NRR Project: Mahalia Jackson sings 'Move On Up a Little Higher' (1948)

 

NRR Project: “Move On Up a Little Higher”

Composed by W. Herbert Brewster

Performed by Mahalia Jackson

Mildred Falls, piano; Herbert James Francis, organ

Recorded Sept. 12, 1947

First read the expert essay on this piece by Robert F. Darden at the National Recording Registry.

Mahalia Jackson was gifted with an enormous, resonant voice. She represents a new force in gospel music. Her full-voiced, keening sound is redolent with the blues influence. (The first blues singers who made it big in the 1920s were women such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey.) The ‘shouting” of lyrics, the big swooping lines of melody, the intense passion, all transformed gospel music and how we judged the practitioners of same. This was a soul-infused sound that combined a sense of urgency with deep feeling.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: The Jack Benny Show.

NRR Project: Charles Ives, Piano Sonata No. 2 performed by John Kirkpatrick (1945/1948)

 

NRR Project: Piano Sonata No. 2

Composed by Charles Ives

Performed by John Kirkpatrick

Recorded 1945; released 1948

First, read Drew Massey’s excellent explanatory essay on this piece at the National Recording Registry.

At first listen, the music seems pure chaos. Is this even music, much less classical music?

It is the music of Charles Ives (1874-1954), an absolute original who followed no existing musical tradition when it came to composing. He heard music in cacophony and dissonance, and was not afraid of transcribing this completely new sound to paper. He confounded his contemporaries. (In fact, he was a weekend composer; he sold insurance for a living.) Not popular early in his career, he became noted in later decades, after he had ceased to compose.

Once you open yourself to his work through repeated listenings, you can find things you like. He can be unexpectedly lyrical. He has a stirring energy that overcomes your senses. He dots his work with hilarious musical quotations and paraphrases. Most importantly, he respects your intelligence and challenges you to hear what he hears. His work is, in its own way, beautiful.

The Sonata consists of four movements. The piece is popularly known as the “Concord Sonata.” Each movement represents an author or authors who typified the Transcendentalist movement in America during the mid-19^th century. “Emerson,” “Hawthorne,” “The Alcotts,” and “Thoreau” follow each other. Interestingly, Ives stated that he saw the musical score s a mere suggestion, a platform for improvisation by the interpreter. There can not be said to be a “definitive” performance of it.

The piece was recorded in 1945, but released in 1948. Interestingly, it became a best-seller, and accelerated the general interest in the ‘til-then forgotten compositions of Charles Ives – symphonies, “sets,” overtures, songs, marches, choral works, solo piano studies, works for organ, and flat-out unclassifiable pieces. Ives was fearless and prolific.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: “Move On Up a Little Higher”.

NRR Project: The Chuck Wagon Gang sings 'I'll Fly Away' (1948)

 

NRR Project: “I’ll Fly Away”

Composed by Albert E. Brumley

Performed by the Chuck Wagon Gang

Recorded 1948

2:43

Oooh! Here’s a really good explanatory essay by Bill C.Malone at the National Recording Registry.

This gospel standard is an elegant and tuneful number, easy to remember and easy to harmonize. No wonder it’s so popular! Its fervent energy speaks of the longing for spiritual release, a feeling everyone can identify with.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: John Kirkpatrick plays Charles Ives’ Piano Sonata No. 2.

NRR Project: 'I Can Hear It Now: 1933-1945' (1948)

 

NRR Project: “I Can Hear It Now: 1933-1945”

Produced and co-written by Fred Friendly

Co-written and narrated by Edward R. Murrow

Compiled for Columbia Records 1948

46:44

Another excellent essay by Cary O’Dell is available here – it explains this entry quite well!

The idea of producing an album of significant sound slices from recent world history was Fred Friendly’s. His experience as a radio producer led him to think of a way to summarize the historical period of 1933 to 1945 through sound excerpts. The project was initiated in part due to a musician’s strike. Without material to put out, the record companies were hurting. They needed content! In addition, the invention of audio tape made it much easier to create sound collages.

Friendly collaborated with CBS’s star reporter, Edward R. Murrow, on the project. They put together a sonic “scrapbook,” bridged with narration, that provided a timeline of memories for people to listen to. Starting with the voice of Will Rogers in 1933, the album moves through the Depression and the onset and completion of World War II. We hear Churchill, Roosevelt, Mussolini, Hitler. We travel to distant places and listen to the voices of history.

The record was a huge hit. It is interesting to hear these snippets set off and contextualized by the reassuring voice of Murrow. His words seem to make the progress of events seem purposeful and connected. In fact, the concept of the “sound bite” started here. Excerpts were more listener-friendly than long passages. This encapsulation of significant historical events proved a winner; subsequent albums overed the periods 1945-1949, 1919-1932, and the 1960s.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: “I’ll Fly Away.”

NRR Project: “Evangeline Special”/“Love Bridge Waltz”

 

NRR Project: “Evangeline Special”/“Love Bridge Waltz”

Performed by Iry Lejeune

Recorded 1948

2:27/2:52

Another entry I had no awareness of! What does this say?

It seems that no matter how hard you try to absorb all the sounds and the sights that’re out there, you’re going to miss some. OK, a lot. No matter how hard you try.

But that doesn’t mean you should give up! Let them pry the books out of your cold dead hands and pull the headphones from your dead ears. Get all the culture you can, every day. Of every kind.

This is a recording of Cajun music by the excellent accordionist Iry Lejeune. I learned everything that I know about the two songs from Ron Yule’s amazing essay on them at the National Recording Registry. You should read it. Then you will learn as much as I have.

These songs, one rollicking one plaintive, epitomize the Cajun sound – a tradition grounded in a different language, different customs, an unlikely embedded jewel in the American culture. These are dance tunes, made deliberately for live performance. As such, they are compelling musical documents.

As you may know, I am listening to and writing about every entry in the National Recording Registry, in order. In conjunction with this project, I am viewing and writing about all the entries in the National Film Registry in order as well. These twin Everests are half-climbed now. I have been doing this for years. I do not know if I will ever finish, but it’s certainly worth a try.

