Little Bob and that mighty 45!

Listen/Download – Little Bob and the Lollipops – I Got Loaded MP3

Greetings all.

I had something else in the on-deck circle for today, but then this morning, what should pop up in my feed by word that Camille ‘Little’ Bob had passed away at the age of 78.

The record he made in 1965 with his band the Lollipops, ‘I Got Loaded’ is one of the all-time great party platters, and one of my personal favorites.

I originally wrote it up a decade ago in the early days of the Funky16Corners blog, so I thought that I’d repost that article, and the song again in tribute to the man.

So dig it.

– Larry

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Originally posted 7/25/05

“I like to sing in the car.

There…I said it. Some people sing in the shower. I sing in the car.

When I’m driving to or from work (usually the only time I’m alone in the car), and a great song comes on, I’ll start singing at the top of my lungs, drumming on the steering wheel and generally making a fool of myself.

I can’t vouch for how this looks from other cars, but I’d guess it falls somewhere between amusing and disturbing (I guess depending on how you process the image of a great big guy covered in tattoos who looks like he’s yelling at no one in particular…).

Not every song will send me into such a state. One song that does (every time) is ‘I Got Loaded’ by L’il Bob and the Lollipops.

In the service of complete disclosure, I should mention that prior to a few years ago, I had no idea that ‘I Got Loaded’ wasn’t a Los Lobos song (the version I first became familiar with was when they covered it back in 1984). ‘I Got Loaded’ appeared on their LP ‘How Will the Wolf Survive’ and got a fair amount of college radio play at the time. I always liked their recording of the tune, but as I said, had no idea it wasn’t an original.

So a few years ago, my buddy Keith sent me a CD called ‘New Orleans Party Classics’, a Rhino comp of old school Mardi Gras hits including cuts by the Hawketts, Al Johnson, Oliver Morgan and others. I popped the disc into the CD player and about halfway through my ears perked up. “HEYYY!”, I thought, “I know this song!”. The tune in question was ‘I Got Loaded’, but the artist was new to me. I popped open the booklet and there was all I needed to know (at least for the moment), about L’il Bob and the Lollipops.

I was surprised a second time when I checked the writing credits for the song and discovered that “L’il Bob” was also known as Camille Bob, a name I knew from the very funky 1972 cut ‘Brother Brown’ (Bob recorded funk 45s for the Soul Unlimited and Master Trak labels). It wasn’t too long before I tracked down a copy of the original 45 on the La Louisianne label (a label that still exists to this day).

Camille Bob formed the Lollipops in the mid-50’s, recording for the Goldband (see Count Rockin’ Sidney), Jin and LaLouisianne labels.

By the mid-60’s (“I Got Loaded” came out in 1965) they were performing live every Saturday on the Lafayette, LA TV station KLFY’s “Saturday Hop”. They were equally adept at swamp pop, R&B and soul, and ‘I Got Loaded’ while still a Louisiana fave, is also popular with the Beach Music crowd. They recorded an LP for La Louisianne, a second LP for Jin a few years later and are still playing today (based out of Houston, TX).

“I Got Loaded’ opens with a great guitar riff and is followed quickly by L’il Bob’s high tenor vocals and the horn section. They lyrics are as straight-forward as you’d imagine with a title like ‘I Got Loaded’. Unlike many similar tunes, this not a cautionary tale but rather an endorsement of the intoxicating pleasures of gin, whiskey and wine (variety of course, being the spice of life…).

‘I Got Loaded’ has a swinging, dance friendly tempo and is a perfect mix of swamp pop, R&B and soul (all of which the Lollipops played with equal relish).

In addition to the Los Lobos version, ‘I Got Loaded’ has been covered by Robert Cray, Van Broussard, the Boogie Kings and Elvis Costello, as well as appearing on the soundtrack to ‘Bull Durham’ (I have also seen a number of references that suggest that that L’il Bob and the Lollipops are covering Texas bluesman Peppermint Harris’s tune of the same name, but having heard his recording I can say that aside from the same title the songs have virtually nothing in common).

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Friday.”

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Don’t forget the drawing for 2015 Allnighter Donors (open until the end of next week).

The good folks at Secret Stash Records have sent along some very groovy promos as incentives for you good folks to donate to the 2015 Allnighter/Pledge Drive.

We have two pairs of two 2-record sets comprised of rare and unreleased material from the legendary Chicago soul labels Mar-V-Lus and One-Derful Records!

At the end of next week I will randomly select two winners from the list of this year’s donors to receive these incredible prizes. All you need to do (unless you’ve already kicked in, in which case you’re already eligible) is click on the Paypal button and donate at least $5.00USD to be entered for a chance to win.

All the names will go into a hat and one of the little Corners will select the winners, who will be announced in this space as well as notified via e-mail.

So get to clicking!

 

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Keep the faith

Larry

 

 

 

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

 

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

The Tempests

 

Greetings all.

The end of the week is at hand, and so is this week’s episode of the Funky16Corners Radio Show, which takes to the shimmering airwaves of the interwebs each and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t join me at airtime, you can subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn app, or grab an MP3 here at the blog.

The disc I bring you today is yet another fine example of the largely blue-eyed soul/R&B movement know as “beach music”.

Starting in the Carolinas and southern Virginia in the 1960s, and based around the dance known as the Shag, the sounds were provided by a vast array of R&B/soul show bands, most of which were mostly (or more often completely) white.

The racial aspect of the scene is relatively complicated, in that it arose from music recorded by black artists (Tams, Showmen, Drifters etc), yet the live bands on the scene (Swingin’ Medallions, O’Kaysions, Bill Deal and the Rhondells etc.) – due, no doubt to the fact that this was all happening in the segregated South – were mostly white.

There is of course a long history of white R&B/soul artists in the south, many of them, in Memphis, Muscle Shoals, and Atlanta, collaborating with black performers, either in the background, as composers and producers (Joe South, Dan Penn, Chips Moman, Spooner Oldham etc) or as backing musicians (in the studio or on the road).

The heyday of beach music was in the 1960s (the term came into use midway through the decade) and there are many excellent recorded examples of the sound.

The Tempests – a white band fronted by a series of black singers – recorded a grip of 45s and an LP for Smash in 1967 and 1968. The group’s original lead singer was Mike Williams, who went on to record ‘Lonely Soldier’ for Atlantic in 1967. He was replaced by vocalist Hazel Martin who appears on the two tracks I bring you today.

The uptempo ‘Would You Believe’ was the Tempests highest charting number, stalling just outside the Hot 100 in 1967. It features some great organ, hard charging horns and a solid vocal by Martin. It has lots of dance-floor appeal, which is why it has grown in popularity in the soul clubs of the UK (along with ‘Someday’ a track from their LP).

The flipside, ‘You (Are the Star I Wish On)’ is a great, pleading, southern soul ballad, with a killer vocal by Martin.

After leaving Smash, the Tempests recorded two 45s for Polydor in the early 70s, before breaking up later in the decade.

Some of the Tempests would go on to form and record as the Backyard Heavies.

The ‘Would You Believe’ LP has been reissued on CD and is fairly easy to find.

To learn more about the beach music scene (and its bands) I will refer to you the “Heeey Baby Days’ website. A companion piece to a huge, comprehensive book (which sadly looks to be out of print and quite expensive) the site is still a valuable resource (click on the ‘bands’ and ‘photos’ links on the front page).

I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll see you on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

 

 

 

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

 

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.