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Hokum

(Redirected from Hokum blues)
This article is about a particular song type of American blues music. For other uses, see hokum (disambiguation).

Hokum is a particular song type of American blues music—a song which uses extended analogies or euphemistic terms to make humorous,[1] sexual innuendos. This trope goes back to early dirty blues recordings, enjoyed huge commercial success in the 1920s and 1930s,[1] and is used from time to time in modern American blues and blues rock.

Detail from the cover of The Celebrated Negro Melodies, as sung by the Virginia Minstrels, 1843

An example of hokum lyrics is this sample from "Meat Balls", by Lil Johnson, recorded in 1937:[2]

Got out late last night, in the rain and sleet
Tryin' to find a butcher that grind my meat
Yes I'm lookin' for a butcher
He must be long and tall
If he want to grind my meat
'Cause I'm wild about my meat balls.

Terminology

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"Hokum", originally a vaudeville term used for a simple performance bordering on vulgarity,[3][4] "old and sure-fire comedy",[5] but hinting at a smart wordplay, was first used to describe the genre of black music in a billing of a race record for Tampa Red's Hokum Jug Band (Tampa Red and Georgia Tom, 1929).[6] After producing a big hit, "It's Tight Like That", with Vocalion Records (and its sequel) in 1928, the musicians went on to Paramount Records where they were called The Hokum Boys. Other recording studios joined the fray using similarly named ensembles.[7] The application of "hokum" to describe the musical approach of these bands was fostered by Papa Charlie Jackson with his "Shake That Thing" (1925).[3]

The meaning of the stage slang word "hokum" was a subject of an extensive debate in the 1920s ("most discussed word in the entire vernacular", right next to the "jazz").[5] The term "hokum blues" did not become a formal designation of a style until 1960s.[8] "Hokum" is also used to describe the low comedy acts that were used at the turn of the 20th century to lure audiences to musical performances. In the words of W. C. Handy, a veteran of a minstrel troupe, "Our hokum hooked 'em"[9] outside the opera house, so that "ticket sellers would go to work".[10] King applies the term to the early short slapstick films.[11]

Etymology

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The sources do not agree on the origins of "hokum": the word is thought to exist since either the late 19th, or early 20th century. It can be derived either by analogy withgap-sealing material oakum (the reliable gags of hokum were supposed to fill the deficiencies of the stage act), or a blend of "hocus-pocus" and "bunkum" (nonsense).[5]

Similar genres

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Some of the hokum songs are also classified as belonging to the "dirty blues" subgenre of blues. Some sources treat hokum and dirty (also "bawdy") blues as interchangeable terms.[12][13] However, music researchers point to differences: dirty blues were played before the appearance of hokum,[14] the innuendo in the dirty blues is earnest and mature, while the hokum was full of sass and humor.[15] The dirty blues are good for dancing the slow drag,[15] while hokum, with its bouncy, ragtime-influenced[16] songs is intended for more lively dance style typical for the "mischievous branch" of music (similar to lundu, maxixe, xote, or samba).[15]

Daniel Beaumont points to minstrel shows, vaudeville, and medicine shows as the origins of humor in blues. These genres influenced the classic and country blues, which in turn fed hokum in the 1930s. Hokum after its heyday influenced rhythm and blues in 1940s and Chicago blues in 1950s and 1960s.[16]

Hokum and early blues

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Hokum subgenre evolved from early blues, when in the late 1920s a new generation of bluesmen created a "more urbane product" that in addition to hokum included topical ballads, vaudeville blues, country blues, proto-jive.[17] Some commentators have argued that hokum "city style" was a degradation of the folk blues.[18]

Blues and hokum were inseparable until the very end of hokum era in the mid-1930s.[19] Hokum is considered to be an immediate predecessor of urban blues (Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Elmore James).[18]

Hokum in early country music

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While hokum surfaces in early blues music most frequently, there was some significant crossover culturally. When the Chattanooga-based "brother duet" the Allen Brothers recorded a hit version of "Salty Dog Blues", refashioned as "Bow Wow Blues" in 1927 for Columbia's 15,000-numbered "Old Time" series the label rushed out several new releases to capitalize on their success, but mistakenly issued them on the 14,000 series instead.