The great thing about these two endeavors is their inclusivity. I have been exposed to all kinds of cultural influences by watching/hearing them; their contents are as pieces in a museum. To write my way through them is a way to honor and examine them. They constitute part of America’s cultural pantheon.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: “I Can Hear It Now.”

NRR Project: 'Boogie Chillen' (Nov. 3, 1948)

 

NRR Project: “Boogie Chillen’”

Written and performed by John Lee Hooker

Released Nov. 3, 1948

3:10

How could a one-chord song sweep the nation? “Boogie Chillen” did. (Read Jas Obrecht’s essay on the song here at the National Recording Registry.)

John Lee Hooker was a law unto himself. He was the youngest of 11 children, born to sharecroppers in Mississippi. His stepfather taught him the guitar, transmitting to him the tradition of a frenetic, driving kind of blues generally classified as Delta blues. Hooker ran away from home at the age of 14, and gradually drifted north until he wound up in Detroit. He was working as a janitor in a steel mill when he recorded this song.

Here, Hooker plays solo, accompanying himself on amplified guitar and foot-stomping the rhythm. He plays the same chord, insistently, hypnotically. He trades off sung and spoken verses describing his introduction to the boogie. The song took off in popularity, becoming the biggest-selling “race record” of 1949.

Everybody dug it. This was something new, something fresh and vital. In an era when mainstream music was orchestrated and sedate, Hooker’s raw energy was convulsive. He inspired many bluesmen who followed him after hearing this recording.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: “Evangeline Special” and “Love Bridge Waltz.”

NRR Project: The Marshall Plan speech (June 5, 1947)

 

NRR Project: The “Marshall Plan” speech

Delivered by George Marshall

Delivered June 5, 1947

12:33

First, read David Roll’s excellent essay on the subject here at the National Recording Registry.

This relatively short speech, given at Harvard University by former general and then-Secretary of State George Marshall, was a revelation – and marked the beginning of the salvation of Western Europe after the Second World War.

At the conclusion of the war, European countries found themselves impoverished, their infrastructures destroyed, their economies non-functional. It had become apparent that all the countries “liberated” by the Soviet Union were destined to fall under its sway. The Communists declined economic assistance from the West.

But what of England, France, (west) Germany, and other nations? The infusion of cash and in-kind aid could help these nations to rebuild and become strong again. Without the help of the United States, it was felt that these countries would remain weak and become the breeding ground for the influence of Communism. To protect its own economic and security interests, the U.S. had to act. Marshall proposed a plan, initiated by the Europeans and signed off on by the Americans, to invest more than $3 billion in recovery.

“Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine,” he said, ”but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist.”

In this way, America set up the conditions of Western Europe during the Cold War – the “free nations” to the west, the Communist block in the east. The Iron Curtain came down hard, and the two superpowers and their client states would face each other in hostile array for decades.

“An essential part of any successful action on the part of the United States is an understanding on the part of the people of America of the character of the problem and the remedies to be applied,” Marshall continued. “Political passion and prejudice should have no part. With foresight, and a willingness on the part of our people to face up to the vast responsibility which history has clearly placed upon our country, the difficulties I have outlined can and will be overcome.” America positioned itself as the guardian of freedom.

Beyond and above the practical political and economic considerations was the simple desire to be of help. People were starving, unhoused, unemployed. From 1948 to 1951, the extensive shoring up of a devastated part of the world took place. The Marshall Plan brought relief to millions.

“What are the sufferings? “ Marshall asked. “What is needed? What can best be done? What must be done?”

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Boogie Chillen’.

NRR Project: 'Indians for Indians' (March 25, 1947)

 

NRR Project: “Indians for Indians”

Broadcast March 25, 1947

30 min.

Another entry I know nothing about, and have little evidence of. This radio program was in operation since April 1941 through the mid-1970s, and provided a platform for Native American news and cultural expression. Read the essay by Josh Garrett-Davis.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: the Marshall Plan speech.

NRR Project: 'Manteca' (1953)

 

NRR Project: “Manteca”

Composed by Dizzy Gillespie, Chano Pozo, and Gil Fuller

Performed by the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band with Chano Pozo

Recorded Dec. 22, 1947

3:06

Read the excellent essay on this piece by Raul Fernandez!

This song marks the birth of the strong influence of Afro-Cuban jazz. Jazz had first served as a dance music; bebop took away the beat. Afro-Cuban jazz restored the beat, made better beats to improvise to. Dizzy Gillespe’s recruitment of the volatile and creative Chano Pozo – who could dance, sing, and play percussion all at once – led to a fusion of soaring brass lines and intense, compelling rhythm. This infusion of energy enriched jazz and propelled it forward.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: “Indians for Indians”.

NRR Project: Frankie Yankovic and his Yanks play 'Just Because' (1948)

 

NRR Project: “Just Because”

Composed by Joe Shelton, Sydney Robin, and Bob Shelton

Performed by Frankie Yankovic and his Yanks

Recorded 1948

2:59

I could not do better than Bob Dolgan’s expert essay on this subject. Read it here!

Frankie Yankovic was an inspired accordionist, and his polkas appealed to the big Slavic audiences of the Midwest. This tune made him nationally popular!

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Manteca.

 

 

NRR Project: Gabby Pahinui plays 'Hula Medley' (1947)

 

NRR Project: “Hula Medley”

Performed by Gabby Pahinui

Recorded 1947

2:58

Another entry that I’ve never heard of and have nothing cogent to discuss regarding it. Read J.W. Junker’s great essay on it at theNational Recording Registry. It’s a beautiful piece of music! And Pahinui is still remembered as the King of Slack Key Guitar.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Frankie Yankovic and his Yanks play Just Because.

NRR Project: Louis Kaufman plays Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons' (1947)

 

NRR Project: The Four Seasons

Composed by Antonio Vivaldi

Performed by Louis Kaufman and the Concert Hall String Orchestra

Recorded: Dec. 28-31, 1947

37:18

For a while, Baroque music was in eclipse. It was the accepted art music of its day, wrought by musical giants such as Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) and Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). However, soon after their demise classical music evolved into new forms – the more sweeping, large-ensemble complexities of the Classical Period (Haydn, Mozart, et al).

