ARF: Notes and Comments: YOU CAN'T DO THAT ON STAGE ANYMORE, vol 5: The Downtown Talent Scout

YOU CAN'T DO THAT ON STAGE ANYMORE, vol 5

The Downtown Talent Scout

Notes and Comments

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Liner notes
The lyrics refer to the guys who used to spy on the Freaks in Hollywood in the early 1960's. We never knew if they were FBI, CIA, DEA or what, but they'd do stupid stuff like rush into restaurants (on one occasion I saw, it was Ben Frank's, on Sunset) and take 8mm movies of anybody who looked too weird, then rush out again to a waiting car. They'd also sneak around your house in the early morning hours, snooping. I found a pair of them little suits & ties on) outside my door at 6:00AM once when we lived on Kirkwood.
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	Cause after all you look so freaky How could anyone believe That what you think and what you feel Comes close at all to what is real Blow your harmonica, son
CC
From: Patrick David Neve <splat@gladstone.uoregon.edu> 1. Trouble Every Day, Freak Out, 1965- "5 in every 4 just won't amount to nothin' more than watch the rats crawl across the floor and make up songs about bein' poor. Blow your harmonica, son."
2. Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Sexually Aroused Gas Mask, WEASLES RIPPED MY FLESH, 1970- After many of Roy's falsetto "Aaahs" and Motorheads 'Snorks', FZ can plainly be heard to utter, at 3:25, "Blow your harmonica, son."
Also little enlightenin' discussion:-)))
From: Vladimir Sovetov <sova@kpbank.ru> I was long time under impression that it was something picked off Howlin' Wolf, but when really decided to find the exact song I couldn't.
From: "Bert van Oortmarssen" <berto@and.nl> No, not Howling Wolf (he was the harmonica player himself except on a couple of songs where a very young James Cotton blew the harp) ... but listen to Lightning Slim, who said this line in almost every song (to Lazy Lester, Schoolboy Cleve or Wild Bill Philips or whoever played the harp).
The Wolf said: "Play your guitar Willie Johnson, till it smokes"
Later some more from Lightnin Slim CD Rooster Blues booklet. Re-typed by Vladimir Sovetov
"Lightnin' Slim, for many a blues fan, epitomizes everything great and cool about the aerly 1950s Louisian style, commonly referrred to and known to the world over as 'swamp blues'. There wasn't much to his style, a bare bones concotion built around his world weary vocals and simple as dirt guitar work, with usually nothing more than a harmonica and a drummer wailing away in background. Somewhere mid-way into the song, Lightnin' would holler over out, 'Well, blow your harmonica, son' and a neatly constructed four bar harp solo suddenly break up the guitar dominated pattern."
For more Lightnin' thingies see also Dinah-Moe Hum. OVERNITE SENSATION
And some more about Wolf
Just now I found the song that so long slipped off my memory. It's 'Brownskin Woman' (as indicated in liners notes of my unauthorised compilation CD performed in West Memphis, February 12, 1952. Personel: Howlin' Wolf (v/h), Ike Turner (p), Willie Johnson (g), Willie Steel (d), unknown (b)), where Wolf said before second harp solo:
Blow your horn, baby.
To himself? Heh. That's really weird.

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Any proposal? I'd like to hear!

Provocation, compilation and design © Vladimir Sovetov, 1994-2004
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