Bobby Boy's Blues Express
By Bob Davis

Back in 1955 my father had a special assignment during the Christmas rush at the San Marino Post Office: He was upgraded to supervisor of the temporary night crew (his normal job was senior clerk). One of the other employees had installed a sound system, which was usually tuned to an "elevator music" station on the FM band. Pappy didn't think this was the right stuff for a night shift, "That damn fiddle-squeakin' music will put you to sleep!" He found that the AM band had swinging' rhythm and blues presented by the now legendary Huggie Boy (Dick Hugg), whose boast during the midnight to 4 a.m. program was "Nobody sleeps while this show's on!!" This was when Little Richard, Chuck Berry and many other artists were laying the foundation for the Rock Era.

I was in high school, and Huggie Boy soon provided the soundtrack for late-night studying. I also learned about the "Johnny Otis Show" and Hunter Hancock's "Harlematinee." (This was about the same time that folks back east were tuning in to Alan Freed). I took to hanging around the local music store, where I became what would now be called a "resource person". The owners of the store were more into the big band era, with some interest in Latin American dance music (mambo, cha-cha-cha, etc.) and I would help them identify some of the R&B and rock 'n roll that the teenagers were asking for. In 1957 they offered me a job as part-time sales clerk at $1 an hour plus a discount on record purchases.

In those days we still sold a few of the 78 RPM platters, but most of the business was 45RPM singles for the teenagers and 12" LPs for the adults. Quite a number of the rarer numbers in my collection were bought when they decided to close out the 78s; of course most of them are now on CDs-- something that would have been science fiction when transistor radios were just becoming popular.

As the years have gone by, my record collecting has gone in fits and starts-- sometimes an active quest, other times taking a back seat to my other great interest, railroading. Of course there are quite a few blues songs with trains as an essential element: "Mean Ol' Frisco Blues," "She Caught the Katy" and "Midnight Special."

One morning I was driving along Folsom Blvd. in Sacramento, when the country music station came on with "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash. On a later trip to Northern California, I was driving through the Sacramento River delta just at sunset, when my car tape sequenced into "St. Louis Blues"-- the 1924 version by Bessie Smith ("I hate to see--- that evening sun go down----"). To borrow a line from the late Lowell Fulson, "The Blues is my companion, every night, every day."

1) BLUES FOR THE RED BOY by Todd Rhodes and his Orchestra. (King Records 1947) To me, this instrumental number evokes visions of a long vanished night club, with a fashionably dressed crowd enjoying the music in Art Deco splendor. The site is now a parking lot, but late at night the echoes return for an encore. I heard this on the "Johnny Otis Show" back in 1957, and found it on a 45 EP. It's now part of the King R&B CD boxed set.

2) I BELIEVE by Elmore James (Meteor Records 1953) This is my "desert island" blues record. If I could only take one record on a long trip, this would be it. It sounds so "together," like a harmonic convergence of sound and spirit; I can't sit still when it's playing. I found the original record at a music store in San Luis Obispo, back when I attended "Cow Poly." I had learned about Elmore James when I heard (and bought) "It Hurts Me Too" (see #14) about a year earlier-- the first "hard-core" blues record I bought just when it was released. I knew that Compact Discs were here to stay when I found a British CD with "I Believe" and many other Elmore James sides. The sound is less than CD quality because the master tapes were lost many years ago, and what you hear is probably dubbed from a collector's 45.

3) MEAN OL' FRISCO BLUES by Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup (RCA Victor 1948) The "Frisco" was the short name of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Co., a regional carrier serving the South and Southwest. By the time I was into railroading, Frisco wouldn't take anybody's "babe" away-- it was freight only. Today it's part of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe system, so the "low-down Santa Fe" and the "mean ol' Frisco" are one big, if not as romantic, railroad. "Big Boy" Crudup's most famous song was "My Baby Left Me," which became known to a much larger audience when it was one of Elvis Presley's first hits.

