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Hokum
Hokum is a particular song type of American blues music—a song which uses extended analogies or euphemistic terms to make humorous, sexual innuendos. This trope goes back to early dirty blues recordings, enjoyed huge commercial success in the 1920s and 1930s, and is used from time to time in modern American blues and blues rock. An example of hokum lyrics is this sample from "Meat Balls", by Lil Johnson, recorded in 1937: Terminology "Hokum", originally a vaudeville term used for a simple performance bordering on vulgarity, "old and sure-fire comedy", but hinting at a smart wordplay, was first used to describe the genre of black music in a billing of a race record for Tampa Red's Hokum Jug Band (Tampa Red and Georgia Tom, 1929). After producing a big hit, "It's Tight Like That", with Vocalion Records (and its sequel) in 1928, the musicians went on to Paramount Records where they were called The Hokum Boys. Other recording studios joined the fray using similarly name ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
It's Tight Like That
"It's Tight Like That" is a hokum or dirty blues song, recorded by Tampa Red and Georgia Tom on October 24, 1928. Vocalion Records issued it on the then standard 10-inch 78 rpm shellac record in December 1928. It became successful and eventually sold over seven million copies. Background Hudson Whittaker and Thomas A. Dorsey met by playing in the backing band accompanying Ma Rainey on her numerous tours. In 1924, Rainey was accompanied by the pianist and bandleader Dorsey and the band he assembled, the Wildcats Jazz Band. They began their tour with an appearance in Chicago in April 1924 and continued, on and off, until 1928. Dorsey left the group in 1926, because of depression from which he suffered for around two years. Having recovered by 1928, he formed a partnership with the blues singer-guitarist Tampa Red. Dorsey adopted the name "Georgia Tom" and together they wrote "It's Tight Like That". The song was composed overnight due to the demand made by J. Mayo Williams ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tampa Red
Hudson Whittaker (born Hudson Woodbridge; January 8, 1903March 19, 1981), known as Tampa Red, was an American Chicago blues musician. His distinctive single-string slide guitar style, songwriting and bottleneck technique influenced other Chicago blues guitarists such as Big Bill Broonzy, Robert Nighthawk, Muddy Waters, and Elmore James.Barlow, William (1989). ''"Looking Up at Down": The Emergence of Blues Culture''. Temple University Press. pp. 304–305. . In a career spanning over 30 years, he also recorded pop, Rhythm and blues, R&B and hokum songs. His best-known recordings include "Anna Lou Blues", "Black Angel Blues", "Crying Won't Help You", "It Hurts Me Too", and "Love with a Feeling, Love Her with a Feeling". Biography Early life Tampa Red was born Hudson Woodbridge in Smithville, Georgia. The date of his birth is uncertain, with Tampa himself giving years varying from 1900 to 1908. The birth date given on his death certificate is January 8, 1904. His parents, John and El ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Hokum Boys
"Hokum Boys" was the billing (or part of the billing) of multiple jazz bands (typically, just studio grouping of musicians) active in 1920s and 1930s. The hokum subgenre of blues music got its name from these bands. "Hokum", originally a vaudeville term used for a simple performance bordering on vulgarity, but hinting at a smart wordplay, was first used in a billing of a race record for Tampa Red's Hokum Jazz Band (Tampa Red and Georgia Tom). After releasing a big hit, "It's Tight Like That", with Vocalion Records (and its sequel) in 1928, the musicians went on to Paramount Records where they were called The Hokum Boys. Other recording studios joined the fray using similarly named ensembles. The groups continued into the 1930s, with Big Bill Broonzy joining forces with Georgia Tom as Famous Hokum Boys on records for the American Record Corporation, joined occasionally by Frank Brasswell, Mozelle Alderson, and possibly Arthur Petties. Personnel of the bands varied, and identificati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lil Johnson
Lil Johnson (fl. 1920s–1930s, born 1900, date of death and places of birth and death unknown) was an American singer who recorded dirty blues and hokum songs in the 1920s and 1930s. Career No details of Johnson's origins or early life are known. She first recorded in Chicago in 1929, accompanied by the pianists Montana Taylor and Charles Avery on five songs, including "Rock That Thing". Johnson did not return to the recording studio until 1935, when her more risqué songs included " Get 'Em from the Peanut Man (Hot Nuts)", " Anybody Want to Buy My Cabbage?", and "Press My Button (Ring My Bell)" ("Come on baby, let's have some fun / Just put your hot dog in my bun"). She also recorded a version of "Keep A-Knockin'", which later became a hit for Little Richard. From Johnson's second session onwards, she formed a partnership with the ragtime-influenced pianist Black Bob, who provided ebullient support for her increasingly suggestive lyrics. In 1936 and 1937, she recorded over ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shake That Thing
"Shake That Thing" is a song recorded by Papa Charlie Jackson in 1925, one of the earliest blues standards and a forerunner of hokum. Paramount Records issued it on the B-side of the then standard 10-inch 78 rpm shellac record on July 11, 1925. The song is also known as a first hit record where the male singer accompanies himself. The title of the song (oft-repeated in the lyrics) contains double entendre: at the time "shake it" was a vulgar euphemism for coitus (on the innocent side, it was quite likely a directive for female dancers to shake their hips, the author Stephen Calt thinks that the expression became indecent as a result of the success of the song). Song The song is written in a twelve-bar verse-and-refrain format with two-line, four-bar verse and three-line, eight-bar chorus (song is similar to Jackson's earlier eight-bar "Salty Dog Blues" recorded in September 1924). Like the other best Jackson's songs, "Shake That Thing" is an uptempo dance blues. The lyric ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Papa Charlie Jackson
