Maillist
Various
- Baby, How Can It Be? (Songs of Love, Lust & Contempt from the 1920s & 30s)
- Format: CD Album
- Catalogue Number: DTD16CD
- Number of Discs: 3
- Label: Dust To Digital
- Release Date: 25 October 2010
- PRICE: £26.99
Baby, How Can It Be? (Songs of Love, Lust & Contempt from the 1920s & 30s)
Three CDs from the 78 rpm record collection of John Heneghan with liner notes by Nick Tosches and several illustrations by R Crumb. “This is a trove of delights, many of which will be new to even the furthest gone among us. ” – Nick Tosches, from the liner notes “Like the man says, love is a many-splendored thing. Those who have it, had it, or hold vague memories of something like it. Those who have yearned and pined for it. Those who have thrown it away, or cried over it, or are incapable of it. Those who have killed themselves or others or both over it. Everybody knows that what the man says is true. No wonder there have been so many songs about it, going way back, all the way back to the Song of Songs, or the Song of Solomon, or whatever the hell you want to call it, and before that even.” – Nick Tosches, from the liner notes “As is commonly recognized, or so at least it should be stated for matters at hand, the 1920s and 1930s represented the golden age of the love song. Baby, How Can It Be? Songs of Love, Lust and Contempt—don’t forget that odi-et-amo angle—from the 1920s and ’30s reflects that age of gold resplendently. Chosen from the collection of John Heneghan, the sixty-six recordings here are alive with more cooing, kissing, cupidity, cussing, and killing than lifetimes of longing, heavenly and demonic, could ever aspire to. Talk about a handful of young roe and its discontents. As them Hebe smut-hounds of old used to say, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet.” – Nick Tosches, from the liner notes
Track Listing
Disc One:
- Baby, How Can It Be? – Bo Carter
- My Angeline – Mississippi Maulers
- I Wants My Lulu – McGhee & Welling
- If I Had My Way – Norridge Mayhams and His Barbecue Boys
- We Courted in the Rain – “Dock” Walsh
- Poche Town – Joseph Falcon
- My Pretty Little Indian Napanee – Davey Miller
- Hapa Haole Hula Girl – Kalama’s Quartette
- Sweetest Girl in Town – Oscar Ford
- I’m Crazy ’Bout My Baby – Ted Lewis and His Band
- That’s What the Old Bachelor’s Made Out Of – Taylor’s Kentucky Boys
- Then I’ll Be Happy – The Southern Serenaders
- Always Marry Your Lover – Dick Reinhart
- Johnny, Will You Marry Me? – Dan Sullivan’s Shamrock String Band
- That’s What I Call Keen – Eddie South and His Alabamians
- Insane Crazy Blues – Memphis Jug Band
- Lost Lover Blues – Lottie Kimbrough and Winston Holmes
- My Four Reasons – “Banjo Ikey” Robinson and His Bull Fiddle Band
- Hard For To Love – Hayes Shepherd
- Don’t Leave Me Here – Henry Thomas
Disc Two:
- The Gal That Got Stuck on Everything She Seen Said – Uncle Dave Macon
- Tomi, Tomi – Stomp – Kanui & Lula
- Minnie the Mermaid (A Love Song in Fish Time) – Bernie Cummins and His Hotel New Yorker Orchestra
- I’d Feel Much Better - Virginia Four
- Mama You’re a Mess – Kid Smith and Family
- Pussy – Harry Roy and His Bat Club Boys
- It’s Heated – Frankie “Half-Pint” Jaxon
- I Ain’t a Bit Drunk – George “Shortbuckle” Roark
- Shortnin’ Bread – Bobbie Leecan’s Need-More Band
- Strut That Thing – Cripple Clarence Lofton
- Tiptoe Through the Tulips – Eddie Peabody
- Wild About My Loving – Lonnie Coleman
- There’s More Pretty Girls Than One – Rutherford & Foster
- I’m Feelin’ Devilish – Fess Williams and His Royal Flush Orchestra
- Let Me Play With It – Hartman’s Heartbreakers
- If You Can’t Land Her on the Old Veranda – Cliff Edwards
- Murphy’s Wife – Frank Quinn
- Queen of the South Sea Isles – Hawaiian Beach Combers
- How I Got My Gal – Clyde Evans Band
- Nehi Mama Blues – Frank Stokes
- Curley-Headed Woman – Burnett & Rutherford
Disc Three:
- I’m Gonna Kill Myself – Laura Smith
- She Ain’t Built That Way – Asa Martin
- How Can You Look So Good – Cliff Edwards
- You Gonna Look Like a Monkey When You Get Old – Robert Hill
- I’m Wearin’ the Britches Now – Bill Carlisle
- Sweet to Mama – State Street Boys
- I Used to Call Her Baby – Dallas String Band
- I Got Worry (Love Is On My Mind) – “Doc” Cook and His 14 Doctors of Syncopation
- He Went In Like a Lion (But Came Out Like a Lamb) – The Carolina Buddies
- Married Girls Troubles – Hazel Scherf
- Some Of These Days - Cab Calloway and His Orchestra
- Who Stole De Lock? – The Georgia Browns
- Pretty Mama Blues – Joe Linthcome
- I Want To Ask The Stars – Callahan Brothers
- Some Cold Rainy Day – Bertha “Chippie” Hill
- Corinna Blues – Blind Lemon Jefferson
- Big Leg Blues – Mississippi John Hurt
- I Don’t Let the Girls Worry My Mind – Crowder Brothers
- Wimmin-Aaah! – Broadway Bellhops
- The World Is Going Wrong – Mississippi Sheiks
- Left All Alone Again Blues – Lowe Stokes & His North Georgians
- After You’ve Gone – Al Trent and His Orchestra
- It’s a Shame To Whip Your Wife on Sunday – Fiddlin’ John Carson & His Virginia Reelers
- Hard Working Woman – Mississippi Matilda
- Worrying Blues – Macon Ed & Tampa Joe