In fact, the Allen Brothers were so adept at performing white blues that in 1927, Columbia mistakenly released their "Laughin' and Cryin' Blues" in the "race" series instead of the "old-time" series. (Not seeing the humor in it, the Allens sued and promptly moved to the Victor label.) [20]

An early black string band, the Dallas String Band with Coley Jones, recorded the song "Hokum Blues" on December 8, 1928, in Dallas, Texas, featuring mandolin instrumentation. They have been identified both as proto bluesmen and as an early Texas country band and were likely to have been selling to both black and white audiences. Blind Lemon Jefferson and T-Bone Walker played in the Dallas String Band at various times. Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies, the seminal white Texas swing band, recorded a hokum tune with scat lyrics in the early 1930s, "Garbage Man Blues", which was originally known by the title the jazz composer Luis Russell gave it, "The Call of the Freaks". Bob Wills, who had performed in blackface as a young man, liberally used comic asides, whoops, and jive talk when directing his famous Texas Playboys. The Hoosier Hot Shots, Bob Skyles and the Skyrockets, and other novelty song artists concentrated on the comedic aspects, but for many up-and-coming white country musicians, like Emmett Miller, Clayton McMichen and Jimmie Rodgers, the ribald lyrics were beside the point. Hokum for these white rounders in the South and Southwest was synonymous with jazz, and the "hot" syncopations and blue notes were a naughty pleasure in themselves. The lap steel guitar player Cliff Carlisle, who was half of another "brother duet", is credited with refining the blue yodel song style after Jimmie Rodgers became the first country music superstar by recording over a dozen blue yodels. Carlisle wrote and recorded many hokum tunes and gave them titles such as "Tom Cat Blues", "Shanghai Rooster Yodel" and "That Nasty Swing". He marketed himself as a "hillbilly", a "cowboy", a "Hawaiian" or a "straight" bluesman (meaning presumably, black), depending on the audience for whom he was playing and where he played.

The radio "barn dances" of the 1920s and 1930s interspersed hokum in their variety show broadcasts. The first blackface comedians at the WSM Grand Ole Opry were Lee Roy "Lasses" White and his partner, Lee Davis "Honey" Wilds, starring in the Friday night shows. White was a veteran of several minstrel troupes, including one organized by William George "Honeyboy" Evans and another led by Al G. Field, who also employed Emmett Miller. By 1920, White was leading his own outfit, the All Star Minstrels. Lasses and Honey joined the Grand Ole Opry cast in 1932. When Lasses moved on to Hollywood in 1936 to play the role of a silver-screen cowboy sidekick, Wilds stayed on in Nashville, corking up and playing blues on his ukulele with his new partner Jam-Up (first played by Tom Woods and subsequently by Bunny Biggs). Wilds organized the first Grand Ole Opry–endorsed tent show in 1940. For the next decade, he ran the touring show, with Jam-Up and Honey as the headliners. Pulling a forty-foot trailer behind a four-door Pontiac and followed by eight to ten trucks, Wilds took the tent show from town to town, hurrying back to Nashville on Saturdays for his Opry radio appearances. Many country musicians, like Uncle Dave Macon, Bill Monroe, Eddy Arnold, Stringbean and Roy Acuff, toured with the Wilds tent shows from April through Labor Day. As Wilds's son David said in an interview,

Music was a part of their act, but they were comedians. They would sing comedic songs, a la Homer and Jethro. They would add odd lyrics to existing songs, or write songs that were intended to be comedic. They were out there to come onstage, do five minutes of jokes, sing a song, do five minutes of jokes, sing another song and say, "Thank you, good night", as their segment of the Grand Ole Opry. Almost every country band during that time had some guy who dressed funny, wore a goofy hat, and typically played slide guitar.[21]

Legacy

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By the mid-1930s the hokum bands were fading out. Georgia Tom became religious and switched to black gospel music by 1932, leaving Tampa Red to perform solo blues and hokum, Big Bill Broonzy from 1930 occasionally joined the Hokum Boys and the Famous Hokum Boys for their recordings with the last one in 1936. Leroy Carr made few hokum recordings with very mild lyrics, but moved to blues again with his rendition of "Sloppy Drunk Blues", originally by Lucille Bogan, becoming a blues standard.[19]

Some hokum songs were absorbed into mainline jazz:[19]

Country music also use the hokum material:[22]

  • Luis Russell, one of the main figures behind the New Orleans jazz transition to swing, recorded "It's Tight Like That" in January of 1929, with "The Call of The Freaks" on the other of the single. In the hands of Milton Brown the latter one turned into the "Garbage Man Blues";
  • In 1936 Brown also recorded a version of "Keep A Knockin'", in May 1938 Bob Willis recorded "Keep Knocking (But You Can't Come In)".

