Bill Haley’s alternative version, ‘pure’ Rock’n'Roll, version of Big Joe Turner’s proto-Rock’n'Roll hit. Recorded two months after Big Joe’s and posted here to enable comparison with today’s real post, ABON 0139.

Instead of Big Joe’s subtle, supportive, ‘walking’ bass, Bill Haley’s band employed a modern, slapped-right-in-your-face approach. On Bill’s version there was no tinkling, Boogie Woogie-tinged piano accompaniment in the background. Instead he brought the brass, honking, right up front. And instead of Big Joe’s laid-back shouting Blues style of vocals, Bill sang. The overall effect was to produce a much brighter, more ‘up’ sound with no hint of the melancholy of the Blues which Big Joe could never quite shake off.

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When we last met Big Joe Turner he was a Blues Shouter trying his hand at Boogie Woogie, supported by Pete Johnson on piano (see ABON 0138). But in the years since 1938 he’d moved on from Boogie Woogie to the 1940s craze of Jump Blues – an up tempo form of Blues built for dancing and played by bands with brass sections. And so had Pete Johnson, his piano-playing partner in crime, who had seamlessly switched from Boogie Woogie piano-accompanist to leader of the Jump Blues band that Big Joe usually sang with.

But by 1950 Big Joe and Pete’s partnership had run its 13-year course. Big Joe signed solo to Atlantic Records and started the third stage of his long career - as a Rock’n'Roller. Albeit a Rock’n'Roller who was still at heart a Blues Shouter and who shouted his own particular version of R’n'R that very firmly still had at least one foot in Jump Blues.

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In the days before microphones, singing in front of a band was a job for a powerful voice – a voice powerful enough to be heard over the top of the guitars, pianos, brass and drums. Even after microphones became commonplace in the 1930s, weak amplification often meant that performing live with a band demanded an abnormally strong voice. And the owners of these rare and precious assets were known as Blues Shouters.

Big Joe Turner was the leading Blues Shouter of his day. With a voice that could shake the foundations of most of the venues he appeared in and a physique to match, he remained the undisputed King of the Shouters from the late 30s until well into the 50s. 

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It was quite difficult to dance to the Blues. And even if you were skilled enough on your feet to pull it off, the sentiment and mood of most Blues tracks didn’t lend itself too well to strutting your stuff. So Boogie Woogie was invented at some point in the early 1900′s and grew up alongside the Blues as its more out-going, upbeat, sister on the dance-floor – whilst the Blues sat in the corner and drank.

Meade was one of its early commercial pioneers, releasing his first vinyl as early as 1927. But Boogie Woogie’s heyday was from around 1936 until just after WWII when its younger kid sister Rock’n'Roll started turning up at the party.

Recorded 1936.

Availability. Meade recorded ‘Honky Tonk’ several times on vinyl starting in 1927. This version, the best I think, is from 1936 and is available on the Document Records CD ‘Lewis, Ammons & Johnson – 1936-1941′ which also features the other two great 1930′s Boogie Woogiers, Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons: Amazon