Episode 4 The Devil's Music

And the last programme in this series

concerns itself entirely with group performances -

electric blues, rhythm and blues, R & B,

the form which has generally come to be called Chicago blues,

which in any event is where

most of the following performances were recorded at Eddie Shaw's club.

Howlin' Wolf used to appear there regularly.

Whereas the earlier players merely used the electric guitar

to amplify their original acoustic sounds -

Joe Willie Wilkins and Houston Stackhouse earlier in the series

were excellent examples of this -

the next generation of players viewed the electric guitar, quite rightly,

as a different instrument.

And the harmonica players were rapidly to follow suit.

Billy Boy Arnold was actually born in Chicago in 1935.

His mother was a great fan of John Lee Williamson, Sonny Boy I,

a major influence on all the Chicago harmonica players

from the late '40s on.

This song was the first recording which Arnold made

for Vee-Jay Records in 1955 - She Fooled Me.

# Once upon a time

# Down on 47th Street in Chicago

# I met a fine chick

# Tried to knock her off her feet

# Now all alone

# I thought she was playin'

# And didn't know that I was a real sugar man

# But she fooled me

# Oh, she fooled me that time

# I thought she was just a dumb little girl

# I could give her almost any old line

# Now this same chick

# Tried to put me on the run

# Course, I gave her a little money

# We had a little fun

# And all that time

# I thought she didn't know

# That I had another girl up on the second floor

# But she fooled me

# Whoa, the little girl fooled me that time

# I thought she was just a dumb little girl

# And I could give her almost any old line

# I ran out of money

# Ran out of fun

# She put me down and put me on the run

# I said, look here, baby

# Don't play me cheap

# I'll have a lot of money one day next week

# But she fooled me

# Whoa, that little girl fooled me that time

# I thought she was just a dumb, stupid little girl

# I could give her almost any old line

# Now when she out I was cheating

# She wanted to put me down

# I had holes in my clothes

# My feet was on the ground

# She said, look here, Daddy

# I'm going to change my order

# I'm going to trade you in and get myself a brand-new model

# Cos she fooled me

# Whoa, that little girl fooled me that time

# I thought she was just a dumb, stupid little fool

# And could get a pretty thing almost any time

# Said, look here, Daddy

# I'm going to change my order

# I'm going to trade you in and get myself a brand-new model

# She fooled me

# Whoa, that little girl fooled me that time

# I thought she was just a dumb, stupid little girl

# That could get a pretty thing almost any time. #

ALEXIS: Billy Boy Arnold, accompanied by The Aces,

of whom more later. She Fooled Me.

And that, incidentally, was the first R & B song that I ever recorded,

some six or seven years later.

Now, imagine that you have available all the note-sustaining qualities

of an acoustic bottle-neck guitar sound,

only louder, longer, and with no need to use a bottle-neck.

T-Bone Walker and BB King long ago set the style and the standards.

Fenton Robinson hears and plays it his own way

even if the influences are obvious.

# You don't know what love is

# Until you really fall in love one time

# You don't know what love is

# Until you really fall in love one time

# Oh, I remember when that little love was with me

# And she almost blew my mind

# From sun-up to sun-down

# She kept my nose down on the ground

# Oh, from sun-up, all day long, yeah

# She kept my nose down on the ground

# She jangled my life around another chain

# And now I know I'll never be the same

# And I'd be a fool to say so much

# A beautiful picture still it haunts my mind

# And I'd be a fool to say it's all over

# A beautiful picture still is in my mind

# Oh, brother You just don't know what love is

# Until you really fall in love one time

# Get on down now! #

ALEXIS: You Don't Know What Love Is.

Fenton Robinson's been working as a regular band leader

for some 22 years now.

He's also a successful writer,

and by far the most modern performer in this series.

Compare his playing, for instance,

with that of Joe Willie Wilkins who, together with LT Lewis,

accompanies harmonica player Sonny Blake

in this performance of a song called Bring It On Home To Me.

# Baby

# Baby

# I'm coming on home to you

# Train's at the station to get her load

# The conductor calls out, all aboard

# To you, my sweet I'm going to hurry back

# Watch that train roll up and down the track

# Baby

# Baby

# I'm coming on home to you

# And my soul got happy and my heart got glad

# Strangest feeling that I ever had

# You know, pretty baby Don't you know that's true?

# You know, pretty girl I'm coming home to you

# Yes, I'm coming to you, baby

# I'm coming to you, baby

# Yes, I'm coming to you, baby

# Yes, I'm coming to you, baby

# Well, I'm coming to you, baby

# I'm coming on home to you. #

ALEXIS: A good rolling feel from Sonny Blake on harmonica,

Joe Willie Wilkins guitar and LT Lewis on drums.

