Semi-occasional dose of dope
The first true dose as we were just entering quarantine was swamp blues
Now, after almost another 4 months of covid-tose jams, we’ve finally come around to swamp pop
The sound of the bayou
(or at least, one of the sounds, and like all music, made of other sounds)
An amalgam of zydeco, cajun, R&B, and country
Bobby Charles is arguably the originator of the genre, certainly one of the swamp pop kings
Born Robert Charles Guidry in Abbeville, LA.
Bayside of Lafayette: deep in the heart of cajun country
He had a knack for songwriting from a young age
See You Later Alligator was his composition
He wrote it still a young teen (like 13 or 14)
It wasn’t really that common of a phrase at the time
But supposedly he heard somebody shout it as folks were spilling out of a local watering hole at the end of the night
It caught his ear; he asked them to repeat it, and the next day sat down and wrote the tune out
Fats Domino was the biggest thing going in Louisiana at the time (in American music, really)
And like any teenager, young Robert was obsessed with him
So when Fats came through Abbeville to play a show, Guidry tried to get him to listen to his ditty and consider recording it
Fats looked at the cajun boy in overalls: “Thanks, but I’m not really into singing songs about alligators”
“But it’s not actually about alligators!” Guidry protested. “It’s just a saying”
Fats didn’t take the song
However, Guidry did manage to get an audience with Leonard Chess on the phone
(I’m not actually sure how this phone call came to be, but I’m too lazy to look it up)
Sang him the song through the mouthpiece, and Chess was much more impressed than Domino (more complex game?)
He saw star potential, and wanted to sign him immediately
So in 1955 Guidry found himself with a ticket up north to Chicago to meet the man himself
But when actually arrived with his stuff at the offices on Cottage Grove (this was before the move to 2120 Michigan), Chess was stunned, and realized his plan wasn’t going to work
“You mean this motherfucker is WHITE?!?”
Chess was evidently not very familiar with the unique cultural and sonic hybridity produced in the bayou
So the planned tours on the “chitlin circuit” were not to be
He put out the record anyway (as “Later Alligator”)
It didn’t do much
But of course blew up in a cover version by Bill Haley and the Comets
And then became a popular catchphrase
Chess did have him change his name to Bobby Charles to hide the cajun roots for a mass audience
A topic Chess would have understood well, as the Polish jew was born Lejzor Szmuel Czyż!
When See You Later Alligator became a #1 hit for Haley, Chess tried some follow-ups with the composer to capitalize
But “Watch It, Sprockit” and “Take It Easy, Greasy” didn’t hit the same chord with the public (I swear I am not making those names up)
On the other hand, Charles belatedly got his dream fulfilled when Domino recorded his song Walkin’ to New Orleans in 1960
It was inspired by his first meeting with the legend in Abbeville – Fats had invited him to come see him in New Orleans, but Guidry didn’t have a car to get there: “I’d have to walk”
As Bobby Charles, he had a fairly nondescript career – more famous as a songwriter (eg Walking to New Orleans ended up charting in the top 10 for Domino)
In his own voice, he put out some stuff with Chess, then with Fats’ label, Imperial, and a couple other smaller imprints in New Orleans
Later some in Nashville, with a more country vibe
But caught a weed case and had to skip town
Ended up in Woodstock, NY, in 1971
Not because of the festival, mind you (he says he had never heard of it), just kinda randomly
And there he fell in with the musician crowd
Including Rick Danko from The Band
Who co-produced this self-titled gem in 72
Recorded at Albert Grossman’s (Bob Dylan’s manager) studio in Woodstock, on his Bearsville Records
Most of The Band is here
Plus Dr John (swamp connection!)
Amos Garrett on guitar, David Sanborn on sax
All kinds of heavy hitters
As you’d expect by the year and lineup, sound is now harder and funkier
I guess you could say swamp rock more than swamp pop
This one is my favorite off the album
Whenever I hear it these days, I think of the Professor down in Starkville
?
The whole album is banging
Lots of other artists recorded his stuff
Etta James, Kris Kristofferson
But he never really hit it big as a performer
Eventually moved back to Abbeville
And died there in 2010
Surely knew of what he spoke