4) OLD FOLKS BOOGIE by Slim Green and the Cats From Fresno (Dig 1957) Johnny Otis was (and still is) a man of many talents. He was also good at finding talent, with "talent night" at one of the South Central night clubs. Winners would get a short-form recording contract (it was a lot simpler in the days of "singles") and their sounds would be heard on Johnny Otis' radio show on KFOX from Long Beach 7 to 9 p.m. Slim Green and the Cats From Fresno were a very down-home group with what Billboard's reviewer called that "gut-bucket" sound. My 45-RPM copy is worn to a frazzle, so what you hear is dubbed from a British CD. A British blues fan visited Southern California, interviewed Johnny Otis and received permission to re-release rarities such as this from the master tapes.

5) MY WOMAN DONE QUIT ME by Sidney Maiden with Slim Green and the Cats From Fresno (Dig 1957) A followup to "Old Folks Boogie," this was one of the last records issued by Dig (Johnny Otis' own label) and one of the last to be released on both 45 and 78 RPM discs. Strictly for the hard-core blues fans, copies are very scarce and for years I had to turn on my old three-speed record changer with the 3-mil. stylus to hear "My Woman Done Quit Me" on the original 10-inch 78. Again our friends across the pond located the master tape and transcribed it into the CD "Dig These Blues." Some of Sidney Maiden's earlier recordings (for an small label in Oakland) were included on a LP compilation back in the '70s.

6) WINE-O-WINE by Jerry "Boogie" McCain (Trumpet 1953) Trumpet Records was an independent label that worked out of a furniture store in Jackson, Miss. I found this record in the 78 RPM bin at the music store where I worked, and bought it when they decided to clear out all the 78s. This song is notable for the sax break-- much mellower than "Old Folks Boogie" and many other '50s cuts. Alcoholic beverages are a common theme in the blues, and even more so in the R&B songs of those days ("Cherry Wine" by Little Esther, "WPLJ" by the Four Deuces, "One Mint Julep" by the Clovers, etc.)

7) WORRIED LIFE BLUES by Chuck Berry (Chess 1958) Chuck Berry is best know for the numbers that are part of the foundation of rock 'n roll: "Maybelline," "School Day," "Rock 'n Roll Music" and many others. I seem to recall that the Beach Boys wound up paying royalties to Berry when one of their songs sounded a little too close to one of his. "Worried Life Blues" was originally recorded by Maceo Merriweather for RCA in the 1940s, and Berry "juices it up" quite a bit.

8) BABY WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO by Jimmy Reed (VeeJay 1958) Long before Bob Dylan made the art of playing harmonica and guitar simultaneously famous, Jimmy Reed was doing it in Chicago. This song appeared in a Cheech and Chong movie many years later, sung by some drunken partygoers. Someone in the film company must have been tuned in in the '50s.

9) BOOGIE IN THE DARK by Jimmy Reed (VeeJay 1953) One of the earlier VeeJay releases, this instrumental showed up in Pedrini's bargain bin back in 1957, when music stores still sold records.

10) THOSE LONELY LONELY NIGHTS by Johnny "Guitar" Watson (RPM 1955) This is an alternate take, not the one released as RPM 436 and later as Kent 328 (you can hear the producer or engineer on the CD track giving the take number). I really dig the piano break-- that old barrelhouse sound!

11) I CAN'T BE SATISFIED by Muddy Waters (Aristocrat Records 1947-- later released on Chess) From the dawn of the Chicago electric blues era, with echoes of the Mississippi Delta, this is the record that made Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield) a star. The story goes that he would be out on his day job as a delivery driver and hear his music on radios and record players. We can be thankful that he lived long enough to be a hero to the many musicians he inspired.

12) LOW SOCIETY BLUES by Lowell Fulson (Chess 1960) This is the instrumental flip side of "Blue Shadows" featuring the late Lowell Fulson on guitar and Bill Hadnott on bass (acoustic or "doghouse"). I saw Hadnott perform at the Music Machine in the '80s, when I was a member of the Southern California Blues Society. I think he was in the band that backed either Mary Wells or Joe Turner.

