I said what I said 'cause I said what I wanted to say......

Seriously ya'll, this is one of my all time favorite records.

So, were Jessie Hill and Shirley Goodman the most unlikely duo ever waxed? Possibly. To say both were highly eccentric singers is putting it mildly. Who'd have imagined they'd sound so crazy-cool together?

Huey Meaux probably deserves kudos for that flash of brilliance, but honestly, I don't think you need to look farther than the credit given to Hill and Mac Rebennack for the arrangement to know what's really going on in this session. As far as I'm concerned, this is another killer track put together by those two. I only wish there had been many more.

And speaking of 'more', most of what was recorded during these sessions was later released on Meaux's Crazy Cajun label as an Lp titled, "You'll Lose A Good Thing". I don't think it's ever been issued on Cd, but there seem to be plenty of copies of the original album floating around. I suggest you buy it if you see it.

Hope ya'll enjoy...........

Turn the record over....

Sorry to be away for so long. I'm totally swamped with social obligations, have been all month. This will likely continue through Mardi Gras.

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Here's some of the many flip-sides I meant to post and never got around to. Just a little present for ya'll. I'll try to put up some more tomorrow.

1. "I Got Love" by Jackie Avery. A nice little funky number that may not knock you out like it's flip-side, but given how good "Understanding" is, it says quite a lot that this cut ever gets played at all. Is this recording available any place else?

2. "Something Ought To Be Done [About You]" by Jessie Hill. I'm a huge fan of everything Jessie Hill and Mac Rebennack recorded together and this is no exception. The flip-side, "My Children, My Children", was one of the first cuts I posted on the blog. Most copies you see of this 45 are one-sided promos pressed without this tune.

3. "Eddy's Go-Go Train" by Eddy Giles. I actually bought this 45 for this song in particular, but when I heard the flip-side, "While I'm Away", I fell in love with it...and thus that's the side that got posted. Always meant to get back to this one. Truly killer stuff.

Best wishes to everyone. Happy Holidays.

Pretty baby, you don't stand a chance....

The list of New Orleans ex-pats working in Los Angeles by the late sixties is long: Earl Palmer, Plas Johnson, Rene Hall, Harold Battiste, Lee Allen, Mac Rebennack, Mel Lastie, Jessie Hill, Tami Lynn, Alvin Robinson, Shirley Goodman, Ronnie Barron, John Boudreaux.....

I'm sure there are others, but in terms of this record I'm mostly interested in the crew surrounding Harold Battiste at Pulsar, which just so happens to include many of those listed above.

Pulsar was a short-lived subsidiary of Mercury apparently set up as a tax dodge. But Battiste and Co. didn't know that so they happily started pumping out records for the label.....in fact had high hopes of duplicating the artistic freedom they'd enjoyed in New Orleans before the A.F.O. label went under [part of the reason many of these folks had moved on in the first place].

Anyway, soon enough the plug was pulled and Pulsar was no more. Luckily, Harold Battiste is nobody's fool. According to Dan Phillips, Battiste bought all the master tapes and apparently still has them [as is often the case I'm just mentally condensing what I've read at Home Of The Groove].

Those tapes are in fact the source of some of what showed up on the excellent three volume "Gumbo Stew" series of comps.....which are ostensibly a collection of unreleased A.F.O. recordings. Proof of a sort that the spirit of the A.F.O. operation in New Orleans bled over into the situation at Pulsar in L.A.

While the flip-side of this record, "Mardi Gras", tends to get more play, I happen to think this side is at least as good. To my mind, it's Jessie Hill at his chaotic best.

Hope ya'll enjoy.......

I hope it breaks, soon...

Another of Jessie Hill's slightly strange 45s on the Downey label out of Los Angeles. Actually, what am I saying...all Jessie Hill recordings are a little strange. I'm surprised anyone outside of New Orleans ever gave him a chance to record.

Truly a man who was what he was. My impression is that Allen Toussaint literally gave up trying to control Hill during some of their sessions together. Now, I could be very wrong about that, but I can't think of a single other artist Mr. T worked with where he allowed "live" in-studio recordings to be released as is, with no overdubs....even including bits of studio chatter. For a known control-freak, that's awfully close to admitting total defeat.

I think the word I'm looking for is, irrepressible.

Hope ya'll enjoy....

Chop off her head....

So, I'm making groceries and accidently knock a big can of tomatoes off the shelf into the shopping cart and onto my bag. And this 45 is inside the front pouch of that bag.

I could have waited to unpack the record till I got home, but no, I had to take it out of the box after it was delivered to the office and stuff it in my bag unprotected. Anyway, the 45 is now cracked all the way through one side.

But you won't notice. It's the cleanest break I've ever seen, hardly even shows up on the waveform [if you bother to look]. Too bad, it was a very nice copy. Fortunately, the three Jessie Hill 45's on Downey don't usually sell for much, but on the other hand, I can't say they grow on trees.

Downey was an odd little label run out of the back of Wenzel's Music Town [a record store] in L.A. Hill apparently hooked up with them fairly soon after heading to the west coast.

Hope ya'll enjoy....it's from 1964.

I've been livin' on chicken and wine....

I considered doing a Mardi Gras mix, but honestly, I just don't have the time. My schedule for today/tonight has been thoroughly trashed by the re-scheduling of the Muses parade. Basically, I'll need a time machine to make it through all I'm obligated to do in the next six hours. Wish me luck.

If ya just gotta have a Mardi Gras mix, head on over to Second Line Social. Gabe's got a very nice two-parter posted. There's a few rare ones included.

Here's a song that hardly anyone pays attention to. The record's cheap, the recording itself is a one-take affair....and yet it suits how I feel at the moment.

This is what I consider to be a real Mardi Gras song. Meaning, not a song written about Mardi Gras, but rather a song written for Mardi Gras.

From 1960...Allen Toussaint is at the piano...

I don't hear you...

Here's a record that always makes me laugh. Jessie Hill, taunted by his 'children' on the Chess label. Oddly enough, I don't know anyone who's bothered to seek out a copy. To my mind it's one of his more interesting releases.

My copy is a one-sided DJ pressing. Since I've never seen a regularly issued 45 of the record, I have no idea what the flip-side is. Huey Meaux is listed as producer. Hill and Mac Rebenneck share writing credits.