Posted on 08/31/2006 9:43:04 AM PDT by raccoonradio
having been a blues DJ since 1988 (and a DJ overall since '81), I figured I'd make a list of some of the blues tunes I can remember that fall into the novelty category.
--Can Blue Men Sing the Whites, Bonzo Dog Band. Perhaps inspired by the times when Cream and they appeared on the same concert bill?
--Generic Blues, Weird Al Yankovic. From the UHF soundtrack album. "Oh, son, make it talk, make it talk!...Allright, now make it shut up..."
--Louis Jordan--the jump blues pioneer who inspired the likes of B.B. King and Chuck Berry did "There Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens", "Saturday Night Fish Fry", and more.
--Albert Brooks, "The Englishman German and Jew Blues" . Blues king Albert King plays; Brooks jokes ("Al! Stop being such a gloomy Gus!")
--Speaking of Albert King, his "Born Under a Bad Sign" was done by Homer in "The Simpsons Sing the Blues". And that ain't NO lie!
--"Alligator Eatin' Dog", Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. "You know, ladies, I would have brought him here tonight, but they wouldn't let the fool on the plane? He kept chewing through the cages, and swallowing the chains. So I left him home with my granny. She's the only one that whooped the fanny of an alligator eatin' dog." From the album No Looking Back.
-- "Christmas Boogie" -- Canned Heat (feat. Bob "Bear" Hite) and the Chipmunks.
--Saffire, the Uppity Blues Women, do "Middle Aged Blues Boogie" ("Well i'll forget about my arthritis, my backache, my lumbago That young man makes me tango at the horizontal disco") and "School Teacher Blues" ("Johnny's at the urinal, he's pissin' on the wall/ If he hits the radiator, they'll smell it in the hall")
Another one--"Stepped in What??" by Chuck Berry's piano player, Johnnie Johnson, talks about stepping in dog poo.
"Stepped in what? Stepped in what? STEPPED IN WHAT??...
Everybody knows. They say the smeller is a fella, but everybody knows what it is."
"Martian Boogie" by Brownsville Station fame ("why, no,
they're Martian cigarettes"). And for that matter, that band's "Smokin' in the Boys Room"
Hi, raccoon:
How about Long John Baldry's epic:
'You Don't Wanna Lay No Boogie Woogie On The King Of Rock & Roll'?
Jack.
Don't know if this really fits but I'll throw it out there-
Strokin' by Clarence Carter (Clarence Carter, Clarence Carter, Clarence Carter.)
Middle Aged Blues Boogie
That is one great song lol
And Lonnie Mack's "Oreo Cookie Blues" is a favorite around my house drives my son nuts when I break out the Gibson and sing it at parties LOL
I gave you a brand new Ford, but you said "I want a Cadillac"
I bought you a ten dollar dinner, you said "Thanks for the snack"
I let you live in my penthouse, you said it was just a shack
I gave you seven children, and now you want to give them back!!!!
- B.B. King
I ain't got no time for a half-steppin' chicken
Cuz I'm a full-steppin' rooster
by Robert Johnson
I woke up this mornin' and all my shrimps was dead and gone
I woke up this mornin', ooh, and all my shrimp was dead and gone
I was thinkin' about you, baby, why you hear me weep and moan
I got dead shrimps here, someone is fishin' in my pond
I got dead shrimps here, ooh, someone fishin' in my pond
I've served my best bait, baby, and I can't do that no harm
Everything I do, babe, you got your mouth stuck out
Hole where I used to fish, you got me posted out
Everything I do, you got your mouth stuck out,
at the hole where I used to fish, baby, you've got me posted out
I got dead shrimps here, 'n' someone fishin' in my pond
I got dead shrimps here, someone fishin' in my pond
Catchin' my goggle-eye perches, and they barbequin' the bone
Now you taken my shrimps, baby, you know you turned me down
I couldn't do nothin', until I got myself unwound
You taken my shrimps, oohh, know you turned me down
Babe, I couldn't do nothin', until I got myself unwound __________
If Viagra were avalible back then, that song may have never been written.
ha great hidden meaning LOL kinda like some mule is kickin in my stall LOL
Oh yes--I play that on my show sometimes. I have to fade it when it gets to the part where he says, "Clarence Carter,
Clarence Carter, Clarence Carter, ooh S---, Clarence Carter"...
Haven't heard of that song but have heard of him (he put out an album a few years ago). Back in the 60s, of course, a bandmate of his named Reg Dwight decided to take a stage name based on that of ELTON Dean and Long JOHN Baldry :)
Trivia: bluesmen PINK Anderson and FLOYD Council inspired
the name of a certain Brit band :)
Ever hear bluesman Roy Book Binder? He does a lot of talking in between songs...and he once played a song by Bo Carter
(probably something like "My Pencil Won't Write No More").
Roy said "Bo Carter is the master of the single entendre..." :)
Can't recall that one offhand but there IS the classic: I got a little red rooster, too lazy to crow for day...If you see my little red rooster, please drive him home etc.
I was almost going to put that on! Yes it prob would...I couldn't remember the actual title, only that it was a "Talkin' blues" type of song.
speaking of blues and novelty songs (found on the Mad
Music Archive board, by fm 123):
(Rockabilly--close enough to blues...!)
Rockabilly singer and songwriter Jumpin' Gene Simmons, who worked with Elvis Presley and had a top 20 hit in 1964 with the bouncy "Haunted House," has died. He was 69. He died Tuesday at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo after a long illness, according to Holland-Harris Funeral Directors.
Simmons - not to be confused with the Kiss bassist with the same name - was in show business for more than 50 years, working with such names as Sam Phillips and the Bill Black Combo. More recently, he co-wrote "Indian Outlaw," which became a big hit in 1994 for country superstar Tim McGraw.
But his biggest success came in 1964 with the _novelty song_ "Haunted House," which reached No. 11 on the Billboard pop chart and launched Simmons on a world tour.
Among other early gigs, he performed as an opening act for Presley in Tupelo, Presley's birthplace and Simmons' longtime hometown, as Presley's career was taking off, said his son, Cary Simmons.
After appearing in some Memphis clubs, Simmons signed with Sun Records, the legendary Memphis label formed by Phillips that launched the careers of Presley, Johnny Cash and other stars.
While he didn't have the chart success of other Sun performers, Simmons' recordings have become known to later generations through reissues. Brian Setzer did a version of Simmons' "Peroxide Blonde in a Hopped Up Model Ford" on his "Rockabilly Riot Vol. 1: A Tribute to Sun Records."
Simmons, born in Itawamba County in 1937, spent most of his life in Northeast Mississippi although he lived for a time in Memphis. Besides his son, survivors include his mother, a sister, and two brothers.
exactly! I know BB has done some humorous bits like this. Also in "Better Not Look Down" he has a conversation with the Queen of England ("and she looked at me and said, 'Aren't You BB King?'")
EVERYONE knows BB!
He has had great talking-story songs like the story of his
guitar, "Lucille"...
...CONSTIPATION BLUES (by Screamin' Jay Hawkins)
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