50’s

Way Back Wednesdays: Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five – ‘Friendship’

June 9, 2021 — Leave a comment

Keep your friends close and keep your close friends closer to you. Let’s go Way Back!

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “Disc D: 1947-1949) (Released on July 18, 2006) (via JSP Records)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for you to read your daily track on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! When writing about the sounds of the past that have influenced those of the present for ‘Way Back Wednesdays’, Louis Jordan and his 6-piece accompaniment Tympany Five certainly qualify for such an equation. An inductee of the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall Of Fame, Louis Jordan was an Arkansas-based Saxophonist who was a seminal figure in the development of R&B and Rock ‘N’ Roll in the 1940’s and 50’s. His witty lyrics, his interactive stage presence and the jolting, engaging rhythms of his music aided him to become one of the first African-American artists to enjoy a crossover popularity with the predominantly White audience of his time. It’s tricky to pinpoint exactly when and where today’s recording, ‘Friendship’, was issued for release in it’s first form. You can hear it on the 1984 Vinyl re-issue of ‘Louis Jordan & Friends’, a double single release in 1952 as the b-side to ‘You’re Much Too Fat’, a 2006 reissue of ‘Disc D; 1947-1949’ on streaming platforms and CD, or, like me, as a part of the ‘Mafia 2’ video game soundtrack of 2010. Either way, give it a spin.

Louis Jordan took on the honorific nickname of ‘The King Of The Jukebox’ due to his exposure in the media, and he went on to continually refine his qualities in duetting with most of the other stalwarts of the time, such as Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, and, although comprehensive sales figures are not available, trajectories suggest that he shifted up to four million-selling units of his singles during the Swing era of his heyday. ‘Friendship’ was one of his many leading recordings during his career, before we sadly lost him due to a heart attack in Los Angeles in 1975. It was most famous for it’s refrain of ‘You ain’t friend of mine’ that he delivers at the end of the track. The talkative, near-duetting backing vocals from his Tympany Five feel very conversational, with the vocals being delivered in a Spoken Word section where Louis arguably never sings. He talks about the trials and tribulations of friendships, and how people used to treat each other during his time, using a character called Zeke as a muse for this. Anecdotes like “And what about that night I came home and caught lipstick on your face” and “But when she feeds you chicken and steak, and gives me Irish stew/You’s a little lizard in the bushes, that’s what you are” as his band members react to the little stories that have fractured Jordan’s connection with Zeke. It soon becomes clear that Zeke was just using Jordan as a way to get to his wife, an implication of cheating and abusing of trust. Sequences like “And even when we went on our Honeymoon/The bellboy told me you rented the very next room/I know you’re my friend, but I didn’t want to see you that soon” make this narrative clear, before the famous closing section of “Do you call that friendship?/You ain’t no friend of mine” closes things off. However, the bitter resentment in Jordan’s voice and the confrontational style of songwriting also makes him look like a ‘lost boy’ in some aspects, an angry character that has a certain viewpoint that takes us along the narrative. It’s possible to consider that his wife wasn’t happy with him, or Zeke was getting payback for a past activity, and so Jordan’s feelings may consume him. Therefore, there’s a lot of complexity underneath the hood, which Jordan carries along in his stride as his Tympany Five quibble in the background. The instrumentation is obviously dated, with a light Alto Saxophone melody and a classical Piano riff being the only real elements in play to really speak of. Limited technology aside, it’s tremendous to remember what Jordan has achieved in his time and through the tools that he had in his disposal. The gentle embrace of an old friend.

  • Pictured: Louis Jordan (Lead Vocals/Saxophone), Courtney Williams (Trumpet), Lem Johnson (Tenor Sax), Clarence Johnson (Piano), Charlie Drayton (Bass Guitar/Occasional Backing Vocals) and Walter Martin (Drums/Percussion) in New York City between 1946 and 1948 (Photo by William P. Gottilieb)

That’s all for now! Please feel free to join me again tomorrow, as we go down the route of Country and Folk with an in-depth look at an emerging female solo artist who was born in Texas and is now based in Brooklyn, and has inked a new deal with Columbia Records. She recently collaborated with Lord Huron on ‘I Lied’ from their new album ‘Long Lost’, and she tells The Guardian that she has started making her own sculptures of little alien people in her bathroom… If that’s what floats your boat. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Way Back Wednesdays: The Flamingos – “I Only Have Eyes For You”

March 3, 2021 — Leave a comment

The 1950’s bird-like vocal group with a hefty load of Flamboyance. Let’s go Way Back!

