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Author Topic: Sloop John B, Jimmie Honeycomb Rodgers, and Roulette Records  (Read 1778 times)
jeremylr
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« on: January 24, 2021, 01:14:08 AM »

The passing of Jimmie Rodgers at age 87 from kidney disease and COVID-19 complications on January 18 prompted a deep dive into his discography. Between 1957 and 1967, the Camas, Washington-raised artist accumulated 14 Top 40 Billboard singles such as "Honeycomb" [No. 1], "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" [No. 7], "Oh-Oh, I'm Falling In Love Again" [No. 7], "Secretly" [No. 3], "Are You Really Mine?" [No. 10], and "Bimbombey" [No. 11]. Jimmie's composition "It's Over" [No. 37 POP, Glen Campbell and Hal Blaine were on the session] was given an orchestral makeover by Elvis during his innovative "Aloha from Hawaii" satellite broadcast.

A songwriter and acoustic guitarist since his Korean stint in the Air Force, Jimmie's career trajectory found him exploring pop, folk, country and western [a clever rendering of the traditional "Shenandoah" ballad is spine-tingling on the "Twilight on the Trail" concept LP], and even gospel. Jimmie pioneered folk rock and had an unusual guitar style where he strummed hard right hand rhythm barre chords with his thumb. Richie Havens was a similar picker, albeit on a more accomplished scale.

Towards the end of Jimmie's four-year tenure with Morris Levy's notorious Roulette Records, he waxed "Sloop John B" under its alternate title of "The Wreck of the John B" ["I Want to Go Home" and "John B. Sails" are further designations]. The lead cut on "At Home with Jimmie Rodgers—An Evening of Folk Songs" was issued as an A-side in June 1960. "The Wreck of the John B" hung around the lower region of the Hot 100 for nine weeks. Struggling to gain any traction, its peak position was No. 64. Jimmie was accompanied by producer Joe Reisman’s Orchestra, but the supporting musicians remain individually unidentified. Praguefrank’s discography lists Bell Sound in New York City as the potential studio. Jimmie's out-of-print memoir, "Dancing on the Moon: The Jimmie Rodgers Story" [2010], may elucidate further.

A diverse array of singers—e.g. the Weavers, Johnny Cash, soul stirring balladeer Jerry Butler, Barry McGuire, Dick Dale and His Del-Tones, The Ventures, Gary Lewis & the Playboys, Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed—have tackled the traditional folk standard recounting a sailor’s homesickness going back to the dawn of Truman’s second presidential administration. Skiffle king Lonnie Donegan scored the first hit version [No. 5] in Britain a month prior to Jimmie's take.


As we know, Al Jardine credits the Kingston Trio's 1958 recording, found on their debut self-titled album, for inspiring Brian's production which enlisted the prolific Wrecking Crew for a lush, Spectorized “Wall of Sound” intertwined with multi-layered group harmonies. But I'm curious if BB fans have heard Jimmie's performance. How does it stack up 60 years later compared to the definitive BB master? Are there any similarities?

Guess Who frontman Burton Cummings, an unabashedly “huge Beach Boys fan,” prefers Jimmie's rendition. “Jimmie’s vocal is superb, and how about that note he holds toward the end?” mused Burton on Facebook.

Besides an unexpected Top Five hit in the UK with “English Country Garden” in 1962, Jimmie’s radio-friendly days grew sporadic. Three singles into a promising tenure with Herb Alpert’s A&M Records, concerned friend-conductor Eddie Samuels discovered Jimmie unconscious in his car not far from the San Diego Freeway on Dec. 1, 1967. Rodgers insisted that off-duty policeman Michael Duffy had beaten and presumed him dead. The LAPD said that Jimmie was stopped because of an illegal U-turn, was intoxicated, lost his balance while chatting with the officer, hit his head on either the asphalt or a manhole cover, was placed back inside his car, and apparently deemed okay. No medical attention was called, and Duffy and two fellow off-duty officers left the scene. Duffy had been suspended earlier for assaulting a teenager with a blackjack. Daughter Michele Rodgers maintains that her father was not a drinker. Michele, a Nashville resident who has contributed backing vocals for Kenny Rogers and Alison Krauss, also recalls that a girlfriend of one of the boys in blue, who watched from a car, was called to testify and could not be located. The impossible-to-find “What a Strange Town [The People Had No Faces]” was ironically Jimmie’s current single.

