is pretty much on an entirely random song by song basis I do have a passing regret for the halycon days of the vinyl lp when some thought was given to running order. I couldn't, for example, imagine listening to side one of Abraxas or Court and Spark in anything other than the original configuration.

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  3. Tokyo Dream - Allan Holdsworth
    Bad Weed - Junior Murvin/Lee Perry
    God Bows to Math - Minutemen
    No More War - Burning Spear
    Five More Pennies - Strawberry Path

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  4. First five 'cuts' shuffled out of the pack this morning in Bonny Scotland:

    Ultraviolet Hippopotamus - Reality
    Jimmy Page and Robert Plant - Babe I'm Gonna Leave You
    Graham Parker - I Want You Back
    Ry Cooder - Crow Black Chicken
    The Clash - Lost in the Supermarket

    Hale fellow, well met, and I hope all is well on the island. Been a while. Nobody's fault but mine.

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    1. Older readers will remember Rob from the popular Australian Cable TV show "It's The Three A.M. Show!" featuring live phone-ins from depressives and drunks who got hilarious "advice" from Rob's rascally sidekick Monty Marsupial!

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  5. 2nd attempt

    Fela Kuti- Coffin For Head Of State
    Led Zeppelin - Fool In The Rain
    Brian Wilson - Mexican Girl*
    Gong - Radio Gnome 1&2
    The Fall - Immortality

    * wow straight in at no.3 - and only added to playlist 2 weeks ago

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  6. I usually listen with iTunes--sorry 'Music'-- while I am supposed to be working on my Mac, and FWIW almost never shuffle. So this was an interesting experiment that tells me, I guess nothing.

    Destroyed - The Yo Yo's
    Born Again Devil - The Iguanas
    Truck Drivin' Son of a Gun - Dave Dudley
    Vay Dünya - Altin Gün
    So In Love With You - Henry Clement

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  7. No device with me, and I barely ever listen to my I-Pod (yes! a relic from an ancient time, according to my bemused students when they see it - "I had one like that when I was twelve" etc.)

    So instead here's three songs from 2021 worth listening to

    The Luka State - Feel It
    Maneskin - Zitti E Buoni
    A Lilac Decline - Back To The Sea

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    1. Kinda telling that you couldn't run to five ...

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    2. That is...unfortunately true.

      Then again, I gave up on modern music about a decade ago, so...

      Out of habit, I'm still flippingh through those year end lists of best albums/singles and then go "Who are these people?". Some lists have youtube links but well...nothing to bring me back into the fold...as if there were still such a thing.

      There's probably a reason that I got more invested in finding unknown to me/rare older music on the internet these last years since both what's popular and what's critically acclaimed leaves me baffled and alienated...

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    3. It's "new" that's alienated, not you, not me. If we accept that any art form has its imperial period, when it flourished in its finest form, before it sank into reiteration and stylistic exercises, then pop music too had its greatest period, and whatever dates you'd bracket that with it's unlikely the 'eighties would be included, leave alone the subsequent decades. Of course (well, maybe) there are exceptions, but the fact is that everything that pop music can do has been done, and there is nothing new that doesn't depend on referencing the past. You can't blame its demise on the pandemic, the form was exhausted well before that. Pop doesn't occur in a vacuum, it is born out of the times. Today is a vacuum, filled by the "new" because there is no way to stop. "New" is a sickness, and a delusion.
      I listen to some "new" music, too, but the diminishing returns always lead me back to when it was doen first, and best. There is no reason to listen to "new" music, especially as pop music recorded as far back the 'forties was recorded in exactly the same place as some bedroom savant's tinker-toy "album" lost in yesterday's avalanche of useless product - the past. Music is truly new when you hear it, whenever it was made.

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  8. Creation - Making Time
    The Only Ones - Out There In The Night
    Nazareth - 1692 (Glencoe Massacre)
    Strawbs - Lay Down
    Oil Tasters - Get Out Of The Bathroom

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  9. The Monkees - I'm not your stepping stone
    The Drifters - Down on the beach tonight
    John K. Sampson - Alpha Adept ( No idea..still no idea album Winter Wheat)
    Steve Earle - Bad Moon Rising (live boot Hickory NC 1982)
    Helena Ferguson - Where is the party ( Dave Godin Sweet Soul Treasures)

    genuine random selection...

    pretty please where the T-Bone steaks?

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    1. Th' link? Why, I'll be darned if I didn't leave it about here someplace!





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    2. Thanks for the link, I don't think I've heard much T-Bone, will give it a spin when I stop for morning coffee - I say 'stop', I'm *uckin' retired, yet seem to be busy all the time.

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    3. I'm not a blues fan, really, but I do enjoy this, mainly because T-Bone seems to be enjoying himself! I was hoping Delta Del would come in on this thread ... he's our Blues Dude.

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  10. I now know what Sampson is and it ain't pretty a random download that can free some space! Rest cool....sixth in list was John Prine Angel from Montgomery..that'll do :-)
    Thankx for the tasty repas.

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  11. Thanks for this, Farq. I have the Complete Capitol/Black and White Recordings (75 tracks) and can wing it Foamward if so desired.

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    1. Oh yes please! I'm interested in his later stuff, too. He's technically not the greatest player who ever played the guitar with his teeth, but I love his style.

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    2. Here you go!

      https://workupload.com/archive/Cxx7V3jb

      Hopefully I've done it right and this works...

