78 RPM - Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys - I'm A Ding Dong Daddy (From Dumas) / Rosetta - Vocalion - USA

78 RPM Record

Artist:	Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys
Label:	Vocalion
Country:	USA
Catalogue:	03659
Date:	Sep 1937
Format:	10"
Collection:	I Own It I Want It
Community:	1 Owns
Price Guide:	Valuation Page
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Track	Artist	Title	Composer	Rating
A	Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys	I'm A Ding Dong Daddy (From Dumas)	Phil Baxter	10.0 Rate
B	Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys	Rosetta	Hines, Woods	10.0 Rate

Notes

Hot String Band with Singing

A: vocal by Bob Wills and Tommy Duncan; B: vocals by Bob Wills

Personnel:
Bob Wills (fiddle, vocal), Everett Stover (trumpet), Robert Dunn (trombone), Ray DeGeer (clarinet, saxophone), Zeb McNally (saxophobe), Herman Arnspiger (guitar), Sleepy Johnson (guitar, fiddle), Jesse Ashlock (fiddle), Cecil Brower (fiddle on B), Johnnie Lee Wills (banjo), Leon McAuliffe (steel guitar), Al Stricklin (piano), Joe Ferguson (bass), Smokey Dacus (drums), Tommy Duncan (vocals).

A side (mx. Dal 237) recorded at the Brunswick Warehouse, Dallas, TX, June 9, 1937.
B side (mx. Dal 217) recorded at the Brunswick Warehouse, Dallas, TX, June 7, 1937.

Images

Comments and Reviews


xiphophilos 13th Jul 2020		B side:



fixbutte 5th Apr 2017		fixbutte wrote: Thanks, xiphophilos, for the link to "Rosetta". I had found it myself before, but I didn't want to point to it particularly as it is a bit hard to handle and I have my doubts about the origins of these specific audiofiles (probably not taken from shellacs but copied from Bear Family's Bob Wills CD boxes). It seems that the audio files on the Internet Archive (linked by xiphophilos and myself) were actually not legitimate. When you click on the links now, there is only this message: The item is not available due to issues with the item's content.



fixbutte 15th Jun 2015		The mentioned "There's No Disappointment in Heaven" from Sep 1936, the only hymn ever recorded by Bob Wills and his band, is also a favorite of mine. Very emotionally sung lead by Bob Wills (joined by some bandmates in the chorus) with a heavenly steel guitar Leon McAuliffe, it was not issued on record during Bob Wills' lifetime, but it is available on several compilations now and as an audiofile on the Internet Archive (Nr. 215): https://archive.org/details/BobWillsAndHisTexasPlayboys-01-265 It is not identical with the uneven "final" version from Nov 1964 which is on YouTube. That one was released on Bob Wills' Keepsake Album No. 1 (Longhorn LP-001) in Dec 1964 and on The Bob Wills Story (Starday SLP-469) in Dec 1970.



fixbutte 15th Jun 2015		Something about "Rosetta" that I've found again accidentally, an old posting from 2007 by Dayna Wills, a niece of Bob Wills, on the The Steel Guitar Forum: Bob Wills; did he ever record a song with him singing lead? [George Redmon]...if you're asking if Bob Wills recorded any songs with him doing the main vocal...then yes certainly, several. My favorites are "Rosetta" Vocalion 03659 Recorded in Dallas TX June 7, 1937. I also enjoy Bob singing "There's No Disappointment In Heaven" Columbia P-15813, Chicago IL September 30, 1936. ... [daynawills] I had never heard "No Disappointment in Heaven" until I was asked to sing it on Rod Moag's "Ah-ha Goes Grass", a bluegrass tribute to Bob Wills. One of my faves is "Sittin' on Top of the World". Rosetta, Uncle Bob's 2nd daughter, asked me to do sing "Rosetta" when I told her I was doing a W[estern]S[wing] CD. I did it, but I preferred Joe Holley's uptempo version to Uncle Bob's ballad. He considered himself a "blues" singer and it's evident in the choice of songs that he did sing lead on. FYI: "Rosetta", written by jazz artist Earl "Fatha" Hines was Rosetta's mother's favorite song. She was named after the song, not the other way around. Dayna Wills is apparently quite successful in her own right as a Western swing vocalist and has her own website here: http://www.daynawills.com/



