Dream boogie: the triumph of Sam Cooke (115 page)

176
They were on the third or fourth take of [“Summertime”]: The order of the songs remains in dispute in the accounts of the various participants. Bumps, however, was adamant that they had completed “You Send Me” before Art walked in, and Rupe’s remark to René Hall about the arrangement of “Summertime” tends to bear him out.

176
“something new in the creative world”: Steve Propes interview with René Hall.

176
he launched . . . into a tirade: In addition to the sources listed above, see Stuart Colman, “The Many Sides of René Hall,”
New Kommotion
25, 1980, which has a good description by René of the tirade.

176
“You’re going to try and turn everything into Billy Ward’s Dominoes”: This is from a BBC interview with René Hall.

176
“when I woke up, I had a different concept of the song”: Michael Ochs and Ed Pearl interview with Bumps Blackwell, 1981.

177
“the classical frosting on the cake”: Steve Propes interview with René Hall.

177
Sam . . . “just wanted to quit”: Bumps Blackwell interview, Specialty archives.

177
they finished the session: In Bumps’ interview in the Specialty archives, he has Art Rupe staying around and getting them to change their approach to Sam’s “You Were Made For Me,” with René supplying “that little jig beat” that Art liked so much on guitar. In Rupe’s recollection, there was no question that he stayed till the end. AFM records show the session running half an hour overtime, going from 1:30 to 5
P.M.

177
“the ill feeling that was created by me critizing the session”:
In His Own Words: Art Rupe—The Story of Specialty Records
(Ace CD 542).

178
“I began to feel that Bumps was functioning [more] as Sam’s manager”: This comes from Art Rupe’s faxed communications to me. In notes from a telephone discussion with Little Richard on August 22, 1956, Rupe remarked with respect to Bumps’ undependability: “He told Richard he wanted to start his own record company.” Rupe forced Bumps to give up managing Richard not long afterward over that same question of loyalty.

178
an almost naked, covetous desire “for bread pure and simple”: This is from “Salient points from ANR’s [Arthur N. Rupe’s] Talk, from tape,” n.d., Specialty archives, but Art expressed the same sentiments on many other occasions, including in his faxed communications to me.

178
“Art just assumed he was superior”: Bill Millar interview with Sonny Knight, 1981.

179
“I just felt, I’m not going to fool with these people”:
In His Own Words: Art Rupe—The Story of Specialty Records.

179
“I know I owe you money”: Bumps Blackwell interview, Specialty archives.

179
“I knew I had ten thousand dollars coming”: Bumps Blackwell interview, Specialty archives. Bumps went on to speculate that the total he was owed may have been closer to $50,000 (“In court I found out I had [actually] given up fifty thousand, which I didn’t know at the time”), but I think he was more on track here.

180
“I figured, well, this stuff’ll sell maybe a hundred, a hundred fifty thousand”:
In His Own Words: Art Rupe—The Story of Specialty Records.

180
he never told his wife: Bumps Blackwell interview, Specialty archives.

180
René told him about a businessman: Steve Propes interview with René Hall. Further information on the earliest inception of Keen Records comes from my interviews with Art Foxall, Bob Keane, J.W. Alexander, and John Siamas Jr.

181
The deal . . . put Bumps in charge: John Siamas Jr. specifically recalled the gospel component, which would explain J.W. Alexander’s otherwise anomalous presence.

182
Bumps came out to the house for the first time: Bumps estimated the deal to have been made June 15 in a later lawsuit against the company.

182
They agreed on terms similar to Bumps’ arrangement: The terms were spelled out in Bob Keane’s June 8, 1958, telephone conversation with Art Rupe (annotated in the Specialty archives) and in Bumps’ 1960 lawsuit.

183
a name for the label: According to Bumps Blackwell in part 2 of Michael Watts‘
Melody Maker
profile, September 2, 1972, John Siamas Jr. came up with the name when he said, “It’s keen, Dad.”

