Big Road Blues Show 7/28/19: You Call Yourself a Cadillac, You Ain’t Nothin’ But a T-Model Ford – Automobile Blues

ARTIST	SONG	ALBUM
Sleepy John Estes	Poor Man's Friend (T-Model)	Jailhouse Blues
Rosco Gordon	T-Model Boogie	The Sun Blues Box 1950-1958
Walter Roland	T-Model Blues	Lucille Bogan & Walter Roland:The Essential
James Tisdom	Cadillac Blues	Texas Country Blues 1948-1951
Robert Nighthawk with Carey Mason	You Call Yourself A Cadillac	Blow My Blues Away Vol. 1
Junior Wells	I Need Me A Car	Messin' With The Kid
Billy “The Kid” Emerson	Every Woman I Know (Crazy 'Bout Automobiles)	Red Hot
Johnny "Guitar" Watson	Motor Head Baby	Johnny "Guitar" Watson 1952-1955
Jerry McCain	Courtin' In A Cadillac	Deep Harmonica Blues
Robert Johnson	Terraplane Blues	The Centennial Collection
Johnny Shines	Dynaflow Blues	Chicago The Blues Today
KC Douglas	Mercury Boogie	The Roots of it all Vol. 2
Jack Cooley	Dynaflow Blues	The Excello Story Vol. 1
Sonny Boy Williamson II	Pontiac Blues	The Classic Sides
Cedar Creek Sheik	Ford V-8	Best Of
Memphis Minnie	Me And My Chauffeur Blues	Men Are Like Street Cars
Dan Pickett	Ride To A Funeral In A V8	The Roots of it all Vol. 2
Lightnin' Hopkins	Automobile	All The Classics 1946-1951
Smokey Hogg	Too Many Drivers	Sings The Blues
Champion Jack Dupree & Brownie McGhee	Auto Mechanic Blues	Savoy Blues 1944-1994
LaVern Baker	I Want A Lavender Cadillac	LaVern Baker 1949-1954
Jimmy Liggins & His Drops Of Joy	Cadillac Boogie	The Specialty Story
Tommy Brown	V-8 Baby	Classic Tommy Brown
Roy Brown	Cadillac Baby	Pay Day Jump
Sonny Boy Williamson I	My Little Machine	The Original Sonny Boy Williamson Vol. 2
Robert Henry	Something's Wrong With My Little Machine	Down Home Blue Classics: Chicago & Detroit 1948-1953
Blue Flamers	Driving Down the Highway	Nashville Jumps
Howlin' Wolf	Mr. Highway Man	The Sun Blues Box 1950-1958
Blind Lemon Jefferson	DB Blues	- The Complete Classic Sides
Roosevelt Sykes	Henry Ford Blues	Roosevelt Sykes Vol. 1 1929-1930
Cleo Gibson	I've Got Ford Movements in my Hips	Territory Singers Vol. 2
Floyd Dixon	Red Head and Cadillac	Swing Time Jive
Hot Lips Page	The Cadillac Song	Hot Lips Page 1950-1953
Peppermint Harris	Cadillac Funeral	Toast Of The Coast: 1950s R&B From Dolphin's Of Hollywood Vol. 2
Ike Turner & His Kings Of Rhythm	Rocket 88	The Sun Blues Box 1950-1958

Show Notes:

On today’s program we spin a stack of great songs from the pre-war and post-war era dealing with automobiles. In The Automobile and American Life, it’s stated that in “the 1920s and 1930s, Blues artists-often coming from humble and racially restricted worlds-recognized the the car as being symbolic of freedom and unrestricted mobility. As Blacks living in a world of limited freedom in the Jim Crow American South, their artistic expression-the Blues-contained the message that the car was liberating, in terms of personal privacy and social and financial emancipation. It was a message of hope to those living in the Mississippi Delta, connected as it was by U.S. Highway 61.”

Ford’s were the subject of many songs, particularly the Model-T because of its affordability. In 1927 Ford started making more luxury models and second hand Model-T’s came on the market at low prices. Paul Oliver reasons that it also became popular because of its “near-indestructibility, its dependability, its lack of glamour, reflected virtues that the Negro liked to see in himself.” The car appeared in songs such as Sleepy John Estes’ “Poor Man’s Friend (T-Model)”, Walter Roland’s “T-Model Blues”, Lightnin Hopkins’ “T-Model Blues”, Rosco Gordon’s “T-Model Boogie” among others. Of course the T-Model was no Cadillac as in the common lyric, and the title of our show, “You call yourself a Cadillac, you ain’t nothin’ but a T-Model Ford.” As to the Cadillac, there were no shortage of songs about this desirable car. The Ford V-8, named after its powerful engine, came on the market in 1932 and captured the imagination of blues artists as evidenced in songs like Cedar Creek Sheik’s “Ford V-8”, Memphis Minnie’s oft covered “Me And My Chauffeur Blues”, Buddy Moss’ “Going To Your Funeral In A Vee Eight Ford” (covered by Dan Pickett) and Tommy Brown’s “V-8” among many others. Other auto models mentioned in blues songs include Rolls Royce, Pontiac, Packard, Mercury, Hudson, Mercury, Dodge, Oldsmobile, Dynaflow and Cadillac.

Of course, as Paul Oliver notes, automobiles were “a powerful sexual symbol.” There’s plenty of recorded evidence for this such as Robert Johnson’s “Terraplane Blues” (“I’m goin’ heist your hood, mama, I’m bound to check your oil”), Cleo Gibson’s “I’ve Got Ford Movements in My Hips” (“I’ve got Ford engine movements in my hips, ten thousand miles guarantee”) and Champion Jack Dupree & Brownie McGhee’s “Auto Mechanic Blues” to name a few. Two songs in this vein, “Too Many Drivers” and My Little Machine” spawned numerous covers.