Eighty years would pass before Felix Mendelssohn resurrected Bach’s reputation with a performance of his St. Matthew’s Passion in 1829. Suddenly, Baroque was back. Old scores were rediscovered. The tendency to perform this work on authentic period instruments, utilizing antiquated performance practices, grew. The “clarity, balance, and objectivity” of Baroque music seemed a refuge from the excesses of the then-current Romantic period of music (Beethoven, Chopin, Schubert, Verdi, Wagner, Mahler).

One of those champions of Baroque music was violinist Louis Kaufman (1905-1994). He had already established himself as one of Hollywood’s great musicians when he received the call that spurred him to record Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” set of violin concertos, first published in 1725. He quickly became a Vivaldi enthusiast. A complete and exhaustive analysis of Kaufman, Vivaldi, and this recording is penned by Harumi Furuya at the National Recording Registry site.

Kaufman’s rendition is crisp, precise, even a tad dry. However, this inaugural recording is exemplary in every other way – in contrast to many, many ways succeeding groups and soloists have adulterated the composition. The comeback of Vivaldi was mightily welcome.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Gabby Pahinui performs Hula Medley.

 

NRR Project: The Fairfield Four sing 'Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around' (1947)

 

“Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around”

Traditional

Performed by the Fairfield Four

Recorded 1947

2:25

Wow. Another great group I would not have heard from save for this survey.

First, you must read Opal Louis Nations’ essay on this group at the National Recording Registry. It gives a specific and detailed history of the quartet from its beginnings in 1921 down to the present day.

The Fairfield Four represent a tradition of gospel music that is sung a capella. This unique genre can be said to have originated in 1871 with the Fisk Jubilee Singers, who first set Christian spiritual songs in multiple-part harmony, codifying a tradition that would move into Black churches everywhere across the country in the ensuing decades.

The music derived from popular hymns, termed spirituals. Gospel tunes were different: urgent, fast-paced, emotionally intense – possessed of a frantic, joyous spirit meant to infuse the listeners with a religious experience. It is song as worship. Vocal facility was encouraged; the expression was heard as an offering to God; the more beautiful, the better. Soon, expert ensembles would perform every Sunday – and then, gradually, in other contexts.

The Fairfield Four (who were five sometimes) was one of many groups who came up through exposure on the radio; this vital outlet spread their name across the country. This recording contains the amazing long-held notes of lead tenor Samuel McCrary. Here, the group chugs through the number, clearly elucidating their complex harmonies as they testify on behalf of their faith.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Louis Kaufman performs Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

NRR Project: 'Four Saints in Three Acts' (1947)

 

“Four Saints in Three Acts”

Music by Virgil Thomson; lyrics by Gertrude Stein

Performed by Virgil Thomson et al

Premiered Feb. 7, 1934

Recorded June 1947

1 hour, 47 minutes

A whimsical piece of pure music – as its libretto makes no sense.

The author of the piece was the famous writer, American expatriate Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) She was known for her experimental, nonsensical, repetitive literary creations. She used language for its sound qualities only, meaning that her works have no plots and indeed no linearity. It consists of repeated phrases, as in the opera’s opening:

“To know to know to love her so. Four saints prepare for saints. It makes it well fish. Four saints it makes it well fish. Four saints prepare for saints it makes it well well fish it makes it well fish prepare for saints.”

And, later: “Saint Teresa seated and not standing half and half of it and not half and half of it seated and not standing surrounded and not seated and not seated and not standing and not surrounded not not surrounded and not not not seated not seated not seated not surrounded not seated and Saint Ignatius standing standing not seated Saint Teresa not standing not standing and Saint Ignatius not standing standing surrounded as if in once yesterday. In place of situations.”

She wrote the piece in 1927. In 1928, Virgil Thomson (1896-1989) set it to music. Thomson, originally from Kansas City, moved to Paris in 1925. There he studied and wrote music until 1940, when he returned to America.

Thomson set the piece for many voices, including various saints, two separate choruses, and a “Commere” and a “Compere.” The music is open and upbeat, in chords remindful of those found in hymns. Since the words make no sense, Thomson is free to create his own, quite beautiful chain of solos, duets, and choruses, liberated from the need to make sense.

The opera was first performed in 1934, utilizing a Black cast. Thirteen years later, many of the principals reunited with Thomson to record the work for posterity. It’s a pleasant if nonsensical exercise in tunefulness.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around.

NRR Project: 'The Churkendoose' (1947)

 

NRR Project: “The Churkendoose”

Composed by Alec Wilder; lyrics by Ben Ross Berenberg

Performed by Ray Bolger

Recorded 1947

An amusing and sweet children’s record I’d never heard of. Read Holly Van Leuven’s essay on it at the National Recording Registry.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Four Saints in Three Acts.”

NRR Project: “Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday’s Just as Bad)” (Sept. 14, 1947)

 

NRR Project: “Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday’s Just as Bad)”

Composed by T-Bone Walker

Performed by T-Bone Walker, Lloyd C. Glenn, Bumps Myers, Teddy Buckner, Arthur Edwards, Oscar Lee Bradley

Recorded Sept. 14, 1947

2:25

T-Bone Walker was a phenomenon. Read Brian Bader’s essay on him at the National Recording Registry.

He was not the first to use the electric guitar. That honor goes to Chicagoan George Barnes, who played one his brother invented in 1931, when he was only 10 years old. Five years later, Walker was playing one in L.A. Oddly, he started off in the jazz scene there as a singer and dancer. By 1940, he was recording on electric guitar with his own small combos.

Composed and performed by himself, “Stormy Monday” is a blues standard. Walker’s cool, precise approach would influence immensely B.B. King and others.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: “The Churkendoose.”

NRR Project: Bill Monroe and 'Blue Moon of Kentucky'

 

NRR Project: “Blue Moon of Kentucky”

Composed by Bill Monroe

Performed by Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys

Recorded 1947

2:06

First, read Richard D. Smith’s essay and Ricky Skaggs’ essayat the National Recording Registry. They are enthusiastic and comprehensive.

I can only approach this musical giant with awe. I mean, the guy invented bluegrass. Who else has birthed a genre?