13) IT HURTS ME TOO by Elmore James (VeeJay 1957) When I heard this on the radio, probably on Huggie Boy or Hunter Hancock, I knew it would be my next record purchase. Why a suburban teenager would be so caught up by a blues artist from Mississippi with a Chicago backup band may be something that will never be determined. Goodness knows, I certainly didn't have the romantic entanglements described in the song, but it really spoke to me, and still does. About ten years later it would be remade

by the original Fleetwood Mac in England

14) DIDDLEY DADDY by Bo Diddley (Ellas McDaniel) (Checker 1955) Bo Diddley's followup to his eponymous first record, "Diddley Daddy" has that swamp sound that had the non-hip saying "What IS that stuff?" In the '50s, Lucky Strike cigarettes sponsored "Your Hit Parade," a TV show featuring the top 10 songs of the week, performed by a generic orchestra and singers. The rise of unique artists such as Bo Diddley, who could never be imitated by what was a holdover from the Big Band Era, eventually sent "Your Hit Parade" into the TV history books. At Monrovia-Duarte High, we had a custom of Friday lunch time music over a PA system. Since I knew the DJ, the sound of Bo Diddley was spread far and wide.

15) DON'T START ME TALKING by Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) (Checker 1957) Some great harp blowing punctuates a three-minute saga of life on the mean streets far from the Land of Ozzie and Harriet. It's transcribed from a CD which includes "Fattenin' Frogs for Snakes" and "Your Funeral and My Trial"-- not exactly what you'll find on a Walt Disney movie soundtrack. There's also "All My Love in Vain," which was recorded about a dozen years later by the Stones and was originally cut by Robert Johnson in the 1930s

16) IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT, BABY by Lowell Fulson (Checker 1957) For years I had to listen to "It's All Your Fault, Baby" on a tired 45 I found in a Santa Ana collectors' record shop about 20 years ago. It was finally reissued on a CD and I can finally hear it just like it was on the radio in the '50s. His better known song "Reconsider Baby," which has been re-recorded by more recent artists, is on the same CD, but this is my fave. Note the piano on the fade-out.

17) FANNIE MAE by Buster Brown (Fire 1959) The blues scene had faded considerably by 1960, but "Fannie Mae" went all the way to #38 on the Pop charts in February. (I'm sure to the astonishment of many but to my great glee) It may have been the only record I bought that year. Some traces of "Fannie Mae" surface in the Beach Boys' "Help Me Rhonda."

18) NUMBER NINE TRAIN by Tarheel Slim (Fury 1958?) This didn't make anybody's charts, and I never heard it until I played the CD that I bought to get a decent-sounding "Fannie Mae." Be that as it may, it's a real steamin' cut and it’s on one of my car CDs. At a couple of points it sounds like the singer is trying to catch up with the rhythm-- not your sophisticated major label performance, more like recorded in a roadhouse before a gig. The guitar licks on the break sound almost like rockabilly rather than straight blues.

19) DOWN IN THE BOTTOM by Howlin' Wolf (Chester A. Burnett) (Chess 1961) With a driving rhythm that goes along with the urgency of the lyrics, "Down in the Bottom" must have really got the audience going during a live performance. The guitar break, reaching "down in the bottom" of the musical range is one rare bit. There's a classic photo of the Wolf in full howl, playing a Fender guitar which on him looks slightly bigger than a ukulele.

20) HOW MANY MORE YEARS by Howlin' Wolf (Chess 1951) This one starts out with a sizzling piano intro (by a young Ike Turner!) and doesn't let up. The guitar sounds like it has what we would now call "fuzz-tone," in those days it probably meant something had happened to the amp or the speaker and they didn't have time to get another unit. During the '60s and '70s there was a disc jockey who called himself "Wolfman Jack" and I think he borrowed some of his radio voice from Burnett.

21) MYSTERY TRAIN by Junior Parker (Sun 1953) A few years later this would be cranked up several notches by Elvis Presley; this is a more laid back version featuring the sax as locomotive horn. It was recorded in the legendary Sun/Memphis Recording Service studio in Memphis, Tenn., back when Elvis was still a truck driver. Who'd have thought that Sun would become a world famous tourist attraction?

Plus: It’s near the Memphis vintage streetcar line!

