Be Like Two Fried Eggs!

So, after a week of listening to The Partridge Family almost exclusively, I finally moved onto something else. This past weekend, I watched an episode of the TV show, Cold Case. It was an episode about a murder from 1929 which (as is normal of all Cold Case episodes) music from the era was included. There was also an original piece featured – “300 Flowers”- written in the style of jazz tunes from the time. Gorgeous song and I’d love to find the piano music to it – but I digress. That episode inspired me to download quite a bit of music from the 1920s. I'll admit that the amount of music I own from that period is pretty thin (I think up until this last weekend, I only had about 10 songs from the Roaring Twenties), but I am working on expanding my horizons.

Most of the jazzy music I've collected up until recently revolve around the big bands, crooners, and songbirds of the 1940s and 1950s. Though, I am a fan of Billie Holiday and have quite a lot of her songs - and I've been exploring Ella Fitzgerald's catalogue this past year, but in comparison to the '40s and '50s, the '20s (and even the '30s) was a pretty wild time! And the lyrics are pretty shocking at times. A couple years ago, it dawned on me what Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher" was about, but after downloading Bessie Smith's "Wild About That Thing"… Yeah, definitely some racy lyrics there. Great song and wonderful performance, but it's pretty obvious what "that thing" she's referencing is!

A lot of the '20s music I've listened to have been more of the popular dance tunes, like “The Charleston”, “Do It Again” (that’s featured in Thoroughly Modern Millie), or “Sweet Georgia Brown”. There’s even a jazzy, upbeat rendition of “It Had To Be You” out there with a prominent banjo line. Those are definitely some fun songs to dance around to – and I’ll confess to the fact that I have a lot easier time dancing like a flapper outta the ‘20s than I have attempting the dances people do in the clubs these days (but I’m working to rectify that). That dance music definitely was influenced a great deal by Ragtime (I do dig me some Scott Joplin). Helen Kane’s “I Want To Be Loved By You” and “Stardust” by Hoagy Carmichael are classics. And the song “Keep Your Sunny Side Up” is a fun one (and featured in the film Paper Moon, which is what motivated me to hunt it down). Louis Armstrong playing “St. Louis Blues” is impressive – Sadly, until the last couple years, I knew Louis mostly for his raspy voice and not his trumpet playing. Obviously, he was pretty amazing. Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor seemed to be quite prominent on the charts back in the day as well.

Though, today I've listened to almost exclusively early blues from that era. I've never been a huge fan of the old blues music, and there are still times that I find some of it a bit tiresome, but some of it is pretty fantastic. Charley Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Big Bill Broonzy all have some pretty great songs, but today I focused mainly on the women of the era. Ma Rainey, Mamie Smith, Ethel Waters, Ida Cox, and Sara Martin all are fairly new to my music collection. And I found that I really enjoyed some of Hattie McDaniel's songs ("I Thought I'd Do It" particualrly) - I really only knew her as Mammy in Gone With The Wind and was happy to explore another aspect of her talent. Though, I think Bessie Smith may be my favorite of those early women blues performers at the moment – “Gulf Coast Blues” and “Down Hearted Blues” are really great. She had an unique, inventive style with that husky voice that influenced a number jazz and blues vocalists -  including Billie Holiday and Janis Joplin.

Anyway, I think that's all I've got for now... Except, after a few days of '20s music, I think I need to get myself a ukulele!