Thursday 23 September 2021

Joe Hill Louis born 23 September 1921


Joe Hill Louis (September 23, 1921 – August 5, 1957), born Lester Hill, was an American singer, guitarist, harmonica player and one-man band. He was one of a small number of one-man blues bands (along with fellow Memphis bluesman Doctor Ross) to have recorded commercially in the 1950s. He was also a session musician for Sun Records. He recorded as Chicago Sunny Boy for Meteor Records in 1953.

Louis was born Lester (or possibly Leslie) Hill in Raines, Tennessee. His nickname "Joe Louis" arose as a result of a childhood fight with another youth. At the age of 14 he left home to work as a servant for the Canales', a wealthy Memphis family. He also worked at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis in the late 1930s. From the early 1940s onwards he worked as a musician and one-man band. By the late '40s, his one-man musical attack was a popular attraction in Handy Park and on WDIA, the groundbreaking Memphis radio station where he hosted a 15-minute program billed as The Pepticon Boy.

It was future politician Drew Canale who would be the first to record Joe Hill Louis, recording four tunes in Nashville in November of 1949 that he would sell to Columbia Records before the year ended. Also known as the Be-Bop Boy, his music was released on a variety of labels through the 1950s, such as Modern, Checker, Meteor, and Big Town. Louis most notably recording for Sam Phillips' Sun Records, for whom he recorded extensively as a backing musician for a wide variety of other singers as well as under his own name.


                            

His most notable electric blues single, "Boogie in the Park" (recorded in July 1950 and released the following month), featured Louis performing "one of the loudest, most overdriven, and distorted guitar stomps ever recorded" while also playing a rudimentary drum kit. It was the only record released on Sam Phillips's early Phillips label before he founded Sun Records. Phillips and Memphis dee-Jay Dewey Phillips pooled their efforts and resources to record, press, and distribute 300 copies of this record. Louis's electric guitar playing is also considered a predecessor of heavy metal music.

His most notable recording at Sun Records was probably as guitarist on Rufus Thomas's "Bear Cat", an answer record to Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog", which reached number 3 on the R&B chart and resulted in legal action for copyright infringement. He also shared writing credit for the song "Tiger Man", which has been recorded by Thomas and Elvis Presley, among others. Around 1950 he took over the Pepticon Boy radio program on WDIA from B. B. King.

                                    L-R. Joe Hill Louis, BB King, Ford Nelson, Rufus Thomas,                                     Wlla Monroe, Nat D. Williams, Starr McKinney. 

Like Charlie Feathers before him, frustrated by Phillips unwillingness to issue more discs he headed across town to Meteor Records, who recorded two singles with Joe, issued under the moniker Chicago Sunny Boy and released in 1953. From here Joe Hill Louis would record for tiny local labels like Rockin’, Big Town, Vendor, Mimosa  and House Of Sound, most of these were cut with a full band including a tenor sax player, an obvious attempt to update his sound to compete with the onslaught of rock’n’roll. These discs all very rare, and most of them have never been re-issued.

In the summer of 1957 Joe was doing some yard work for the Canales’ when he cut his finger which then became infected by the fertilizer he was using. He didn’t bother to get it treated and a few days later he collapsed on Beale Street. Rushed to the hospital, on Aug. 5, 1957, he died a painful death from tetanus (lock jaw) at John Gaston Hospital, where Bessie Smith had died two decades earlier.

Joe Hill Louis was remembered as a likable, humorous sort of fellow, a ladies man, and a nice guy. His music may have been too crude and distorted to be commercial, although crude and distorted didn’t hurt the careers of John Lee Hooker, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Howlin’ Wolf, all who where enjoying good record sales during the years that Louis’ discs were first released. Most likely his lack of touring, and a lack of promotion are what kept him in obscurity to all but Memphis residents to whom he was a familiar site on Beale Street, Handy Park, and on WDIA. He died too young to reap the benefits of the sixties blues revival, but his records sound better than ever today, he was a unique guitarist, and the one man band style served his unique sense of timing well, in a gloriously clattering musical racket. Although he’s best remembered for putting Sam C. Phillips in the record biz, Joe Hill Louis was more than just historically important, he was one of the greats.

