Bad Penny… (Humph tribute, part two)
The late, great Humph had only one chart hit, ‘Bad Penny Blues’, a boogie-woogie number with pianist Johnny Parker, played as an afterthought at the end of a recording session in April 1956. Largely as a result of producer Joe Meek’s addition of artificial echo to the sound (something that Humph did not agree to and, on initial hearing, recoiled in horror from), the record became a British hit-parade success.
Here’s a later (1970’s, by the looks of it) reprise, with added coda:
Thanks for that to Byas’d Opinion.
Whilst we’re at it: thanks to Bruce for pointing out that I hadn’t made it clear that despite his aristocratic origins, Humph was a committed socialist throughout his adult life.
I also forgot to mention the wonderful (and true) story about Humph’s ancestor’s involvement with the Gun Powder Plot: the first Humphey Lyttelton was a leading conspirator in the plot to blow up Parliament. Humph commented: “He (the first Humphrey Lyttelton) was hanged, drawn and quartered at Guildford…the family was, naturally, terribly upset…not so much about the hanging, drawing and quarterting…but… GUILDFORD!”
By a remarkable coincidence, Humph’s early jazz sidekick, the clarinetist Wally “Trog” Fawkes, is a decendent of Guy Fawkes.
And, finally: given the title “Bad Penny”, this number simply must be dedicated to that multiple recidivist ignoramous of both jazz and Marxism, the man whose surname cannot be given because he’s such a threat to the British ruling class… Mr John ‘G’!
Dave said,
May 2, 2008 at 9:55 am
Blimey, they don’t play boogie woogie like that any more, do they?
Jim Denham said,
May 2, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Well, one or two people do, Dave: the original “Bad Penny” pianist, Johnny Parker was still alive and playing (in a pub - the Wenlock Arms - on a Sunday afternoon, near Old Street station), at least when I last saw him a couple of years ago. The pianist in the YouTube clip is not Parker, but (almost certainly) Mike Pyne, with Dave Green on bass and Tony Mann on drums (I’d guess).
Other boogie-masters still around include Stan Greig (the drummer on the original “Bad Penny”, but a better pianist), Neville Dickie…oh yes, and some young kid who’s name escapes me, who used to appear on Ned Sherrin’s radio show. And there are still plenty of Yanks who can boogie-woogie in the great tradition: Eddie Higgins, for instance.
By the way, it is said (but I can’t actually remember by whom) that the piano part on the Beatles’ “Lady Madonna” was based upon Johnny Parker’s playing on “Bad Penny”. Anyone know the truth of this, or is it just one of those urban myths?
Jim Denham said,
May 2, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Another true story that I forgot to include in either of my “Humph” pieces, but is worth noting here, if only as an example of jazz bigotry: when in 1953 Humph added Bruce Turner on alto sax to his band, in place of the traditional trombone, many fans were outraged, believing (wrongly) that the sax had no place in a “traditional” front line. When Bruce appeared with the band at Birmingham Town Hall a group of trad fanatics (rumoured to have been students from Birmingham University), unveiled a huge banner bearing the slogan “GO HOME DIRTY BOPPER”.
The irony was that Bruce wasn’t really a “bopper” at all (though he did admire Charlie Parker), but modelled his style upon classic pre-war altoists like Johnny Hodges, Benny Carter and Pete Brown. But the bigots wouldn’t have known any of that: they just associated the sax with “modern” jazz. Poor Bruce, a highly sensitive man, was seriously upset by this incident and always afterwards felt slightly uneasy about visiting and playing in Brum.
Still, the incident seems to have confirmed Humph’s determination to move away from “trad” and towards “mainstream”, in bold defiance of many of his existing fans.
BRUCE said,
May 6, 2008 at 3:13 pm
I was going to say it could only happen in Birmingham but it happened in Manchester to Bob Dylan…
Bruce Turner wasn’t strictly a bopper but he did have modernist tendencies. He studied in New York with founder of the ultra-cool ‘Cool School’ Lennie Tristano - along with Brit bassist Peter Ind. He was also reputed to be a fan of Stalin.
Nevertheless… he was one of the people I first came across when I started to listen to live jazz seriously (at New Merlin’s Cave, just acrosx the road from where I lived in Clerkenell) so I owe this rather self-effacing owl-like character a musical debt if not a political one