Dance with Me Honey
| Dance with Me Honey (Rock with me Baby No. 2) |
|
|---|---|
 |
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| Billy Lee Riley | |
| publication | 1973 |
| length | 2:27 |
| Genre (s) | Rock and roll |
| Author (s) |
Billy Lee Riley , John Marascalco |
| Publisher (s) | Knox Music, Robin Hood Music |
| Label | Charly Records |
| album | Sun Rockabillys - Put Your Cat Clothes On |
Dance with Me Honey is a rock 'n' roll song by the American musician Billy Lee Riley . Riley recorded the song for Sun Records in 1957 , but it was not released until 1973 under the title Rock with Me Baby . Since there was already a title of the same name by Riley, the piece also became Rock with me Baby No. 2 consecutively numbered. There are contradicting information on the authorship, in addition to Riley, John Marascalco is also listed as the author. The piece is based on the 12 bar blues. The text is an offensive invitation to the beloved for a carefree and happy time. The song was included in several Billy Lee Riley compilations at a time when Riley was making a late comeback through the rockabilly revival. In contrast to the singer's classic Sun repertoire, Dance with Me Honey remained relatively unnoticed.
Creation and publication
The Mississippi-born songwriter John Marascalco had auditioned at Sam Phillips on the recommendation of Elvis Presley and was allowed to provide material for the well-known label. With Wouldn't You Know he contributed at least one song to Billy Lee Riley's single repertoire. Even Dance with Me Honey is him in relevant databases under the title Come with Me Honey attributed. The exact circumstances for the creation of the title are not known. In some publications, Riley himself is given as the author of the song or a collaboration with Jack Clement and Ronald Wallace is assumed.
Billy Lee Riley had been with Sun Records since 1956 and successfully toured Canada in the fall of 1957 with his third single Red Hot . Label boss Sam Phillips ordered Riley and his band The Green Men to Memphis to record an entire album. Probably on November 25th there was a session with Roland Janes on second guitar, Pat O'Neill on bass, Jimmy Van Eaton on drums, James Paulman on piano and Martin Willis on saxophone. Riley recalled, “Man, that was a long session. When we did Rock with Me Baby , I was so drunk that I hung in my chair and craned my head to the microphone. ”During this session, another version of Wouldn't You Know and That's Right were made . In addition, a song by Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber was recorded with Searchin ' . According to Riley, the title Rock with Me Baby, which was handed down in the studio documents, was incorrect and should actually be called Dance with Me Honey .
It was not until 1973 that Sun Records put together a compilation of rockabilly numbers from its own catalog. The record was released under the number 6467 025 with the title Sun Rockabillys - Put Your Cat Clothes On . Riley's number featured the misleading title Rock with Me Baby . A song of the same name by Riley was already released on Sun 245 together with Trouble Bound , but it is a completely different composition. In the mid-1980s, the British label Charly Records , which specializes in re-releases, took the Sun catalog from Billy Lee Riley. Both Rock with Me Baby and Dance with Me Honey appeared on Charly CD 53 in 1987, the latter with the parenthesized title Dance with Me Honey (Rock with Me Baby No. 2) . The publisher was Sam Phillips with Know Music and John Marascalco with Robin Hood Music.
Musical structure and content
Dance with Me Honey is based on the 12-bar blues scheme in G sharp major. After a four-bar intro on the tonic , in the first stanza on the first 12 bars the theme is given in terms of content and music: The singer wants to have a happy time with his girlfriend ( a big time, a crazy big time ) without worrying about it to have to make the financial effort ( gonna spend my money ). There is an early octave jump in the melody, which opens the shuffling and thus lively melody and which is also taken up in the saxophone riffs that answer the voice and in its solo. The accompaniment of the rhythm section fills the quarters in a typical rock'n'roll variety with a quick triplet each . Throughout the piece the drums strike a consistent backbeat on the second and fourth beats of the bar.
In the second stanza, in addition to money, time is also wasted ( time is a-wasting ). Otherwise, the good times are evoked, which is now assigned a buzzword of 1950s music reception with the attribute groovy , and the vocabulary is expanded to include automotive associations ( flip on the switch key, and wheel baby ). In the following bridge , which reverses the blues scheme and begins with the subdominant C sharp, the singer directs his friend's eyes and ears to the party party ( hear them blowin '(...) hear them stompin', the joints are rompin ' ). Then he tosses his partner around in a wild dance ( I'm gonna spin just like a-wild ) so that she can feel as good and light as a feather ( don't you feel better, like a-feather ). The last verse on Dominant Dis is presented in Stop-Times, in which the instruments only accentuate individual beats and otherwise remain silent behind the vocals. After a first repetition of the first verse, the saxophone takes on a complete 12-bar figure. Then the bridge is repeated and the song comes to a very abrupt end without fading out after the repeated repetition of the first verse.
Importance, Criticism, and Success
The planned album, for which Dance with Me Honey had been recorded, did not appear. Adam Komorowski suspects that the project failed because of the hangover that those involved had to cure. Riley, however, made the competition of the much more successful Sun colleague Jerry Lee Lewis as the main reason that his career stagnated at this point. Dance with Me Honey initially led a shadowy existence on publications by secondary users. Even with the revival of Riley's career in the 1990s, which was presumably initiated by a recommendation from Bob Dylan , the listeners and critics devoted themselves primarily to the classic Sun repertoire. The song remains difficult to identify even on the CD editions with more extensive works reviews due to the confusion with Rock with Me Baby , so that no specific reviews of the title can be found.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Adam Komorowski: Liner Notes on Billy Lee Riley. Rock with Me Baby , CD Charly 53. Charly Records. London 1987
- ^ A b c John Klompenhouwer: Studio Sessions for Billy Lee Riley at the Memphis Recording Service for Sun Records 1957 . In: 706 Union Avenue Sessions
- ^ Colin Escott and Martin Hawkins: Liner Notes to Sun Rockabillys - Put Your Cat Clothes On , LP Sun 6467 052. London 1973