[78-L] Bob Wills' hollering (was "unissued western swing on Bear Famly")

[Cary Ginell]

Wills' "hollering" has always been his trademark. Reactions to it range from curiosity to annoyance. His vocal intrusions often detract from a musician's solo and he tends to repeat certain pet phrases, like "shoot low, sheriff, he's ridin' a Shetland" and "he's a man after my own heart... with a razor," especially in later years when he recorded for MGM, Liberty, and Kapp. Wills was constantly running off at the mouth on his records, speaking or hollering whenever he felt like it. Art Satherley, his producer at Columbia/Brunswick/ARC, encouraged the hollering. Satherley knew that Wills was the selling point of his band, not the band members. In the early years, Wills was less restrained than at any point in his career. At his first session, during the instrumental "Oklahoma Rag," Wills chatters on, and during Leon McAuliffe's electric guitar solo, he clearly says "We gotta get outta here and go see that fight." This could refer to a major heavyweight championship bout between Joe Louis and Max Baer, which was held in New York City's Yankee Stadium on September 24, 1935, the day after the session. Wills didn't go to New York since he was still recording on Sept. 24, but I've always wondered if that was the fight he was referring to, and if it was, how he was able to "see" it or if it was just a gag he was playing on the band.

After cutting the first of a two-day session for Satherley on May 16, 1938, Wills went on a bender and didn't show up for the second day of the session. Satherley went ahead and recorded the band anyway, and Wills' absence is palpable. Without his hollering, the band went through the motions. The vitality and excitement was gone and you can sense that they really needed Wills fronting the band to get them charged up. Listen to the mechanical performances of songs like "Oh You Beautiful Doll," "Oh, Lady Be Good," and "Moonlight and Roses" to hear this for yourself. There was really a difference.  

But Wills' hollering was part of his charisma - he was a born bandleader. In speaking to many of the musicians who played under him, to a man, they all said that they were driven to play their best by Wills. They never played for the audience, they played for Wills. Wills channeled all of the musicians' energy and funneled it through to the audience. He strutted, mugged, grimaced, danced, and almost never stood still. Eyes were always on Wills during a Texas Playboy performance. His schtick is seen on the Vitaphone short as well as on several Snader Telescriptions, but is also in a variety of B westerns starring Russell Hayden and Charles Starrett. It's an acquired taste - when I was first studying Wills' recordings in the early '70s, I was grateful that he called the names of his musicians during the recordings, something I wish had happened in other groups so we'd know who was present (wouldn't that have been great in Bix's case?). As for Wills in the movies, his appearances were very popular; I have some lobby cards and posters of Wills' movies where his name and image are almost as big as the stars'. He was definitely a draw for these films, just as the Sons of the Pioneers were in similar westerns. But leave no doubt that Bob Wills was a major personality - THE major personality in western swing after the death of Milton Brown.

Cary Ginell

> From: uncledavelewis at hotmail.com
> To: 78-l at 78online.com
> Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2011 14:36:29 +0000
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Unissued western swing on Bear Family
> 
> 
> What's interesting is that the sound of the Texas Playboys was totally different by that time. 
> The 1938 sessions featured the sounds of a string band while the 1940 group was no different than any
> of the swing bands of the period led by Dorsey, Goodman, Miller, et. al. No stringed instruments can 
> be heard on "New San Antonio Rose," except maybe a rhythm guitar in the background, if you could hear 
> it at all. The rest was horns. As popular as this recording became, it alienated many of Wills' fans, 
> who preferred to hear Wills play fiddle and the sound of a string band. Wills took his innovation a 
> little too far for the time. Wills removed nearly all of the horns, and never had more than one or 
> two in any of his subsequent groups, usually a reed instrument and a muted trumpet. 
> 
> Cary Ginell
> Just the other day I watched the 1944 Vitaphone short "Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys." I did not expect to come away thinking that it was sort of "strange," but I did. Bob Wills is a weird looking guy; obviously smiling and cheating to the crowd, but having a constant air of having something else on his mind, or up his sleeve; if it was the latter, he didn't produce any rabbits in hats or card tricks, so there was that feeling of unrelieved tension. The Western Swing aspect of his show was presented in the short as part of a larger agenda, like it was another trick that Bob could play to help broaden his popularity, not as the main thing which made him famous. At the end there was a duet by Bob and another gentleman where Bob was interjecting his part, rather than singing it -- a sort of involved, not involved, throw out the funny voice here and again gag duet. 
> 
> As much as Wills was great on records, I'm not so sure his act was cut out for the movies.  
> 
> Uncle Dave Lewis
> uncledavelewis at hotmail.com 		 	   		  
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