And today is definitely the day for harmonica players.

Good Rockin' Charles, Charles Edwards,

he's been around Chicago

playing harmonica and singing for many years now.

He lives on welfare payments

and whatever he can make in the Chicago blues clubs.

The Aces, who back him here,

have been encouraging him for some time now.

The song - Don't Start Me To Talkin'.

# Well, I'm going down the road

# Stop at Fannie Mae's

# Going to tell Fannie what I've heard her boyfriend say

# Now don't start me to talkin'

# I'll tell everything I know

# I'm going to break up all this signifying

# Cos somebody's got to go

# Jack gave his wife two dollars one time

# To get some market

# Gets out on the street

# Old George stopped her

# He knocked her down

# He blackened her eye

# She come back home

# And tell her husband a lie

# Now don't start me to talkin'

# I'll tell everything I know

# I'm going to break up all this signifying

# Cos somebody's got to go

# She borrowed some money

# For the beauty shop

# He honked his horn and she began to stop

# Said take me, baby Around the block

# I'm going to the beauty shop where I can get my hair styled

# Don't start me to talkin'

# I'll tell everything I know

# I'm going to break up all this signifying

# Cos somebody's got to go

# Oh, yeah

# Borrowed some money

# For the beauty shop

# He honked his horn

# And she began to stop

# Said take me, baby Around the block

# I'm going to the beauty shop where I can get my hair styled

# Don't start me to talkin'

# I'll tell everything I know

# I'm gonna break up all the signifying

# Oh, somebody's got to go. #

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

So now it's time to see The Aces,

not as a backing band, but as they really are -

one of the top bands in Chicago,

one of the tightest

and, paradoxically, one of the loosest.

The Myers brothers - Louis on guitar and Dave on bass -

are both Mississippians who moved to Chicago in 1941.

Louis was 12, Dave was 15.

Freddy Below is considered by many

to be the greatest Chicago R & B drummer around.

When this film was made,

they'd been playing together fairly regularly for 25 years.

# Come on, babe

# Take a little walk with me

# Come on, babe

# Take a little walk with me

# By that same old place

# Where we long to be

# Come on, baby I don't want you to walk too slow

# I got something, baby That I want you to know

# Hey, babe

# Take a little walk with me

# By that same old place

# Where we long to be. #

Look out!

# Two and two is four, you know

# Four and four is eight

# Come on, baby, you know I don't want you to be too late

# Hey, babe

# Take a little walk with me

# By the same old place

# Where we long to be

# Come on, baby Don't you be too slow

# I've got something, baby That I want you to know

# Hey, yeah

# Take a little walk with me

# By the same old place

# Where we long to be. #

ALEXIS: Take A Little Walk by The Aces,

one of the most thoroughly professional blues bands

you're ever likely to hear.

But then by now we're at what one might call

the better-groomed, the glossier end of the business.

These are no longer the blues of poverty -

the blues of oppression, maybe, but NOT the blues of poverty.

Things, after all, are changing.

There is now a very powerful Black middle class.

For them, the smoother-sounding blues men -

more genteel, I agree, than Booker White or Big Joe Williams,

but men of quality who keep the blues right up to date,

and that's what's needed, always.

So we'll leave you with the man most appropriate to the occasion -

Fenton Robinson.

The statutory White musician, the smooth fluency of Robinson's playing,

the touches of jazz improvisation, the staging, it's all real.

This IS the blues of today.

# Somebody loan me a dime

# I wanna call my old-time used-to-be

# Somebody loan me a dime, I tell you

# I just wanna call my old-time used-to-be

# My woman's been gone so long, yeah

# And that began to worry me

# Oh, I just cried, I just cried

# I cried like a baby all night long

# Oh, I cried and then I cried

# I cried just like a baby all night long

# Oh, I need somebody

# I need somebody here in my home. #

Up there!

# And now I know she's a good girl

# But at that time I just didn't understand

# Oh, I know she's a good girl

# But at that time I just didn't understand

# Oh, somebody loan me a dime, yeah

# Just to ease my worried mind

# All right. #

APPLAUSE