An $11 million lawsuit erupted that eventually earned Jimmie a $200,000 out-of-court settlement but derailed any career resurgence. A&M kept him on its roster through 1969. Jimmie believed the traumatic incident was payback for demanding back royalties from his former Roulette boss, known for being bedfellows with the mob. Roulette labelmate Tommy “Crimson and Clover” James corroborates Jimmie’s accusation. A steel plate inserted on the right side of Jimmie’s head sometimes prompted seizures when he sang onstage and was amazingly removed by surgery 40 years later.

Still, he was a fighter and persevered, returning to the road. A final burst of original, country pop material tracked in Nashville occurred in the late ’70s on a forgotten indie label. “Shovelin’ Coal Missouri” is the pick of the litter. Then spasmodic dysphonia strangled his vocal cords in the early ’80s. Botox and collagen injections enabled Jimmie to harmonize in diminished voice alongside karaoke tracks of his greatest hits by 1997 in Branson. In spite of a heart attack in the early twenty-tens, the deeply religious Rodgers toured intermittently, singing and playing guitar live to deep cuts including the Buddy Holly-dedicated “500 Miles Away from Home.” Elvis fans heard him interviewed on Memphis mafia alum George Klein’s SiriusXM Elvis show. In 2016 Jimmie exhibited early symptoms of Alzheimer's and was living in a memory care facility in California at the time of his passing. Photo credits: Discogs, 45cat, and Bol


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDBQ5-tU0_4
YouTube link for Jimmie Rodgers' stereo master of "The Wreck of the John B"
« Last Edit: January 28, 2021, 01:52:41 PM by jeremylr » Logged
spgass
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« Reply #1 on: January 24, 2021, 07:09:07 AM »

The repeating guitar riff sounds similar to my ear.  Thanks for sharing.
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c-man
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« Reply #2 on: January 24, 2021, 07:17:00 AM »

Wow, amazing life and career he had - I remember his hits "Honeycomb", "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine", and (oddly, because I've never been to the U.K.) "English Country Garden" - thanks for providing all the info here. Sad to seem him pass, but glad he recovered, rebounded, and made more records later on!
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jeremylr
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« Reply #3 on: January 25, 2021, 10:52:54 AM »

I'm much obliged, Spgass and Craig. PS revisions have come to light since you last took a gander.
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jeremylr
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« Reply #4 on: January 28, 2021, 08:47:23 AM »

How did this escape me 'til now.......at the same October 1974 basic tracking session as "It's OK" Jimmie's first smash--"Honeycomb"--was attempted. Marilyn sang lead. Any other details known about this unreleased performance featuring Roy Wood, Nick Pentelow, and Mike Burney of Wizzard? Are any of the Beach Boys on the track? Brother or Caribou?
« Last Edit: January 28, 2021, 08:54:48 AM by jeremylr » Logged
guitarfool2002
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« Reply #5 on: January 28, 2021, 10:06:59 AM »


Besides an unexpected Top Five hit in the UK with "English Country Garden" in 1962, Jimmie's radio-friendly days grew sporadic. Three singles into a promising tenure with Herb Alpert's A&M Records, a friend discovered Jimmie unconscious and near death in his car not far from the San Diego Freeway on December 1, 1967. Jimmie insisted that an off-duty policeman and two on-duty comrades had beaten him, but the city of Los Angeles said that Jimmie was stopped because of an illegal U-turn, was intoxicated, lost his balance while chatting with the officer, hit his head on either the asphalt or a manhole cover, was placed back inside his car, and apparently deemed okay. No medical attention was called, and the officers left the scene. The impossible-to-find "What A Strange Town [The People Had No Faces]" was ironically Jimmie's current single.

