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Sunday, 11 December 2011

Rockin' And Rollin' / Peace Breaking People - Lil' Son Jackson (Imperial 5113)



Recorded on the 16th December, 1950, in Houston, Texas. Personnel: Lil' Son Jackson (vocal, guitar).






Blues on 78 is back with another El Enmascarado offering, ripped from the original 78 rpm shellac disc.

Released in March 1951, "Rockin' and Rollin'" was a territorial tip in Billboard for the Dallas area. Although it wasn't a big hit, this record became very influential, generating a good cover version by Jesse Allen in 1954 and various versions by Muddy Waters throughout the 1950s, including "I Want You To Love Me" in 1954 and "Rock Me" in 1956.

The best known version is probably "Rock Me, Baby" by B.B. King which was a hit in 1964. The relaxed but insistent beat also inspired several Slim Harpo recordings such as "I'm A King Bee" and of course Jimi Hendrix performed a 100 mph version at Monterey.

Billboard, May 5th, 1951
It's probable that Lil' Son Jackson had a 1944 recording of "Rock Me Mama" by Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup in mind when he composed "Rockin' and Rollin'. Anyway it's a great blues which has little to do with what we think of as rock and roll music but leaves us in little doubt as to what that phrase really meant.

With thanks once more to El Enmascarado.
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3 comments:

  1. The Subliminal Kid11 December 2011 at 23:27

    A welcome return for "Blues On 78." These sound great; pops and clicks aside, they sound better, with more presence, than the CD reissue Capitol did just a few years ago! Thanks, folks.

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  2. Anonymous12 December 2011 at 01:16

    Thanks El Enmascadero and Boogiewoody! Love these 78 postings - they have a nice, full sound. I'd be interested to know what The Masked One uses to convert his 78s to mp3s.

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  3. Anonymous13 December 2011 at 00:58

    @Vintage Spins- Sure- I use an early 70's Garrard 65B turntable with a Shure 78 stylus. I run that into an old Sherwood receiver that has a phono input. I take a tape out of there into a Sony PCM D50 digital recorder. After basic editing on there, I dump the tracks into my computer. If I have serious pops or scratched I'll sometimes use Audacity to clean things up a little.

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