The popularity of hokum rubbed off onto jive talk, with the latter eventually lasting longer than hokum and reaching wider audiences.[23]

Critique

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Some scholars resent hokum as an era of purely commercial blues, when producers pushed the musicians to rehash the same slick songs, resembling the times of Tin Pan Alley.[24]

Examples of hokum

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Schwartz[25] lists the following examples of hokum in the discography section:

Discography of records related to It's Tight Like That[25]
Title Artist Label/catalog # Year
It’s Tight Like That Tampa Red’s Hokum Jug Band Vocalion 1228 1928
It’s Tight Like That No. 2 Georgia Tom and Tampa Red Vocalion 1244 1929
It’s Tight Like That No. 3 Georgia Tom and Tampa Red Vocalion 1418 1929
(Honey) It’s Tight Like That Harry Jones and Papa Too Sweet OKeh 6581 1929
It’s Tight Like That Tampa Red Vocalion 1258 1929
It’s Tight Like That McKinney’s Cotton Pickers Victor V38013-A 1928
It’s Tight Like That Walter Barnes and his Royal Creolians Brunswick 4244 1928
It’s Tight Like That Jimmie Noone’s Apex Club Orchestra, with Junie Cobb Vocalion 1238 1928
It’s Tight Like That Clara Smith Columbia 14398D 1929
It’s Tight Like That Luis Russell and his Burning Eight OKeh 8656 Paramount R2186, Parlophone R1286 1929
It’s Tight Like That Zach Whyte’s Chocolate Beau Brummels Champion 15715, Supertone 9368 1929
It’s Tight Like That Hilda Alexander and Mamie McClure Brunswick 7069 1929
It’s Tight Like That Southern Blues Singers, accompanied by Cow Cow Davenport Gennett 6826 1929
It’s Tight Like That Eddie Mapp, James Moore and Slim Barton QRS R7081 1929
It’s Tight Like That Otis Mote OKeh 45389 1929
(It’s) Tight Like This Louis Armstrong and his Savoy Five OKeh 8649 1928
Who Said It’s Tight Like That The Washingtonians (Duke Ellington and his Orchestra) Cameo 9195 1929
Shake That Thing Papa Charlie Jackson Paramount 12281 1925
Shake That Thing Clarence Williams’s Blue Five OKeh 8267 1925
Shake That Thing Ethel Waters Columbia 14116D 1925
Shake That Thing Billy Wirges and his Orchestra Perfect 14533, Pathé 36352 1925
Shake That Thing Viola McCoy Vocalion 15245 1926
Shake That Thing Viola Bartlette Paramount 12345 1926
Shake That Thing Jimmy O’Bryant’s Famous Washboard Band Paramount 12346A 1926
Shake That Thing Abe Lyman and his Californians Brunswick 3069 1926
Georgia Grind Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five OKeh 8318 1926
Matchbox Blues Blind Lemon Jefferson Paramount 12474 1927
Black Bottom Stomp Jelly Roll Morton and his Red Hot Peppers Victor 20221 1926
Down to the Bricks Jimmy O’Bryant’s Famous Original Washboard Band Paramount 12308 1925
You’ve Got The Right Key, but the Wrong Keyhole Virginia Liston with Clarence Williams’ Blue Five OKeh 8173 1924
Hyena Stomp Jelly Roll Morton and his Red Hot Peppers Victor 20772A 1927
Beedle-Um-Bum The Hokum Boys Paramount 12714 1929
Selling That Stuff The Hokum Boys Paramount 12714 1929
Hey Mama, It’s Nice Like That, Parts 1–2 Jim Jackson Vocalion 1284 1929
It’s a Fight Like That Blind Ben Covington Brunswick 7127 1929
She Moves It Just Right Barbecue Bob Columbia 14546D 1929
Thirty-Eight and Plus John Byrd and Washboard Walter Gennett 7157 Champion 15972, Supertone 9682, Varsity 6044 1930
It Feels So Good, Parts 1–2 Lonnie Johnson and Spencer Williams OKeh 8664, Harmony 1087 1929
It Feels So Good, Parts 3–4 Lonnie Johnson and Spencer Williams OKeh 8697 Vocalion 03094 1929
I Don’t Like That Barefoot Bill and Pillie Bolling Columbia 14554-D 1930
Loose Like That Alura Mack Gennett 6876, Supertone 9440 Champion 15754 1929
It’s Hot Like That Charlie McCoy Brunswick 7156 1930
Wringing That Thing Macon Ed and Tampa Joe OKeh 8676 1929
That Will Be Alright Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe Columbia 14439D 1929
Bottle It Up and Go Picaninny Jug Band Champion 16615 1932
Diddie-Wa-Diddie Blind Blake Paramount 12888 1929
Diddle-Da-Diddle Georgia Cotton Pickers Columbia 14577-D 1930
Giving It Away Birmingham Jug Band OKeh 8908 1930
Wipe It Off Lonnie Johnson and Clarence Williams OKeh 8762 1930
She Skuffles That Ruff Lovin’ Sam Theard Brunswick 7075 1929
Struttin’ My Stuff Lucille Bogan Brunswick 7193 1930
She’s Got Good Stuff Charlie Spand Paramount 13005 1930