  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Flamingo Serenade” (LP) (Released in April 1959) (via End Records)

Good Afternoon to you – As always, I’m Jacob Braybrooke and it’s finally time for me to get my fingers on the keyboard and type up your daily track on the blog, since it’s routinely my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day – and in the case of Wednesdays – a track from before the 2000’s that influenced the sounds of the present. This week, we are really going WAY BACK, because “I Only Have Eyes For You” was actually written and performed back in the 1930’s, originally by the composer Harry Warren and the lyricist Al Dubin, for their musical comedy film, “Dames”, which was introduced by Dick Powell and released by Warner Bros Studios in 1934 to cult success. However, the tune was made most popular in the late-50’s when the long-storied US vocal choir The Flamingo’s released their own cover version by putting a classic Doo-Wop spin on the old track to bring the early R&B influences of the dated recording to a modern update. Needless to say, the cover version recorded by the bird-named band was a huge commercial hit – where it peaked at #11 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and at #3 on the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop songs chart. It saw similar success in the UK, and Rolling Stone magazine ranked The Flamingo’s version on a list of their “500 Greatest Songs Of All-Time” at the #157 position. Billboard magazine were major fans of the group, who wrote: “Universally hailed as one of the finest and most influential vocal groups in Pop history, The Flamingo’s defined doo-wop at it’s most elegant and sophisticated” for their 2014 retrospective. On that note, let’s cast our minds back to the 50’s with the track below.

Originally formed by Jake Carey and Zeke Carey in Chicago of 1953, The Flamingos later expanded to a full line-up with specific changes over the years. but they still found widespread attention with tracks like “If I Can’t Have You” and “That’s My Desire” that cemented their places as some of the earliest, but most significant releases of the band’s heyday. This has ultimately led to the band getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 2011 – since we all know that old-school Rhythm ‘N’ Blues shares close ties with the development of Rock ‘N’ Roll traditionally – and the Vocal Group Hall Of Fame in the year before. Some of their big awards have thanks to pay 59’s “I Only Have Eyes For You” cover, which has become one of their most defining singles. The doo-wop vocals add a fresh dimension to the less restrained nature of the original track, where lyrics like “You are here, and so am I/Maybe millions of people go by, But they all disappear from view” are slowed down and given more space to breathe. The tone goes deeper, and it feels more emotional. Words like “The moon may be high/But I can’t see a thing in the sky” paint a fantastical and romanticized view of a moonlight setting, and quicker lines like “My love must be a kind of blind love/I can’t see anyone but you” are undercut by the central hook of “I Only Have Eyes For You”, where the narrative of being joined by a old flame for your company feels soothing and inobtrusive. The interweaving “Sha Bop, Sha Bop” stabs of the backing vocal arrangement places the emphasis on the dream-like qualities of the slow backing harmonies and the near-hypnotic relaxation of the minimalist guitar licks. In fact, there’s very little instrumentation at all – with only a sparse Piano melody and a light shuffling of a Drum beat entering the fray now and again. I may probably consider it to be “Grandad Music” if I was in a bad mood today, but since I’m feeling of the right frame of mind to listen to it today, I think it’s gorgeous. Through using the effects of the deep echoes and the sentimental lyricism, it manages to bridge the gap between R&B and soft Pop releases by placing a simple emphasis on love and desire, appealing to a wide audience in the stages. A gold Oldie.