22) HOW LONG BLUES by Eric Clapton (Reprise 1994) Back in 1993, when Pat and I were visiting England, we took a day trip from London to Cambridge. On the way back I spotted a station sign on the outskirts of London that read Clapton. I knew he was famous, but---- I'm almost sure the station name predates the musician. Clapton was one of many Britons who bonded with the sound of blues, eagerly awaiting records brought in from far-off New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. "How Long Blues" is a song from around 1930, and of all the cuts on the "From the Cradle" CD, this is the only one with any overdub-- Clapton adding the old-timey sound of the Dobro, one of the resonator-type guitars that predated electric amplification. They are still available-- I found an assortment of Dobro-type instruments (including a Dobro bass) at a music store in the old town of Mariposa on California Highway 49. One line in particular caught my ear: "Ain't got no money-- for to ride the train--- I would ride the rods, Babe--- to be with you again." The "rods" are the truss rods, which provided support and strength underneath the old wooden railroad cars. You won't see them on today's trains, only in railroad museums and old photos. Only the most desperate of travelers would "ride the rods".

23) COOL BLUES STORY by Evie Sands, guitar and vocals, with Lucinda Williams (Train Wreck 1997) I first heard this at the Borders Pasadena store one night when Evie was promoting her CD "Women in Prison." When her guitarist, Steve Birch put a slide on his finger, I knew I was in the right place. Between this song and "I Ain’t Done Yet," I was hooked. Evie Sands is my female vocalist fave of the 21st Century! The CD version features Tommy Spurlock on slide guitar. It’s a tribute to Robert Johnson and Skip James, whose work will be on the next two cuts.

24) LOVE IN VAIN by Robert Johnson (Columbia). Later covered by the Rolling Stones and numerous others. For many years Johnson was a mysterious figure, his music known only to a few dedicated collectors. In the 1960s, Columbia issued a LP with about half of his recorded songs, which reached England, and inspired such artists as Keith Richards and Eric Clapton. In 1990 Columbia issued a two-disc CD set including just about everything Johnson recorded, along with more historical data that had surfaced (although there are still a lot of gaps and suppositions).

25) HOW LONG "BUCK" by Skip James (Nehemiah James). James lived into the modern LP era and  was rediscovered by music scholars, who presented his unique styling at folk festivals. This song is an ancestor of the "How Long Blues" (see track 22) and was recorded in 1931. The sound quality of any Skip James original is marginal because the masters are long gone, only a few well-worn 78s survive, and even with all sorts of digital hocus-pocus, there’s only so much the engineers can do. James nearly always played solo, accompanying himself on piano or guitar. He did not win the "plays well with others" award. This selection is from a compilation CD, which I bought at Borders Montclair. What was unusual was that the man who handled the sale not only had heard of Skip James, he knew what he sounded like!

26) NIGHT LIFE by Aretha Franklin. From the 1960s, we have the Queen of Soul, as recorded at the Olympia Theater in Paris. From the fine print I learned that the song was written by that old county music "outlaw" Willie Nelson.

27) BACK TO BOGALUSA by Blues Before Sunrise. Let’s get down with the Blues….that is Down Under with Blues Before Sunrise. Back in February 2001, I joined a small party of electric railway enthusiasts for a visit to Melbourne, Australia. The main reason for the trip was to ride their world-famous tramcars, but we also rode a steam train, suburban electric trains, and preserved old-time trams. I even operated some of the museum cars. Friday was "do your own thing" day, and after dinner at one of the many Greek restaurants, I took a modern tram to the end of its line, where Blues Before Sunrise was playing at the neighborhood pub. I had checked the Internet for live music a few weeks earlier and found this band. They were quite intrigued by the thought of someone from the States showing up at the gig. Paul, the leader noted that they had a guest on harmonica; their regular harp blower was on a "pilgrimage" to Memphis. They made sure I had a copy of their first CD before I left. This song is from "BB4S-2," their second CD, which I learned about and bought through e-mail a year or two later. It may be the only copy in North America.

28) IN FLIGHT SNACK by Blues Before Sunrise. To wind up the show, an instrumental to recall the 15-hour trip back from tram-fans’ heaven.

So there you have it—over two dozen of the blues hits and misses that have caught my ears over the last 40-something years.

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