Bill Monroe (1911-1996) got the mandolin because he was the youngest, and it was the least-valued instrument in the house. He quickly became a master of it, and began to create his own brand of music – based in old-time “hillbilly music” but fusing the best elements of blues and folk as well, melding into a new, soulful and expressive sound that proved incredibly popular.

By 1939, he was appearing on the Grand Ole Opry radio show regularly. He had a national platform for the performance of his unique craft. Bluegrass could be break-neck fast, or in this case heart-breakingly slow; it featured intertwining vocal harmonies, and bravura soloing. His enthusiastic, deeply felt intensity translated into the music and vitalized it, fascinating a generation on the radio. Soon aspiring groups in the same genre began to proliferate, creating bluegrass for further, ever-expanding mutations, fusing with jazz, avant-garde, and jam genres.

Monroe became a living legend. At least two dozen prominent bluegrass performers did time with Bill, in one way or another. His influence is still pervasive.

“Blue Moon of Kentucky” is charmingly simple, instantly memorable. In 3/4time it swings gently, meanwhile sending out a sad and forlorn “high lonesome” sound that is essential to the genre. It’s a lover’s lament, and states its case plainly. Love is gone, and the singer appeals to the heavens. The End. Its heartfelt sincerity sells it. This elemental song became a hit for Elvis Presley. Monroe re-recorded it afterwards in order to break into a similar 4/4 time passage a la Elvis. It remains his greatest achievement.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: “Call It Stormy Monday.”

NRR Project: Robert Shaw directs Bach's Mass in B minor (1947)

 

NRR Project: Mass in B-minor

Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach

Performed by Robert Shaw and the Robert Shaw Chorale

Recorded 1947

2 hours, 12 min.

This enormous work is a landmark in Western music, and Robert Shaw’s direction of this recording is rightly regarded as a landmark as well. Shaw’s comprehension of the text and his ability to evoke a vital and energized performance from any given ensemble is unparalleled.

First, read Nick Jones’ excellent essay on this piece at the National Recording Registry here. My comments can only reiterate his observations.

This was the ultimate expression of Bach’s prowess in vocal music, the summation of everything he had learned during his career. Compiled partly from previous compositions, this immense 27-movement piece runs for over two hours (its first use in an actual mass, in 2025, ran over three hours). Oddly for Bach, a staunch Lutheran, this work is in the form of a Catholic Mass.

The composer completed it near the end of his life, in the period 1748-1749, and never heard the piece performed in its entirety. In fact, the first complete performance did not take place until 1859. There were recordings of the Mass before Shaw’s, but his is considered definitive. Shaw studied the score, imposed its original instrumentation (previous incarnations were over-orchestrated) and stuck strictly to an orthodox interpretation of it. The result was issued as a 17-disc 78 r.p.m. record set.

Bach alternates large choral set-pieces with smaller solos, ensembles, and orchestral passages. To those with the time to listen to it in its entirety, it’s an out-of-body experience. Bach distills his religious experience into musical terms, and the soaring vocal lines transport the listener to a heavenly space. It feels like Bach is expressing through his music his view on God, life, reality, and everything.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Bill Monroe performs “Blue Moon of Kentucky.”

NRR Project: Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech (March 6, 1946)

 

NRR Project: “Sinews of Peace” (aka “Iron Curtain”) speech

Written and delivered by Winston Churchill

Recorded March 6, 1946

46 min.

This speech marks the beginning of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and America and its allies.

World War II was not yet over a year when this speech was made. The United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union had formed a “Grand Alliance” to defeat Hitler’s Germany. Yet almost as soon as peace was declared, the USSR began to expand its sphere of influence, imposing political control on those territories it took over in the final months of fighting. Poland, Germany, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, and Czechoslovakia were all targeted. Russia had fought the Nazis the longest, and had suffered the most grievous losses, in the war. Now they were looking for security and influence.

Among the Allies, former British prime minister Winston Churchill was the first to observe and comment on this perceived danger. He identified the Soviet Union as the primary threat to peace and security. Therefore, he proposed an American/European alliance that would oppose the Russians. As America was presently the only country with an atomic bomb, he felt that the U.S. was the most powerful nation in the world, and the primary caretaker of freedom. He felt it necessary to urge the U.S. to impose a policy of “containment” of the Soviet threat.

Churchill, a strong anti-Communist, was invited to speak at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, which he did on March 5, 1946. A condition of his making the speech was the presence of U.S. President Harry S. Truman, who attended. In front of a crowd of 1,500, Chruchill made a 45-minute speech that outlined the issue and warned of coming trouble with Russia.

Churchill was blunt, avowing that he would “try to make sure with what strength I have that what has gained with so much sacrifice and suffering shall be preserved for the future glory and safety of mankind.” He identified what he saw as the two major dangers remaining to the world: “war and tyranny.”

He proposed the creation of a United Nations fighting force to keep the peace. He also proposed the close cooperation of America and England in military matters. He then addressed tyranny, stating, “We cannot be blind to the fact that the liberties enjoyed by individual citizens throughout the United States and throughout the British Empire are not valid in a considerable number of countries, some of which are very powerful. In these States control is enforced upon the common people by various kinds of all-embracing police governments to a degree which is overwhelming and contrary to every principle of democracy. The power of the State is exercised without restraint, either by dictators or by compact oligarchies operating through a privileged party and a political police force.” He was referring obliquely to the Soviets and their minions.

While professing to admire and respect the Soviets, Churchill nonetheless made this statement:

“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in some cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow.”

Despite his politic expressions, Churchill clearly named the USSR as the new opponent of the friends of freedom. “Except in the British Commonwealth and in the United States where Communism is in its infancy, the Communist parties or fifth columns constitute a growing challenge and peril to Christian civilization.”

Churchill’s proposal was to face the Soviets with military preparedness, admonishing the crowd that the only thing Stalin respected was strength. And so the terms of the future conflict, which lasted 42 years, until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, were set.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Robert Shaw leads a performance of Bach’s B-minor Mass.

