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Mac users have been experiencing problems in unpacking the WinRAR archives used on this blog. Two solutions have been suggested.

1. Use The Unarchiver - www.theunarchiver.com - see comments on Little Esther Bad Baad Girl post for details.

2. Use Keka - http://www.kekaosx.com/en/ - see comments on Johnny Otis Presents post.

Saturday 9 January 2010

Noble “Thin Man” Watts - Blast Off!







This is an “upgraded” post from the old Be Bop Wino blog. I've added a new front cover scan plus back cover and label scans, sorted a mistake in the tagging, and equalized the volume across the sound files.

Like fellow Rock ’n’ Roll / R&B honkers Sil Austin and Red Prysock, Noble Watts was a veteran of the Tiny Bradshaw band. Sol Rabinowitz’s NYC based Baton label had enjoyed minor chart success with Buddy Tate’s “Fatback and Greens” in 1955 and a couple of years later Watts was signed in the hope of producing another instrumental hit. Among the tracks recorded by Watts at his second Baton session in October 1957 was a greasy grinding dance instro with the vaguely suggestive title “The Slop”. After some heavy airplay it was renamed “Hard Times” and became a good seller on the pop charts as well as an r&b hit.

This 1979 Flyright LP compiles some great late 50s R&B / Rock ‘n’ Roll instrumentals. It was one of the first such albums I bought and tracks like “Blast Off!” and “Hot Tamales” remain firm favourites on my turntable. The original LP didn’t include “Hard Times” but I’ve added it in as a bonus.

Ripped from vinyl at 256 kbps. (Hard Times = 320 kbps). No password.

Download from here:

Blast Off (Mega)

1. Blast Off
2. Easy Going Pt. 1
3. Flap Jack
4. The Slide
5. Mashed Potatoes
6. Original Boogie Woogie
7. The Creep
8. Shakin'
9. Easy Going Pt. 2
10. The Beaver
11. Great Times
12. The Frog Hop
13. Hot Tamales
14. Walking The Floor Over You
15. Hard Times (The Slop) *

* = bebopwino bonus track

All together now: “Hot Tamales and Cha-Cha!”

7 comments:

The Hound said...

with Wild Jimmy Spruill on guitar!

boogiewoody said...

Ah yes, the classic Hound post on Wild Jimmy Spruill can be found here:

http://thehoundblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/wild-jimmy-spruill.html

Let us also note that "Original Boogie" / "Mashed Potatoes" was released on Sir, a successor label to Baton which had been wound up in early 1959. "The Beaver" / "Frog Hop" was released on Cub Records (an MGM subsidiary) in 1960. Missing from this comp is "Rickey Tick" (Baton 251), the follow up to "Hard Times."

Dave Heasman said...

In fact Duane Eddy stole "The Slop" and renamed it "Hard Times" for the "Especially for You" album. It's quite a good remake, but..

disfunksean said...

This is fantastic! Thank you so much for posting. I just discovered your amazing blog. I am now delving into your archives. Thank you thank you thank you.

Anonymous said...

Hello! Interesting post, is it possible with a reup?
Thanks from Jorma in Finland

boogiewoody said...

New link now in the post, Jorma.

BW

Zesty said...

Ooh! New link! Grab, listen, enjoy, worry about how many new links I've missed.

Thanks! All this wonderful music.