May 24, 2005

Odd Couple


Jessie 'Ooh Poo Pah Do' Hill


Shirley 'Sweetheart of the Blues' Goodman

"Ivory Tower" (Fulton - Steele)
Shirley & Jessie, Wand, 196?

Time's up for these two

Here they are, Shirley & Jessie, your American anti-Idols! Consider this post my antidote to tonight’s TV showdown. If you don’t live in the US, or even if you do, feel free to ignore this reference.

Why anybody (like track’s producer, Huey Meaux, the “Crazy Cajun”) thought pairing
Shirley Goodman and Jessie Hill would be commercially viable enough to justify the sessions, I’ll never know; but, as a record collector and fan of all things musical, quirky, strange, and deliciously obscure in the HOTG, I am sincerely grateful for the attempt.

Cut in Los Angeles with a band of New Orleans expatriate musicians led by Mac Rebennack, the duo’s remake of “Ivory Tower”, their first pairing, was issued on Wand around 1967 or 1968, I’d guess. Two other Wand singles taken from the sessions followed in short order, all falling on deaf ears, so to speak. This track certainly sounds like a hometown tune with a syncopated popeye suffle that recreates the feel of some of Jessie Hill’s sides for Minit earlier in the decade. Rebennack’s radical re-arrangement of a hit ballad from the 1950’s is typical of the things he’d try in the studio. When this version begins with Jessie’s intro, you think it’s on the road to nowhere, then Shirley comes in with the band kicking behind her; and they’re off on a groovin’ little ride. From Dr. John’s mention of these sessions in Under A Hoodoo Moon, I gather that the players included Rebennack on guitar, Barron on piano, Al Frazier on bass, John Boudreaux on drums, and Dave Dixon on percussion. He tells a funny story about one night recording with Shirley & Jessie when the band had LSD given to them instead of uppers and totally devolved in mid-song. Fun times in Babylon.

Say what you will about Shirley’s piercing and often off-key (though not on this tune) vocals and Jessie’s ragged but right on sound, they are both readily identifiable and distinctive. But blend they do not. Still, I enjoy this cut and most of the others they did in their short time as a duo, working with Rebennack and their other HOTG friends. Meaux’s Crazy Cajun label released most of the single sides and several unissued songs on an album in the 1970’s called You’ll Lose A Good Thing (they covered several songs by Barbara Lynn, one of Meaux’s artists). Goodman and Hill also worked with Rebennack on his early Dr. John projects. Jessie had some success as a songwriter (with Mac and others) and did some solo recording
* in California, culminating in his Naturally album in 1972, before returning to New Orleans. Shirley scored an early disco hit as Shirley & Company with “Shame, Shame, Shame” in the mid-1970’s, proving, I guess, that anything is possible in pop.

*Larry Grogan’s Funky 16 Corners blog has a great recent post on one of these.

5 Comments:

Blogger Larry Grogan said...

Dan
Great song! The vocals are completely mental. I wonder what Meaux (Crazy indeed...) was thinking when he paired them up.
Larry

12:08 PM, May 25, 2005  
Blogger Dan Phillips said...

It's the "throw stuff on the wall and see what sticks mentality". You know, Shirley began her career as a duo, Shirley & Lee (Leonard Lee) with some success in the early 1950's. They kept up the act until the early 1960's. She was typecast as needing amother partner, I guess, although she did cut some solo records prior to the
Meaux productions. Shirley also was paired with Brenton Wood on a single (or two) around this time as Shirley & Alfred (Wood's actual first name). Still haven't found one of those!

4:13 PM, May 25, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i think i heard the lsd kicking in right after jessie's intro vocal. i agree, those vocals are indeed "completely mental". but...i kinda dig the rhythm section here.

8:39 AM, June 04, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i bought a 45 called "Kid Games and Nursery Rhymes" in l968 by Shirley & Alfred. i now know that it was Shirley Goodman and Brenton Wood that sang on that record but I cannot find it on any cd. Any ideas? I still have the 45 and still love the record. UK 1960's

6:28 PM, May 30, 2007  
Blogger Dan Phillips said...

That Shirley & Alfred track (originally on Whiz) is available on the CD compilation, 'Brenton Wood - Baby, You Got It! The 1960s Anthology'. It's selling on amazon. Just so's ya know. Good luck.

8:34 PM, May 30, 2007  

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