NRR Project: Harry Partch, “U.S. Highball (A Musical Account of a Transcontinental Hobo Trip)”

 

NRR Project: “U.S. Highball (A Musical Account of a Transcontinental Hobo Trip)”

Composed by Harry Partch

Performed by the Gate 5 Ensemble

Recorded 1946

25:20

Harry Partch changed how I think about music.

When I was 12 or so, I checked out the album The World of Harry Partch from the Denver Public Library. It was in the Classical Music section.

I didn’t understand it. The manic drumming, the unharmonic melodies, the bizarre sounds, the comic lyrics. Finally I heard “Eight Hitchhiker Inscriptions from a Highway Railing at Barstow” and fell in love.

Partch is sui generis; there is no one following in his steps. In this he is like other bizarre composers I love, such as Ives, Satie, Moondog, Terry Riley, Frank Zappa, Steve Reich, and John Luther Adams. All iconoclasts, creating strange sound-objects that are hair-raising in their audaciousness and intensity, their just plain weirdness.

Harry Partch (1901-1974) made his own music. Literally. An aspiring composer, he kept rejecting the educational experiences music schools offered to him. He was searching for a sound that reflected the dense, complex, a-harmonic music he heard in the world, coming from machines, nature, and the mouths of those around him. In 1930, he burned all his compositions to date in a pot-bellied stove.

He devised a new scale, with 43 notes to it. He based his compositions on just intonation, a form of notation used in ancient Greece and Medieval times. No instruments of the day could accommodate his method of composing.

So he made his own instruments. The Chromelodeon, the Kithara, the Bloboy, Zymo-Xyl, Quadrangularis Reversum and more were tuned to Partch’s special frequencies.

But Partch was strapped for cash. He traveled as a hobo across the West. He could rarely assemble the instruments, the people, and the sheer time it took to teach his music. He lived on short-term grants and university appearances. Very few believed in his utterly new and confusing music. It featured percussion-grounded bursts of sounds and swooping, meandering melodic lines, clashing chords that sound like mistakes.

But when you pull back, you see that Partch is creating complex sound fields against which his musical gestures play themselves out. His narratives, whether self-written or taken from Chinese poetry, are acerbically voiced. His sound is wild, freewheeling, warm, expansive, open to the sky. His compositions have a tough, lean spirit. It’s hypnotic, engaging.

His “U.S. Highball: (A Musical Account of a Transcontinental Hobo Trip)” is exactly that – taken from his notebooks kept during his transcontinental hobo trip. Wisps of narrative, bits of conversations, the recitation of sign verbiage, pieces of advice, warnings from cops, pepper the music, sung, intoned. Marimbas play, harps strum, the percussion clatters on. We are on a train, plunging through Wyoming (“Stay out of Denver”). Partch captures a vernacular experience in a method uniquely suited to it.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech.

NRR Project: 'Jole Blon' (1946)

 

NRR Project: “Jole Blon”

Performed by Harry Choates

Recorded July 17, 1946

2:45

Again, I must defer to the National Recording Registry for its explanatory essay by Ryan Brasseaux, which you can read here.

This recording represents the breakthrough of Cajun music into the mainstream. Surprisingly popular, it ran high in the sales charts when it was released. It’s a typical love song, sorrowing over a lost woman. The lyrics:

Jolie blon, regardez donc quoi t'as fait

(Pretty blonde, look at what you've done)
Tu m'as quitte pour t'en aller
(You left me to go away)
Pour T'en aller avec un autre, oui, que moi
(To go away with another, instead of me)
Quel espoir et quel avenir, mais, moi, je vais avoir?
(What hope and what future am I going to have?)

Jolie blon, tu m'as laisse, moi tout seul
(Pretty blonde, you've left me all alone)
Pour t'en aller chez ta famille
(To go back to your family)
Si t'aurais pas ecoute tos les conseils de les autres
(If you had not listened to the advice of the others)
Tu serait ici-t-avec moi aujourd 'hui
(You would be here with me today)

Jolie blon, tu croyais il y avait just toi
(Pretty blonde, you thought there was just you)
Il y a pas just toi dans le pays pour moi aimer
(There is not just you in this land to love me)
Je peux trouver just une autre jolie blonde
(I can find another pretty blonde)
Bon Dieu sait, moi, j'ai un tas
(Good God knows, I have a lot)

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Harry Partch’s U.S. Highball.

 

 

NRR Project: 'Folk Songs of the Hills' (1946)

 

NRR Project: “Folk Songs of the Hills”

Performed by Merle Travis

Recorded 1946

34:23

Merle Travis (1917-1983) was the real deal. A songwriter, singer, and expert guitarist, he made his way up through the ranks of country artists and found enduring fame. He wrote “Sixteen Tons” and “Dark as a Dungeon,” both classics. Both can be found on this record.

At the time, Travis had a decent solo career going; additionally, he was a member of the Brown’s Ferry Quartet, a gospel group. He recorded “soundies,” short filmed performances that were played much like a jukebox. His reputation was solid.

Then his label, Capitol, asked him to record an album of folk songs. He came up with “Folk Songs of the Hills,” an eight-song album that featured traditional tunes as well as his own compositions.

His style is simple and straightforward, and he includes little verbal introductions to each of his selections, referring to the listeners as “boys and girls,” which make one think he made this record with children in mind. He performs “Nine Pound Hammer,” “John Henry,” and the gospel song “I Am a Pilgrim.”

The result is a primer on folk and folk-style music. These songs would be covered countless times by others, and would become standards in the American song book.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Harry Choates plays Jole Blon.

NRR Project: The Fred Allen Show (Oct. 7, 1945)

 

NRR Project: The Fred Allen Show

NBC Radio

Broadcast Oct. 7, 1945

30 min.

Fred Allen (1894-1956) was the funniest man in radio.

Jack Benny is the best-remembered of the radio comedians, but he was served by a staff of writers. For nearly 20 years, the dough-faced Fred Allen wrote, edited, and produced a comedy show that was, for a time, the highest-rated comedy program on the air.

Fred Allen was Boston-born, under the name of John F. Sullivan. He grew up hard, coming from an impoverished background and going to work at an early age. His workplace was an ideal springboard – it was a library. There he found a book on juggling, and taught himself how to do it.

