Behold “Rockin’
This Joint To-Nite” and “Storm Warning”
Both of these shakers will rattle your marbles if you play them
loudly and you should play them loudly, Dear Reader, so beware the jostled
immies in your noggins. Both songs travel to us from 1959. The musicians who
recorded them led vastly different lives. One died in obscurity and tragically
at that. The other reached considerable heights. Nonetheless, both tunes
predict mischief and both deliver. Amply. They deserve our devotion so let’s get
to jumping! Shall we?
Kid Thomas – “Rockin’ This Joint To-Nite”
The man who would eventually call himself Kid
Thomas was born Louis Thomas Watts in Mississippi, circa 1934. He moved to
Chicago with his family at a young age and eventually began gigging in South Side clubs. In 1957, he convinced the mighty King Records to
record several songs but the company only released one of them on its
subsidiary label, Federal. This one single did not chart or generate any
recognition for the harmonica-playing bluesman. Having gotten little traction
in the Chicago music scene, Kid Thomas relocated to Los Angeles in 1959 where
he cut “Rockin’ This Joint To-Nite” b/w “You Are an Angel” on a micro-label,
Transcontinental Records.
Easily one of the roughest-sounding, hardest-charging songs of its generation, the
lyrics for “Rockin’ This Joint To-Nite” may have been hollered in emulation of
Little Richard, but the side occupies its own terrain somewhere between the
jump blues efforts of Chris Powell and Jimmy Preston, the Chicago electric
blues idiom, and the proto heavy metal developed by the controversial Pat Hare
in the mid-1950s. The ferocious shouting, amped-up harmonica, and relentless
guitar will rock the joint to-nite, to-morrow nite, and every other nite.
Unfortunately, “Rockin’ This Joint To-Nite” did not achieve commercial success.
Kid Thomas had few additional recording opportunities in Los Angeles and, by
1969, was working in L.A. as a landscaper. In that capacity, he accidentally
struck a boy with his lawnmowing equipment in 1969 and killed him. A few months
later, the boy’s father waited for Kid Thomas / Louis Watts outside a courthouse
and shot him to death. There is just too much sadness in this outcome to swing
this concluding note upward, but the ferocity of Kid Thomas’s record nevertheless ought to
remind us about living large, larger-than-life, while we still have the opportunity to
do so.
Mac Rebennack – “Storm Warning”
Yes, someone recorded a song under the absolutely devastating,
winning name of Mac Rebennack. Born Malcolm John Rebennack, Jr., the fellow in question
would go on to call himself by a moniker—Dr. John—you may very well recognize. A
New Orleans native, Dr. John began his recording career as a teenager, and would
come to blend the rich Nola music he inherited along with voodoo, psychedelia, and
other genres. Eventually, he became a member of the famous group of session
musicians known as The Wrecking Crew, a winner of six Grammys, and an inductee
into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. His albums such as Gris-Gris (1968)
and Gumbo (1972) are well-known, important, and have received critical praise.
We here at Blood And Gutstein especially appreciate Gumbo because he
included a version of the folk song—“Little Liza Jane”—that features America’s favorite Poor Gal
Dr. John cut the instrumental “Storm Warning” as a seventeen-year-old
guitarist in New Orleans. He molded it in the “Bo Diddley vein” and the song
would go on to become a regional hit. We can understand why. First of all, Dr.
John / Mac Rebennack discredits the entire notion of “the calm before the
storm.” The song serves the dual purpose of predicting the “house rocking” to
come as well as actually rocking the house. A “storm warning” generated by a New
Orleans musician more than likely refers to a hurricane, and in this case, it’s
the two saxophonists—Lee Allen on tenor and Alvin “Red” Tyler on bari—who do the
hurricane-force blowing. In fact, Tyler really jumps the piece about halfway
through. He unleashes some muscular phrasing upon the groovy ladder that Rebennack,
et. al., offer via guitar, bass, keys, and drums.
As a teenager, Rebennack obeyed an impulse to rock
hard. He didn’t reinvent instrumental rock ‘n’ roll with this piece but, at the
same time, he substantially swung the proceedings. He also chose saxophone as
the soloing instrument in a genre that was increasingly turning to the electric
guitar for this kind of statement. Of course, coming from New Orleans, Dr. John
would naturally choose a horn to represent the virtuosity of the soloist, a practice that
another Nola musician—a cornetist / trumpeter named Louis Armstrong—established a few decades earlier
and, in doing so, in establishing the importance of soloing, would change
American music forever.
Best Practices When
Listening to These Songs
Dear Reader, we advise you to adopt the following protocols:
—Liquid refreshments (e.g., corn liquor) wouldn’t hurt, but swill
these in moderation.
—Put on some sensible slacks!
—Engage your core.
—Jump by squatting down low, then propelling yourself into
the air. Repeat often.
—Above all else, invite your sweetie pie to join you. If you
don’t have a sweetie pie, then invite a nice companion to join you. This hardy
soul may—just may—turn into a sweetie pie, especially if you’ve observed all
the other best practices given above. Oi.
Discographic
Information
“Rockin’ This Joint To-Nite” A-side b/w B-side “You Are an
Angel.” Transcontinental T-1012, Hollywood, Calif., 1959. Kid Thomas aka Louis
Thomas Watts (vocals, harmonica). Other musicians, potentially including two
guitars, drums, and any other instruments, unknown. Songwriting credit: Kid
Thomas and Brad Atwood.
“Storm Warning” A-side b/w B-side Foolish Little Girl. Rex 1008, New Orleans,
1959. Likely personnel: Mac Rebennack aka Dr. John (guitar); Allen Toussaint
(keyboards); Frank Fields (bass); Charles Williams (drums); Lee Allen (tenor
sax); Alvin “Red” Tyler (baritone sax); and Melvin Lastie (trumpet). Other
musicians, if any, unknown. Songwriting credit: Rebennack.
Dr. John and Jack Rummel, Under a Hoodoo Moon, St.
Martin’s Publishing Group, 1995
45cat page
for “Storm Warning”
Album Liner notes page for a Dr.
John anthology
Wikipedia page for Dr. John
Wikipedia page for Kid
Thomas
AllMusic page
for Kid Thomas
Bear Family Records page for Kid Thomas
Mike Leadbitter and Neil Slaven, Blues Records, January
1943 to December 1966, Hanover Books, 1968. (Contains session information
for the 1959 Thomas recording.)