183
The corporation had four principal investors: As with so many financial matters for which no written records have surfaced, this is subject to interpretation. My account largely follows John Siamas Jr.’s recollection of the financial arrangements, along with Bob Keane’s vivid sense of exclusion from what he understood his role in the company to be. With respect to John Siamas’ uncles Andy and Paul Karras, there is some discrepancy in the spelling of the family name, but John Siamas Jr. says this is the correct spelling.

183
Sam spent the summer on the sofa: Information on Sam’s two months of anxious waiting, as well as on his apprenticeship to Bumps and the kind treatment he received from him, comes largely from interviews with Rip Spencer and L.C. Cooke, in addition to Bumps’ own interviews.

185
the burgeoning L.A. r&b community: Apart from Rip Spencer’s patient elucidation of both the history and the spirit of the scene, historical perspective comes primarily from Steve Propes and Galen Gart,
L.A. R&B Vocal Groups 1945-1965;
Mitch Rosalsky,
Encyclopedia of Rhythm & Blues and Doo-Wop Vocal Groups;
and Bill Millar,
The Coasters,
pp. 86ff.

186
“he was like a big brother to all of us”: Information and quotes on Jesse Belvin come primarily from Jim Dawson liner notes for the 1986 LP
Hang Your Tears Out to Dry
(Earth Angel JD-900); also Ray Topping liners for the 1991 CD
Goodnight My Love
(Ace 336).

186
“I’ll bring Hollywood to the blacks”: Tom Reed,
The Black Music History of Los Angeles—Its Roots: A Classical Pictorial History of Black Music in Los Angeles from 1920-1970,
p. 78.

187
“I could break a record”: Dick “Huggy Boy” Hugg, as told to Jim Dawson, “Huggy Boy: The Voice of Dolphin’s of Hollywood,”
Juke Blues
17.

188
“a self-sufficient community with two black-owned newspapers”: Morris Newman, “New Riffs for a Street Linked to Jazz,”
New York Times,
March 23, 1997.

188
Sam took acting lessons: Sam spoke of his acting training in interviews with the
Amsterdam News,
December 21, 1957, and the
Chicago Defender,
October 25, 1958, and it is referred to in the program book for the Howard Miller-promoted show at the Chicago Opera House in December.

188
he added a letter to his last name: Art Rupe, in his remarks on the Soul Stirrers in the Specialty archives, says Bumps Blackwell gave Sam the
e.
Bob Keane took credit for it in his conversation with me and said it was “for class.” Bumps said he suggested it to give Sam an even number of letters between his two names in Daniel Wolff, with S. R. Crain, Clifton White, and G. David Tenenbaum,
You Send Me: The Life and Times of Sam Cooke,
p. 153. Both L.C. Cooke and his sister Agnes scoffed at the idea that Sam would care about the number of letters in his name. Sam signed his contract on September 7 with his still-legal name of “Cook.”

188
Harry Belafonte . . . was reported to be looking at a $1 million gross:
Amsterdam News,
August 3, 1957.

189
Specialty [would] be losing “a lot of [its] spiritual artists”: Sister Wynona Carr to Art Rupe, July 18, 1957.

189
He had acetates cut: Art Rupe specifies the date as July 29 in handwritten notes for his lawsuit against Sam and Keen.

189
Bumps jollied him along with paternal good humor: The tone is described by L.C. Cooke and Rip Spencer. Bumps liked to say (particularly in the interview housed in the Specialty archives) that he spent the entire summer recording Sam, searching in vain for a commercial hit, then, “three months later,” suddenly recollected the two sides he had cut for Specialty. However, not only is there no record of any of these recording sessions with Sam, but Bumps, in fact, started distributing acetates for the single within a month of his arrival at Keen, then had the record mastered on August 28, prior to which there was no record company. Not to mention the fact that it is inconceivable that he would have forgotten something in which he believed so strongly and for which he had paid so dearly.

189
The phone lines of Hamilton’s booking agency:
Los Angeles Sentinel,
July 25, 1957.

190
The Soul Stirrers themselves were beginning to wonder: The Soul Stirrers’ situation was detailed in my interviews with Leroy Crume, Lee Hildebrand’s interview with Paul Foster, and Lee Hildebrand and Opal Louis Nations’ liner notes for the 1993 Soul Stirrers CD,
Heaven Is My Home
(Specialty 7040).

