Why don't you haul off and love Bullmoose Jackson

March 11, 2008 2:38 PM

Another King Records RnB artist covered by The Aerosmiths is Cleveland's own Bullmoose . Jackson. Here's Jackson's original recording of Big ten inch record (1952).

Benjamin Clarence 'Bullmoose' Jackson played sax with Lucky Millander's band (where he picked up his nickname) and got his big break as a singer when Wynonie Harris didn't show up one night. He started making records on his own, and formed his Buffalo Bearcats in 1947. For a time, he employed jazz players Tadd Dameron and Benny Golson. Jackson retired from the road in the early 1960s and, following a brief career resurgence in the 1980s passed away in Cleveland on July 31, 1989 at the age of 70.

Big Ten Inch Record and Nosey joe (1952) (written by Leiber and Stoller, covered here by the Nailhead Drivers) were popular juke box sides, but too risqué for broadcast.
I want a bow-legged woman (1948) was probably right on the fence.

Why don't you haul off and love me (1949), originally done by King 'hillbilly' artist Wayne Raney (1949) was also covered by Johnny Burnette and Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton. I love you yes I do (1947) is said to be the first RnB single to sell a million copies, though it doesn't sound like what we now think of as RnB. Here's Jackson singing I love you yes I do in the film Boarding House Blues 1948 with Lucky Millander's band). And finally, All my love belongs to you (1948).

Jackson didn't write Ten Inch Record. The label says "F. Weismantel". Information on Fred Weismantel is mighty thin on the ground -- I've begun to suspect that he's a pseudonym. He is listed as arranger and co-writer on a dozen or so King sides, often paired with Henry Glover. Besides Big Ten Inch Record, he is credited on recordings by Wayne Raney, Lucky Millinder, Wynonie Harris, and Annisteen Allen.

He is listed in the credits on one Jack Webb movie, The D.I., aka The Drill Instructor as 'songwriter'.

Later he shows up as an arranger and co-writer on a string of second-rate teenage singles on second-rate teenage label Co-ed records.
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posted by Herodios (12 comments total)

[this is awesome]
posted by By The Grace of God at 2:59 PM on March 11, 2008

It doesn't surprise me that Haul Off and Love Me was originally by Wayne Raney. Sid Nathan had a habit of passing his hillbilly songs to his R&B acts and vice/versa. The economics of (and larger-than-life personalities behind) the post-war independent record companies is worthy of a book or four.
posted by joseph_elmhurst at 3:04 PM on March 11, 2008

It would probably take four books just to cover Sid Nathan and King Records.
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posted by Herodios at 3:14 PM on March 11, 2008

Another home run Herodios. Thanks for the cool post. The DI is a really cool movie, Jack Webb is even more no-bullshit terse than he was in Dragnet.
posted by doctor_negative at 3:48 PM on March 11, 2008

I second you on both counts, doctor_negative. The "DI" is the purest essence of Webb. And, man, Herodios, I've lived half my life in Cleveland and never knew Bullmoose Jackson was from here. You know, I always hated "Big Ten Inch Record," though, because, for no good reason, I suspected the singer was somehow being racistly demeaned. I mean, it's a dumb double entendre, on the order of "Shaving Cream." Bullmoose Jackson was good enough to play in the Big Joe Turner leagues, not giving unwholesome laughs to white boys in the free listening booths at Record Rendezvous.
posted by Faze at 4:13 PM on March 11, 2008

Slamming post.

That Bullmoose Jackson, what a jaw on that guy! Reckon that's where the nickname comes from, eh? Ya think?

I tell you, though, that whole "ten inch" business was a bit of an exaggeration. I mean, look at the linked video. That's a seven inch on that turntable, man, a SEVEN inch!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:41 PM on March 11, 2008

what a jaw on that guy! Reckon that's where the nickname comes from, eh? Ya think?

Just another sax player from Cleveland with a funny jaw. Did you ever see Albert Ayler, f'rinstance? He had this 'albino spot' on one side of his chin -- the whiskers, too.
"You think it's about you? It's not about you!"

that whole "ten inch" business was a bit of an exaggeration.

Ha! Good catch.
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posted by Herodios at 7:36 PM on March 11, 2008

Slamming post.

Hey, flaps, is that some kind of mash-up of Black Flag and the Allman Bros?
posted by Herodios at 7:43 PM on March 11, 2008

Sometimes I feel, sometiiiiimes I feeeeeel....
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:37 PM on March 11, 2008

More and more often, I feel that the world really needs at least one (preferably several!) good compilation album(s) of the original versions of songs made famous by later bands. I never heard of Bullmoose Jackson before. I'm not surprised to learn that the song was a cover though, as so many of my favorite songs are. I discovered Willie Dixon for example by reading the writing credits on a lot of my favorite 70s rock albums, but what with the rise of digital downloads (legal or otherwise) and the consequential death of extensive liner notes in albums, how many kids today will ever know where the songs came from?

Of course to be any good the songs would have to be sorted by genre; If I was making such an album, Big 10 Inch would definitely be included.
posted by caution live frogs at 5:52 AM on March 12, 2008

frogs: I'm working on it, I'm working on it.
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posted by Herodios at 6:09 AM on March 12, 2008

Well, for the love of everything holy let us know when it's done. That, I'd pay money for ('specially seeing as how so many of the original artists, credited or uncredited, received exactly diddly-squat for their contributions).
posted by caution live frogs at 10:20 AM on March 12, 2008