Sound Beat

The story goes like this: Fats Waller, the great stride pianist, is playing in a club when he spots Art Tatum walk through the door. Waller stops, turns to the audience and announces: “I just play the piano, but God is in the house tonight.” Perhaps no pianist before or since has equaled Tatum’s technical and rhythmic mastery, harmonic imagination, and sheer ability to awe. Nearly blind since childhood, his trademark was the reworking of popular standards into solo showpieces. As was the case with his version of Cole Porter’s “Begin The Beguine”, recorded in 1940.

This episode was written in part by Syracuse University student Ryan Lu, as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership project. To learn more about the program, visit soundbeat.org.

Carl Sandburg once called Ives “the mightiest ballad singer of this or any other century.”  But his fellow performers might have described him with slightly different words. We’ve talked quite a bit on the show about careers that suffered during the McCarthy /blacklisting era. We haven’t talked about any that made it through unscathed. When the Senate called Ives to testify, he saved himself with the claim that he only fraternized with his fellow folk singers to stay working. Oh, and he pretty much named Pete Seeger a communist, resulting in his ban.

Years of bad blood passed. During the folk revival of the 60’s, Seeger and his “comrades” experienced career upswings, while Ives found himself on establishment’s side in decidedly anti-establishment times.

“Blue Tail Fly”  was the last song Ives ever played in concert. And it was a duet… with Pete Seeger. The two reunited for a benefit concert in 1993.

Frederick Cook claimed to reach the North Pole in 1908, which would make him the first man to do so. And while some believed him, not enough did. You’re listening to a 1910 recording of….Robert F. Peary. History books credit him with the Pole’s discovery in 1909. So why the uncertainty?

The entire north polar region is sea, covered by floating ice, which, when you factor in wind and ocean currents, makes a permanent marking impossible.

While the honor currently belongs to Peary, experts are divided as to whether Cook, or neither, reached the pole. That’s right, some believe both expeditions were off base. Read more.

Niccolo Paganini was the Jim Morrison of his day. He partied, drove the ladies wild, and was even rumored to have dabbled in the occult.

Paganini was a violin virtuoso. He could play three octaves across four strings. Ask your local fiddler; that’s all but impossible.

Paganini’s seemingly supernatural talents made him a celebrity, but also inspired rumors that he’d made a pact with the devil. There’s another theory out there, and this one’s a bit more scientific.  Some experts believe he had Marfan Syndrome. This connective tissue disorder can result in longer arms, longer fingers … and hyper flexible hands.

You’ve been listening to Paganini’s Caprice no. 24, recorded in 1920 by Jascha Heifetz, another great master of the instrument.

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Library.

You’re listening to Peetie Wheatstraw on the keys, playing Crazy With the Blues from 1936. Wheatstraw left an indelible mark on the St. Louis blues scene. He was known for that trademark “woo woo boy”, and of course his rather laid-back policy towards proper word formation. In fact, fellow blues great Blind Teddy Darby once overheard an audience member yell out “Good God, why doesn’t that man yodel and be done with it?”

Wheatstraw billed himself as a bad dude, claiming association with the Dark Prince. He even named his records The Sheriff of Hell and The Devil’s Son in Law.

This live version of “25 Minutes to Go” is from Johnny Cash’s 1968 Columbia LP At Folsom Prison. The song gives a minute-by-minute description of a man awaiting the hangman’s noose.

Two thousand Folsom prisoners attended Cash’s famed performance at the prison a year earlier; however, Death Row residents were not allowed. On performing a song about an execution at a prison, Cash said, “I was trying to get things close to the bone.”

Who wrote the song that Cash used to accomplish this? None other than beloved children’s author Shel Silverstein, who also wrote the Cash classic “A Boy Named Sue.”

This episode was co-written by Syracuse University student Josh Daghir as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

Image: “Folsom Prison, East Gate”. The image is in the public domain.

Richard Adler and Jerry Ross wrote the song “Whatever Lola Wants (Lola Gets)” for the 1955 Broadway musical Damn Yankees. RCA Victor released this recording that year, with Dinah Shore singing and Henri René conducting. Inspiration for the character in this Tony Award-winning production came from notorious dancer and actress Lola Montez.

Born in Ireland in 1820 or 1821 her birth name wouldn’t have rolled off the tongue as easily.

“Whatever Marie Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert wants…” ,

From adulterous outcast to Spanish dancer, to Franz Liszt’s lover and eventually Bavarian countess, she certainly seemed to get what she wanted. Find more on Montez right here.

This episode was co-written by Syracuse University student Kate Capodanno, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

William McKinley was as popular as presidents come, a saying that may need to be adjusted for inflation. On September 6th, 1901, Leon Czolgosz  waited in line to meet the president at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo NY. He fired two shots into McKinley’s stomach, and while the president battled his wounds for more than a week, he finally succumbed to gangrene. Czolgosz’ trial began 10 days later. He’d be found guilty within hours, and in a morbid twist of fate, would be sentenced to death by electric chair. The major theme of the exposition that year had been…the dazzling power of electricity.

You’ve been listening to the Columbia Quartette, with a…Columbia cylinder from 1902.

A mother’s lament that perfectly encapsulated American anti-war sentiment.

You’re on the Sound Beat.

The Peerless Quartette recorded I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier in January of 1915. Alfred Bryan wrote the lyrics, and they drew a sharp line between those who supported the US entering the Great War and those who opposed. The opposition: pacifists and isolationists, natch, but also Protestant ministers, German Americans, and Irish Americans, who weren’t eager to support the British. Then there was the other side. Harry Truman, National Guard Captain at the time, didn’t love the tune; the place for women who opposed war, he said, was “in China—or by preference in a harem—and not in the United States.”

The sheet music sold to the tune of 700,000 copies in the first 6 months, making it one of the biggest hits of that year.

Check out more episodes now at soundbeat.org.

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Libraries.

I’m Brett Barry.

Image: “British soldiers moving forward during the Battle of Broodseinde”, Photo by Ernest Brooks. It is in the public domain, as it was created by the United Kingdom Government and taken prior to 1 June 1957.

Legend has it this song came to Williams while with fiancé Billie Jean Horton. Just driving around, talking about standard fiancé stuff…like, his ex-wife.

You’re on the Sound Beat.

While telling his future bride about his former’s infidelities, he cried out that one day Audrey’s “Cheatin’ Heart” would pay. A hit was born, and, probably, so was a discussion re: whether or not he was really over his ex-wife.

MGM released the song in January 1953, just weeks after Hank’s death at age 29. In 2004 “Your Cheatin’ Heart” was named #1 in CMT’s list of the 40 Greatest “Done-Me Wrong Songs”.

This episode was co-written by Alexis Lisser, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership. Find out more right now at soundbeat.org

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Libraries.