Ford’s feature in several bues songs, particularly the T-Model and the V-8. The Ford Model T was produced by Ford 1908 to 1927. The Model T was Ford’s first automobile mass-produced on moving assembly lines with completely interchangeable parts, marketed to the middle class. In “Poor Man’s Friend (T-Model)” cut in 1935, Sleepy John Estes touts its virtues:

Well, well, the T-Model Ford, I say is a poor man’s friend
Well, well, it will help you out, even when your money’s thin

The Ford flathead V8 is a V8 engine designed by Ford. It was usually known simply as the Ford V8, and the first car model in which it was installed, the Model 18, was often called simply the “Ford V8”, after its new engine. Ford introduced it in 1932 and it was the first independently designed and built V8 engine produced by Ford for mass production. The powerful V-8 was the subject of may songs in the pre-war and post-war era. In 1936 the Cedar Creek Sheik cut “Ford V-8:”

Soon as I get my record straight
Put my money in a Ford V-8
Lord, and I ain’t gonna walk no more

Advertisement from the Pittsburgh Courier, 1929

Other cars featured in song include the Hudson Terrplane, Mercury, Pontiac, Dodge, Oldsmobile and of course the Cadillac. One of the more famous songs is Robert Johnson’s “Terraplane Blues.” The song was Johnson’s first single,recorded in 1936, and it became a moderate regional hit. It was backed by“Kind Hearted Woman Blues,” and released early in March of 1937. The Terraplane, a car manufactured by Hudson Motor Car Company in the ’30s, serves as a sexual metaphor, as Johnson sings lines such as “And when I mash down on your starter, then your spark plug will give me fire.” ’The melody of ‘Terraplane Blues’ has been traced to earlier recordings by one of Johnson’s influences, Peetie Wheatstraw. The song was first reissued on the LP King of the Delta Blues Singers. It was the song most remembered by his contemporaries: “We heard a couple of his pieces come out on records,” Son House remembered. “Believe the first one I heard was ‘Terraplane Blues.’ Jesus, it was good. We all admired it. Said, ‘That boy is really going places.’” Frank Edwards covered the song in 1941 as did Johnny Shines. Shines was a running partner of Johnson and his “Dynaflow Blues” is an updated version of “Terraplane Blues.” Dynaflow was the trademarked name for a type of automatic transmission developed and built by General Motors Buick Motor Division from late 1947 to mid-1963.

Johnson’s song wasn’t the only one to sing the praises of Hudson as Blind Lemon Jefferson mentions the Hudson Super Six in his “DB Blues” from 1929 as well as name checking Ford and Dodge:

(Oh, here come Lemon in that new Ford sedan. Oh, listen to the motor roar)

Who is that comin’, hey, with his motor so strong?
I say, who is that comin’, hey, with his motor so strong?
That’s Lemon and his DB, people thinks he’s got his good luck on
Gonna get out of my four-cylinder Dodge, I’m gonna get me a Super Six

Get out of my four-cylinder Dodge, get me a Super Six
I’m always ’round the ladies, and I likes to have my business fixed

K.C. Douglas’s first recording was “Mercury Boogie” (later renamed “Mercury Blues”), in 1948 featuring Sidney Maiden (harmonica), Ford Chaney (second guitar), and Otis Cherry (drums). The song has been covered by Steve Miller, David Lindley, Ry Cooder and Dwight Yoakam, and a 1992 version by Alan Jackson was a number two hit on the US country chart. Sonny Boy Williamson II recorded “Pontiac Blues” in 1951. Perhaps no other automobile has inspired more song lyrics than the Cadillac. If the T-Model was the “Poor Man’s Friend”, it was the Cadillac blues singers aspired to as evidenced by numerous songs by artists such as Jerry McCain, Jimmy Liggins, Roy Brown, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Floyd Dixon, Hot Lips Page, among many others.

Among the numerous car songs, some like “Too Many Drivers” and “My Little Machine” became blues standards. “Too Many Drivers” was first recorded by Big Bill Broonzy in 1939 and became a blues standard. Smokey Hogg was the first to cover it in 1947 and Smiley Lewis cut a version in 1954 using the same title. The song was recorded under different titles including “Automobile Blues” by Lightnin’ Hopkins in 1949, “Little Car Blues” by Willie Love in 1951, “Let Me Ride Your Little Automobile” by Lowell Fulson in 1952 and “Little Side Car” by the Larks in 1951 to name a few.

Sonny Boy Williamson I cut “My Little Machine” in 1939 with the oft covered lyric “She got a standard carburetor, my baby been burnin’ bad gasoline.” The song has been covered by artists such as L.C. Green, Jimmy Rogers, Driftin’ Slim and as “Bad Gasoline” by Luke “Long Gone” Miles and “I Been Burning Bad Gasoline” by Lightnin’ Hopkins as well as several other variations.

Perhaps the most famous blues song about an automobile is “Rocket 88” which hit number one on the R&B charts. The song was credited to singer Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats. The band was actually Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm. Brenston sang the lead vocal and was credited with writing “Rocket 88.” The song was recorded in the Memphis studio of producer Sam Phillips in March 1951, and licensed to Chess Records for release. The song glorified the Oldsmobile 88, a full-size car that was sold and produced by Oldsmobile from 1949 until 1999. From 1950 to 1974 the 88 was the division’s top-selling line, particularly the entry-level models such as the 88 and Dynamic 88.