Zero to 180 – Three Minute Magic

Discoveries of a Pop Music Archaeologist

Category: Vocalion Records

"New Orleans Stop Time"
Zeroto180

Earliest Recorded Use of the Word “Funky”?

45Cat contributor, mickey rat, asserts that Bumble Bee Slim & Memphis Minnie‘s “New Orleans Stop Time” from 1936 might “possibly be the earliest recorded use of the word ‘funky‘”: [word uttered around the 0:45 mark] 1936 “Jive with Tapping, Piano & Guitar Acc.”

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"Hoopaw Rag"
Zeroto180

“Hoopaw Rag”: Mid-Century Modern Western Swing

Steel guitar prodigy, Vance Terry, gets co-songwriting credit on “Hoopaw Rag,” an adaptation of a fiddle tune – “Bob Wills Stomp” – that was recorded January 25, 1955 in Los Angeles at the beginning of a three-year association with the Decca label for Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys: “Hoopaw

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"Goin' Up the Country"
Zeroto180

“Goin’ Up the Country”: The Duck & The Bear – and Duane

Interesting to learn that Canned Heat‘s big 1968 hit “Goin’ Up the Country” is basically a re-write of 1929’s “Bull Doze Blues” by Henry Thomas, down to the flute part (listen here). Vocalion (Jan. 1929) The next year, 1969, saw the single release of a spirited cover version by The

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