Lonnie Donegan - The Polygon / Nixa / Pye Anthology '2014

Tracks list

Tracklist:

01. The Midnight Special
02. (In the Evening) When the Sun Goes Down  (Live)
03. New Buryin' Ground
04. Worried Man Blues
05. Harmonica Blues
06. Lost John
07. Stewball
08. The Ballad of Jesse James
09. Ol' Riley
10. Railroad Bill
11. Stackalee  (Stack O'lee)
12. Bring a Little Water, Sylvie
13. Dead or Alive
14. Wabash Cannonball
15. How Long, How Long Blues
16. Nobody's Child
17. I Shall Not Be Moved
18. I'm Alabammy Bound
19. I'm a Ramblin' Man
20. Wreck of the Old '97
21. Frankie and Johnny
22. I've Got Rocks in My Bed
23. Rock Island Line
24. Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O
25. On a Monday  (Live at Conway Hall)
26. (Go Down) Old Hannah  (Live at Conway Hall)
27. Muleskinner Blues  (Live at Conway Hall)
28. Precious Memories  (Live at Conway Hall)
29. Brother Moses Smote the Water  (Live at Conway Hall)
30. Ella Speed  (Live at Conway Hall)
31. Glory  (False Start, Live at Conway Hall)
32. Black Girl  (Live at Conway Hall)
33. Glory  (Live at Conway Hall)
34. Cumberland Gap
35. Love Is Strange
36. Theme from 'Light Fingers'
37. Gamblin' Man
38. Gamblin' Man  (Live)
39. Puttin' On the Style  (Live)
40. My Dixie Darling
41. I'm Just a Rolling Stone
42. Jack O'Diamonds
43. Ham and Eggs
44. Hard Travellin'  (Version 1)
45. Grand Coulee Dam
46. Nobody Loves Like an Irishman
47. Sally Don't You Grieve
48. Betty, Betty, Betty
49. Lonesome Traveller
50. The Sunshine of His Love
51. Ain't No More Cane on the Brazos
52. Ain't You Glad You Got Religion
53. Times Are Getting Hard, Boys  (Stereo)
54. Lazy John
55. Light from the Lighthouse
56. I've Got Rocks in My Bed  (Alternate Mix)
57. Long Summer Day  (Stereo)
58. I've Got Rocks in My Bed  (Alternate Take)
59. Shorty George
60. Hard Travellin'  (Version 2)
61. Baby Don't You Know That's Love
62. Lonnie's Skiffle Party, Pt. 1
63. Lonnie's Skiffle Party, Pt. 2
64. Tom Dooley
65. Rock O' My Soul
66. Hard Travellin'  (Version 3)
67. Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour (On the Bedpost Overnight)  (Live)
68. Aunt Rhody (The Old Grey Goose)
69. Bewildered (So Bewildered)
70. It's No Secret
71. Kevin Barry
72. My Laggan Love
73. My Only Son Was Killed In Dublin (The Dying Rebel)
74. Ace in the Hole
75. Fort Worth Jail
76. Whoa Buck (Whoa Back, Buck)
77. The Battle of New Orleans
78. Darling Corey
79. Sal's Got a Sugar Lip
80. Chesapeake Bay
81. Just a Closer Walk With Thee
82. Ice Cream
83. The Gold Rush Is Over
84. The House of the Rising Sun
85. John Hardy
86. Talking Guitar Blues  (US Version)
87. You Pass Me By
88. San Miguel
89. Take This Hammer
90. Fancy Talking Tinker
91. Gloryland
92. Miss Otis Regrets (She's Unable to Lunch Today)
93. Jimmy Brown the Newsboy
94. Mr. Froggy
95. Talking Guitar Blues
96. John Hardy  (Alternate Version)
97. My Old Man's a Dustman
98. The Golden Vanity
99. I Wanna Go Home  (The Wreck of the John B)
100. I Wanna Go Home   (The Wreck of the John B; Long Version)
101. Take This Hammer  (Single Version)
102. Lorelei
103. In All My Wildest Dreams
104. Corrine, Corrina
105. Junko Partner
106. Sorry But I'm Gonna Have to Pass
107. Nobody Understands Me
108. Beyond the Sunset  (US Version)
109. The Wreck of the John B
110. Lively!
111. Black Cat (Cross My Path Today)
112. Banana Split for My Baby
113. When I Was Young
114. Virgin Mary
115. Beyond the Sunset  (UK Version)
116. (Bury Me) Beneath the Willow
117. Leave My Woman Alone
118. Have a Drink On Me
119. Seven Daffodils
120. Just A-Wearying for You
121. Keep on the Sunny Side
122. Tiger Rag
123. Michael Row the Boat Ashore
124. Lumbered
125. The Comancheros
126. Ramblin' 'Round
127. Red Berets
128. The Party's Over
129. Over the Rainbow
130. I'll Never Fall in Love Again
131. Keep On the Sunny Side  (Version 2)
132. I'll Never Fall in Love Again  (Alternate Take)
133. I'll Never Smile Again
134. Pick a Bale of Cotton
135. Steal Away
136. Sing Hallelujah
137. We Shall Walk Through the Valley
138. No Hiding Place
139. Good News! Chariots A' Comin'
140. Noah Found Grace In the Eyes of the Lord
141. Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho
142. His Eye Is On the Sparrow
143. Born in Bethlehem
144. This Train
145. New Burying Ground
146. Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen
147. The Market Song  (Live)
148. Tit Bits  (Live)
149. Losing By a Hair
150. Trumpet Sounds
151. It Was a Very Good Year
152. Rise Up
153. Lemon Tree
154. I've Gotta Gal So Fine
155. 500 Miles Away from Home
156. Beans in My Ears
157. It's a Long Road to Travel
158. Fisherman's Luck
159. There's a Big Wheel
160. Bad News
161. Lovey Told Me Goodbye
162. Get Out of My Life
163. Won't You Tell Me
164. I'm Gonna Be a Bachelor
165. Interstate Forty
166. After Taxes
167. Where in the World (Are We Going)
168. Diamonds of Dew
169. Bound for Zion
170. She Was a T-Bone Talking Woman
171. Wedding Bells
172. Reverend Mr. Black
173. The Doctor's Daughter
174. Blistered
175. Farewell (Fare Thee Well)
176. Louisiana Man
177. Cajun Joe (The Bully of the Bayou)
178. Nothing to Gain
179. World Cup Willie
180. Ding Ding
181. Leaving Blues
182. Auntie Maggie's Remedy
183. (Ah) My Sweet Marie


