Boogie Woogie Piano

The soulful legacy of Jerry Leiber

Like many a Beatles fanatic before me, I first fell beneath the sway of the music of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller through the Fabs.

I was mildly curious that the song “Kansas City,” from the “Beatles For Sale” LP, was not credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and that curiosity was piqued when I remembered where I’d first seen the Leiber/Stoller songwriting credit — beneath “Hound Dog,” on an Elvis Presley collection I’d borrowed from the library and tried, in vain, to find a way of keeping. (Mom wasn’t having any of that, thank you very much.)

Too young at the time — 5, roughly — to really muster the energy to dig deeper than my idols, and with Google still merely a glimmer in the local library card catalog’s eye, I let it go. But the whole Leiber/ Stoller thing kept on reappearing. In the mid-1970s, my favorite tune on Lennon’s all-covers solo album “Rock and Roll” was his vocal cord-bursting take on “Stand By Me.” There they were again.

It seems fitting, with the benefit of recollection, that my introduction to Leiber — who passed away at the age of 78 on Monday — and Stoller came via a white British band obsessed with African-American songs. Leiber and Stoller were always about cross-pollination anyway.

The duo — Leiber the lyricist able to capture the essence of teenage angst with an unrivaled economy of verse, Stoller the boogie-woogie pianist with an ear for indelible melodies — started out in the 1950s writing what were still called, inexcusably, “race records.”

“Hound Dog” was in fact originally penned for Big Mama Thornton, as a bawdy, blatantly sexual slab of roadhouse rhythm and blues.

By the time it reached me — and millions of others — via Presley’s take on the tune, it had lost none of its frank funkiness and leering lasciviousness. These had, after all, been written into the tune.

As a 5-year-old, I had no real idea what was going on with this song, but it scared the hell out of me, and without my knowing it, dictated the course of my life from that point forward. The time spent since has really been all about recapturing the thrill of hearing McCartney belt out “Kansas City,” or Elvis sneering through “Hound Dog,” or Lennon pouring his entire being into “Stand By Me,” all over again.

Ruby Pseudo Wants a Word: Can I have a bit of Boogie Woogie piano ...

I know how you feels Jools™, I got a similarly giddy feeling when I copped iTunes nearly 10 years ago. Anyways a nearly-elderly-man-boy being off the beat technologically is hardly worth getting dizzy about; he's only human. What is probably worthy of more interrogation are the claims made by "revolutionary" company who brought us this. Browse albums by spinning volume knob - push to play (don't know where to begin) Display track names as they play (really?) Delete tracks you don't like (how novel) Seven rainbow colour coded playlists (?!) Segue function blends one track into another (you mean a "cross-fade"?) One touch record from vinyl, cassette or radio (you mean a "record button" like in the olden days) One button plays the entire music collection at random (like itunes or shuffle mode or many other variations on a theme) Plays MP3 downloads - future proof (personal favourite this one, "future proof", brilliant) Clock with an alarm (like a clock radio almost) Backup music to external USB hard disk for safe keeping (this is witch-craft how is this technology not front page news!) Accuse me of being a cynical shit all you want (you'd be right); all I'd say is aiming obsolete (or at the very least dated) technologies through a framework of innovation and newness represents a highly cynical ploy itself. The fact this is being aimed at an older generation only compounds it. Not because elderly people should be embracing new technology but because this paen to 1980s-1990s technology is the business end of £400. 'It has always been important to put the consumer at the forefront of your thinking. In today's ever changing world, it is more important than ever. What Ruby and her Network offer is an unfiltered, honest and real view of how kids are interacting with your brand - real time.

Piano girl, lessons in life, love, and the perfect blue Hawaiian

Piano girl, lessons in life, love, and the perfect blue Hawaiian

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