Special one for The Professor
Snooks Eaglin was known as “The Human Jukebox”
He claimed to know over 2500 songs
Born Fird Eaglin, Jr in Nawlins (sometimes called Ford, or Ferd), he got the nickname from the trouble-making “Baby Snooks,” a popular radio show in the 40s, voiced by Fanny Brice
Snooks in fact taught himself guitar by listening to the radio
At age 10, he won a talent show sponsored by the local powerhouse station WNOE (call letters from its original owner, Louisiana governor James Noe!)
He had lost his sight as a baby, after an operation on a brain tumor and glaucoma
Stayed in the hospital for over two years
Being blind and looking a bit like him, he was sometimes billed as “Lil Ray Charles”
His first gig, still a teenager, was with the Flamingos, and guess who was on piano (also still a teenager)
Allen Toussaint!
They played gigs around Louisiana, but broke up in the 50s after Snooks’ father (who acted as their manager) died: the supergroup-to-be was left for other possible worlds
After the passing of his dad, Snooks played side gigs and busked on corners in the French Quarter
Where he developed part of his legendary repertoire
And where he was “discovered” by Harry Oster, a musicologist from the LSU English department
Oster had accompanied jazz historian Richard B Allen to Angola prison to record blues, spirituals, and sermons
This was the origin of “Angola Prisoners Blues”
Oster would press the Louisiana Parole Board to get Robert Pete Williams released, and he went on to become well-known in the 60s and 70s (inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame a few years ago)
He’s the one who wrote I’ve Grown so Ugly
We should come back for a dose of Williams at some point
Anyway, Oster made a bunch of recordings of Snooks, which he sold to Folkways
In 59, they released the unimaginatively-titled “New Orleans Street Singer”
Among plenty of gems was this fervid version of St James Infirmary:
One of Oster’s recordings of Snooks that didn’t make it onto the album was of Ernesto Lecuona’s “Malaguena”
Lecuona was a Cuban composer who put together a “Suite Andalucia” of flamenco guitar
Presumably, this was part of Snooks’ vast songbook he developed playing for tourists
Later, Snooks put his own “funky” spin on it, a hybrid spanish bayou blues that should be much more famous than it is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urBkOAV1V1Y
Also worth it for his pronunciation of Malaguena (along the lines of how Landon used to say “quesadilla”), and some fine guitar runs
Doing his best Paco-de-Lucia-in-the-Crescent-City
Funky Malaguena was released on 45 by GNP Crescent
Year Unknown
Snooks recorded with Dave Bartholomew for Imperial in the 60s, doing more R&B than country blues
With James Booker on piano
In 1971, he also put out material for the Swedish label Sonet (which included Funky Malaguena)
Throwback to the Bobby Charles dose: at one point, Quint Davis, who produced the Sonet side, put together a studio session in Baton Rouge with Snooks and some other musicians (including Professor Longhair)
Albert Grossman heard those sessions and brought them all out to Woodstock to lay down some tracks at Bearsville
This must have been right around when Bobby Charles was coming up, although they never crossed paths as far as I know
The Fess/Snooks sessions didn’t produce any released material
But Snooks did play with Fess a bunch in the early 70s, and also on the first Wild Magnolias album, recorded in 73 and released in 74
He didn’t release anything under his own name until a late 80s comeback on Black Top Records
Though he still played at the Jazz Fest and in local clubs in New Orleans
Delighting the crowds with his voluminous range and and delivery (often with a falsetto “Willie Mae” persona popping in for cameos)
He was legendary for taking pretty much any and all requests
And never playing the same set twice
As a Seventh Day Adventist, he kept the Sabbath and didn’t perform Friday to Saturday night
Though kept a semi-regular gig at the Rock n’ Bowl
He died in 2009