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June 4-6
Why this weekend? Exactly three years after D-Day, MGM Records marked its own d-day – “d” for “debut,” the debut of Hank Williams on the label.
About the record: MGM 10033, recorded on April 21, 1947, at the Castle Studio in downtown Nashville’s Tulane Hotel. Released June 6 of that year, eventually reaching No. 4 on Billboard’s country chart. First LP appearance was on Memorial Album, MGM E-3272, released January 1956.
On his first big hit, Hank Williams plowed some of the same ground that Tennessee Ernie Ford, Bill Monroe, Cowboy Copas and other country artists did in the late 1940s, scoring with a 12-bar blues number that suggested the coming rock ‘n’ roll onslaught. Williams the songwriter devised a memorably clever tale of the wayward husband relegated to the doghouse, and the call-and-response motif was a nice touch.
And what about that band! These aren’t the Drifting Cowboys we know so well and who added so much to the Hank Williams sound. But thanks to Zeke Turner on lead guitar, Smokey Lohman on steel, our friend Tommy Jackson on fiddle and Brownie Reynolds on bass, this song rocks.
My first exposure to “Move It On Over” was MGM’s horrid update from the mid-‘60s, with strings and without the hot lead guitar break. Fortunately, I got hold of the restored original, and it’s now one of my favorite Hank Williams songs. Enjoy, and see you Monday.
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June 4, 2010 at 9:30 AM
lessonsthatrock
Great song. I also like the George Thorogood cover.
June 4, 2010 at 10:43 AM
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June 5, 2010 at 11:43 AM
Ken Johnson
Kevin – I agree with you about the “Hank Williams With Strings” version. Probably about the worst concept ever tried. The technological as well as stylistic gap between the late 40’s/early 50’s and the 1960’s “Nashville Sound” was just too wide for it to work effectively.
However I did find the studio-created Hank Sr. & Hank Jr. duets rather enjoyable. The new backing tracks were solid traditional country and their voices blended quite well. Their version of “Move It On Over” and “I Won’t Be Home No More” from the first “Father & Son” duet LP rank among my favorites.
June 5, 2010 at 6:17 PM
3chordsaday
Ken, you might not believe this, but I’ve never heard the first track off the “Father & Son” LP. I’m sure I’d like it. I do know that “I Won’t Be Home No More” is one of Hank’s underrated songs. I think if I were producing it, I’d have shortened the instrumental break. But otherwise, it’s great.
Another mid-’60s attempt to update a number from the ’50s was the overdubbed “Tomorrow Night” by Elvis Presley. I actually think it didn’t turn out too bad, as those things go. Chet and his engineer had to slow it down to lower the key (a half-step, I think), to match Elvis’ more mature voice of 11 years later. And it’s jarring to hear the Anita Kerr Singers backing Elvis instead of The Jordanaires.
Speaking of that song, do you know the story of exactly what Sam Phillips intended to do with it? The four bars in which Scotty Moore plays a muted-string line surely was intended for an overdub of some kind. It might have been a chorus, or a piano part. Or, maybe a recitation. They would have learned their lesson from the un-ideal results of the recitation, cut live, in “I Love You Because” from the session that preceded “That’s All Right”.
June 6, 2010 at 12:11 PM
pwdennis
The “Hank with Strings” experiments are universally condemned and with much justification; however, a few of the tracks actually worked out okay – in a campy sort of way. “Howling At the Moon” probably is the best example, but mostly the effort was misguided
“Move It On Over” and “Mind Your Own Business” are still heavily covered by local bar bands. Any why not ? They are both a lot of fun to perform and to hear