Unlike the Underground FM sets I would put together in the early 70s as a charter member of the Association of Progressive Radio Announcers, these three song Old School shows don’t have much to do with each other. That will probably change but for these first few it’s grab bag mode. Unearthing genius locked silent for a half century is enough!
If today’s bill was a show, I would be there with you on the front row. Junior Wells was a legend. Musically he was family taught by cousins Junior Parker and Sonny Boy Williamson II. On the other side of the ocean Georgie Fame fed on American blues and brought a hep cat groove to the British Invasion. Fast forward a little and Boston’s Mission of Burma plays their first gig on April 1, 1979.
OK, push play please…
SNATCH IT BACK AND HOLD IT Junior Wells
Junior Wells, 1934-1998 enjoyed a 40 year performing career that established him as one of the baddest blowers of the blues harp. Born in Memphis, he attended the school of hard knocks in Chicago. He was performing with a group called The Aces in 1952 when he heard that Little Walter had dropped out of Muddy Waters band.
By the 1960s Junior was on his own when he recorded perhaps his greatest album, the Hoodoo Man Blues. The idea was to recreate in a studio what a night in a west side lounge might sound like Especially sweet is his Chicago Blues Band, consisting of bassist Jack Myers, drummer Billy Warren, and a guitarist called Friendly Chap on the first pressings, but you don’t need a weatherman to know that axe is being wielded by Buddy Guy.
Don’t even try to sit still. Junior Wells 1965…Snatch it Back and Hold It…
YEH YEH Georgie Fame
Georgie Fame points to Louis Jordan, Booker T and Mose Allison as major influences on his jazzy British style. Oddly enough, the sound was just offbeat and swinging enough to earn him a high rank in the British Invasion. His first hit had been recorded by Mongo Santamaria, with lyrics written by Jon Hendricks of Lambert Hendricks and Ross. London went cool cat, and Georgie has been bopping ever since.
From 1965, Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames and Yeh Yeh…YEH YEH George Fame and the Blue Flames!
THAT’S WHEN I REACH FOR MY REVOLVER Mission of Burma
Exactly where 80s punk was going to go was still a big question in 1981, when Boston’s Mission of Burma released their first EP, Signals, Calls and Marches. Here was a four piece band, with three traditional instruments and one guy running tape loops from a mixing desk, onstage no less.
Singer and bass player named the song after a Henry Miller essay, only to find out later that Miller had gotten the title from one of Hitler’s favorite Nazis, Hermann Göring. Here’s Mission of Burma, and a sweet little novelty entitled “That’s When I Reach for My Revolver…”
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