Monday, April 5, 2010

Willie Joe Duncan & his Unitar

Willie Joe Duncan, his Unitar and the horse he rode in on.
Bob "Froggy" Landers classic with Willie Joe Duncan & his Unitar Rene Hall instrumental with Willie Joe.
Willie Joe (1988) and the b- side of Cherokee Dance.
Although he only made one and a half singles, there are some people out there, me for instance, that have spent an inordinate amount of their life wondering, just who the fuck was Willie Joe Duncan? It wasn't hard to figure out what a Unitar is. A Unitar is a home made one string electric guitar. Willie Joe Duncan was remembered by many folks in Chicago who saw him in the early 50's playing on Maxwell Street with Jimmy Reed. Jimmy Reed, who called Willie Joe by the nickname Jody, reminisced about Duncan in his final interview (Living Blues #1, June 1975):
"...he was doin this old crazy thing, with this one strand of wire, he wasn't lettin' me lose him nowhere; now, how he was catchin' me on that one strand of broom wire I don't know! But he was doing it all right. He could play that string of wire with a bottle, if he didn't do it with his finger he'd do it with a little old piece of leather on his finger or something he'd pick it with. But on that one strand of wire on that board he could find whatever I was playin' on that guitar. Now that was somethin' I sure hated to lose. Yeah, I hated to lose Jody because it just was a crazy old thing".
The last thing Jimmy Reed heard about his old busking partner "Jody" was that Duncan had taken up preaching in California. He hadn't seen Willie Joe since 1955 when Duncan left Chicago for the coast, taking his crazy, one stringed instrument with him. Having settled somewhere in the greater L.A. area, in 1956, Duncan recorded with Bob "Froggy" Landers appearing on Landers' classic-- Cherokee Dance (Specialty), his rockin', distorted, Unitar was the most predominate instrument on the record. On the b-side was Unitar Rock which was credited only to Willie Joe & his Unitar. It's a classic of instrumental rock'n'roll, proving, less is more...but we already knew that. Bob "Froggy" Landers would go on to make one more record-- River Rock parts 1 and 2 for Ensign on which he is backed by a band called the Cough Drops, but Willie Joe was nowhere to be heard.
Guitarist/A&R man/producer Rene Hall, one of rock'n'roll's greatest unheralded guitar players brought Willie Joe back into the studio in 1957 to re-cut Unitar Rock under the title of Twitchy and it appeared on the flip side of Rene's instrumental single Flippin', also released on Specialty. And that, dear readers, appeared to be the extent of Willie Joe Duncan's musical career. Or so it seemed.
The other day I was browsing the Roots & Rhythm mail order catalog that arrived via e-mail and something caught my eye (the one that's permanently bloodshot)-- One String Blues Masters (Delta Cat 1001). A new CD on a label I never heard of. In the brief description of the CD were the words-- "Willie Joe Duncan & his Unitar, previously un-issued 1988 recordings". Needless to say, out came the credit card, and for $16.98 + $5.00 for priority shipping, I am now the proud owner of the complete recorded works of Willie Joe and his Unitar, as well as One String Sam, Eddie "One String" Jones, and Louis Dotson. The later name being completely new to me. Pardon me, I'm going to pull five strings off my Telecaster now... I'm back, that felt good.
So what are these 1988 tracks with Willie Joe Duncan? Recorded in East Palo Alto, California, by a guy named Charlie Lange, we get Willie Joe talking about Jimmy Reed and Muddy Waters (whom he claims to have played with), and some unheard recordings where Willie Joe is backed by Chester D. Wilson on guitar, Lone Cat on harmonica and Willie G. on spoons. I have never heard of these three, but while they may not be Rene Hall or Froggy Landers, they do a nice job of backing up Willie Joe, all playing in pretty much the style of Jimmy Reed. There's several instrumental jams, which are very loose and yet another instrumental using the riff that we know of as Unitar Rock and/or Twitchy, this time called Joe Duncan Instrumental. There's also a jam in which he basically recreates what he sounded like playing on Maxwell Street with Jimmy Reed (Chester and Lone Cat filling in for the long gone Reed), called Key Of Jimmy Reed. Had Duncan never moved to L.A., Jimmy Reed's records, might have sounded quite different. Perhaps they would have a Unitar on them. Back to the One String Blues Masters CD --I'm glad I bought it. It's a bit short on liner notes and photos, in fact there's no liner notes at all or even a booklet. But you do get One String Sam's classic I Need $100, originally released on J-V-B, (owned by Joe Van Battle, who recorded John Lee Hooker's first sides, I guess he figured if he did so well with a guy who knew one chord, a guy with one string couldnt' miss. Anyway, it's said to be Don Van Vliet's favorite record, although don't ask me who said it, I forgot, still it's a classic by any one's standards, and these parenthesis are making me claustrophobic). It's also as rare as an honest politician. Personally, I wish the whole package was on vinyl, but clocking in at eighty minutes it would have to have been a two record set (or thirteen 78's) which economically was probably not feasible. Of course if you don't own the original 78 or 45 (does it exist on 45?) of One String Sam's I Need $100 b/w My Baby Ooo, which, unless you're extremely lucky, you could never find for a mere $100 nowadays, this compilation is double essential. There's also a live version from the '73 Ann Arbor Blues Festival and two other tracks from the same date. There's really not a bad track on this CD, although One String Sam and the Specialty sides from Willie Joe are the best things here, Eddie "One String" Jones' Rollin' & Tumblin' is excellent, as is his version of The Dozens, although it's admittedly a hard song to fuck up.
There's no law (yet) that says you need six strings on a guitar. Keith Richard played some of his best stuff with five, the live version of Midnight Rambler for example. Tiny Grimes and Alton Delmore used four, Big Joe Williams played with ten strings, in his case it being like a twelve string minus two, not a regular guitar plus four (does that make sense, if not, send me a telegram and I'll explain it). But when you get down to one string, you really need some imagination. Willie Joe Duncan had that and more. He had a distorted, dirty, sound to go with his unique style. Now what became of the guy? This liner note-less CD does not tell us. If anyone knows please write in and tell me.
Note: if I'm steppin' on any toes here with posting the sounds, e-mail me direct and I'll yank 'em. I figure this blog thing is like radio, if you hear a tune and like it, you'll go buy it. I certainly wouldn't want to hurt Willie Joe's royalty statement. Or hurt a label with the good taste to release Willie Joe Duncan and One String Sam records.

