Scrabble Value Letters (Z): Zydeco Honky Tonk

Buckwheat Zydeco : Zydeco Honky Tonk

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     You don't have to be born in a bayou to appreciate this swinging instrumental from Buckwheat Zydeco's 1987 album On A Night Like This. It has been called the most important zydeco album ever made. Not the best. But the most important. With covers of tunes from Bob Dylan ( "On a Night Like This") , The Blasters ("Marie Marie"), Booker T and the MG's ("Time Is Tight")  and the great Clifton Chenier ("Ma 'Tit Fille"), On A Night Like This broke new ground for zydeco music... beginning with a record release party like no other.

   It happened at the Island Records 25th Anniversary Concert . With no notice, Stanley "Buckwheat Zydeco" Dural Jr was shoved on stage with Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr. "Buck" sat at his Hammond B-3 organ.  Sharing his bench was In a Night Like This producer GeorgeFox who recalls what happened in Michael Tisserand's book The Kingdom of Zydeco:

   Ringo is like six feet away on the right, and he's looking over like "What the fuck is this?" And Clapton was maybe five feet in front of us, and Buck gets up there, and Clapton does this solo, and Buck played it on the organ and bumps it up a notch. And Clapton plays what Buck has just played, and he bumps it up a notch. And they're getting into this furious cutting contest, and Clapton hasn't even turned around at this point . And all of a sudden four thousand people are screaming , and Eric just stops playing, and he turns around and he puts his hand out to Buck and says "I'm Eric Clapton. Who are you?" It was just one of those kind of moments.

   Now that's the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Buckwheat Zydeco would soon be touring with Clapton. The album would make many critic's top 10 lists and, by 1988,  you couldn't sit through a TV commercial break without hearing zydeco. Buckwheat Zydeco performed at both Clinton inaugurations and during the Closing Ceremonies of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. You can hear his music in The Big Easy and Adam Sandler's The Waterboy .At 66, Buckwheat Zydeco is still going strong.

Street Names: Route 66

In my house, the movie Cars is a great favorite with six year old son, and therefore the rest of the family knows the movie well. Fortunately, it’s a good one. There are two versions of the song Route 66 on the soundtrack. The one by Chuck Berry is not his best work; he even gets two of the town names wrong. And John Mayer is an artist I enjoy, but his version doesn’t do it for me either. But the connection between the movie and Route 66 does not end there. The town of Radiator Springs is an amalgam of landmarks on the real Route 66. Notably, the Cozy Cone Motel (shown above) is based on the Wigwam Motel, (below). The Wigwam was a chain, and there was even one still in operation in New Jersey when I was growing up. But many Wigwams could be seen along the length of Route 66. The song has been around a while, so there many great versions to choose from.

The Rolling Stones: Route 66

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You never forget your first one. This is how I first heard Route 66, and I thought for a while that the Rolling Stones wrote it. It still sounds great after all these years.

Asleep at the Wheel: Get Your Kicks on Route 66

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Much of the soundtrack of Cars had a country feel to it, so I think they should have used this great western swing version by Asleep at the Wheel. The musical style hails from Oklahoma and Texas, so its right on the way.

Nat King Cole: Route 66

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But where did the song come from? Bobbie Troup wrote it in 1946, and Nat King Cole was the first to record it. My introduction to the music of Nat King Cole was an 8-track tape of his crooning hits that my school bus driver played to death. I hate that stuff. But Cole started out as a jazz player, and his Route 66 reflects this. The crooning would come later.

Buckwheat Zydeco: Route 66

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A quick check of the map will confirm that Route 66 does not wind through Louisiana. But I came across this version while gathering the other tracks for this post, and I couldn’t resist. Enjoy! Or should I say, “Bon temps roullez!”