Thank you for travelling back to the good ol’ days with me as my trusty companion today! Please feel free to join me again for an in-depth look at some more recent music tomorrow, albeit it’s a release that has been in my drafts page for a little while now. Don’t let that discourage you from checking it out however, because it’s still a fascinating little track that comes from a US Experimental Hip-Hop trio who have really managed to carve out a niche for themselves by mirroring the cinematic sounds of Horror B-Movie soundtracks to acclaim and popularity in recent years. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Christmas Day Special: Angela Morley – “Snow Ride”

December 25, 2020 — Leave a comment

So – this is Christmas Day. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “The Film and TV Music Of Angela Morley” (Released in 2004) (via Vocalion)

Great Tidings I hope to bring – my name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get writing up on the blog all about this year’s especially Festive track – because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write to you about a different piece of music every day! That includes Christmas Day – otherwise you wouldn’t be reading these words right now – would you? I really wanted to do something unique and special for this year’s Christmas Day post, and so we’re going to turn to some classical music to bring some light into a Christmas that’s unusual for us. An idea that may or may not have been suggested by my own mother – I’ll leave that one for you to get worked out. In any case, Angela Morley’s “Snow Ride” is a recording which began life as a Classical music composition for film directors and television producers to use for their suitable backgrounds of an icy winter’s journey, before it was originally lost in 1964 due to the Chappell fire. Although it’s sadly unclear when this composition was first recorded, originally, the track was later digitally restored from it’s original recording by the code of Morley’s webpages. It seems to be cleverly reconstructed – and the fascinating thing about Morley is that she was the first openly Transgender person to be nominated for an Academy Award, back in 1976. Morley has also scored works like ‘Watership Down’, ‘The Little Prince’ and ‘The Slipper and The Rose’. Sadly, we lost Morley in 2009, at the age of 84, due to some complications from a heart attack. Her memory lives on from hits with the likes of Dame Shirley Bassey, Robert Farnon and Scott Walker – and my research into her career tells me that she would have been a familiar household name with the BBC in the 50’s. Let’s check out “Snow Ride” below.

The work of “Snow Ride”, by the English – and later Arizona-based classical music composer – was included on Naxos’ compilation album of seasonal classical music entitled “Another Night Before Christmas”, and you can also catch it on the John Wilson Orchestra’s album comprised of reworkings of Angela Morley’s work entitled “The Film & Television Music Of Angela Morley”, which was released in 2009 – as a celebration of her life – via the Vocalion record label. Obviously, there are no singing vocals at all to be analysed here – but the orchestral String sections and the wide-eyed crescendo of Cello melodies mixed with sweeping Horn patterns manage to evoke a very nostalgic and cheerful range of emotions – The childhood excitement of waking up to a tree full of presents and the delightfully frozen, Arctic environments of a Scandinavian winter springs to mind for me. The instrumentation is catchy and melodic, with a jovial sense of percussion blending with a comforting and Traditional range of Brass instrumentation. The pacing is actually quite stop-and-start and push-and-pull – if you read between the lines here – as a sparse Woodwind melody creeps into the frame at the mid-way mark – only to be teased instead – and pushed aside by the main repetition of the theme of the Violin arrangements. It leads to polished Sleigh bell melodies and even an Xylophone beat supplying layers to the theatrical, swooping chorus of climactic, grand String melodies. Most of these instruments convey an exotic expression – but they never really enter the soundscape thereafter. Although the melodies are quickly paced, the laidback moods of each of these phases, if you will, within the track imply to me that there is no particular hurry to the winter’s journey taking place in the narrative framework – but the aim seems to be a fun, exciting time in the cold air. A warm mix of familiarity and powerful layers is the key and although it’s not something that I’d usually go out of my way to seek out – I enjoyed it – as the traditional sounds give me a warm feeling of pure winter joy inside.

  • Pictured: Angela Morley at an American Society Of Music Arrangers & Composers talk (1999) (Yost.com)

Thank you for taking the time out of your Christmas Day to read my special post. Join me again for Boxing Day tomorrow – as we clear up our trilogy of unique and different seasonal posts with another large stylistic change. Instead of Hip-Hop or Classical music – We’re looking at a fun novelty track from one of the internet’s original favourites. Some of his most famous works have spooked or parodied the likes of Madonna, Michael Jackson, The Rolling Stones, Lady GaGa, Nirvana, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Backstreet Boys, Coolio, and many more. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/