“House of Blue Lights”
From an email dated November 3, 2006:
Ella Mae Morse turns out to be among the happiest musical discoveries I’ve made in some time - after lying about her age as a teenager in the late 1930s - she was 13 claiming 19 - to sing for Jimmy Dorsey, she sang with Freddie Slack’s orchestra, and fans of boogie-woogie, jump blues and jive at their 1940s roots swear up and down, correctly, of the scandal that she is not today a household name (she died in 1999) - she rocks, so to speak, with a rich, syrupy voice and a sassy honky-tonk rhythm all her own. Blogger “Eugene Ionesco” of Edinburgh, Scotland, sets the mood for her classic “House of Blue Lights“:
“Let’s go back, way back, to an old skool classic. And when I say old…I mean this was the school Methuselah useta play hookey from.
Freddie Slack and Ella Mae Morse were rappin’ over swing beats long before Dr. Dre enrolled for pre-med; back before Snoop Dog was a pup. Ol’ Dirty wasn’t even as a glint in Poppa Bastard’s eye. Pre-dating P. Diddy’s daddy: we’re talkin’ Grampa Diddy’s day, swingers.”
The spoken jive between her and lyricist Don Raye, “responsible for entering more hip phrases into the everyday lexicon than any other songwriter“, at the beginning of “House of Blue Lights” is priceless:Raye: Well, what‘cha say, Baby? You look ready as Mr. Freddie, the Slack - how about ‘chew and me goin’ spinnin’ at the track?Morse: What’s that, Homie? If you think I’m goin’ dancin’ on a dime - your clock is tickin’ on the wrong time!Raye: Well, what’s your pleasure, Treasure?…You call the plays, I’ll dig the ways -Morse: Hey, Daddy-O, I’m not so crude as to drop my mood on a square from way back - I’m in there, and have to dig life with Father - and I mean, Father Slack!Raye: Well, Baby, your plate gives my weight a solid flip - you snap the whip, I’ll make the trip…For an incisive cameo of Morse, see the inimitable Nick Tosches, “Ella Mae Morse: The Cow-Cow Girl“, in Tosches, Unsung Heroes of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