 Read MoreDonegan mostly listened to swing and vocal acts such as Glenn
Miller, Tommy Dorsey, the Ink Spots, and the Andrews Sisters during the early
'40s, although he also heard some Indian music on the BBC, and African songs as
transliterated for movies. His taste in jazz went toward Louis Armstrong and
Gene Krupa. It was country & western and blues records, especially those by
Frank Crumit and Josh White, that really attracted Donegan's interests. It was
through BBC broadcasts around 1946 that Donegan first started learning to play
songs like "Frankie and Johnny," "Putting on the Style," and "House of the
Rising Sun." Before long, he was working backwards from Josh White to Blind
Lemon Jefferson, Bessie Smith, and Leadbelly, among others, and by the end of
the '40s, Donegan was as literate in American blues as anyone born in England.
He began playing guitar around London, and going to the small jazz clubs
springing up around the city.

He was coaxed into his first band one night when someone approached him on the
train, saying that they'd heard he was a good banjo player, and invited him to
audition for a new group. The man extending the invitation was Chris Barber,
himself an aspiring young jazzman. Donegan had never even held a banjo before
but agreed to come to the audition, then bought a banjo and tried to fake his
way through the try-out. His bluff didn't work but the mix of personalities did,
and he was in Barber's first band. The only way Donegan had of mastering his
instrument was by listening to old records and painstakingly working out the
music and a technique,

In 1949, he was drafted into the British Army. This interrupted his stay in
Barber's band but proved a godsend when he was stationed in Vienna for a year,
which put him in direct contact with American troops and, even more important,
the American Forces Radio Network, which broadcast lots of American music. He
also gained access to more American records than ever before, courtesy of the
U.S. soldiers serving in the city. After his release from the army in 1951, he
found a new source of blues and folk music in London, in the library at the
American Embassy, which allowed visitors to listen to any recordings that were
on hand. Donegan heard it all, even -- by his own admission -- stole a couple,
and absorbed every note.

He formed his own group, the Tony Donegan Jazz Band, in 1952. They were
successful enough that the National Jazz Federation asked the band to play a
show at Festival Hall with American ragtime pianist Ralph Sutton and blues/jazz
legend Lonnie Johnson. The Federation had brought the two over to England in
defiance of a Musicians' Union ban on all foreign performers and needed a
non-union band like Donegan's to play support for the two guests. The master of
ceremonies at the show made a mistake in his announcement, introducing the
American guitarist as "Tony Johnson" and the British banjo man as "Lonnie
Donegan." The name stuck.