Years of work in vaudeville followed. Allen gravitated to comedy, and soon was billing himself as “Freddy James, the World’s Worst Juggler.” Allen’s sharp, incisive wit propelled him onto Broadway, where he worked his way up to starring roles in the comedy revues of the day.

Finally, in 1933 radio came calling. For nine years, Allen created an hour-long comedy show once a week – a monumental task that found him working 12-hour days and 80-hour weeks. Gradually, he built up a cadre of talented voice actors who could handle any verbal challenge.

Beginning in December 1942, Allen created the popular “Allen’s Alley” segment, in which he went from door to door to ask various eccentrics about a topic of the day. Minerva Pious played Mrs. Nussbaum, a Jewish New Yorker; Parker Fennelly played Titus Moody, a dour New Englander. Alan Reed, later the voice of Fred Flintstone, played poet Falstaff Openshaw.

Also in 1942, the sponsors and NBC cut Allen’s show from an hour to a half-hour, to Allen’s dismay despite saving Allen from the undue stress of producing so much material a week. In this new format, the jokes came fast and thick; Allen’s comedic momentum was unrivaled. He hosted celebrity guests and put them through their comedic paces, making fun of hoary old entertainment cliches, other radio programs, and more.

Allen took 1944 off due to hypertension. He returned in the fall of 1945, and experienced his greatest period of success. Not only average listeners but other comedians would tune in to enjoy his work. His gift for improvisation perked up many a show, and sometimes led to his show running long and getting cut off. This and his on-air antipathy towards NBC’s executives got him in hot water time and again.

In the Oct. 7, 1945 broadcast, Fred welcomed ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy Charlie McCarthy to the program. They essayed a skit in which Charlie is set to leave Bergen, and he and Fred come up with a corny act with which to break back into vaudeville. They fail spectacularly, and Allen is offered a job -- without Charlie. He dumps him, and Charlie is reduced to begging Bergen for his job back.

The broadcast selected by the National Recording Registry features the debut in Allen’s Alley of Senator Claghorn, voiced by announcer Kenny Delmar. The senator was from the Deep South – “we call people from Alabama Yankees!” he proclaimed. Given to repeating himself and riding over Allen, the brash and daffy politician was a big hit.

In the end, the encroachments of television and the success of radio quiz shows destroyed his ratings. Additionally, his hypertension returned. After 1949, he would no longer hold a position on the radio dial.

Listening to his entire run of preserved shows is a pleasure and an education.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Merle Travis’ Folk Songs of the Hills.

NRR Project: 'On a Note of Triumph' (May 8, 1945)

 

NRR Project: “On a Note of Triumph”

Written, produced, and directed by Norman Corwin

CBS Radio

Broadcast May 8, 1945

57:06

This recording represents two apogees. It denotes the high-water mark of the American century, and it stands as the one of the last great works of famed radio producer, director, and writer Norman Corwin.

The defeat of Nazi Germany on May 8, 1945 was an immensely emotional moment. Six years of war had devastated Europe and turned the United States from an isolated, sleeping giant into a world power crusading for democracy. The victory affirmed our values – freedom, inclusion, diversity, tolerance – and set these principles out as our guiding philosophy, our hope for the future of the world.

Corwin was an eloquent recorder of the American experience. In his many broadcasts he articulated contemporary wisdom, as we heard in his landmark “We Hold These Truths,” which you can read about here.

“On a Note of Triumph” is a companion piece. It shouts to the world our glee at finally beating Hitler and his rotten gang of criminals and psychopaths. It articulates our reasons for fighting, describes the good that is to come, and asks questions about the struggle and our victory.

Corwin constructs here a complex tapestry of voices, led by the narration of Martin Gabel. The great Bernard Herrmann, who got his start with radio’s Mercury Theatre, provides a stunning score.

“So they’ve given up! They’re finally done in and the rat is dead in an alley back of the Wilhelmstrasse. Take a bow, G.I.! Take a bow, little guy! The superman of tomorrow lies dead at the feet of you common men of this afternoon! This is it, kid! This is the day! . . . You had what it took and you gave it . . . seems like free men have done it again!”

The show goes on to outline the general rejoicing resounding around the world. The tone is grandiose, bombastic, naïve, evangelical – reflecting the feeling pervasive in the country.

“Somehow the decadent democracies, the bumbling Bolsheviks, the Saxon softies, were tougher in the end than the brown-shirt bully boys. And smarter too, for without whipping a priest, burning a book, or slugging a Jew, without corralling a girl in a brothel or bleeding a child for plasma, far-flung, ordinary men, unspectacular but free, rousing out of their habits and their homes, got up early one morning, flexed their muscles, learned as amateurs the manual of arms, and set across across perilous plains and oceans to whop the bejeepers out of the professionals.”

What follows, exuberantly, is a paean to the victors and a final, scornful analysis of the sins of the enemy. It recites the crimes of the Nazis, and holds up their actions to contempt. Corwin definitively differentiates the principles of the victors from the values of the defeated. Germany is thoroughly mocked for its imperial ambitions and its insensate cruelties.

And it asks questions – “Who did we beat? How much did it cost to beat him? What did we learn? What do we do know now that we didn’t know before? What will we do now? Could it all happen again?”

The broadcast then purports to answer these questions. Given the fact that the Allies were still at war with Japan, the job is seen as unfinished and vigilance and patience is counseled. Isolation is scorned and international cooperation is promoted. The broadcast ends with hope for the future.

America had not yet dropped its problematic atomic bombs on the enemy. For a couple of months, America could see itself as the embodiment of virtue. Corwin’s work celebrates that exuberant belief in the American way, and the dream of universal brotherhood.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: The Fred Allen Show.

NRR Project: 'Tubby the Tuba' (1950)

 

NRR Project: “Tubby the Tuba”

Music: George Kleinsinger; words: Paul Tripp

Narrated by Victor Jory

Recorded 1945

11:50

This pleasant entry is masterfully written about by Cary O’Dell at the National Recording Registry – you can read that here.

The idea of creating pedagogical compositions to familiarize children with musical instruments is not new. Prokofiev did it with Peter and the Wolf; Benjamin Britten would do it later with his Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. This cheerful and chipper story is meant to be a non-intimidating introduction to the orchestra.

