Tam Duffill, "Cooly Dooly" c/w "You Put the Hurt on Me," Groove 58-0004 (rel. 7/1962)
Rock 'n roller, civil rights activist, poet, musican, teacher...Tamson Duffill, born in Bremerton, Washington, grew up in Virginia. Born in 1940, he was a few years younger than the first wave of rock 'n' rollers. He got interested in the music while a teenager, and taught himself the guitar. He played in public as a member of several local bands and, at 21, made his lone single for RCA's newly-revived Groove imprint. This subsidiary began in 1954 and was put on hiatus in 1957. Its second go-round, which included a mix of white, Black and Latino artists in all genres, spanned 1961-65.
Groove's first incarnation was to segregate Black rhythm and blues from its main pop series. By 1957, that was a bad look for the top record label; with an audible sigh of reluctance, RCA-Victor put all their artists on the main "dog" label. Groove's resuscitation in 1961 might have been the pet project of some ambitious young record executive. They might have seen the side labels other companies developed and thought it would be fun to follow their example.
In both runs, Groove is a fascinating imprint. There are a few lemons in the 1960s releases, but the inclusion of weak white pop and country acts made that inevitable. Tam Duffill was neither. His lone single couples a wild rockabilly original and a cover version of a current New Orleans item by Prince La La (the stage name of Lawrence Nelson). Duffill cut these two sides in RCA's New York studio with producer Ray Ellis. Among the session musicians on these songs was Vincent Bell, who plays his trademark 'water guitar'--a self-made effect whose secret he carried to his grave.
This was, in essence, a 1964 recording made two years too early. In the immediate wake of The Beatles' game-changing entrance into the American zeitgeist, Duffill would have been au courant. In 1962, he made music that stood zero chance of chart success. 1962 pop music was modernized, streamlined and smoothed out. It smacks of efficiency and poise. The wild side pokes up in-between the careful grooming and tailored presentation; it couldn't stay cooped up too long without rebellion.
"Cooly Dooly" evokes the spirit of Jerry Lee Lewis at Sun Records, and is a rollicking good rocker--a surprise, given where it was recorded and when. I don't hear Vincent Bell on this side, but the session musicians are excellent on this surprising burst of genuine and energetic rockabilly. Duffill's vocal style reminds of J. P. Richardson (BKA The Big Bopper) and his loopy lyrics of high-school carousing and cavorting are colorful and endearing. Two years later, this might've been a pop hit. The week it was released, Bobby Vinton's "Roses are Red" topped the pop charts; also in the Top 10 were Neil Sedaka's "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" and the double-whammy of ethnic cringe, Pat Boone's "Speedy Gonzalez" and Ray Stevens' "Ahab the Arab." No room at the inn for real rock 'n' roll!
Groove's first incarnation was to segregate Black rhythm and blues from its main pop series. By 1957, that was a bad look for the top record label; with an audible sigh of reluctance, RCA-Victor put all their artists on the main "dog" label. Groove's resuscitation in 1961 might have been the pet project of some ambitious young record executive. They might have seen the side labels other companies developed and thought it would be fun to follow their example.
In both runs, Groove is a fascinating imprint. There are a few lemons in the 1960s releases, but the inclusion of weak white pop and country acts made that inevitable. Tam Duffill was neither. His lone single couples a wild rockabilly original and a cover version of a current New Orleans item by Prince La La (the stage name of Lawrence Nelson). Duffill cut these two sides in RCA's New York studio with producer Ray Ellis. Among the session musicians on these songs was Vincent Bell, who plays his trademark 'water guitar'--a self-made effect whose secret he carried to his grave.
This was, in essence, a 1964 recording made two years too early. In the immediate wake of The Beatles' game-changing entrance into the American zeitgeist, Duffill would have been au courant. In 1962, he made music that stood zero chance of chart success. 1962 pop music was modernized, streamlined and smoothed out. It smacks of efficiency and poise. The wild side pokes up in-between the careful grooming and tailored presentation; it couldn't stay cooped up too long without rebellion.
