Music Review: Various Artists – Baby How Can It Be? Songs Of Love, Lust & Contempt From The 1920s & 1930s

After more than five years of reviewing what feels like thousands of different music CDs a great many of the titles I’ve covered have vanished into the haze of my memory. It’s one of the reasons I don’t review nearly as many titles as I once did, there’s only so many different ways I have of saying the same thing over and over again for music that’s all beginning to sound suspiciously similar. For someone to stand out enough for me to remember not only their name, but exactly what they’ve done, means there was something remarkably distinctive about them. In some cases that might mean they were such an absolute horror show that you can’t help but recall them with a shudder.

But as in the case of the Eden & John’s East River String Band’s disc, Some Cold Rainy Day, there are recordings where a love of the material being performed combines with the skill and passion necessary to bring it to life results in the creation of something truly special. On the above album Eden and John went deep into the past of American popular music for their material and play the tunes on instruments – vintage archtop guitar, and resonator ukulele – from the era. However, these are not just lovingly presented museum pieces, Eden and John throw so much of themselves into the pieces they take on new life and are just as relevant as anything written today.

It turns out that John Heneghan, the John from the group’s name, is not only a fan and performer of music from the 1920s and 30s, he’s also an avid collector of recordings from the era. Blues, jazz, country, and Hawaiian are only a few of the genres that are apparently represented in his vast collection of old 78 rpm discs. It was this resource that Heneghan drew upon when compiling the latest release for the Dust To Digital label. Baby How Can It Be: Songs Of Love, Lust & Contempt From The 1920s And 1930s is a three disc collection of over sixty tunes that cut across race, genre, geographical boundaries and gender. While the historical significance of this release is obvious, its a brilliant snap-shot of the variety of popular music created during those two decades, listeners are also going to be surprised and delighted by the material for its own sake. In fact you’ll probably even experience quite a sense of regret that this music has been forgotten over the years, as a great deal of it is every bit as good, if not better, than most of what’s being written today around the same themes.

I think what might surprise people the most is how graphic some of the material is. If Tipper Gore had problems with the “Mature Content” of rap songs, I wonder what she’d make of songs with titles like “Let Me Play With It” or lyrics like those of the song “Pussy” where the singer talks about stroking his woman’s pussy. The sexual innuendo isn’t exactly subtle and the double entendres fly fast and thick in quite a few songs, but especially on the second disc of the set, subtitled “Lust”. Oh and if you think only the male singers are raunchy, well you really have led a sheltered life haven’t you. Don’t worry, Mississippi Matilda will set you straight as she sings to you what’s it like to be a “Hard Working Woman”. There’s also songs that won’t offend the more delicate sensibilities out there as well like “Tip Toe Through The Tulips With Me”, the original version by Eddie Peabody not Tiny Tim. It’s still done on ukulele, and still annoying, but make sure you listen closely to the lyrics, you won’t regret it.

While there are a few other familiar names that pop up in the credits and titles; Cab Calloway and His Orchestra, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Mississippi John Hurt are probably the three most widely recognized names; the reality is that even they aren’t what you’d call household names anymore. While some of the material and the people performing them have very rightly been swallowed up by the mists of time, the majority are tunes well worth listening to, and if there were any justice in the world, would still be listened to on a regular basis today.

As previously mentioned the second disc in the set contains material that revolves around the theme of “Lust”. Each of the other two discs are similarly organized with the first focusing on “Love” and the third on “Contempt”. While you might be tempted to skip over the first disc in order to sample what “Lust” and “Contempt” have to offer (Love songs are a dime a dozen these days, but how many good contempt songs have you heard recently?) don’t let yourself be prejudiced by thoughts of contemporary songs. Where else are you going to hear bands like Banjo Ikey Robinson and His Bull Fiddle Band or Little Kimbrough and Winston Holmes and songs with titles like “That’s What The Bachelor’s Made Out Of ” (Taylor’s Kentucky Boys) and “Insane Crazy Blues”? (Charlie Burse with Memphis Jug Band) Believe me when I tell you they don’t write love songs like these anymore, and while not all of them are going to appeal to everyone, the great thing about this collection is if you don’t like a tune – skip ahead to the next because its going to be something completely different from what’s come before.

Of course some of the best titles are to be found on the “Contempt” disc; “You Gonna Look Like A Monkey When You Get Old”, “Wimmin-Aaah!”, and “Its A Shame To Whip Your Wife On Sunday”. The latter very pleasantly reminds listeners that there’s no need to whip your wife, or do any manner of things on Sundays, as there plenty more days of the week for you to take care of those tasks without violating the Sabbath. While there is great material throughout the collection, there seems to have been something about “Contempt” that inspired people that little bit extra. Not only are there more songs on this side than either of the other two, there’s no denying that on the whole they’re a good deal more interesting. It’s been said that love and hate are the opposite faces of the same coin, but in the case of popular music from the 1920 and 30s it seems like people might have spent a little more on despising then they did on adoring.

A lot of trouble has been taken with creating an appropriate package for the music on these three discs and you can’t help but appreciate both the artwork and the photographs used as covers, labels for the CDs and in the accompanying booklet. While the photographs are period pieces, the art work, which are wonderful reproductions of the Art Deco style of the era, were created especially for the project by the great R. Crumb of underground comic fame from the 1960s and 70s. For those only familiar with Mr. Natural and others of Crumb’s underground family, the work done for this CD will certainly surprise you, but he’s done a great job in helping create a suitable atmosphere for the music.

Baby How Can It Be: Songs Of Love, Lust & Contempt From The 1920s & 1930s is a veritable cross section of American popular music. What’s truly wonderful about it is that no matter what genre the song, it predates the era of slick presentation and commercial concerns whose end result was to reduce everything to its lowest common denominator. This is a trip back to the days when not all popular songs sounded alike or adhered to some industry dictated formula for success. The material on these discs are the real roots of American popular music, but much of it has been forgotten or ignored over the years. While unfortunately a great deal of what was recorded in the time period represented by this collection has been lost, the samples offered by it give us some indication of just how rich and vibrant our popular music culture once was. If nothing else, maybe this collection will inspire people who hear it to seek out more of the same and others to open their eyes to the limitless possibilities of popular music.