78 RPM - Reviews by deezee

78 RPM - Reviews by deezee

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
deezee 25th Jun 2019		78 RPM Jerry Lee Lewis - High School Confidential / Fools Like Me (1959)	Review 'Fools Like Me' is a wonderful composition and maybe his finest Country Music performance. 'High School Confidential' was maybe a bit of a let-down after the dynamite start but still a treasured performance. Dick Jacobs was upset that it made the charts, forcing him to play it on his Sunday evening show. He assured us it would drop out the charts by next but he was wrong again. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
deezee 3rd Feb 2018		78 RPM Fats Domino - Korea Blues / Every Night About This Time (1950)	Review Who cannot agree ?? Is this possible to like ??? Has anyone EVER liked it ????? The bugle is appalling but not only that. Maybe it just might have been bearable if it was way in the background to give the effect of a bugle call way over the hill in the distance. But the studio wasn't capable of doing this. I tend to wonder whether they had the capability to dub this on and re-record the acetate in this way. It was possible by playing back the original acetate in the studio. I remember that Modern did this with a Pee Wee Crayton disc. But Cosimo's original studio was very basic at this time. Also, if this was done, I'd think Cosimo would get a better balance than this. Every 5 years or so I try to 'like' this but it remains unlistenable. A real shame because Fats does a great blues beneath the noise, so bad it hurts my teeth. Maybe this was originally intended by Bartholomew to actually be the "A" side (gasp) but I'm sure Imperial immediately swapped it round. Why didn't they use "Hey Fat Man"? Maybe they deemed that Korea was topical. But, if so they should have remade it. I'm left wondering if Bartholomew actually heard the results played back? 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
deezee 17th Jul 2017		78 RPM Mercy Baby - Marked Deck / Rock And Roll Baby (1957)	Review Tremendous band and excitement on this and Frankie Lee Sims' Ace 527 from the same session. Mercy Baby was not a great vocalist and had some strange phrasing on his later Mercy Baby label but he sure could pound the drums - and never more so than here, right to the crash at the end. He just bawls out the lyrics and the wild band, complete with Frankie, makes for two no-fail sides for dancin' around the floor after a couple of beers...and making a fool of yourself..... Mercy Baby's follow-up on Ace 535 is good as well and his only true Blues side but the flip starts to get somewhat strange. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
deezee 17th Jul 2017		78 RPM Frankie Lee Sims - Walking With Frankie / Hey Little Girl (1957)	Review Ultimate classic "Walking With Frankie" is the "A" side! Mods informed. When Westside (UK) put this on CD it had more than an extra 30 second extended ending. Tremendous band and excitement on this and Mercy Baby's Ace 528 from the same session. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
deezee 17th Jul 2017		78 RPM Ann Clark - Those Lonely, Lonely Nights / I Had A Dream (1955)	Review An excruciating record of a young white singer covering the Earl King (R&B) and Jimmy Swan (Hillbilly) originals for Ace and Trumpet resp. As I remember, the accomp is just organ and chimes and was the brain child of Lillian McMurry, who had recorded both of the original sides. Lillian's idea was for an Ace pop series which Johnny Vincent abandoned after this one sunk like a lead balloon. Nice blue label though... 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
deezee 28th Jun 2017		78 RPM Rosco Gordon - Just Love Me Baby / Weeping Blues (1955)	Review Rosco had a real tough band on this one and a fine outing on "Just Love Me Baby". After many crying records for several years Rosco's outrageous entry probably killed off the trend for good! To some, the record is so bad it's good, in fact great for a laugh. But the full backing, including baritone sax, is still superb. I wish he had done more with this instrumentation. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
deezee 25th Nov 2016		78 RPM John L. Booker - 609 Boogie / Road Trouble (1952)	Review Even more primitive and uncommercial than the John Lee Cooker on King and even rarer as a result. These were recorded by his first manager, Elmer Barbee, in early 1949 with members of Hooker's first band. (He never performed solo on stage until 1959). Very primitively recorded with the band rockin' like crazy on the instrumental 609 Boogie and an intensely harsh vocal from JLH on the flip with slashing guitar. Chance added applause to beginning and end of 609 in an attempt to hide the surface noise present on Barbee's acetate. How does one rate a record like this? You basically love it or hate it which translates into a grading of a 10 or a 1. Musicians: Hooker, gtr; James Watkin (aka Watkins), pno, Curtis Foster, dms. This could even have been a demo recorded in 1948 to send to Bernie Besman of Sensation Records. Composer credit again given as the non-existent C. Fowler on the flip. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
deezee 8th Jul 2016		78 RPM Chuck Berry - Brown Eyed Handsome Man / Too Much Monkey Business (1956)	Review Same session as last disc and I just noticed that "Drifting Heart" was the first of the session - so Chuck must have had hopes at the time. The two here are famous songs that are interesting in that the tenor sax plays a real part here, playing along with Chuck in one of the solos. Two very clever skillfully written songs recorded live with a pretty unique sound in his repertoire. Tempting not to vote a '10' for all of his classics. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
deezee 8th Jul 2016		78 RPM Chuck Berry - Roll Over Beethoven / Drifting Heart (1956)	Review Obviously an all-time classic and very influential. It's his first out and out Rocker and the interesting thing is that it's 'live'. For "Johnny B. Goode" and most that followed he played the intro and then stayed on the bass strings. After that he overdubbed the top strings. The only other way he could have approached this performance would to have a second guitarist and it would never have sounded as good. So this is not a criticism and the record is a priceless gem. But for "Beethoven" he really has to 'hang on' and there's an abrupt ending to he inst break as he reverts to the bass strings. So more recent CD reissues seem to bring up the piano for two notes to fill the void. "Drifting Heart" is a better composition than "Together [We'll Always Be]" so it's more listenable but it's still dead flat (and also very square!). 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
deezee 8th Jul 2016		78 RPM Chuck Berry - No Money Down / Down Bound Train (1956)	Review Chuck carries "Down Bound Train" very well with lots of effective drama both lyrically and instrumentally. It's a very old folk song which had many verses. Really quite a masterpiece but maybe a rather adult theme for the kids. Top side is a great amusing song but I've seen the comment somewhere that its moderate success may have been because it was more bluesy 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?