Donegan and his band eventually hooked back up with his old friend Chris Barber,
who'd kept his band going throughout the previous two years, and eventually
Barber and Donegan linked up with fellow jazzman Ken Colyer, into a kind of
supergroup led by Colyer. The Ken Colyer Jazzmen, as they were called,
specialized in Dixieland jazz, and built a formidable reputation, their shows
popular in every club they played. It was during these shows, between sets by
the full band, that Donegan would come on-stage with two other players and
perform his own version of American blues, country, and folk standards, punched
up with his own rhythms and accents, on acoustic guitar or banjo, backed by
upright bass and drums. The name "skiffle" was hung on this music as a way of
referring to it on the group's posters. The word, according to Donegan, was
suggested by Ken Colyer's brother Bill, who remembered an outfit called the Dan
Burley Skiffle Group, based in Chicago in the '40s. It seemed to fit, and it
caught on; the Ken Colyer Jazzmen became almost as popular for Donegan's
between-set skiffle songs as they were for their Dixieland music.

Colyer quit the group early in 1954, and Barber took over the leadership. The
Chris Barber Jazz Band, as they became known, were popular enough to justify the
recording of an album for Britain's Decca Records label. The album, New Orleans
Joy, featured songs representative of the group's live set, including a
selection from Donegan's skiffle repertory -- the skiffle group, consisting of
Donegan, Barber on bass, and their friend Beryl Bryden playing rhythm on
washboard, recorded its vocal numbers only after arguing vociferously with the
Decca producer, who wanted an instrumental number. The three laid down four or
five songs while the producer was away, and one of the songs chosen from among
those five for the album was "Rock Island Line."

The album sold 60,000 copies in its first month of release, a huge number in
England at that time for a debut album by a homegrown jazz group. The Chris
Barber Jazz Band had not played before 60,000 people in their whole history, and
a phenomenon was obviously afoot. Encouraged by the initial sales of New Orleans
Joy, the company decided to push its luck by lifting individual songs off the
album as singles. Each of those was a success, and eventually "Rock Island Line"
came up as a 45 rpm release.

The single had a 22-week run on the English charts, peaking at number eight. As
"Rock Island Line" took the country by storm, Decca suddenly had one of the
bigger -- and most wholly unexpected -- hits in its history up to that time.
Before the smoke cleared, "Rock Island Line" also managed to reach the Top 20 in
America, a major feat for a British artist at that time. In six months, "Rock
Island Line" sold three million copies, 50 times the initial sales of the album
it came from, an extraordinary figure in anyone's accounting. It was
exceptionally popular among England's teenagers, who accounted for most of its
sales. They found the record's rhythm to be infectious and its sound alluring in
a way that no record by anyone from England ever had before. It was catchy,
earthy, even bluesy (after a fashion) American music played in a way that the
British kids could master without an enormous amount of trouble -- a guitar or
two, and maybe a banjo, an upright bass (or even one made from a washtub or tea
chest, a broom handle, and a piece of rope), and a washboard-and-thimble for
percussion.

Donegan was only paid a few pounds for the recording, and received no royalties.
He got something more valuable from it than money, however, for "Rock Island
Line" was credited to "The Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group." Donegan was suddenly a
star, with a public that wanted more music from him. His next single for Decca,
"Diggin' My Potatoes," cut at an October 30, 1954 concert at London's Royal
Festival Hall, was banned by the BBC for its suggestive lyrics -- this hurt
sales but also gave Donegan a slight veneer of daring and rebelliousness that
didn't hurt his credibility with the kids. Decca gave up on Donegan soon after,
believing that skiffle was a flash-in-the-pan fad. The next month he was at
Abbey Road Studios in London cutting a song for EMI's Columbia label. He'd left
the Barber band by then -- though Barber continued to play on his records into
the middle of the following year -- enticed into a solo career by offers of huge
amounts of money to embark on a solo performing career. By the spring of 1955,
he was signed to Pye Records, and his single, "Lost John," hit number two in
England, although it never hit in America.

Lonnie Donegan ShowcaseHe was successful enough, however, to be brought over to
America to appear on the Perry Como Show, followed by an appearance on the Paul
Winchell Show. Suddenly, his manager was getting offers of $1500 a week for
concert appearances in cities from Cleveland to New York -- that in a day when
$800 was a year's wage in England to people of Donegan's generation. Donegan
proved to be a popular performer in America, playing on bills with Chuck Berry,
among others. He might've continued touring the United States but for the fact
he got lonely (his wife and newborn child were brought over), and that "Lost
John" had reached number two in England. After his return, he formed a band of
his own, which initially consisted of jazz guitarist Denny Wright, Micky Ashman
on bass, and Nick Nichols on drums. Wright, a jazz player devoted to Django
Reinhardt, proved to be one of the best blues axemen in England at the time,
while Ashman and Nichols made up an exceptionally tight rhythm section. Donegan
cut his first album, Showcase, in the summer of 1956, featuring songs by
bluesmen Leadbelly and Leroy Carr, not to mention moody traditional blues like
"I'm a Ramblin' Man" and A.P. Carter's "Wabash Cannonball." The record was a
hit, racking up sales in the hundreds of thousands.

In concert, the group's sound was fuller still, with Donegan and Wright sharing
guitar chores with bearded, bespectacled Dick Bishop, who had played on
Donegan's earliest records. Still later, Jimmy Currie, a veteran of Tony
Crombie's Rockets (the first home-grown rock & roll band in England, patterned
loosely after Bill Haley's Comets) became Donegan's lead guitarist in what is
regarded as his strongest band. Currie was not only more folk oriented than
Wright, but also wrote songs, although Wright would turn up on Donegan sessions
as late as 1965. Donegan and his band essentially played live in the studio
(there was virtually no overdubbing in those days), but the best record of their
sound comes from a concert recorded at London's Conway Hall on January 25, 1957,
which was later released by Pye. Another compelling glimpse of the group can be
found in the British jukebox movie The Six-Five Special (1957), based on the
popular television series of the period, in which Donegan rips through a killer
live rendition of "Jack 'O Diamonds," as well as a fine cover of Woody Guthrie's
"The Grand Coulee Dam."

While Donegan was racking up hits -- "Bring a Little Water, Sylvie" (number
seven), "Don't You Rock Me, Daddy-O" (number four), "Cumberland Gap (number
six), and "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor On the Bedpost Overnight?"
(number three and number five in the U.S.) all in less than three years --
thousands of skiffle groups were springing up all over England. New artists,
most notably Tommy Steele and, later, Cliff Richard, started out playing skiffle
music and put their own stamp on the material before moving on to other sounds.
Among the many tens of thousands of British teens he inspired were members of
the Beatles, Gerry & the Pacemakers, and the Searchers. By mid-1958, however,
skiffle was waning rapidly as a commercial sound, but Donegan continued to
appear on the charts right into 1962. Only when the next wave of young rockers
came along, who, like Donegan, had their own ideas about music and what they
wanted to do with it, did he finally fade from the charts.

He continued to record sporadically during the '60s, including some sessions at
Hickory Records in Nashville with Charlie McCoy, Floyd Cramer, and the
Jordanaires, but after 1964, he was primarily occupied as a producer for most of
the decade at Pye Records. Among those he worked with during this period was
future Moody Blues guitarist-singer Justin Hayward. Donegan's attempt at a
recording comeback late in the '60s was unsuccessful, but in 1974, a new boomlet
for skiffle music in Germany brought him on tour and into the studio anew, and
the following year he and Chris Barber toured together and recorded a new
long-player, The Great Re-Union Album. In 1976, however, after another series of
shows and recordings in Germany, Donegan suffered a heart attack that left him
sidelined, and he moved to California to recuperate.

In 1978, however, he was back in the studio, recording the album that was his
first chart entry in 15 years, Putting on the Style, an all-star skiffle-style
album that teamed Donegan with Ringo Starr, Elton John, Brian May, Peter Banks,
and other stars and superstars of rock who owed their entry into music to "Rock
Island Line." A follow-up album featuring Albert Lee presented Donegan working
in a somewhat less familiar country & western vein. By 1980, he was making
regular concert appearances again, and a new album with Barber followed. In 1983
Donegan toured England with Billy Joe Spears, and in 1984, he made his
theatrical debut in a revival of the 1920 musical Mr. Cinders. More concert
tours followed, along with a move from Florida to Spain. Heart surgery in 1992
slowed Donegan down again, but by the end of the year he was touring once again
with Chris Barber.

Lonnie Donegan remains a beloved pioneer of English rock & roll, and the king of
skiffle. In the late '90s, his musical credibility came around again to perhaps
the highest level of respect of his life, with several multi-disc hits and
career-wide compilations available. Donegan passed away November 3, 2002,
following heart problems. Unlike a lot of American rock & roll of the mid-'50s,
and even more British attempts at the music from the same period and after,
Donegan's music remains eminently enjoyable and enlivening. ~ Bruce Eder

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