Zero to 180’s tribute to the world’s only flying mammal continues into its second day with a B-side from Johnny Jenkins — “Blind Bats and Swamp Rats“:
“Blind Bats and Swamp Rats“
Johnny Jenkins (1970)
Written by Jackie Avery
“Blind Bats and Swamp Rats” can also be found on Jenkins’ 1970 LP, Ton-Ton Macoute, one of 50 albums – according to Rolling Stone – that “every country fan should own.” Music blogger, Stuck in the Past, laments how Johnny Jenkins’ musical career was sidetracked twice by a “distracted” Phil Walden of Capricorn — first, due to Otis Redding (who got plucked from Jenkins’ band by Walden for a solo career) and second, due to the burgeoning success of the Allman Brothers, a number of whom individually backed Jenkins on Ton-Ton Macoute but then left to form their own band.
Music blogger, Darius, has a bit more to say about this 1970 landmark LP — most intriguingly, that Ton-Ton Macoute was “originally intended as a Duane Allman solo album.”
Musician & Engineering Credits
Johnny Jenkins: Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica
Duane Allman, Paul Hornsby, Pete Carr: Slide Guitar, Lead Guitar
Berry Oakley, Robert Popwell: Bass
Butch Trucks: Drums
Jai Johnny Johanson, Robert Popwell: Timbales
Eddie Hinton, Johnny Wyker, Tippy Armstrong: Congas, Percussion
Paul Hornsby: Piano, Organ
Johnny Sandlin: Producer, Engineer, Bass, Drums
Jim Hawkins, Jimmy Johnson, Larry Hamby, T. Manning, T. Compton: Engineer
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In the US, “Blind Bats and Swamp Rats” would serve as the B-side for “I Walk on Guilded Splinters.”
France – 1970
“swanp rats“
Derek Trucks, when asked in the October 2013 issue of Vintage Guitar Magazine if he uses any vintage Gibson SG guitars, gave the following reply:
“I have a really nice ’61 that I love, and not too long ago I got Johnny Jenkins’ old SG, the one he played on Otis Redding’s ‘These Arms of Mine.’ He broke its headstock at the Atlanta Pop Festival, and I think Capricorn Records bought the guitar from him, had it fixed, and it was in Savannah, Georgia, for years. It’s a pretty amazing guitar. He took a soldering iron and wrote his name in cursive on the front – really beautiful script. It’s part of the Allman Brothers/Capricorn/Duane/Otis Redding lore. It lives in the studio.”
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LINK to Bats in Popular Music on Zero to 180