Andre Williams and Dick Dale RIP

The music deaths keep coming with two important artists passing away over the weekend - Andre Williams and Dick Dale.

Andre Williams, who has died aged 82, had a varied career beginning with records on the Fortune label in Detroit in the mid fifties, including 'Bacon Fat' and 'Jail Bait'. He released a record on Motown's Miracle label ('Rosa Lee') and on the Wingate label in the  sixties, including 'Loose Juice' and 'Got It'. More followed on Ric Tic and on Chess, including 'Humpin', Bumpin' and Thumpin'' and 'Cadillac Jack'. Among the songs he wrote were 'Shake A Tailfeather' and 'Twine Time'. After a period of drug addiction he returned with an album of new renditions of his old hits entitled 'Mr Rhythm' and toured with various bands, becoming known as the father of  Sleaze Rock and being compared with Dolemite (aka Rudy Ray Moore). Bands Andre appeared with included The Flash Express. I saw Andre's show at the Luminaire in 2008 and it was noisy, to say the least. Here's what I wrote:
'Andre Williams at the Luminaire last night was an assault on the eardrums. His backing band Flash Express was a fairly basic three chord punk band, and boy were they loud. They drowned out much of what Andre was singing. The audience, though, thoroughly enjoyed it. They were mostly ex punks now approaching middle age, with a few trendy younger guys and girls dotted around - not the sort of audience I usually mingle with.
Andre looked dapper in a smart military style jacket, black hat and peach trousers and was clearly enjoying himself. It was a bit weird hearing a 71 year old singing about Jailbait, and the twinkle in his eye suggested he wouldn't mind a taste. He has been called Mr Rhythm and the Black Godfather over the years but Bad Motherfucker - the title of a pretty effective piece of punk rock - probably sums him up. Of his early bluesy doowop stuff there were brief but potent versions of Jailbait and Bacon Fat, but otherwise it was largely unknown territory to me. Half deafened, I and three other Woodies left the gig to the sound of Pussy Stank to find sanctuary in the Black Lion pub nearby. Nice pub by the way.'
Andre appeared with the El Doradoes at the Blues Estafette in 1998 and this was doowop rather than sleaze. It was one of the highlights of the festival that year. (see photo above).

Another musician who could pump up the noise levels was Dick Dale, who has died aged 81. He was known as 'The King of the Surf Guitar' as a result of his guitar amplification and reverb based on Middle Eastern music scales. With his band the Del-Tones he recorded 'Let's Go Trippin' in 1961, often said to be the first surf beat record, and 'Misirlou', which gave him a new audience in the nineties when it was used in 'Pulp Fiction'. Other singles from the early sixties included 'Surf Beat' and 'The Scavenger' and his LPs, including 'Surfer's Choice' and 'King of the Surf Guitar', were highly influential on many artists from the Beach Boys to Jimi Hendrix. I last saw him at Viva Las Vegas in 2016 (pictured above) when I described him as 'loud and forceful and also none too subtle'. Good fun however.
Another death, at the age of 90, was that of drummer Hal Blaine, who in his own estimation played on 35,000 records, including 6.000 singles. A member of the Count Basie band early on, he moved on to session work and was a key part of the famed 'Wrecking Crew'. based in LA. Renowned as the drummer on the Ronettes' 'Be My Baby', he also worked on many hits by the likes of the Beach Boys, the Crystals, Johnny Rivers, Jan and Dean, the Byrds, the Mamas and Papas, the Association, the Raiders and countless others.
The Vinyl Word raises a glass to them all.