William Henry "Papa Charlie" Jackson (November 10, 1887 – May 7, 1938) was an early African American bluesman and songster who accompanied himself with a banjo guitar, a guitar, or a ukulele. His recording career began in 1924. Much of his life remains a mystery, but his draft card lists his birthplace as New Orleans, Louisiana, and his death certificate states that he died in Chicago, Illinois, on May 7, 1938. Career Jackson began his career playing in minstrel shows and medicine shows. Harris, Sheldon (1994). ''Blues Who's Who'' (rev. ed.). New York: Da Capo Press. p. 263. . From the early 1920s into the 1930s, he played frequent club dates in Chicago and was noted for busking at Chicago's Maxwell Street Market. In August 1924, he recorded the commercially successful "Airy Man Blues" and "Papa's Lawdy Lawdy Blues" for Paramount Records. In April 1925, Jackson released his version of " Shave 'Em Dry". One of his subsequent tracks, " Salty Dog Blues", became his most famous ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballad (music), ballads from the African-American culture. The blues form is ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, and is characterized by the Call and response (music), call-and-response pattern, the blues scale, and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes (or "worried notes"), usually thirds, fifths or sevenths flattened in Pitch (music), pitch, are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffle note, shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove (popular music), groove. Blues music is characterized by its lyrics, Bassline, bass lines, and Instrumentation (music), instrumen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dirty Blues
Dirty blues (also known as bawdy blues) is a form of blues music that deals with socially taboo and obscene subjects, often referring to sexual acts and drug use. Because of the sometimes graphic subject matter, such music was often banned from radio and available only on jukeboxes. The style was most popular in the years before World War II, although it experienced a revival in the early 1950s. Many songs used innuendo, slang terms, or double entendres, such as Lil Johnson's "Press My Button (Ring My Bell)" ("Come on baby, let's have some fun / Just put your hot dog in my bun"). However, some were very explicit. The most extreme examples were rarely recorded at all, a notable exception being Lucille Bogan's obscene version of " Shave 'Em Dry" (1935), which Elijah Wald has noted as "by far the most explicit blues song preserved at a commercial pre-war recording session". The noteworthy musicians who used the style included Bo Carter, Bull Moose Jackson, Harlem Hamfats, Wynonie H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slapstick Films
Slapstick films are comedy films using slapstick humor, a physical comedy that includes pratfalls, tripping, falling, practical jokes, and mistakes are highlighted over dialogue, plot and character development. The physical comedy in these films contains a cartoonish style of violence that is predominantly harmless and goofy in tone. Silent film had slapstick comedies that included the films starring Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, the Keystone Cops and Harold Lloyd. These comedians often laced their slapstick with social commentary while comedians such as Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy and The Three Stooges did not. Slapstick is about uninhibited action and timing, which may include being made to look foolish or to act with tomfoolery. There were fewer slapstick comedies produced at the advent of sound film. After World War II, the genre resurfaced in France with films by Jacques Tati and in the United States with films ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' and ''The Gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Low Comedy
Low comedy, or lowbrow humor, is a type of comedy that is a form of popular entertainment without any primary purpose other than to create laughter through boasting, boisterous jokes, drunkenness, scolding, fighting, buffoonery and other riotous activity. It is characterized by "horseplay", slapstick or farce. Examples include the throwing of a custard pie into someone's face. The definition has expanded to include obvious physical jokes, such as the wedgie. The term "low comedy" was coined by John Dryden in his preface to his play '' An Evening's Love''. History This type of comedy has been a fixture ever since Greek plays. For instance Sophocles once wrote a satyr play, no longer extant, about satyrs who seek to persuade a king that they are worthy suitors of his daughter by bragging about their capacity for flatulence. Aristophanes claimed that he hoped his plays would not be too highbrow for the common people to understand though he acknowledged that his work presuppo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virginia Minstrels, 1843
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The state's capital is Richmond and its most populous city is Virginia Beach. Its most populous subdivision is Fairfax County, part of Northern Virginia, where slightly over a third of Virginia's population of more than 8.8million live. Eastern Virginia is part of the Atlantic Plain, and the Middle Peninsula forms the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Central Virginia lies predominantly in the Piedmont, the foothill region of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which cross the western and southwestern parts of the state. The fertile Shenandoah Valley fosters the state's most productive agricultural counties, while the economy in Northern Virginia is driven by technology companies and U.S. federal government agencies. Hampton Roads is also the site of the region's main seaport and Naval Station Nor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oakum
Oakum is a preparation of tarred fibers used to seal gaps. Its traditional application was in shipbuilding for caulking or packing the joints of timbers in wooden vessels and the deck planking of iron and steel ships. Oakum was also used in plumbing for sealing joints in cast iron pipe, and in log cabins for chinking. In shipbuilding it was forced into the seams using a hammer and a caulking iron, then sealed into place with hot pitch. It is also referenced frequently as a medical supply for medieval surgeons, often used alongside bandages for sealing wounds. History The word oakum derives from Middle English ', from Old English ', from ' ( separative and perfective prefix) + ' (akin to Old English ', "comb")—literally "off-combings". Oakum was at one time recycled from old tarry ropes and cordage, which were painstakingly unravelled and reduced to fibre, termed "picking". The task of picking and preparation was a common occupation in prisons and workhouses, where the y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
