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> If it's the earlier series you're exploring, Vols. 4, 5, and 6 are three
> of the best R&B (in this case, soul) compilations you're ever likely to
> hear. - Jay
I have a part of original LP series, Vols. 1, 2, 4, and 5, which lacks of
Vols. 3, 6, and 7. After extensive search in Tokyo last week I've almost
given up to complete my collection. If one is not looking for an expensive
and rare collectors's material, it's getting very hard to find certain LPs
these days.
Although I'm not completely give up to find origial LPs, if you know the
catalogue number of CD series, please let me know. Thanks in advance.
- Kazunori
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| > Although I'm not completely give up to find origial LPs, if you know the
> catalogue number of CD series, please let me know. Thanks in advance.
The only [Atlantic R&B 1947-1974] formats you can order today are:
- Original compilation as a 14-cassette unit (186 songs)
Atlantic 14-81620-4 (list price $76.98)
- '91 expanded compilation as an 8-CD unit (203 songs -- remember my
warning about the mixes)
Atlantic 8-823306-2 (list price $88.98)
However if the #s for the original-compilation CDs are somehow useful to
you, let me know and I'll check at home. I can at least get you the
numbers for 4-6.
[Note that the Schwann Spectrum catalog, from which I extract all this
useful info, is being shut down by its new owner. (The classical
equivalent, Schwann Opus, will continue.) I will not be able to answer
questions like this beginning next month...] - Jay
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Jay,
Thanks for the information.
> However if the #s for the original-compilation CDs are somehow useful to
> you, let me know and I'll check at home.
I might have a chance to find them in used record shops, so please let
me know. As a matter of fact, I saw CD series, which is contained in a
box, last week. But I forgot to check which one is it.
> [Note that the Schwann Spectrum catalog, from which I extract all this
> useful info, is being shut down by its new owner. (The classical
> equivalent, Schwann Opus, will continue.) I will not be able to answer
> questions like this beginning next month...] - Jay
Gee! What a pity!
- Kazunori
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| .2> -< Ertegun as a song writer >-
>Turner's "Sweet Sixteen." I admit he had more talent than Wexler as a
>song writer. He also wrote "Mess Around" by now famous "Nugetre" name.
Probably credits of the songs written in those days do not reflect the
true composers. And "composers" is not a suitable word to describe who
made the songs. We could say only whose song it is. Huh?
For instance in Big Joe Turner's case, many of his songs are credited
under his wife's name, Lou Willie. Considering many songs share the same
lyrics, we could say it's Turner's inspiration or improvisation which
made those songs.
On the other hand, I checked the credit of "Sweet Sixteen" on B.B.King's
album titled "Original Take" the other day and found the credit was not
given to Ertegun nor to Turner. It was another wonder to me. I might
dig into this more.
And finaly about "Mess Around."
I picked up a CD titled "Boogie Woogie Special" the other day. This
includes Cow Cow Davenport's "Cow Cow Blues". When I heard this song, I
was amazed. "It's Mess Around, isn't it?" Then I looked into the booklet
of Ray Charles's "Birth of Soul" box set and found Ertegun played
Davenport's "Cow Cow Blues" record at Charles's recordning. So "Mess
Around" is a kind of copy of ""Cow Cow Blues". This is the behind story
of "Mess Around". Then what do you think of Ertegun's credit of this
song? It features a saxphone which made "Mess Around" more like R&B
than boogie woogie, but if you listen to the Professor Longhair's "Mess
Around" in "The Last Mardi Gras" or "Rock'n'Roll Gumbo" album played by
his piano you can easily found the "Cow Cow Blues" there.
Below from "The Birth of Soul" booklet.
========================================================================
Charles was still unsure of himself and admits he "still did a little
bit of Nat Cole" on his first Atlantic dates. His second, last, and
longest date with the New York session aces (tracks 5-10, Volume 1,
recorded May 17, 1953) nevertheless produced some exquisite music.
"Losing Hand," a "Charles Calhoun" blues, features a deft, deeply felt
blues conversation between Charles' piano and Baker's guitar and is
perhaps the first of the Atlantic tunes to create its own palpable mood.
"Mess Around," a contribution from the pen of Atlantic's Ahmet Ertegun
(A. Nugetre"), borrowed liberally from boogie woogie master Cow Cow
Davenport's "Cow Cow Blues." It inspired Charles to turn in the
session's most burning vocal perfromance, and it rocked like crazy.
"You see, when I was writing rhythm & blues songs," Entegun explained,
"I was going back to a lot of the blues records I bought as a very young
kid, records by Cow Cow Davenport and by the others, like Cripple
Clarence Lofton or Pinetop Smith. These records were big hits among
southern blacks and the music was played all over. I thought 'Mess
Around' would strike a chord in Ray Chalres and in the Southern
audience. I wrote it for him because no New York players could play the
blues like Ray Charles. It was a Southern tradition and part of a kind
of subconscious memory. So I sat with him and showed him the song and
somehow he immediately remembered "Cow Cow Blues" and "Pinetop's
Boogie." It came naturally to him and he perfromed it very well. It
wasn't a huge hit, but it was a hit. It was a precursor of 'What'd I
Say," because that had a lot of the same elements, except that 'What'd I
Say' was a very up-to-date."
========================================================================
In the last part Ertegun says "Mess Around" was a precursor of "What'd I
Say" but I have a different opinion. "What'd I Say" emplyoed gospel's
"call and response" style and belonged to soul music which Charles
gave a hand to its birth by "I Got a Woman" while "Mess Around" is
still in the world of R&B.
Any comments would be appreciated
- Kazunori
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| > In the last part Ertegun says "Mess Around" was a precursor of "What'd I
> Say" but I have a different opinion. "What'd I Say" emplyoed gospel's
> "call and response" style and belonged to soul music which Charles
> gave a hand to its birth by "I Got a Woman" while "Mess Around" is
> still in the world of R&B.
I kind of agree. Charles early hits have a lot of pre-soul R&B influences
(a few things remind me of the Coasters, but also of everyone else who was on
the circuit and had an identity). The soul (gospel) approach that took
hold increasingly from '54 toward the late 50s was something different
from Mess Around.
I really love that Birth of Soul box. The only cuts on there I would call
remotely "weak" are, well, early hits, esp. jump and novelty stuff.
I'm Movin' On / I Believe To My Soul -- one of the great 2-sided singles.
The juxtaposition reminds me of That's All Right Mama / Blue Moon of
Kentucky by that other guy who was stirring the melting pot in '54...
- Jay
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