fixbutte 9th Jun 2015		Thanks, xiphophilos, for the link to "Rosetta". I had found it myself before, but I didn't want to point to it particularly as it is a bit hard to handle and I have my doubts about the origins of these specific audiofiles (probably not taken from shellacs but copied from Bear Family's Bob Wills CD boxes). Anyway, I have some more about "I'm A Ding Dong Daddy (From Dumas)": ¤ The Tiffany Transcription version (not in the Internet Archive audiofiles) was recorded on May 20, 1946 in San Francisco, see here: http://www.tiffanytranscriptions.com/wordpress/discography/may-20-1946/. Tommy Duncan is the sole vocalist here, replacing all the verses about drugs and alcohol with other witty verses that are too difficult to transcribe for me, but he definitely sings that the pretty little mama tried to put him "on the bum". It's also nice to hear him sing "do my stuff" like "D-U-M-A-S-tuff". ¤ What were the original lyrics by Phil Baxter? As depicted on the wonderful dippermouth.blogspot, there were at least two recordings made before Louis Armstrong, and the second one from March 1930, by Slatz Randall and His Orchestra with vocal by banjoist Joe Roberts, had the following lyrics: I’m a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas You ought to see me do my stuff I’m a clean cut fellow from Homer’s Corner You ought to see me strut I’m a caper cuttin’ cutie, got a gal named Katie, She’s little heavy laden, but I calls her baby, I’m a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas You ought to see me do my stuff. I’m a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas You ought to see me do my stuff I’m a ping pong papa, from Pitchfork Prairie You ought to see me strut I’m a Ding Dong Daddy, got a whiz bang mama, She’s a Bear Creek baby, and a whompous (Wabash?) kitty I’m a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas You ought to see me do my stuff. ¤ "I'm A Ding Dong Daddy (From Dumas)" was apparently the model for several songs about women, especially by Jimmie Davis. On the first one of these, "She's A Hum Dum Dinger (From Dingersville"), Davis sings, "watch her strut her stuff", and later he also presents a "Bear Cat Mama From Horner's Corners" and some similar characters. ¤ As said in Legend of the Ding Dong Daddy on the official Dumas, Texas, website, the "catchy song gained national recognition when Phil Harris, band leader for the Jack Benny Radio Show, recorded the song". It seems, however, that Phil Harris didn't record the song before 1947 (released on RCA Victor 20-2535, Nov 1947), and it apparently did not make the charts then.



fixbutte 8th Jun 2015		Searching information for my comments, I found a fundamental essay on Bob Wills on the web, also mentioning "I'm A Ding Dong Daddy (From Dumas)", written by Nathan Rabin, a hip-hop specialist, in 2009, of which I presume to quote a few passages. You can find the whole thing there (with some images and - at least for me - extinct music samples): http://www.avclub.com/article/week-10-bob-wills-king-of-texas-father-of-western--27590 Bob Wills, King Of Texas, Father of Western Swing By Nathan Rabin ... Listening to Bob Wills for the very first time, I was blown away. It was a revelatory experience. Wills’ music was radically different from my narrow conception of country music. It was black. It was white. It was country. It was jazz. It was blues. It was pop in the very best sense. It was hillbilly. It was sophisticated. It contained multitudes. Wills was a one-man musical melting pot, the very embodiment of American musical democracy. But more than anything I responded to the irrepressible energy and optimism in Bob Wills’ voice. For perhaps the first time in my life I found myself listening to country CDs over and over again. To put it in hip-hop terms, Wills was the world’s greatest hype man. Decades before Flavor Flav, Diddy, and Lil Jon, Wills mastered the art of making every song he appeared on better through ad-libs, joking, rhythmic whoops, shout-outs/instructions to his musicians, and all-around bonhomie. He was simultaneously a narrator, Greek chorus, emcee, color commentator, conductor, joyful taskmaster, and musical air traffic controller ordering up solos and doling out bottomless praise. Though he generally left the singing to others (most notably silky-smooth, versatile longtime Texas Playboys crooner/songwriter Tommy Duncan), Wills was ubiquitous on his songs, with a high-pitched Mickey Mouse squeal of ecstasy that might just be the purest vessel for joy in the history of pop music. Wills’ lust for life all but dares listeners not to break out into a big idiot grin. Last week, when I was reintroduced to Wills’ oeuvre via my iPod, I was having a really tough day. I was gloomy. I was brooding. I was a sad panda. But as soon as Wills started squealing into my ear my frown turned into a rare smile. My leg started shaking. My toes started tapping. I was on the Brown Line home after a long day at work and briefly rebelled against the unofficial prohibition against expressing happiness on the Chicago Public Transit System. ... Wills came about his musical miscegenation naturally. As a small boy, his friends were all black and he picked up his love for blues—Bessie Smith was a particular favorite—and vocal signatures from his pals. While he was still trying to find himself as a performer, he appeared in blackface in medicine shows. Mysterious blackface performer Emmett Miller—about whom Nick Tosches wrote an equally fascinating and maddening book called Where Dead Voices Gather, whose best parts explain the cultural importance of blackface without apologizing for it—served as a huge inspiration. Wills’ patterned the Texas Playboys’ version of Mills’ “I Ain’t Got Nobody” very closely after Miller’s version, especially the wild, ragged, almost unhinged yodeling that makes it so striking nearly 75 years later. Wills’ background in blackface is perhaps most apparent on “St. Louis Blues”, a track that’s half low-down, dirty country-blues, half blackface vaudeville routine as Wills shucks and jives with his singer and hushes up a joker who takes the line about a black-headed woman who “make-a freight train jump a track” just a little too literally. Wills could care less about propriety. He was an early proponent of the notion that if you free your mind your ass will follow. “I’m A Ding Dong Daddy (From Dumas)” is even further out-there, a wild, zoot-suited jazz number about a debauched libertine who boasts: I’m a Ding Dong Daddy baby and liquor is my racket Lots of times when things are dull I deal in other traffic I can sell you morphine, coke or snow Take a little shot and you’re raring to go. It’s not quite N.W.A., but one can only imagine what the blue-hairs made of it. ...