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    3. Interesting to note that Steve Miller's knew T Bone and had him as a guest at their house. Lucky little Steve? Les Paul was also a guest.
      T Bone at Steve's house in 1952...


      https://www.dropbox.com/s/czrjbpkqvorl3d3/03%20T-Bone%20Walker%20%28Steve%27s%20House%201952%29.mp3?dl=0

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    4. Rob, your mammoth download arrived in good shape - thank you!
      Steve, that's a wonderful documentary piece and a fun overdose. Who's on piano?

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    5. According to the sleeve notes, T-Bone recorded by Steve's dad with "a trio" at their house.
      That's all I got.

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    6. Many thanks for all that T-Bone, Mr T and Rob.

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    7. I recently heard Steve Miller on Marc Maron's podcast. Steve had an interesting childhood. Les Paul was actually his godfather.

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    8. I've just read that Tal Farlow and Charles Mingus were also guests.
      Also, Steve's Mum was a professional singer and his Dad was a keen amateur recording buff. That might be the Les Paul connection.


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  12. Late to the party as usual; here's what appears to be in store for me on my iPhone:

    Shting-Shtang - Nick Lowe
    Eibhli Ghil Chium Chea... (?) - John Martyn
    Flight - Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers
    Seven Ways of Going - Patti Smith Group
    Gospel Ship - Janis Joplin

    Thanks to Farq and Rob for the heaping serving of T-Bone (can't read that without thinking of Seinfeld)

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    1. Eibhli Ghail Chiun Chearbhail means "Where are my furshlugginer blintzes!" in Armenian. Possibly the weakest track on a stunning album. Only because it goes on too damn long.

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  13. July, You're a Woman - John Stewart
    Baltimore - The Drifters
    Together Again - Ray Charles
    Theme from Rat Race - Richard Maltby
    Down The Line - Roy Orbison

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  14. Well that was fun..
    1. Drunk Outdoors - North Mississippi Allstars
    2. Radio Star - Martha Wainwright
    3. If Things Don't Change - Bap Kennedy
    4. Ride the Bus - Mass Production Library CK714
    5. Boogie in the Morning - Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup

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  15. Late to the party, lacking an ipod and hopelessly oldfashioned I pulled 5 LPs from the blues etc zone of my album rack WITHOUT LOOKING and they were …

    Howlin Wolf : Chicago Golden Years
    Charlie Musselwhite : Stand Back …
    Mike Seeger : Mike Seeger
    Buddy Guy : Hot & Cool
    Albert Collins : Truckin With

    And call me hopelessly biased, but every one of these albums features players enjoying themselves. But for sure nobody rates cooler than T-Bone. Some great shots out there of him doin full splits with guitar behind head, and still keepin his cool. I think I read he started out in the clubs as a dancer and only switched to guitar and vocals when he saw how much the ladies love a singer. Go Thibeaux!

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    1. Delta Del is one of the few remaining Masters of th' Old School Shuffle - picking actual albums randomly from a real shelf is an art almost forgotten these days, akin to throwing yarrow stalks for th' I Ching.

      (Your point about these guys enjoying themselves is well made, Del)

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  16. the Thibodeaux, the Fontenot, the place is buzzing....OK, he's probably not thos Thibodeaux's and I know he's from Texas, but I feel like hear South Louisiana in that semi-sloppy (in a good way) good time guitar work...

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    1. That "semi-sloppy" style doesn't get much respect, being equated with bad playing. Hendrix was maybe the most famous semi-sloppy player (FGW can't stand him for it), but I dunno - it's just loose rather than tight, hitting the note but hitting it late. Or maybe early, if you feel like it. Some people aren't too fussed about timekeeping, and some of them are guitarists. Doesn't make them bad people, or bad musicians.

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    2. Semi-sloppy gets ultimate respect from me. I might even call it a hard-to-teach superpower that some players have, the ability to impose the player’s own sense of timing and have it sound natural and right. I guess to some ears (Hi FGW!) it’ll always sound lazy or wrong but for me it’s an essential part of T-Bone’s cool. And Jimi’s. It’s part of what makes these guys great.

      And p.s. these days Farq I cant do the classic Bumcrack crouch position on a regular basis, my knees won’t take it. Gone are floor-level album boxes, I’m into racks positioned for oldman easy access at waist height and above. Not as much fun squinting at worn spines, but ideal for random pulls.

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    3. Ah, the days of random pulls are long behind me, alas ...

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    4. This is great, some of the less sloppy stuff reminds me of a cassette of Louis Jordan I used to have, I guess it's because it's from the same era.

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  17. Chris Smither - She Said She Said
    The California Honeydrops - Call it Home
    Fatoumata Diawara - Ou Y'an Ye
    Annie Laurie - It Hurts To Be In Love
    The Cryin' Shames - Please Stay

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  18. Th' edifyin' response of youse bums to this groundbreakin' initiative gots me to thinkin' maybe a weekly FoamFeaturette© - Randy Randomguy's Romper Room O' Randomness© - where we can mine each others' musical tastes to expand our own. I like the idea of getting Delta Del to crouch in the Record Collectors' Bumcrack Position on a regliar basis.

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  19. Walking on Eggs - Arthur Conley
    I'm Walking - Fats Domino
    Sing Joy Spring - Manhattan Transfer
    Tonite, Tonite - The Mello Kings
    While My Guitar Gently Weeps - Da Beatles

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  20. Ah, jeepers...I'll come up with five tonight but have to go to work...so for now, go listen to "Twisted" by Wardell Gray...

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