Move That Thing Georgia Peanut Boys Victor 23274 1930
Tapping That Thing Burse and Stephen Champion 16654 1932
We Can Sell That Thing Roosevelt Sykes Paramount 13004 1930
Smack That Thing Walter Coleman Decca 7157 1936
Somebody’s Been Using That Thing Famous Hokum Boys Banner 712, Oriole 8010 Perfect 150, Romeo 5010, Jewel 20010, Homestead 16099 1930
Dallas Rag Dallas String Band Columbia 14290-D 1927
Hokum Blues Dallas String Band Columbia 14389-D 1928
Bohunkus Blues Blythe’s Washboard Band Paramount 12368 1926
The King of the Zulus Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five OKeh 8396A OKeh 41581 1926
That Stuff I Got Famous Hokum Boys Oriole 8059, Banner 32139 Perfect 174, Romeo 5059 1930
I Had to Give Up Gym Hokum Boys Paramount 12746 1929
We Don’t Sell It Here No More Hokum Boys Brunswick 7070 1929
Let Me Have It Hokum Boys Paramount 12897 1929
Can I Get Some of That? Coot Grant and Sox Wilson QRS R7065 Paramount 12833 1929
She Shakes a Mean Ashcan Coot Grant and Sox Wilson Columbia 14598-D 1931
Big Trunk Blues Coot Grant and Sox Wilson QRS R7085 Paramount 12831 1929
I Ain’t Gonna Give You None Coot Grant and Sox Wilson QRS R7085 Paramount 12831 1929
What Is It That Tastes Like Gravy? Tampa Red Vocalion 1426, Supertone S2225 1929
Get ’Em from the Peanut Man (Hot Nuts) Lil Johnson Champion 50002 1935
Banana in Your Fruit Basket Bo Carter Columbia 14661-D Vocalion 03091, Bluebird B5594 1931
Sweet Honey Hole Blind Boy Fuller ARC 7-04-73 Vocalion 03254, Conqueror 8847 1937
Please Warm My Wiener Bo Carter Bluebird B6058 1935
Riverside Blues King Oliver’s Jazz Band OKeh 8484 1923
I Just Want a Daddy to Call My Own Faye Barnes Paramount 12136 1921
I Just Want a Daddy to Call My Own Monette Moore Paramount 12028 1923
I Just Want a Daddy to Call My Own Alice Carter OKeh S-71595 1923
Muddy Water Blues Monette Moore Paramount 12067 1923
Eagle Rock Me, Papa Sara Martin with Clarence Williams’ Blue Five OKeh S-72858 1924
Don’t Shake It No More Trixie Smith Paramount 12211 1924
Don’t Shake It No More Lovie Austin’s Blues Serenaders Paramount 12300 1925
Freight Train Blues Trixie Smith Paramount 12211 1924
That Creole Band Albert Wynn and his Gut Bucket Five OKeh 9789 1926
Easy Rider Blues Blind Lemon Jefferson Paramount 12474 1927
Explaining the Blues Ma Rainey and her Georgia Band Paramount 12284 1925
Stormy Sea Blues Ma Rainey and her Georgia Band Paramount 12295 1925
Nighttime Blues Ma Rainey and her Georgia Band Paramount 12303 1925
Memphis Bound Blues Ma Rainey and her Georgia Band Paramount 12311 1925
Slave to the Blues Ma Rainey and her Georgia Band Paramount 12332 1925
Chain Gang Blues Ma Rainey and her Georgia Band Paramount 12388 1925
Bessemer Bound Blues Ma Rainey and her Georgia Band Paramount 12374 1925
Through Train Blues Tampa Red Paramount 12685 1928
Salty Dog Blues Papa Charlie Jackson Paramount 12236, Broadway 5001 1924
Salty Dog Blues Freddie Keppard’s Jazz Cardinals Paramount 12399 1926
Chicago Flip Whistler’s Jug Band Gennett 5544 1924
The Jug Band Special Whistler’s Jug Band OKeh 8816 1927
I’m Looking for the Bully of the Town Memphis Jug Band Victor 20781 1927
Sugar Pudding Memphis Jug Band Victor 21740 1928
On the Road Again Memphis Jug Band Victor V38015 1928
She’s in the Graveyard Now Earl McDonald’s Original Louisville Jug Band Columbia 14255-D 1924
Minglewood Blues Cannon’s Jug Stompers Victor 21267 1918
Jazz Gypsy Blues Banjo Joe [Gus Cannon] Paramount 12064 1928
My Money Never Runs Out Banjo Joe [Gus Cannon] Paramount 12064 1928
Boodle-Am-Shake Dixieland Jug Blowers Victor 20480 1926
House Rent Rag Dixieland Jug Blowers Victor 20415 1926
Skoodlum Blues Jimmy O’Bryant’s Famous Original Washboard Band Paramount 12260 1925
Georgia Breakdown Jimmy O’Bryant’s Famous Original Washboard Band Paramount 12277 1925
Uncle Bud Tampa Red and Georgia Tom Vocalion 1268, Supertone S2224 1929
How Long, How Long Leroy Carr Vocalion 1191 1928
It Ain’t No Good, Parts 1–2 Charlie McCoy with Chatman’s Mississippi Hot Footers Brunswick 7118, Melotone 12303 1929
Bottle It Up and Go Tommy McClennan Bluebird B8378, Montgomery Ward M8787 1939
Step It Up and Go Blind Boy Fuller Vocalion 05476, Conqueror 9274 Columbia 30011 Columbia 37230 1940
Home Town Skiffle, Parts 1–2 Paramount All-Stars Paramount 12886 1929
Georgia Grind Ethel Waters Columbia 14116-D 1925

