'JUMP START' - PBGB HONOURS THE RHYTHM AND BLUES PIONEERS BEHIND THE RISE OF ROCK AND ROLL

Cosimo Matassa at the J and M studio desk, 

New Orleans, 1947 - 

"three microphones going straight to the wax".

Pete continues to be fascinated by the global seismic shift that accompanied the acceptance by white American teenagers of the fantastic Rhythm and Blues ( previously known as Race Music )  being pounded out by black musicians down in the Deep South of the USA in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

History tells us that the first recordings of the small combo 'jump music' that sparked the white teen music revolution came out of Cosimo Mattassa's studio in New Orleans. Cosimo's 'studio' was no more than a small room in the back of the Mattassa family store. And yes, as quoted in Jump Start, the studio only had three microphones to capture the magic. No tape, cut straight onto wax.

When it became clear that white teenagers actually wanted to buy such "jungle music", bigger record labels started recording white,  inanely sanitised cover versions. White djs called that Rock and Roll. Of course they outsold the original versions by a huge margin and less than a handful of the black R and B musicians were accepted by white America.

Anyway, Pete decided to try to tell the story in a three minute song.  He pays homage to as many of the heroes of the story as he can jam in...... Cosimo Matassa, Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, Huey Smith, Earl Palmer, and of course the outrageous, impossible to ignore, Little Richard.

Could PBGB really do this stuff justice ? Of course not. But it was great fun having a go. Listen to our humble attempt by clicking HERE

A wop-bop-a loo bop a lop-bam-boom !!!

Pete wrote the lyrics, sang 'em and played the drums

Neil Porter played the bass and did all the production work

John Drews played the piano

Graham Brown played the sax

JOHN DREWS AND MICK NADIN CREATE A MESS IN THE PBGB SHED

We were very pleased when John came in one day and announced he had composed a song that he hoped would provide the makings of good Shed project. This was the first song John had put together specifically for The PBGB Shed so we were all very curious to hear what he had come up with.

John played it through solo a couple of times and before long we were all tapping, strumming and generally blowing along.

Mick pulled a set of lyrics out of his bag, reckoning they could be massaged to fit the mood of John's song. Turned out they fitted just fine.

"The Mess I'm In" began to take shape.

John has all the necessaries to produce songs at home, so we agreed this would be a 'John Drews Production'. Of all the many PBGB songs produced over many years, very few have been produced by anybody other than Neil, so we were all very curious to hear what John came up with.

THIS (press to play) is what John came up with.

We're all pretty stoked about it. To us, it represents a new direction. A change. A different concept, a different style. And we are very happy to now have two producers for our songs.

The music reflects John's love of keyboard centric songs reminiscent of, say, Procol Harum and the like. Orchestral ? Film themes ?

As for the lyrics, Mick says....... "Fairly simple stuff - I was inspired by John’s comment about the amount of equipment he had been trying to organise and “the mess he was in”. That, I thought, would make a great title, and possibly a name for his new composition. I had some thoughts already written down about the nature of life and existence, but no chorus. John's comment helped me put a chorus together, and 'The Mess I’m In' was quickly knocked into shape, and is now part of PBGB Shed history. 

Beautiful team work guys !!!

We hope you like it, and like us look forward to hearing more of John's compositions and production work.

John Drews - music, keyboards, and production

Mick Nadin - lyrics and vocal

Lousie Nadin - bass

Peter Reid - drums