18 comments:

T. Tex Edwards said...

Muchas gracias...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDRwbTwwSlc

video from: philmarcade — July 19, 2009 — Lil' Lili dances to the Cherokee Dance by Bob "Froggy" Landers with Willie Joe and his Unitar.

ColinDuff said...

OMG. Now this is why I check this blog every day. New, like unheard, Willie Joe Duncan tracks! Without this blog, these might have passed me by for years. Tip' o' the hat to ya, Mr Marshall.

Colin

Anonymous said...

Can't find the download link???

Mihaleez said...

And that's what we called "PUNK"! Three chords...? Gimme a break! One string wonder!
Thanks again Hound!

Cavorting with Nudists said...

Doin' the math here...let's see...Yes! Willie Joe Duncan began his recording career more than 25 years ago and thus is eligible for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Great post, Hound. I'd love to see one on Froggy Landers one of these days.

The Hound said...

"I'd love to see one on Froggy Landers one of these days."

I'd love to see even a picture of Froggy Landers some day. Although his 2nd single was written by Lou Adler and Herb Alpert, perhaps one of them has a line on him. I did meet Herb Alpert once but didn't know of the Froggy Landers connection at the time or I would have asked him.

Gramercy7 said...

Believe it or not: I saw One String Sam at the '73 Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival! I don't remember him actually taking the stage but simply wandering through the crowd with his one-stringed instrument and playing "I Need $100" over and over...Wild!

Nick said...

Cherokee Dance is, maybe, my favorite record. Much thanks for the knowledge.

Mighty High said...

Oh! I need to track this muther down.

Anonymous said...

Have you checked out Lonnie Pitchford? Awesome player, from 1 string to 6, made all his own instruments.

Johnny Pierre said...

Thanks for the info on Mr. Unitar. Duncan shoulda been part of the the CBGB's scene back int he day...a one string gitar woulda fit the bill nicely.

Johnny Pierre said...

A new super group is forming in my mind...the first two members would be Bongo Joe & Willie Joe Duncan...

sleepy cactus slim said...

Hi hound,

Just a short note to let you know that both sides of ONE STRING SAM on JVB appeared in 1966 on an english BRL 100 (limited edition) titled as HOBOS AND DRIFTERS. ON the flip side of this rare EP we find sides by oakland artists BLACK DIAMOND AND a certain GOLDRUSH; Well known blues researcher MIKE ROWE wrote the excellent liner notes;

The Hound said...

"Just a short note to let you know that both sides of ONE STRING SAM on JVB appeared in 1966 on an english BRL 100 (limited edition) titled as HOBOS AND DRIFTERS."

Thanks for the info. It's also on the old Blues Classics LP Detroit: the 50's which is where I first heard it thirty years ago. I'm sure that LP is long gone but it you can find it it will at least be cheap.

JuniorBacon said...

I have an original copy of Unitar Rock and Cherokee Dance on Specialty and was wondering how`scare this disc is? The music is great, but is there any value for this 45? I have done my research and cannot find any auction results for this recording. Can anyone please help? natahewlett@aol.com

Marie Marshall said...

Fascinating stuff. I was discussing the phenomenon of doo-wop with a friend today. I don't know where she got her love of it from - we are both too young to remember it first time round - but I got mine from a DJ on BBC Radio London in the 1970s when I was a teenager, and I can recall buying a compilation album featuring Rene Hall, Bob Landers, and so on. This conversation sent me searching iTunes for all kinds of R&B, rock, and doo-wop from the 1950s, and I found Unitar Rock, but nothing else from Willie Joe.

I recently went to see Seasick Steve, and saw him playing his "Diddley Bow" unitar. That was some gig.

Interesting post here on an interesting blog.

al stern said...

I am a 62 year old drummer who got to play for Willie Joe in the late sixties. It was in E Palo Alto and I was 19 or 20 at th time and my very proudest moment since I was the only white guy in the band. His daughters, Helen and Phyllis sang and one of their husbands was on bass. They had a son Calvin who played tenor. Nothin much came of it but what a kick to be playing Twitchy with him. The daughters toured for a while as the Duncan sisters opening for Little Richard They had the same manager, Bumps Blackwell. Thanks for your blog and interest.

Dull Tool Dim Bulb said...

Whoa!~ THAT is some serious Juke and i've not heard it before. THANKS!

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