Hokum compilations

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There are a lot of hokum compilations. Some examples include:

  • Please Warm My Weiner, Yazoo L-1043 (cover art by Robert Crumb) (1992)
  • Hokum: Blues and Rags (1929–1930), Document 5392 (1995)
  • Hokum Blues: 1924–1929, Document 5370 (1995)
  • Take It Out Too Deep: Rufus & Ben Quillian (Blue Harmony Boys) (1929–30).

References

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Look up hokum in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
  1. ^ a b Rocha 2022, p. 11.
  2. ^ "Illustrated Rosetta Records discography". Wirz.de. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
  3. ^ a b Calt 2010, p. 125.
  4. ^ King 2017, p. 2.
  5. ^ a b c King 2017, p. 1.
  6. ^ Larkin 2013.
  7. ^ Hansen 2000, p. 60.
  8. ^ Rocha 2022, p. 22.
  9. ^ Sotiropoulos 2009, p. 40.
  10. ^ Southern 1972, p. 213.
  11. ^ King 2017.
  12. ^ DeLune 2015, p. 87.
  13. ^ Cunningham 2018, p. 78.
  14. ^ Wald 2010, p. 43.
  15. ^ a b c Rocha 2022, p. 96.
  16. ^ a b Beaumont 2004, p. 476.
  17. ^ Freund Schwartz 2020, p. 359.
  18. ^ a b Schwartz 2018, p. 367.
  19. ^ a b c Birnbaum 2013, p. 133.
  20. ^ Wolfe, Charles (1998). Entry on the Allen Brothers. The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, ed. Oxford University Press.
  21. ^ Grant Alden. Interview with David Wilds. No Depression, issue 4, summer 1996.
  22. ^ Birnbaum 2013, pp. 133–134.
  23. ^ Birnbaum 2013, p. 134.
  24. ^ Schwartz 2018, p. 368.
  25. ^ a b Schwartz 2018, pp. 383–388.

Sources

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