With our reputation for being a bit daffy on stage at times, quite a few people seem intrigued (even impressed occasionally) that we still include a traditional Blues in our set. This is " Wee Midnight Hour Blues," a song recorded by Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell in the early 1930's. We also featured it on our 2008 CD "Roll It Up and Eat It."
WMHB however goes almost right back to our formation as a six piece rock band in the 1970's. We used to do it as part of a much "heavier" electric set, featuring Martin Smalldon on electric base ,Vance on drums, Mick on keyboards, Arnie on lead guitar and me handling vocals. I have a dog-rough Mono rehearsal recording to prove it, which only friends and family may access!!
I've always loved the song. I first heard it on my well worn vinyl copy of Paul Oliver's "Story of The Blues" anthology. Carr and Blackwell had teamed up and shifted North to Chicago at the time of writing and recording it. Some of the lyrics reflected an increasing sophistication, characterised in the opening lines:
"In The Wee Midnight Hour, Long 'fore the break of day/when the Blues creep up on you, carry your mind away."
The whole song is about worry, regret and lamentation. The mournful melody, the mellow instrumentation and the melancholy vocals compliment the overall mood: "My heart's in trouble...my mind is sinkin' deep".
Obviously, we could not replicate our 1970's version as a four-piece folk band. Instead, we re-arranged it to include the interesting combination of acoustic Guitar,mandolin and accordion. Oh, and (if I'm not too shy!) a tiny little bit of Blues harp from yours truly. This kind of takes the mood of it back down South, and away from Chicago. I'd like to think Leroy and Scrapper might have approved of that.
The first song we ever rehearsed and ever played in public was also a blues. John Lee Hooker's "Dimples" Rob Lockington on drums, Tez Tehergee and Arnold on guitar and me on vocals. Later we added Barry Ousby on base and felt confident enough to also try out Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home" in public.
In 1971 I had the privilege of meeting John Lee backstage at a London venue. Backed by The Groundhogs, he was headlining at my College. He was a quiet, shy and very pleasant man. His only "rider" was a strong cup of coffee! Later, John Lee would have a lot to say about what he once called "The Hurt." He wasn't one of those Black Bluesmen who looked down on White Boys trying to play his type of music. He maintained that delivering the Blues was less about technique or ethnicity and more about understanding (and experiencing) loneliness, pain, grief,sorrow,loss and tragedy. I got some of that.
Later on in the 1970's Martin and Vance replaced Barry and Rob on base and drums respectively. In this same format, we then also featured a 12 bar blues "Going down to Gasthorpe" and an extraordinary Bo Carter blues called "All Around Man." Bo wasn't a great believer in innuendo, and some of his stuff was absolutely filthy! I have a mono recording of us doing "All Around Man", and it really used to shift along. In fact we've talked (briefly) about resurrecting it, but I cannot honestly see any way we could play it publicly again without getting lynched!! Rory Gallagher later did a song of the same name with a similar chord progression, but drastically cleaned up from the Bo Carter original.
Anyway, that's five Blues-based songs from the BPS back catalogue. And there's more from the current one. When the four of us aren't all available to go out and perform together, Arnie and I have added "Sun Won't Shine For You"- Jethro Tull version, Robert Johnson's "If I had Possession" and "Vigilante Man " to a set we now do as a duo. The last two feature me singing and Arnie playing that magnificent Dobro of his. We're also currently sharpening up a version of Jimmy Reed's "Shame, Shame, Shame."
And finally..it's no secret that I occasionally do solo spots at local clubs. Unaccompanied I've aired "Vigilante Man" " Bring It On Home" and
" Jesus On The Mainline" in public, and not yet been booed off!! The Blues was my first love, and I'd like to do more. I've got a whole fist of other songs I'd like to cover. Anyone out there interested?
