Jake Walk Blues - Allen Brothers

Lee & Austin formed the Allen Brothers in 1923. Born on Mount Eagle 50 miles north of Chattanooga TN. USA. They recorded 89 sides first of which was "Bow Wow Blues / Salty Dog Blues" for Columbia in 1926. "Jake Walk Blues" was recorded in 1930 and tells of the Jamaican Ginger poisoning and its consequences to the southern poor. They quit their music careers in 1934.
Allen Brothers were considered the first hokum blues white country band. That's Lee on kazoo.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Jake Walk Blues
• Allen Brothers
• hokum
• old
• time
• country
• string
• band
• kazoo
• food
• poison
• jamaican
• ginger
• 1930
• 78

[miller8037]

Watchin' Ken Burns' "Prohibition" gets a man to researchin'. Bye now.

[geofbrit59]

@miller8037 Yes, I saw it too. They even did a bit on the Jake Leg!

[partyhardydardy]

do they use a goddamn kazoo? they're the shit.

[geofbrit59]

@partyhardydardy It's hard to hear on this old disc but yes they do blow the kazoo.

[abrownadoptables]

@mattmurfy I dug up the artical. New Yorker magazine Sept.15,2003 by Dan Baum.

Google him.

[mattmurfy]

geofbrit59 thanks for the positive remark - I did check some facts on Wikipedia (admittedly not always reliable) to jog my memory, as I learnt about the Jake Walk from the liner notes of a 2nd-hand LP 25 yrs ago !

Maybe the CD was a re-issue - it was called 'Jake Walk Blues'. Mostly hokum, but it did have some good no.s by Lemuel Turner and 'The Black Ace'. The only thing I miss from LPs - the liner notes and cover art. Just not the same with CDs or thumbnails and 'details' on mp3s ...

[geofbrit59]

@mattmurfy I read an article in The New Yorker some years ago that was all about the Jake Leg affliction and it's appearance in songs of the time. And everything you said is true. The man who wrote the article has a CD collection of all the Jake Leg songs in his collection for sale.

[mattmurfy]

Actually, it was only one company that added the adulterant - though it affected 30-100,000 people before the authorities stopped its use. The govt. was mostly concerned about the alcohol content, so stipulated, and tested for a certain volume of ginger in the tonic, making it very bitter. The cheap, thick, colourless additive; TOCP was actually an organophosphate (like dioxin). So the purpose wasn't so much to water it down (which rather defeats the purpose with hard drinkers !) as add a filler

[riothero313]

Interesting, you think they would just water it down with......well, water.

[mashtones]

Jake-a Jamacian extract (sold as medicina in the 1920's. It was popular because it had 70% alcohol and could skirt the laws against drinking and taxes. In 1930 the people who made it added a cheap but toxic chemical to water it down. This caused spinal damage giving people a form of paralysis- the jake walk.