Each and every day, since you've been away...

Not that anyone needs my help in getting over to Funky 16 Corners, but Larry Grogan's posted a very nice piece on Wardell Quezergue....has a nice selection of tunes available as well [that Marie Boubarere 45 is very rare]. As is often the case with Larry's posts, I def learned a few things I didn't know before.

Mr. Q worked on Earl King's "Trick Bag"? That's news to me and makes me wonder if the same is true of King's other releases on Imperial. Hard to say for sure as he isn't credited on any of the 45s, including "Trick Bag".

Larry also reminded me that Warren Lee's "Underdog Backstreet" is a Mr. Q production....just so happens that's the very first tune I ever posted on the blog. You can find it here.

I should mention that I sometimes use the terms "producer" and "production" in a modern sense, implying creative control, even though the effort received no such credit. Ya know, it's not like a production credit is always what it appears to be. As far as I'm concerned, the real question is: who was/is responsible for the sound of a particular recording?

When a man such as Mr. Quezergue is credited as arranger you can be assured his creative input was greater than some "producers". Every clip I've seen of him in the studio shows him leading the band, working to make it all sound right, helping musicians with their respective parts. If that's not a huge part of record production, then I don't know what is.

Cos Matassa has said several times that he doesn't know what a "record producer" is. And that's not just an old man being obtuse. He's speaking from his own extensive experience and at the same time sticking a well-honed pin in those who he sees as having garnered undue credit.

Ya see, there was a time when A&R men, arrangers, bandleaders, musicians, and engineers handled the entire recording process. Given that post-production work often amounted to very little and mastering was a physical process left to technicians and their lathes, the concept of a creative "record producer" has little validity when it comes to many 50s/60s RnB, RnR, and Country recordings.

Slightly off topic, but I just happened to notice that Josh Alan Friedman has recently added a great piece on Leiber and Stoller to his blog, "Black Cracker Online". In it he taps Leiber and Stoller as the first "record producers". An argument which has some validity, but only if you consider that garnering a "first" in anything is often dependent on one's skin color...a situation I'd think Mr. Friedman, if anyone, might be more sensitive to.

Johnny Otis, Dave Bartholomew, Paul Gayten, Sonny Thompson, et al, weren't "record producers"??? Oh, I forgot, they were only A&R men, composers, arrangers, bandleaders. Ya see, they didn't own record labels [at least not for some time to come].

Here's a fairly recent clip of Mr. Q in the studio. He's basically blind at this point. I'd post it but embedding is disabled.

While I'm at it, here's an incredibly stupid video of a great song by New Orleans' own Lydia Marcelle. Yep, Mr. Quezergue was responsible for this one too. The song title is actually "Everyone Dance" [the morons couldn't even get that right]. Why I don't own a copy of this 45 is a complete mystery to me.

Anyway, here's today's not-often-heard selection. Check the side bar for Warren Lee [yep, it's the same guy], there are several more of his recordings available. I even re-upped the link to "Climb The Ladder" just 'cause I love ya'll.

Enjoy....

Somebody's gonna steal the show....

So, I check the blog this morning and there are 12 comments from one person. What a nice present............................

Seems I've been bad. Baby doctor sez "bed rest" for the coming week, then we''ll see if it's to continue. I doubt very much there's any real evidence that bed rest helps, but it's certainly a good way to get rid of a troublesome pregnant female. I feel very much like I've been grounded, a feeling only made stronger by my mom moving in temporarily.

Don't get me wrong, I take this stuff very seriously. And I'm glad of the help. Im extremely lucky to have it. Pain has been a problem for the last couple of months and more recently I'm having a lot of trouble walking. Stairs are off limits. Getting me in and out of the tub has become a community project.

Anyway, I'm stuck with very little to do and far too much on my mind. The doctor suggested I work on my scrap books, which about made me choke and my mother laugh out loud [nothing wrong with it, it's just not my thing]. I have a much better idea, I'm cataloging my records for insurance purposes, which is a more complicated project than you might imagine, especially when you're not allowed to lift boxes.

So, I'm having the stacks delivered to my bed one at a time. I have my portable player, laptop, and scanner all close at hand. In between napping, and playing Fable 3, I'm scanning each 45, making notes about condition, and then referencing each to a realistic price quote [I don't want the valuation so high I can't afford the policy rider].

While I'm at it, I'm ripping a few nice ones I've overlooked in the past. The rips sound pretty good since I replaced the original cartridge with a nicer one.

Now that I think about it, my little project isn't all that different from scrapbooking, is it?

...................................................................................................

This is probably one of the first ten 45's I ever bought. Just had to have it.

Hope ya'll enjoy....

The first step is always the hardest, isn't it? [re-post re-up]

[I'm ten days late with this, but guess what? The 20th was the first anniversary of this blog. Totally amazing, after posting close to 200 songs I'm still having fun. Hope ya'll are too. Here's my first ever post.]

My name is Ana B. and I have a problem. I collect records and I'm an addict. For some time I've kept to the mild stuff (albums), but more recently I've become a stone-cold hard-core 45 junkie. I'm here because I find myself studying the needles required for playing 78's, and thinking...enough is enough.

Much of what I'll post here will have some connection with New Orleans (it's my hometown). But not all of it, as there's too much good music in the world to limit myself by sticking too close to home.

All records posted are from my collection. Some are in rough shape, some are virtually un-played. Some are rare, some are common as dirt. Some I've paid good money for, some I've dug out of trash bins. A few have spent time underwater.

I make no apologies for sound quality. I do not intend to digitally clean up any of these recordings. Vinyl, in all it's glorious imperfection, rules on this blog. Can i get an Amen?

Maybe, just one 'Amen'?....ya know...maybe just one to start with?...............................................................................

Anyway, it's time to put my money where my mouth is....here's a record you don't hear all that often, Warren Lee's, 'Underdog Backstreet', issued on the Tou-Sea label in 1967.

C'mon children..ya'll can dance, can't ya?...

They doin' it in every town...

One of the finest slabs of funk to ever come out of New Orleans. This side's wrapped so tight that, in my opinion, they should have given Warren Lee credit for 'chaotic influence' rather than singing.

In Jeff Hannusch's book, "The Soul Of New Orleans", Lee say's how he thinks local DJ Larry McKinley sat on the record....how it took money to get a record played on the radio in those days. Need I say that it went nowhere commercially?

So, what ya got here is the Meters layin' it down, thick as mud, with Allen Toussaint at the board doin' his best to keep his shoes clean.

Always a good thang.

Do like a fireman when a house is burning down!

I'm sick.

Nothing too major, just a very persistent bug. Something I like to think of as a 'swine-cold'.

In short, I'm not dying, I just feel like I am.

Thank God for the extra-large bottle of orange flavored, codeine-laden, cough syrup the doctor gave me. Ya know, the stuff really doesn't taste half-bad if ya add some club soda, a little cracked ice, and a couple of slices of lime.

I'm tempted to offer-up Chris Kenner's, Sick and Tired....but instead I think I'll post something a bit more...infectious.

Enjoy...