Topic: Brand and product names in country blues

[waxwing]

That one's already on the list, Pete. Take a look:

Brands, Products & Services In Country Blues

And I take offense that you would imply that here at Weenie we ignore the south east. Nothing could be further from the truth. Maybe at some of the other bastions of Robert Johnson worship that I've seen you on, but certainly not here, sir.

(grin)

All for now.
John C.

[oddenda]

Waxwing -

I sit corrected, but where the hell is/was that list? First I've heard about it! Being a Luddite who prefers his steam powered typewriter, there is much about these infernal machines (computers) that I do not know. Still, It's Buddy's tune, and it was prophetic - not many like that (Pat Hare's "I'm Gonna Murder My Baby" being an exception).

Peter B.

[Slack]

I sit corrected, but where the hell is/was that list? First I've heard about it!

Peter, you obviously need to explore the depths of Weeniepedia! 

The Main Menu on the left column has a heading "Resources", under "Resources" is a link "Weeniepedia" - click the link.  Very high tech. 

[Rivers]

Time to kick this cultural scenery thread back into life, Brownie mentions a Frigidaire in 1940, Back Door Stranger, I swiped a nice badge and added an entry to the weeniepedia 'brands & products' page. Note the similarity to Dan Pickett's later entry:

http://www.weeniecampbell.com/wiki/index.php?title=Category:Brands,_products_%26_services

[Bunker Hill]

In my head I can hear Casey Bill Weldon using the phrase "I don't want no iceman, I'm gonna get me a Frigidaire" in his 1930s Outskirts of Town but not at home to check.

[dj]

You're correct, Bunker Hill.  Frigidaire it is.

[dj]

Automobiles:  Cadillac, Ford, and a new one, Mack Truck

Casey Bill Weldon, Race Horse Filly Blues:

Sometimes she rides like a log wagon, sometimes she rides like a Cadillac Eight
Sometimes she rides like a Mack truck, sometimes she's passin' like a Ford V8

[dj]

Beverages, alcoholic:  Old Quaker whiskey

Ollie Shepard, Drunk Again:

You just keep on drinkin' Old Quaker in your Dixie Dew

Note:  Dixie Dew is a cocktail made up of Whiskey, triple sec, and white creme de menthe, but I could swear I heard the name in my youth used to describe a mixture of whiskey and milk.  Can anyone confirm or deny this?

[Gerry Clarke]

Here are a couple that I guess belong in "Hospitality"...

On the 1937 "Muscat Hill Blues", Vo 03906, Buddy Woods tells us that he is going down to "The Golden Slipper".  I think this may have been a tavern in Shreveport, La.  I wonder if there is still any trace of it?  Incidentally, the other side is the great band version of "Don't Sell It, Don't Give It Away", with lovely piano from Wampus Cats' band leader Kitty Gray complementing Buddy's tricone for a fine dance record.

On the 1928 "Kansas City Blues", Ge 6707, the incomparable William Harris tells us: "my good gal quit me; she promised me today, she'd meet me down on Beale Street at the Panama Cafe".  I'm pretty sure Gus Cannon spoke of this tavern as one of many the musicians of the time played at along Beale.

Gerry

p.s. my Irish roots have nothing to do with my ability to recall references to gin palaces!

[Rivers]

Which reminded me of mentions of the Blue Goose in Shreveport.

[uncle bud]

Was Blue Goose an actual business establishment? I had thought it was a neighbourhood in Shreveport.

[Parlor Picker]

Talking of Blue Goose, one of Roger Hubbard's fans in Canada thought that the "Brighton Belle" was a pub, but it was in fact a train that ran from London to Brighton on England's south coast.

[Rivers]

Was Blue Goose an actual business establishment? I had thought it was a neighbourhood in Shreveport.

You are correct sir, I misremembered it as a bar. Courtesy of the tag index:

http://web.archive.org/web/20030413093856/http://www.softdisk.com/comp/loobg/

"Had Mr. Hogan ever heard of Blue Goose?

Why of course he had, it had been called that long before he came into the area in the early thirties. It was named for a big picture of a blue goose feeding it's young, painted on the side of a grocery store. That store was torn down in the early forties."

So it was a small locale named for a grocery store, which later became a speakeasy. I think it still counts. Another quote:

"Another historian, Eric Brock, contends that the original Blue Goose structure was built in the 1890's and during prohibition, became a speakeasy, operating ostensibly as a cafe.
[Picture: Blue Goose Grocery]

"The building was pulled down in the early forties and replaced by a structure similar to a 1939 annex to it's immediate west. The only known photograph of the front of the Blue Goose shows stacks of bricks for the new building. In the photo, the Blue Goose was literally in it's last days.

The new structure became the Silver Slipper Cafe and in the 1980's the Ebony Club.

During WWII the Blue Goose was a popular stop for troops coming into Union Station nearby.

In its speakeasy days and earlier -- indeed throughout its life -- the Blue Goose saw many noteworthy musicians play there. At the time many were virtually unknown. Like the WWII soldiers, they found the Blue Goose because of its proximity to the RR tracks and Union Station."

[uncle bud]

This is a photo found on a Shreveport forum. Wonder if it is the grocery store.

[Rivers]

From the Good For What Ails You comp, a second chewing gum reference: Wrigleys, chewing gum, Bow Wow Blues, The Allen Brothers, 1927:
She's got a sister she loves some fun, but she's got more ways of loving than Wrigley's got gum

Also has a Ford limousine and a Cadillac 8