"I hear those Voices again... I Smell Nookie!"... at least that's what I always thought he said... - BenT
Liner notes by Pete Brown 1988
The wildman stops pounding out the blues on the piano and strolls over to where a long stick with a greenish-white skull on top stands. He picks up the stick, lights a cigarette, and places it in the skull's mouth. He regards the skull with a mixture of delight and disdain as it appears to puff the cigarette. A strange French band plays uneasy riffs in the background. Screamin' Jay Hawkins is in town
• Eating a wax feather sandwich • In the middle of • Nineteen hundred and yesterday
Some of us in the Beat poetry movement in the late fifties / early sixties, under the influence of various forbidden or destructive liquids and substances, used to play a game invented by Corso, Kerouac etc called "wordslings". We'd make up weirder and weirder juxtapositions of images and sentiments, trying to outweird each other, with pauses for laughter. A kind of surrealist contest or exercise. Later we would incorporate some of our findings in our work. We didn't know then but Screamin' Jay Hawkins had done it all already, without anything in his bloodstream but his own blood.
• Yesterday's comin' back tomorrow • Is is now
Let's face it, individuality is a pretty scarce commodity in these days of clip-on weirdness kits and midi'd chestwigs. People don't even make their own records anymore. Courage is even scarcer, because Courage and Corporate don't mix. That's why it's great to have these two albums, long favourites of mine, back in circulation, to stretch and disturb the minds of another generation of music lovers.
I'm not going into the history. The best of these performances are timeless and speak for themselves, standing proudly for themselves, standing proudly beside the work of Slim Gaillard, Eddie Harris, Sleepy John Estes, Victoria Spivey and Wynonie Harris (well, whoever wrote his songs).
These blasts put the most savage punk bands to shame, and rival the fiercest social and sexual commentators of our time.
• A pain called • "Had to eat more" • Made me get a job
and
• I've been hurt • Till I love the pain
I don't hesitate to say that WHAT THAT IS is a masterpiece. What album these days can boast a track like "The Feast Of The Mau Mau"?
• Cut the fat off the back of a baboon • Boil it down to a pound in a spoon • Scoop the eyes from a fly flying backwards • Take the jaws and the paws off a 'coon...
This should be compulsory listening for all white South Africans. And it gets heavier - how about the sheer graphic horror of "Constipation Blues" ("nobody ever made a record about real pain") with the great Plas Johnson's baritone sax expressively suggesting dark dysfunctions of the digestive system?
WHAT THAT IS was recorded live in a Hollywood club over two days with a changing personnel with more interesting contributions from Johnson and from the legendary British pianist Graham Bond (also signed to Mercury at the time), jazz guitarist Herb Ellis and the excellent Earl palmer on drums. I wish I'd been there. Just to see the audience. There are few albums in the history of obscurely popular music less uninhibited than this. The second album, BECAUSE IS IN YOUR MIND / ARMPITRUBBER (both titles appear on the original sleeve) contains, on first impressions, more conventional material. It's efficiently produced by Huey Meaux, with a solid studio band and some nice horn charts. It's more soul than blues-orientated especially on such numbers as "Tryin' To Reach My Goal" and "Our Love".
However, there's much of interest - all the songs are about love or sex, and on several Screamin' Jay duets with an intriguingly sensual female vocalist, notably on two pornohumorous songs. "Bite It", based on the Mar-Keys famous "Last Night", is the funniest, featuring the lady on very rude backup noises that suggest that she indeed has the bit in between her teeth, and "I Wanta Know (What You Do Down There)" is about the same geographical region.
Screamin' Jay also subverts the ballad "Goodnight My Love" by implying he is having dealings with under-age jailbait. "Move Me", too, generates a strongly sexual groove.
To sum up, Screamin' Jay didn't just write "I Put A Spell On You". Digest these tracks and you will realize that: -
Screamin' Jay is a great singer, moving easily between Blues, Soul, Billy Eckstine and Spike Jones.
He is a great lyricist, exploring areas where most songwriters usually fear to tread.
He is a great humorist, both in writing and performing his own words and subverting the words and music of others. Listen to his loveably insulting mimicry in the "How do they talk?" sequence from "Feat Of The Mau Mau", then try to find his earlier recordings of "I Love Paris" and "Hong Kong" and you'll see what I mean.
He is a great screamer. His music is a cry from the streets of the mind. He is there to put you wise, and he isn't taking any shit.
• There's a sack hangin' in your head • With your brains in it • Eating stuffed chop suey • Corroded biscuits • And bat meat soup • In a gas mask
Or -
• To Was • Or not to have been
Ignore these records and their philosophy and you will be missing an important stage in your development. Luckily, Screamin' Jay is still with us. Be proud to have met him. Tell your friends. Don't be afraid. Maybe one day he will play in your town. Then you too will be able to see the skull smoke. - Pete Brown
[Sides one and two were originally released as WHAT THAT IS! (Philips PHS 600-319) and were recorded live at the Club Amigo in North Hollywood on June 23rd and 24th, Nineteen Hundred and Yesterday, and is dedicated to President Nixon whose efforts to recapture the era of the early 50's do not pass unnoticed. Sides three and four originally comprised the LP SCREAMIN' JAY HAWKINS (Philips PHS 600-336)]
musicans:
Mr. Hawkins, VOICE, piano; Earl Palmer, drums; Lule Ritz, bass; Plas Johnson, sax; Mike Anthony, guitar
traxfromwax:
1. What That Is! 2. Feast Of The Mau Mau 3. Do You Really Love Me 4. Stone Crazy 5. I Love You 6. Constipation Blues 7. I'm Lonely 8. Thing Called Woman 9. Dig! 10. I'm Your Man 11. Ask Him 12. Reprise 13. Please Don't Leave Me 14. I Wanta Know 15. I Need You 16. My Marion 17. Bite It (Last Night) 18. Move Me 19. Goodnight My Love 20. Our Love Is Not For 3 21. Ain't Nobody's Business 22. Take Me Back 23. Trying To Reach My Goal 24. So Long
(files in .m4a - lucky who uses i-tunes!)
... Evidently, Boozoo's contract with Floyd Soileau wasn't exactly ironclad or exclusive during this time frame because a live CD (at Richard's) came along in 1987--Boozoo Chavis With Nathan & Zydeco Cha-Cha's--a shared album. Released on Rounder (RD-2069), it was supervised by Scott Billington. "It actually turned out all right considering the fact that I had borrowed [blues guitarist]John Mooney's van and set up a Sony F-1 digital recorder in the rear," said Scott. Still in print, it remains a steady seller but what was important about the venture was that Boozoo was able to make the first contact with the internationally distributed Rounder of Cambridge, MA, which would serve him in good stead in the 90s... - Larry Benicewicz, B.B.S.