190
Little Johnny Jones, the lead singer of the Swanee Quintet: Biographical information on Little Johnny Jones is primarily from Opal Louis Nations’ liners to a 1996 release,
Let’s Go Back to God,
by Little Johnny Jones and the Johnny Jones Singers (Nashboro 4535).

190
The Soul Stirrers, “[he] told disappointed Atlanta gospel music lovers”: Marion E. Jackson, “Soul Stirrers Vow to Carry On in Gospel Music Field,”
Atlanta Daily World,
July 16, 1957.

191
Crume had gone to see him: According to Crume, the Stirrers approached the QCs’ co-lead, Spencer Taylor, first, but Spencer said he couldn’t join them until he had fulfilled a week’s worth of scheduled QC engagements. When the group went to Johnnie Taylor, he was obviously burdened by no such constraint. Paul Foster, in his 1981 interview with Ray Funk, expressed his own reservations about Johnnie Taylor, which included sending him back to Chicago to learn a little humility shortly after he joined.

191
the Big Gospel Cavalcade:
Amsterdam News,
August 3, 1957, news item, and Jesse H. Walker, “Gospel Singing on the Move as Package Show Heads South,” August 17; also “Singing for Sinners,”
Newsweek,
September 2, 1957.

193
he lacked brains, talent, trustworthiness: “Excerpts from shorthand notes, Bob Keane telephone conversation, Sunday, June 8, 1958,” Specialty archives.

193
Bob spoke with Andy Karras: From speaking with John Siamas Jr. and Bob Keane, and from other interviews of Keane’s (including Howard DeWitt, “Bob Keane: The Oracle of Del-Fi Records,”
Blue Suede News
34, and Jim Powers, “Del-Fi Records,”
Goldmine,
May 7, 1999; also Steve Propes’ interview with Keane, 1984), this is my best understanding of the situation. Keane said, in his June 8, 1958, telephone conversation with Art Rupe, that he severed relations with Siamas on September 6 (a Friday). With regard to financial specifics, much testimony has been offered, but, perhaps understandably, I’m not sure how much light has been shed. The crux of the problem, clearly, is over the voice of the verb “owed.” Bob Keane felt that he was owed something substantial; John Siamas felt just as strongly that Bob Keane owed the company something more than the investment of his labor. In the end the argument comes down to the usual misunderstanding over the placement of a decimal point, or several.

194
Bob Keane left the company . . . with a plan to start his own label: He did, approximately three months later, calling it Del-Fi after the Greek oracle at Delphi, who customarily spoke in riddles. Within a year he had had a huge double-sided pop hit with Ritchie Valens’ “Donna” and “La Bamba.”

194
Sam . . . laid down three tunes: The tape box specifies songs and date.

194
his 10 percent manager’s cut: “Excerpts from shorthand notes, Bob Keane telephone conversation, Sunday, June 8, 1958,” Specialty archives.

194
the release of the first two Keen singles: “You Send Me” (Keen 4013) was the label’s first release, in early September 1957. The next appears to have been “Hey Team” (Keen 4001), with additional releases following more or less in sequential order, I believe, through 4012. The Andex label was begun at about this point at 2001 and merged in May with the 4000 series, which restarted at 4014. There were some additional variants, but if there was any numerical logic to it, I don’t know what it is—nor does John Siamas Jr.

194
Dolphin’s of Hollywood had been well primed: Bob Keane told me about bringing Sam around to Dolphin’s. Rip Spencer said that Dolphin’s was a regular hangout of theirs, and Lou Rawls spoke of frequent visits, which included the Harrison and Ross Funeral Home nearby, where one of the owner’s daughters was crazy about Sam.

195
“Nobody,” said René Hall . . . “realized how big the record was”: This quote combines Hall’s descriptions of the Elks Hall dance from interviews with the BBC and Steve Propes. Bob Keane spoke of Sam playing the dance not for money but for airplay.