It succeeds in the context of a modern fairy tale, written in imitation of Andersen’s Ugly Duckling. Tubby the Tuba is tired of playing just accompaniment and wants to play a melody of his own. He is mocked for this. Disconsolate, he goes to a river – and there finds a frog who also feels left out musically. Together, they create a basso melody that Tubby then takes back to the orchestra.

Fortunately, the great conductor Pizzicato recognizes the value of Tubby’s tune, and the other instruments join in and fill out the orchestration. Everyone is happy! Tubby the Tuba has been recorded many times since, but here is the original rendition, featuring the narration of character actor Victor Jory.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: On a Note of Triumph.

NRR Project: Proceedings of the United Nations Conference on International Organization (April 25 - June 26, 1945)

 

NRR Project: Proceedings of the United Nations Conference on International Organization

Recorded April 25 to June 26, 1945

These recordings are another resource that is on file but not readily available to the public. First, read Brandon Burke’s excellent essay on this entry at the National Recording Registry.

As World War II drew to a close, the victors once again strove to create a governing body for all the nations of the world. This had been attempted previously, with the League of Nations after World War I , but that organization proved ineffective. Now the Allies convened in San Francisco in 1945 to found the United Nations.

NBC Radio covered the proceedings, and the audio was recorded onto disc and stored for future reference. The conferrals are all there for the scholar to examine.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Tubby the Tuba.

NRR Project: Arthur Godfrey broadcasts FDR's funeral procession (April 14, 1945)

 

NRR Project: The funeral of Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Broadcast April 14, 1945

 Before everyone asked where you were when Kennedy was shot, they asked you where you were when you found out that Roosevelt died.

He was my father’s President. From two years before his birth to the age of 12, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in his White House. He governed enthusiastically, dynamically, some say with a heavy-handed imperiousness. Het got us through the Depression, and largely through World War II. His mythic weight, multiplied by his radio addresses and public speeches, marked him as an articulate and thoughtful President.

That being said, I can’t access the recording involved. Arthur Godfrey was the morning guy at the CBS radio affiliate WJSV, in Washington, D.C.  (Read about Godfrey’s performance on the full day of WJSV recording in possession of the Registry essay I wrote.)

Godfrey, using his unique technique of relaxed folksiness and emotional honesty, described Roosevelt’s funeral procession from the top of a nearby bank building. Godfrey broke down, and switched the show back to the studio. Read Christopher H. Sterling’s account of it here.

It was a genuinely moving tribute to one of the Twentieth Century’s essential individuals. Godfrey’s broadcast elevated him to star status.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Proceedings of the United Nations Conference on International Organization.

NRR Project: 'The Guiding Light' (Nov. 22, 1945)

 

Irna Phillips

NRR Project: “The Guiding Light”

Created by Irna Phillips and Emmons Carlson

Broadcast Nov. 22, 1945

14 min.

It was the longest-running scripted show in electric media’s history. This soap opera, 15 minutes Monday through Friday, debuted on NBC Radio on January 5, 1937. It moved to CBS Radio in 1947, continuing even after the TV version began its broadcast on June 30, 1952. (For four years, the performers did it twice: once for the microphone, once for the camera.) The video incarnation lasted until Sept. 18, 2009.

It is difficult to conceive how prevalent the soap opera has been, from its beginning in early network radio. It was the great progenitor, Irna Phillips, who launched the genre with Painted Dreams in 1930. Phillips would create many more, including this show, As the World Turns and Another World. She was a genius at spawning a drama that would move forward with various and interconnecting emotional dramas, eking out mileage from conflicts, misunderstanding, and the woes of the fated, that were designed to amuse bored housewives during the day.

Looking at a schedule of daily broadcasts, it is instructive to see that soaps dominate the hours between the morning news and the afternoon kids’ shows. Some titles: Adopted Daughter, Backstage Wife, John’s Other Wife, Life Can Be Beautiful, Myrt and Marge, The Strange Romance of Evelyn Winters.

Phillips produced her own stuff, then sold it to sponsors and the networks. She somehow wrote (or rather dictated) 30,000 words a week, composing multiple series simultaneously, keeping things clear with charts. For a time, she had the inhabitants of three different soaps – Guiding Light, The Woman in White, and Today’s Children – interpenetrate each others’ stories.

At the show’s beginning, its protagonist was Rev. John Ruthledge, who ministered to the folk of “Five Points” in Chicago. He and his daughter Mary (the great Mercedes McCambridge) interacted with the parish, and the usual heavy drama ensued, year after year, effortlessly making the move to television.

Karen Fishman’s story about this entry is top-notch and must be referred to. She has heard the actual episode and I have not. It takes the form of a Thanksgiving sermon, the first since the end of the war. Fishman quotes from it extensively: it is well worth a read. The gist of it is the reaffirmation of the spirit of brotherhood in mankind. Such noble sentiments are true and good, even if unenforceable. However, it reflects a time during which America was seen as the moral conscience of the world, and could best deliver salvation thereunto through democracy and capitalism. We were sick of war; we really wanted the unification of the human race (well, except for with the godless Communists -- the Cold War was already brewing).

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: F.D.R.’s funeral.

NRR Project: Fiorello LaGuardia reads the comics (July 8, 1945)

 

NRR Project: Fiorello LaGuardia reads the comics

Broadcast July 8, 1945

Go to Cary O’Dell’s explanatory essay for not only an extensive outline of this entry but a look at the political uses of radio broadcasting during the period.

Fiorello LaGuardia (1882-1947) was an extraordinary politician who is most famous for serving as the mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1946. He was progressive, reform-minded, gregarious, a natural and ebullient communicator.

Growing up, he worked all kinds of jobs. He earned a law degree and began to work in the system. He was the deputy attorney general of the state, and went on to serve as a Congressman, He won the mayoral election and got to work.

He was a little dynamo, a short, squat figure with tons of energy. He got the city back on its feet, helped the poor, improved the city’s infrastructure. He was an interventionist – he outlawed burlesque houses, pinball machines. When Joe Simon and Jack Kirby were threatened by American Nazis over their creation of comic-book hero Captain America, LaGuardia provided protection for them.

