MetaFilter posts tagged with boogie

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

nebulawindphone — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:51:03 -0800

"She was a rock star," recalls Ira Tucker Jr., who grew up watching Tharpe with his father's gospel group in the 1940s and '50s. "You know, like Beyonce today and people like that. That's what Rosetta was to us." Sister Rosetta Tharpe wasn't the first one to bring black popular music into the church. (Here's the great Arizona Dranes playing barroom honky-tonk piano on the gospel side I Shall Wear a Crown in 1927.) But her fierce stage presence and her original blend of gospel, boogie-woogie, swing and smoking hot blues guitar was a crucial forgotten influence on what we now recognize as rock and roll. (Many more recordings inside. Enjoy!) If you're here for the electric guitar action, you'll want the Red Foley duet and the '60s TV appearances. My personal favorites are the stunning acoustic duets she recorded a decade or two earlier with the Sanctified gospel shouter Marie Knight — try "Up Above my Head" and "Daniel in the Lion's Den." But her range was incredible, everything she recorded was excellent, and comparing her late electric recordings with the earlier versions is a hoot if you're into that sort of thing. Early success with Lucky Millinder's big band: The Lonesome Road (scantily clad dancing girls at 0:45!), Four or Five Times, Trouble in Mind Mid-40s boogie-woogie gospel mega-hit: Strange Things Happening Every Day With Marie Knight in the late '40s: Up Above My Head, Beams of Heaven, My Journey to the Sky, Daniel in the Lion's Den [scroll down to the 7th set] With jubilee singers The Dependable Boys: Everybody's Going to Have a Wonderful Time Up There, My Lord's Gonna Move This Wicked Race, Down By the Riverside Her SCANDALOUS! return to blues in the '50s: Don't Leave Me Here to Cry Duet with country and rockabilly star Red Foley: Have a Little Talk with Jesus Straight-up church choir gospel from the '60s: I Do, Don't You, Seeking for Me, Lily of the Valley TV appearances from the '60s blues revival: Didn't It Rain, Trouble in Mind, Up Above My Head, Down By the Riverside Bonus — the Harmonizing Four singing at Tharpe's stadium-concert-slash-wedding in '51: Mighty Long Way. Sadly, no video. But how rock-star is that?

Red Foley's war effort.

flapjax at midnite — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:15:29 -0800

Just the other day I was thinking about World War 2-era propaganda songs, so of course I gave a listen to Smoke On the Water. Say what? You didn't know it was about kickin' Hitler's ass? Or Hirohito's? Guess you weren't listening well enough when ol' Red Foley sang: "...there'll be nothing left but vultures to inhabit all that land, when our modern ships and bombers make a graveyard of Japan..." I tell you, they just don't write songs like that anymore, friends. Anyway, by 1951 Red was looking forward to Peace in the Valley. More from Red Foley: Hot Rod Race: What a cool little guitar solo! Pin Ball Boogie : Complete with pinball sound effects! Crazy Little Guitar Man: As might be expected, this live TV spot features some slick plucking from stringman Speedy Haworth. Nice! Freight Train Boogie: Another live spot. Jumping little tune!

He'll clean your pipes and rock your world.

brain_drain — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 11:53:12 -0800

Dancing Pipecleaner Man. Make him boogie! [flash]

Su — Fri, 08 Mar 2002 12:58:57 -0800

20 Pictures by Boogie at Artcoup. Great urban photography. #18 is um...special. Must be seen.