"Water Baby Blues" | |
---|---|
Single by Merl Lindsay and His Oklahoma Nightriders | |
Recorded | 1946 |
Genre | Western swing |
Label | 4 Star |
Songwriter(s) | Merl Lindsay |
"Water Baby Blues"/"Water Baby Boogie" is a Western swing instrumental first recorded in 1946 by Merl Lindsay (4 Star 1117) and which became his signature song. Often recorded as "Water Baby Boogie" it became a popular dance tune.
Doyle Salathiel, Lindsay's brother and jazz guitarist who sometime played with the band, [1] wrote a set of novelty lyrics for the tune. Called "Singing Water Baby Blues" (Mercury 70119, 1952) it has such lyrics as:
Some are red and some are green,
But not the one that I have seen.
The one I saw was colored blue.
Supposed to bring good luck to you.
Other artists with recordings of "Water Baby Blues"/"Water Baby Boogie" include:
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated as R&B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a heavy, insistent beat" was becoming more popular. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands usually consisted of piano, one or two guitars, bass, drums, one or more saxophones, and sometimes background vocalists. R&B lyrical themes often encapsulate the African-American experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy, as well as triumphs and failures in terms of relationships, economics, and aspirations.
Boogie-woogie is a music genre of blues that became popular during the late 1920s, developed in African-American communities in the 1870s. It was eventually extended from piano, to piano duo and trio, guitar, big band, country and western music, and gospel. While standard blues traditionally expresses a variety of emotions, boogie-woogie is mainly associated with dancing. The lyrics of one of the earliest hits, "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie", consist entirely of instructions to dancers:
Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which attracted huge crowds to dance halls and clubs in Texas, Oklahoma and California during the 1930s and 1940s until a federal war-time nightclub tax in 1944 contributed to the genre's decline.
Blues rock is a fusion genre combining elements of blues and rock. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electric blues and rock: electric guitar, electric bass guitar, and drums, sometimes with keyboards and harmonica. From its beginnings in the early to mid-1960s, blues rock has gone through several stylistic shifts and along the way it inspired and influenced hard rock, Southern rock, and early heavy metal. Blues rock continues to be an influence in the 2020s, with performances and recordings by popular artists.
Rock and roll emerged as a defined musical style in the United States in the early to mid-1950s. It derived most directly from the rhythm and blues music of the 1940s, which itself developed from earlier blues, boogie woogie, jazz and swing music, and was also influenced by gospel, country and western, and traditional folk music. Rock and roll in turn provided the main basis for the music that, since the mid-1960s, has been generally known simply as rock music.
Norma Jean Beasler is an American country music singer who was a member of The Porter Wagoner Show from 1961–1967. She had 13 country singles in Billboard's Country Top 40 between 1963 and 1968, recorded twenty albums for RCA Victor between 1964 and 1973, received two Grammy nominations, and was a Grand Ole Opry member for several years.
Steven Bookvich known as Muruga Booker is an American drummer, composer, inventor, artist, recording artist, and an autonomous Orthodox priest.
Vann "Piano Man" Walls was an American rhythm and blues piano player, songwriter, studio musician, and professional recording artist. He was a long-standing session player for Atlantic Records, appearing on hits by artists including Big Joe Turner, Ruth Brown, and The Clovers. Walls performed under a number of different names, and is variously credited as Van Walls, Harry Van Walls, and Captain Van. He led the Harry Van Walls Orchestra, and also performed with Doc Starkes and His Nite Riders, and as Le Capitaine Van.
The Harlem Hamfats was a Chicago jazz band formed in 1936. Initially, they mainly provided backup music for jazz and blues singers, such as Johnny Temple, Rosetta Howard, and Frankie Jaxon, for Decca Records. Their first record, "Oh! Red", became a hit, securing them a Decca contract for fifty titles, and they launched a successful recording career performing danceable music.
Merle Lindsay Salathiel, better known as Merl Lindsay, was one of the premier American Western swing musicians from the 1930s to the mid-1960s and founder of Merl Lindsay and His Oklahoma Night Riders.
The Rainforest Band is a jam band that spans several genres, including jazz, rock, world music, R&B, and funk. Founded in 1990, it produced four albums and performed for ten years.
Eldon Shamblin was an American guitarist and arranger, particularly important to the development of Western swing music as one of the first electric guitarists in a popular dance band. He was a member of The Strangers during the 1970s and 1980s.
"See See Rider", also known as "C.C. Rider", "See See Rider Blues" or "Easy Rider", is a popular American 12-bar blues folk blues song that became a blues and jazz standard. Gertrude "Ma" Rainey was the first to record it on October 16, 1924, at Paramount Records in New York. The song uses mostly traditional blues lyrics to tell the story of an unfaithful lover, commonly called an "easy rider": "See see rider, see what you have done", making a play on the word "see" and the sound of "easy".
"I Don't Need No Doctor" is an R&B song written by Nick Ashford, Valerie Simpson, and Jo Armstead. First released by Nick Ashford on Verve in August 1966, it went nowhere. It was then picked up and recorded by Ray Charles and released in October 1966. Over the years, it has been covered by bands such as garage rock band The Chocolate Watchband in 1969, Humble Pie in 1971, New Riders of the Purple Sage in 1972, metal band W.A.S.P. in 1986, by rock band Great White in 1987, and by the garage punk band The Nomads in 1989. Styx also covered this song. Humble Pie's version became an FM radio hit and reached No. 73 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.
Luther Tucker was an American blues guitarist.
Baby Boy Warren was an American blues singer and guitarist who was a leading figure on the Detroit blues scene in the 1950s.
The period from the end of the First World War until the start of the Depression in 1929 is known as the "Jazz Age". Jazz had become popular music in America, although older generations considered the music immoral and threatening to cultural values. Dances such as the Charleston and the Black Bottom were very popular during the period, and jazz bands typically consisted of seven to twelve musicians. Important orchestras in New York were led by Fletcher Henderson, Paul Whiteman and Duke Ellington. Many New Orleans jazzmen had moved to Chicago during the late 1910s in search of employment; among others, the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band and Jelly Roll Morton recorded in the city. However, Chicago's importance as a center of jazz music started to diminish toward the end of the 1920s in favor of New York.
Live at Keystone is an album by Merl Saunders, Jerry Garcia, John Kahn, and Bill Vitt. It was recorded live at the Keystone in Berkeley, California on July 10 and 11, 1973, and released later that year as a two-disc vinyl LP. It was re-released in 1988, with additional tracks, as two separate CDs, called Live at Keystone Volume I and Live at Keystone Volume II.
Keystone Companions: The Complete 1973 Fantasy Recordings is a four-CD album by Merl Saunders and Jerry Garcia. It was recorded live at the Keystone in Berkeley, California on July 10 and 11, 1973, and released by Fantasy Records on September 25, 2012.
Muruga Booker has played on many different recordings by a wide variety of artists including Weather Report, Bob Dylan, James Gurley, Tim Hardin, Al Kooper, Mitch Ryder, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, David Peel, Babatunde Olatunji, Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders, Buzzy Linhart and many more. He has appeared on albums released by A&M, Bear Family Records, Capitol Records, Chesky Records, Columbia Records, Elektra, Grateful Dead Records, P-Vine, Paramount Records, RCA Records, Relix Records, Uncle Jam and Verve Forecast, among others. He has also self-released many recordings on his own Musart record label through Bandcamp.
This 1940s song-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |