Bobby Hollaway – Cornbread, Hog Maws and Chitterlins
Listen/Download -Bobby Hollaway – Cornbread, Hog Maws and Chitterlins
Greetings all.
Welcome to another week here at the madhouse with sixteen funky corners.
I have to begin by telling you all, that if you intend to click on the MP3 link in today’s post that you should really strap yourselves in.
One of the most important part of being a good DJ is taste, not only ones own, but the ability to recognize it in others.
Over the years I’ve come to trust the opinions of several DJs/collectors, one of whom is the mighty Midnight Cowbwoy down in Crackalack.
He’s one of those guys who has excellent taste in music, and who is always putting excellent stuff in his playlists that I haven’t heard before.
Late last year, when I posted a couple of versions of ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ in this very space, he mentioned to me that I ought to pick up a 45 by a cat named Bobby Hollaway called ‘Funky Little Drummer Boy’.
It wasn’t long before I found a copy and grabbed it sight unheard.
So, a few days go by and the record in question falls through the mail slot and I promptly carry it to the turntable where I placed it under the needle with care.
As soon as it started spinning I knew it would be featured prominently during the Funky16Corners Christmas 2012 festivities.
That said, I then flipped the disc over and saw that the B-side was entitled ‘Cornbread, Hog Maws and Chitterlins’, and since I can’t very well see a title like that and not play the record, I gave it a spin.
Holy shit…
It was like finding a ten dollar bill, flipping it over and realizing that the number in the corner was really ‘100’!
The song in question is just a hair under two minutes of fast-moving, spellbinding, hair-raising, ass-kicking (there was a special on hyphens down at the blog store!) instrumental soul.
Wham bam thank you ma’am – as the saying goes – what you get here is some greasy organ, hard-hitting drums, saxo-mo-phone and fatback guitar – all piled up on a paper plate and slathered in gravy.
The whole thing is like a stick of dynamite, but it’d be worth it if all you got to hear was the drums at the beginning of every chorus.
I haven’t been able to nail down any info on Bobby Hollaway, but once again, reading the fine print on the label provides some important clues.
I noticed that the record had been produced by Bobbie Howard (which sounded familiar) so I set out into the interwebs and discovered that this was in all likelihood the very same Bobbie Howard who had been in Washington, DC-area band the British Walkers.
The British Walkers were an R&B/garage/beat band who’s ranks included the likes of Roy Buchanan and John Hall.
Howard was also responsible for the Mod fave ‘Sh’Mon’ – released under the name Mr. Dynamite – and was in a band called The Sweet (not the UK band).
Interestingly enough, The Sweet’s 45 on Smash, produced by and featuring Bobbie Howard is exactly one catalog number down the list from the Bobby Hollaway 45.
Whether ‘Bobby Hollaway’ was a DC-area musician (sax or organ?) or a pseudonym for somebody else, I do not know, and if one of you does know, I would appreciate you dropping me a line clearing this whole thing up on account of I LOVE this record.
I hope you dig it as much as I do, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.
Peace
Larry
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Themocracy
Bobby Howard is a DC area musician he was also on a great album called MOrdicai Jones with Link wray a funky country roots bluesy album that received great reviews but did not sell in large numbers,familiar story.He is still playing in another incarnation of The British Walkers .It was originally thought that he sang all the lead vocals on the Mordacai Jones album but apparently it was Gene Johnson .
Hey Larry
Love this record! Look forward to hearing the Little Drummer Boy, come Xmas.
By the by, is it just coincidence that you posted this straight after The Joe Cuba Sextet – their big hit Bang Bang has “Cornbread, Hog Maws and Chitterlins” as much of the chorus?
Keep up the grand work
It is a coincidence Mark, but not one that I didn’t mull over. I’m curious if that couplet – in that form – existed prior to Joe Cuba, i.e. what is the ur ‘cornbread, hog maws and chitterlins’ document??
Indeed…Cornbread, Hog Maw and Chitterlin’s was done by Bobbie Howard. Bobbie was friends with me and my older brother, Ron Oberman. Ron worked worked at Mercury/Smash Records and got Bobbie Howard the deal. My book, “Fast Forward, Play and Rewind” will be released by Backbeat Books in late 2020.
Cheers…Michael Oberman