Most memorably though it is his widely publicized reading of the comics to New York City’s children (over New York City’s radio station, WNYC) that he is remembered for. The reason for this was a strike by newspaper delivery personnel. LaGuardia disapproved; his solution to the deprivation of the funny papers to the children of the city was simple and direct – he read them to the kids.

Listening to an excerpt, it is clear LaGuardia was a practiced showman. With great enthusiasm he describes the panels from the cartoons and reads the dialogue, interrupting to editorialize about how a life in crime results in misery.

For three weeks, LaGuardia kept it up. And it was a political stunt, sure, another platform for the mayor to direct his beliefs through. But he was engaging.

The strike ended. Things got back to normal. But many would remember the chipper voice of New York’s “Little Flower” mayor breathlessly updating us to the status of Dick Tracy.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: The Guiding Light.’

NRR Project: 'Ko Ko' (November 26, 1945)

 

NRR Project: ‘Ko Ko’

Written by Charlie Parker

Performed by Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Curley Russell, Max Roach, and Dizzy Gillespie

Recorded Nov. 26, 1945

3:01

A new chapter in jazz starts here. Charlie Parker (1920-1955) is responsible.

The young saxophonist practiced incessantly and quickly became a virtuoso. However, he wanted more out of jazz than the usual melody-based improvisations. They were boring and predictable to him, and he longed to express a music that he heard but could not quite articulate.

"I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes that were being used all the time at the time,” he said, “and I kept thinking there's bound to be something else. I could hear it sometimes but I couldn't play it ... Well, that night I was working over 'Cherokee' and, as I did, I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes, I could play the thing I'd been hearing. I came alive.”

Parker’s ability to write new tunes over standard chord changes, his speed, his inventiveness, gave him the power to soar free above the musical conventions of the day. It remained only for him to record it. A musicians’ strike from 1942 through 1944 meant that no new music could be recorded. It was during this lull that “bebop” developed. This new style consisted of music definitely not crafted with the dance floor in mind. Faster tempos, complex rhythmic approaches, unusual harmonies, and a general sense of cutting free from the crowd-pleasing ethos of the swing era informed this new music.

On Nov. 26, 1945, Parker, trumpeter Miles Davis, trumpeter and pianist Dizzy Gillespie, bassist Curley Russell, and drummer Max Roach gathered in New York for a recording session. The tune we know as “Ko Ko” was derived from the chord changes in Ray Noble’s 1938 composition “Cherokee.” Parker took these basic building blocks and squeezed out something new and unique, involved, complex, and challenging. “KoKo” is also performed at breakneck speed.

The overall effect is bracing – Parker is making it up as he goes, turning the contents of his head into notes in the air. The traditional jazz musicians and listeners were initially off-put by the new music’s strangeness, but soon “bebop” would become the dominant expressive mode of jazz. And it all started here.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Fiorello LaGuardia reads the comics.

NRR Project: 'Caldonia' (Jan. 19, 1945)

 

NRR Project: ‘Caldonia’

Written by Louis Jordan

Performed by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five

Recorded Jan. 19, 1945

2:40

He’s the grandfather of rock and roll. It’s the birth of rhythm and blues. It’s proto-rap. It’s infectious. It’s an inspiration for a whole generation of music-makers.

Louis Jordan (1908-1975) played the alto sax, sang, wrote songs, and led a band. He got his start in the Swing Era of the 1930s, with drummer Chick Webb’s band. He set out on his own and really connected with the mood of the times. The war was almost over; people wanted something upbeat, something propulsive. “Caldonia” is all that.

Jordan starts things off with a straight-ahead boogie woogie riff on the piano. The horns join in slyly. Jordan begins to sing.

“Walkin' with my baby she's got great big feet

She's long, lean, and lanky and ain't had nothing to eat

She's my baby and I love her just the same

Crazy 'bout that woman cause Caldonia is her name

 

Caldonia, Caldonia

What makes your big head so hard?

I love you. I love you just the same

I’ll always love you baby cause Caldonia is her name”

 A nifty sax break follows, then an interplay. Then there’s spoken engagement, reminiscent of the approach of the late Fats Waller, and destined to be passed on to Chuck Berry, Bill Hailey, and even unto James Brown, Our Godfather of Soul.

 “You know what mama told me? She told me to leave Caldonia alone, that’s what she told me. No kidding. That’s what she told me. That’s what she said, she said, ‘Son, leave that Caldonia alone. She ain’t no good. Don’t bother her.’ But Mama didn’t know what Caldonia was puttin’ down. So I’m going to Caldonia’s house and going to ask one more time:”

 “Caldonia, Caldonia

What makes your big head so hard?

I love her. I love her just the same

Crazy 'bout that woman cause Caldonia is her name”

“MOP!” yells Jordan, and it sounds appropriate. Jordan would continue to entertain for decades. His record is unmatched. He spent almost twice as many weeks on the R & B charts than any other performer. He had 54 Top 10 hits, including “Saturday Night Fish Fry,” “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens,” “Five Guys Named Moe,” “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby,” and “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie”. He made Decca Records.

In 1945, they made a two-reel movie of “Caldonia,” in which Jordan and company do the title song, “Honey Child,” “Tillie,” and “Buzz Me.” You can dial him up and watch him at work.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Ko Ko.

NRR Project: The Library of Congress Marine Corps Combat Field Recording Collection, Second Battle of Guam (July 20-August 11, 1944)

 

NRR Project: The Library of Congress Marine Corps Combat Field Recording Collection, Second Battle of Guam

July 20-August 11, 1944

As usual, I must point to Karen Fishman’s excellent explanatory essay on this entry.

The combat field recordings in this collection were captured by Marine combat correspondents during battles in the Pacific. The original intent was to record native songs and rituals on the islands fought for by U.S. forces.

However, the project morphed into something larger. Taking incredible risks, correspondents recorded actual combat, and also covered briefing sessions, interviews, and messages home. Altogether, many hours of material was gathered, and remains stored in the Library of Congress for the use of researchers. This represents the first time thorough documentation of combat was attempted.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Louis Jordan performs Caldonia.