fixbutte 8th Jun 2015		"Rosetta" has a similar background as it was written and first performed by Earl Hines, pianist, bandleader and occasional bandmate of Louis Armstrong. In contrast to the flipside it's a slow ballad, affectingly sung by Bob Wills and featuring the band's fiddles (presumably Wills and Jesse Ashlock) and steel guitar (Leon McAuliffe). The song was apparently a matter close to Bob Wills' heart as he named his daughter after it, Rosetta (who would write a book about her father in 1998, The King of Western Swing: Bob Wills Remembered). Unfortunately, it seems that the Playboys' recording is not on YouTube (at least not in Germany) but there's a video from a May 29, 2004 Bob Wills tribute show on the Columbus Opry that is very much in Bob Wills' spirit:



fixbutte 8th Jun 2015		"I'm A Ding Dong Daddy (From Dumas)" was one of the first recordings that Louis Armstrong had made in California, in July 1930 backed by Leon Elkins' orchestra featuring the new talent of Lionel Hampton on the driving drums. It's hardly surprising that this highly rhythmic and swinging piece with the main character from Dumas, Texas, was grabbed by western swing bands, namely by Bob Wills who was a big fan of Dixieland jazz. The Texas Playboys' version, sung by Bob Wills for the first and last verses and by Tommy Duncan for the middle verses, is joyous and awesome. Whereas Armstrong famously "done forgot the words" and did some scat lines instead, Wills and Duncan cobble together their own reckless lyrics (see Classic Country Lyrics): I'm a ding dong daddy from Dumas babe You oughta see me do my stuff Wild papa from Polecat Hollow I don't want to get rough You want to know just what we got, Got good rhythm and swing it hot. I'm a ding dong daddy from Dumas, babe, You ought to see me do my stuff. I'm a ding dong daddy from Dumas, baby, You oughta see me do my stuff. I'm a ding dong daddy from Dumas, I don't wanna get rough. Well, a pretty little mom tried to put me on the run, But I had to burn her down with a Thompson Gun. I'm a ding dong daddy from Dumas, babe, You oughta see me do my stuff. I'm a ding dong daddy, baby, And liquor is my racket. Lots of times when things are dull, I deal in other traffic. I can sell you morphine, coke, or snow, Take a little shot and you're raring to go Cause I'm a ding dong daddy from Dumas, babe, You ought to see me do my stuff. Repeat #1 Tommy Duncan's lines "I can sell you morphine coke or snow / Take a little shot and you're raring to go" are particularly risqué and were cleaned for the later recording on the Tiffany Transcription sessions in 1946/47. In the fourth verse I hear "tried to put me on the bum" (instead of "on the run") but I'm not sure about it.