"Cooly Dooly" evokes the spirit of Jerry Lee Lewis at Sun Records, and is a rollicking good rocker--a surprise, given where it was recorded and when. I don't hear Vincent Bell on this side, but the session musicians are excellent on this surprising burst of genuine and energetic rockabilly. Duffill's vocal style reminds of J. P. Richardson (BKA The Big Bopper) and his loopy lyrics of high-school carousing and cavorting are colorful and endearing. Two years later, this might've been a pop hit. The week it was released, Bobby Vinton's "Roses are Red" topped the pop charts; also in the Top 10 were Neil Sedaka's "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" and the double-whammy of ethnic cringe, Pat Boone's "Speedy Gonzalez" and Ray Stevens' "Ahab the Arab." No room at the inn for real rock 'n' roll!
Cash Box worked up a small bit of enthusiasm for this doomed-upon-release rocker. It was not solid vacation-time wazing for the teeners, sales-wise.
On the obverse is "You Put the Hurt on Me." The Prince La La original is a hard-edged piece of New Orleans soul with a modern sound. Duffill turns the song into a country-flavored novelty with a touch of Latin beat. Vincent Bell's liquid guitar riffs answer Tam's comical country-flavored vocal.
It bears comparison with the original, which you can hear here:
It bears comparison with the original, which you can hear here:
Prince La La's original is delivered with a similar humor; it was a clever twist to countrify this bouncy song of love gone wrong told with tongue in cheek. Such playful cover versions weren't seen in 1962 pop music; two or three years later, they're all over the pop charts. To be ahead of one's time is often a guarantee for commercial failure. Since RCA did little to promote their new singles, unless a known star was attached to them, this Groove fell into the giant rut that held 100,000 failed RCA-Victor releases unknown to the buying public when new.
Duffill didn't record in the rock or pop idiom again. He got into folk music, and his obituary states he was part of civil rights efforts in the Deep South prior to the passing of the 1965 voting rights act (the one shot down by modern-day imbecilic, smug bigots who pollute the air they breathe by their very existence). He may have recorded in the folk vein under another name; no evidence of other singles or albums can be found in various databases.
The obituary states he was a high-school history teacher later in life. He began to experience health issues in 1969, and much of his adult life was lived in the Atlanta, GA area. Beloved by his friends and family, Tam Duffill passed on in 2014. Two years later, his widow self-published Troubadour for the Troubled: The Meditations, Poems and Songs of Tam Duffill. The core of the book are writings Duffill made while on hiatus in a rural cabin in Georgia. The introductions, which give some additional flavor of this individual's life and being, can be seen online. He was a one-of-a-kind guy.
Tomorrow: the early successes of Ruth Brown, as gathered on a quite rare 1953 Atlantic Records EP, which includes her debut A-side from 1949.
The obituary states he was a high-school history teacher later in life. He began to experience health issues in 1969, and much of his adult life was lived in the Atlanta, GA area. Beloved by his friends and family, Tam Duffill passed on in 2014. Two years later, his widow self-published Troubadour for the Troubled: The Meditations, Poems and Songs of Tam Duffill. The core of the book are writings Duffill made while on hiatus in a rural cabin in Georgia. The introductions, which give some additional flavor of this individual's life and being, can be seen online. He was a one-of-a-kind guy.
Tomorrow: the early successes of Ruth Brown, as gathered on a quite rare 1953 Atlantic Records EP, which includes her debut A-side from 1949.
Two fun songs! Definitely in the Jerry Lee Lewis/Jiles Perry Richardson Jr.-adjacent pool of music. Duffill's delivered version of "You Put The Hoyt On Me" with Bell's water guitar makes this an almost-novelty record. It could have been a more serious blueser like 1956's "I Put A Spell On You."
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