Etta James passed away on 20 January 2012, and there aren’t many live vids out there on the Utoobage (this one’s from 1962). She was tough on the eyes, but gorgeous on the ears.
We also lost the great Johnny Otis on 17 January. Although I never saw The Johnny Otis Show on television, his 1990s radio show was great, playing old R&B and early R&R. (I spoke with him on the phone once about some trivia about The Contours.)
So here are The Contours live in 1963. I love early R&B, so we might as well continue with that theme.
Ruth Brown recorded “(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean” in 1953, and it’s a great example of “jump blues” that morphed, terminology-wise from “Race Records” into “Rhythm and Blues” and later into “Rock and Roll.”
According to the late Eubie Blake, the phrase “Rock and Roll” originated in the late 1800s. It described a ragtime piano style that kept the patrons of brothels moving along. (Even the name “ragtime” is bawdy, and you can connect the dots for yourselves.)
Jump Blues. From the Utoobage description:
Illinois Jacquet and his band in the “Jive Crazy” scene from the 1949 noir movie “D.O.A.” — at least, according to the movie publicity.
So that might not be Illinois Jacquet’s band, but it’s still a great scene. And that makes five jumpy and jivey vids for the Saturday Matinee. Have a great weekend folks.
Happy Birthday to Kirstie Alley, Joe Frazier, John Hancock, Joe E. Lewis, Rush Limbaugh, Jack London, Ray Price, Tex Ritter, Howard Stern, Glenn Yarborough, Rob Zombie and me. We goats kick ass.
Very cold water is very dense. Fishing in a frozen lake in Finland. Here’s an explanation [via]:
They have inflated their BCDs (vests) with air. This will make them float up to the ‘top’. This allows them to stand on the ice upside down. If there was no ice, they would surface. You can see when they breathe, the CO2 will float to the top (bottom) of the ice and it trapped. The wheel barrow is filled with CO2 expelled (poured in from the bucket). This makes it want to float too and hence will stick to the bottom of the ice until they dump it out, which will make it loose its buoyancy and sink to the bottom…
Happy birthday to Kim Wilson, one of the greatest blues harp blowers. Saw him with his original lineup in the early 80′s, pre- Kid Ramos. Pure awesome then, pure awesome now. And just for the helluvit, here’ my favorite Zappa song to wrap it all up, “Black Napkins.”
Yeah, I may have posted that before, but so what – I like it. Have a great weekend, folks, be back here tomorrow for more fun and games.
Bimbo was Betty Boop’s boyfriend/dog pal back when Betty was still a dog in a miniskirt. (Note that Mickey Mouse shows up to mess with Bimbo at 00:28. The Fleisher Bros. were Disney’s closest competitor in the animation business at the time.)
The Best Of Jurassic Park That You Don’t Recall. [via]
Welcome to Kitty Town.
The Allman Brothers’ “Jessica” is one of the great country rock jams. Seems appropriate, since I’ve got a bit of traveling coming up next week.
Have a great weekend, folks, and be back here tomorrow for more hot muffins from the internest.