An $11 million lawsuit erupted that eventually earned Jimmie a $200,000 settlement but derailed any career resurgence. A&M kept him on its roster through 1969. Jimmie insisted the traumatic incident was payback for demanding back royalties from his former Roulette boss, known for being bedfellows with the Mob. Roulette labelmate Tommy “Crimson and Clover” James corroborates Jimmie's accusation. A steel plate inserted on the right side of Jimmie's head sometimes prompted seizures when he sang onstage and was amazingly removed by surgery 40 years later.


Great work as always, Jeremy! The part I outlined above was what caught my attention. Considering what Roulette Records was, and who ran it, it's hard if not impossible to doubt Jimmie's version of that event. And it reminded me of Bobby Fuller's death, which some will connect to similar mob-connected individuals and either a complacent or compliant sect of the LAPD who basically wrote off Fuller's death as first suicide, then accident, when many signs pointed to murder.

So it tied in that I was recently reading an article from the early 80's in the El Paso Times about Bobby's death, which interviewed his family and other associates, as at that time the case was still relatively new (15-16 years), but people directly involved either disappeared or refused to talk because they were either scared or were told not to.

But with the similar time frame, similar people involved from the record business side of things, and the way both men just happened to be found in their cars with conflicting reports about how they got there and a cadre of LAPD officers who couldn't seem to get beyond a facade of a storyline with the case, I was wondering if you knew of any further developments in the Fuller case, if it has ever truly been "solved", and if you've ever taken a deeper dive into Roulette Records and those involved with the label and that money. I know there are other sources out there, but the similarity of both Fuller and Rodgers being "found" in their cars, one dead a soaked in gasoline and the other near-dead with a serious head injury, and both cases alleging some nefarious LAPD involvement, I was curious if you've ever done any deeper digging into those topics.


And what surprises me, to this day, is how certain artists managed to come through all of this criminality unscathed and others got roped into it and suffered either financially, physically, or had their careers ruined by those connected to these kinds of labels and that kind of business. The obvious reason is you either paid off or appeased the right people, made the right allies, etc. Or there was a huge machine working in some artists' favor while others literally got run through the wringer. At one point even Johnny Carson had a hit put out on him after he tried to get too close to a made-man's girl, after that man proceeded to rough up Carson and throw him down a flight of stairs causing him to miss a week of shows, and the well-known "fixer" at NBC had to make certain promises to the family involved to get Carson out of the wringer and remove the hit...but that's topic for another discussion, yet indicative of what kinds of crap went down with even the biggest stars and artists.   
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"All of us have the privilege of making music that helps and heals - to make music that makes people happier, stronger, and kinder. Don't forget: Music is God's voice." - Brian Wilson
hideyotsuburaya
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« Reply #6 on: January 28, 2021, 01:10:06 PM »

who is to blame for the
Child of Clay
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jeremylr
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« Reply #7 on: January 31, 2021, 09:23:22 PM »

Hey Craig! I've reread your conscientous comments several times. Oh to obtain a copy of Jimmie's memoir! Your reminder of Bobby Fuller's suspicious death in the same timeframe prompted me to place "I Fought The Law: The Life and Strange Death Of Bobby Fuller" by Bobby's brother Randell and Linna Miriam in my Amazon shopping cart. The mob contract decreed upon the King of Late Night occurred during his hell-raising, gin-soaked years when The Tonight Show emanated from New York [marriage did not deter his philandering; thank God for sidekick Ed McMahon and NBC brass stepping in]. In those days life-threatening danger could be around the corner if you didn't toe the line and play the game.
« Last Edit: January 31, 2021, 09:25:21 PM by jeremylr » Logged
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