SMALL TOWN TALK: Episode 54

Small Town Talk

In which Ginger Baldy suffers the weather in Small Town Talk’s collapsing studio and keeps his big mouth firmly shut.

1. Rockin’ Bones - Ronnie Dawson (The Blond Bomber) 1959

2. Somebody Told You - Irma Thomas 1962

3. Desdemona - John’s Children 1967 (Marc Bolan second vocalist - obviously!)

4. Just A Little Bit - Tiny Topsy 1959

5. Daddy Daddy - Richard Berry 1954

6. Daddy Daddy - Ruth Brown 1952

7. Pneumonia - Joe Tex 1956

8. Come In the Morning - Moby Grape 1967

9. It’s Gonna Work Out Fine - Ike & Tina Turner 1961

10. You’re Losing Me - Barbara Lynn 1968

11. His Last Summer - The Barracudas 1980 (This month’s death song)

12. Suspended Animation - Rachel Sweet 1978

13. It’s Raining - J. D. McPherson 2023 (The Warm Covers vinyl album compiled for Record Store Day)

14. Home Home Home - Pokey LaFarge 2024

15. Devil In His Heart - The Donays 1962

16. I’m Calling You - The Cactus Blossoms 2019

17. Only The Lonely - Roy Orbison 1960 (This month’s earworm)

18. You’ve Got Your Good Thing Down - Sir Douglas Quintet (mid sixties)

19. Choo Choo Ch’Boogie - Louis Jordan 1946

Theme song: Small Town Talk - Bobby Charles

You reach your destination, but alas and alack

You need some compensation to get back in the black

You take a morning paper from the top of the stack

And read the situations from the front to the back

The only job that's open needs a man with a knack

So put it right back in the rack, Jack

From ‘Choo Choo Ch’Boogie’ - Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five - 1946

Written by Denver Darling, Milton Gabler and Vaughn Horton.

Every line of every verse in this clever song ends in a word that rhymes with Jack.

A few notes this episode to compensate for the lack of song introductions.

Track 7: Pneumonia - Joe Tex. On the label the writing credits go to Joe Tex, but this song is clearly a facsimile of Little Willie John’s ‘Fever’, written by Eddie Cooley and Otis Blackwell under his songwriting alias of John Davenport.

Track 8: Come In The Morning - written by Bob Mosley and the terrific B side of Hey Grandma (see episode 29) It was one of 5 Moby Grape singles released simultaneously, a move that backfired and contributed to the band’s downfall.

Track 15: Famously recorded by the Beatles on their second album ‘With The Beatles’ and sung by George Harrison. The Donays’ original was the flipside of their only single ‘Bad Boy’ and was never a hit either in the States or the UK. Small Town Talk played Bad Boy in our Two Songs, One Title feature in episode 18, Oct 2021.

Track 16: I’m Calling You - The Cactus Blossoms - for Andrea who cemented the idea of Two Songs, One Title and since she loves the Everlys she will probably like this!

Track 18: You’ve Got Your Good Thing Down - Sir Douglas Quintet. Only released later on several compilation albums, but recorded by producer Huey Meaux, The Crazy Cajun, for Tribe records sometime in the mid sixties. In my book Doug Sahm can do no wrong.

Check out JD McPherson’s new album, Nite Owls at:

https://www.jdmcpherson.com/

He and I play similar old soul and R&B, but Johnny Corsair dares to play contemporary R&B so if you wanna be down with the kids get over to Bright Lights Big City where the lights get brighter every time you click the switch:

https://johnnycorsair9.podbean.com/

Our favourite record label, ACE Records: - and they are British; go check them out, you can find all the above tracks from Richard Berry, Ike & Tina Turner, Barbara Lynn, and The Donays on Ace CD’s

https://www.acerecords.co.uk/

Any comments, queries, complaints, or anything relating to Small Town Talk's podcast can be fired off to:

[e-mail]

Episode 54 Illustration: Ginger Baldy flits back to the 40's to hear the sound of the Clickety Clack.