 (Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic & The Hound NYC)

5 comments:

boppinbob said...


For ”Joe Hill Louis - Anthology: The Deluxe Collection
[Master Tape Records 2021]” go here:

https://workupload.com/file/e6LNwhtvBXj

01. Gotta Go Baby (Remastered)
02. She Comes to See Me Sometime (Remastered)
03. Sweetest Gal in Town (Remastered)
04. Boogie in the Park (Remastered)
05. Early in the Morning (Remastered)
06. Hydramatic Woman (Remastered)
07. Gotta Let You Go (Remastered)
08. Tiger Man (Remastered)
09. Blue in the Morning (Remastered)
10. Joe Hill Boogie (Remastered)
11. Cold Chills (Remastered)
12. Eyesight to the Blind (Remastered)
13. Nappy Head Woman (Remastered)
14. Walkin' Talkin' Blues (Remastered)
15. I Feel Like a Million (Remastered)
16. Going Down to Louisiana (Remastered)
17. Ruthie Mae (Remastered)
18. Come Back Baby (Remastered)
19. Joe's Jump (Remastered)
20. 4Th and Beale (Remastered)
21. Sweetest Woman I Ever Seen (Remastered)
22. Get up off It (Remastered)
23. On the Floor (Remastered)
24. Western Union Man (Remastered)
25. I Love My Baby (Remastered)
26. Good Morning Little Angel (Remastered)
27. She Got Me Walkin' (Remastered)
28. Don't Trust Your Best Friend (Remastered)
29. Just Plain Tired (Remastered)
30. Railroad Blues (Remastered)
31. Gotta Go Baby Alt (Remastered)
32. Peace of Mind (Remastered)
33. Boogie in the Park 2 (Remastered)
34. I'm a Poor Boy (Remastered)
35. Got Me a New Woman (Remastered)
36. She's Taking All My Money (Remastered)
37. Mistreat Me Woman (Remastered)
38. Keep Away from My Baby (Remastered)
39. A' Jumpin' and A' Shufflin' (Remastered)
40. The Way You Treat Me (Remastered)
41. Goin' Away Blues (Remastered)
42. Cold Chills Alt (Remastered)
43. Joe Hill Boogie 2 (Remastered)
44. Jack Pot (Remastered)
45. Highway 99 (Remastered)
46. Street Walkin' Woman (Remastered)
47. Don't Do It Again (Remastered)
48. Keep Your Arms Around Me Mama (Remastered)
49. Big Legged Woman (Remastered)
50. Train Ticket (Remastered)
51. Going Down Slow (Remastered)
52. Ridin' Home (Remastered)
53. Chocolate Bonde (Remastered)
54. Jealous Man (Remastered)
55. Heartache Baby (Remastered)

BONUS Tracks

56. Broke and Hungry (Blue in the Morning)
57. When I’m Gone
58. Dorothy Mae
59. She may be Yours
60. We All Gotta Go Sometime
61. Bad Woman Blues
62. Hydramatic Woman

Joe Hill Louis is a highly regarded Memphis blues artist whose career never really took off nationally. Despite this he was very famous around Memphis and recorded a considerable body of work. Essentially a one-man-band. He sang, played guitar, blew harmonica all with added percussion making one of the most exciting and danceable sounds of 50s R&B.
He was a pioneer of distorted and over amplified guitar which can be heard on one of his most famous and influential recordings, 'Boogie In The Park'. And Boogie is what you'll do when you listen to this fantastic collection. Also featured are some rare recordings from labels like Checker, Meteor, Rockin' and Big Town.

A big thank you to Denis for suggesting Joe as today’s birthday post and also for the loan of this digital album. I’ve added 7 extra tracks found on the Jasmine CD “A Jumpin’ & A Shufflin’ instead of posting the whole album which contains many duplicate tracks.

hotrodmike said...

Wow, what an awesome compilation. Thanks a lot for posting this great music.

Crab Devil said...

Thank you!

rntcj said...

Hi!

Thanx for this one & Bonus tracks. A "new" artist = "new" hears here.

Cheers!
Ciao! For now.
rntcj

Dj Diego MC said...

Gracias