STICK McGHEE & HIS BUDDIES ( II )

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DOUGLAS ALLEN : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtTLfBBy4XYw6JZ3pdWjKfA

 "Sticks" McGhee & His Buddies - "Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee"

(b/w "Blues Mixture (I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water)")

(Granville McGhee; J. Mayo Williams)

Atlantic 78RPM single 873 (LP audio source)

Peaked at number 2 for FOUR consecutive weeks on the Billboard R&B chart.

NOTE: This was not released as a 45RPM single until Atlantic started their "Classics Revisited" series of seven inch 45RPM singles in 1967.

Granville Henry "Sticks" McGhee (March 23, 1918 – August 15, 1961) was an African-American jump blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, best known for his blues song "Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee", which he wrote with J. Mayo Williams.

McGhee was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee. He received his nickname when he was a child. He used a stick to push a wagon carrying his older brother Brownie McGhee, who had contracted polio. Granville began playing the guitar when he was thirteen years old. After his freshman year he dropped out of high school and worked with his father at the Eastman Kodak subsidiary, Tennessee Eastman Company in Kingsport. In 1940 Granville quit his job and moved to Portsmouth, Virginia, and then to New York City. He entered the military in 1942 and served in the U.S. Army during World War II. After being discharged in 1946, he settled in New York.

In the military, McGhee often played his guitar. One of the songs he performed was "Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee". The original lyrics of the song were as follows:

    Drinkin’ that mess is our delight,

    And when we get drunk, start fightin’ all night.

    Knockin’ out windows and tearin’ down doors,

    Drinkin’ half-gallons and callin’ for more.

    Drinkin’ wine motherfucker, drinkin’ wine!

    Goddam!

    Drinkin’ wine motherfucker, drinkin’ wine!

    Goddam!

    Drinkin’ wine motherfucker, drinkin’ wine!

    Goddam!

    Pass that bottle to me!"

It was one of the earliest prototypical rock-and-roll songs. Cover versions were recorded by Wynonie Harris, Lionel Hampton, Big John Greer, Johnny Burnette, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Mike Bloomfield's Electric Flag (as "Wine"). The song lent its name to the alcoholic fruit drink spodi. In 1946 Granville and Brownie McGhee wrote a version of the song that didn't use profanity. Harlem Records released the new version in January 1947. It sold for 49 cents. It did not get much airplay until two years later, when Stick re-created the song for Atlantic Records. It was on the Billboard R&B chart for almost half a year, rising to number 2, where it stayed for four weeks.

Numerous cover versions of his songs were recorded over the years. The first cover was by Lionel Hampton, featuring Sonny Parker; next was a cover by Wynonie Harris, followed by a hillbilly-bop version by Loy Gordon & His Pleasant Valley Boys. "Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee" continued to be popular throughout the 1950s in cover versions by various artists, including Malcolm Yelvington in 1954, Johnny Burnette in 1957, and Jerry Lee Lewis in 1959.

McGhee continued to make records for Atlantic and created popular songs such as "Tennessee Waltz Blues", "Drank Up All the Wine Last Night", "Venus Blues", "Let's Do It", and "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show", but his music career overall was not successful. McGhee moved from Atlantic to Essex Records, for which he recorded "My Little Rose". The record was not commercially successful, so he moved to King Records in 1953. There he recorded a number of rock-and-roll songs, such a "Whiskey, Women and Loaded Dice", "Head Happy with Wine", "Jungle Juice", "Six to Eight", "Double Crossin' Liquor", "Dealin' from the Bottom", and "Get Your Mind Out of the Gutter". However, he was unable to make money from his records, so he left King for Savoy Records in 1955. He retired from the music industry in 1960. In the late '50s McGhee recorded LP album tracks with Sonny Terry for the Folkways and Prestige-Bluesville labels. In 1960 he cut the songs "Sleep in Job" and "Money Fever" in New York with Sonny Terry. The tracks were released on Herald Records. This was McGhee's last recording session. He became ill shortly afterward and died in August 1961.

NOTE: No copyright infringement of any kind is intended with this video whatsoever; posted for educational and entertainment purposes only.

Enjoy!!!

The Life of Rock ‘n’ Roll Pioneer “Stick” McGhee

IN KNOXVILLE HISTORY BY KNOXVILLE HISTORY PROJECT

March 22, 2017leave a COMMENT

Granville Henley McGhee was born in Knoxville on March 24, 1918 (some sources say 1917, but available government records favor the later date). His older brother, Brownie McGhee, who became a famous blues singer and guitarist, was unable to walk well due to polio, and rode around in a wagon. Granville got the nickname “Stick” for the fact that he was known to push Brownie’s wagon with a stick. (Sometimes he’s called “Sticks.”)

***

The brothers’ father moved frequently for work, and they spent parts of their childhood in Maryville and Kingsport. However, Stick McGhee returned to Knoxville as a young man, probably in the late 1930s. He lived in a rooming house on Henley Street, near where Cheseapeake’s is today, while he worked for a tire company. He later got a perhaps better job as a waiter at the popular Manhattan Cafe, at Central and Jackson. He might recognize it today as Boyd’s Jig and Reel.

***

He got married here in 1940, to a woman named Amanda Barker. He and his wife settled at 318 Patterson Street, a street on the east side of downtown that no longer exists. Here he had a chance to see several of the great black musicians of the era. In the early 1940s, jazz and R&B artists Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Fats Waller, and the Ink Spots performed for black audiences at downtown dance clubs, a short walk from the McGhees’ home.

***

McGhee was drafted into the army during World War II, and served in the Signal Corps. He and his fellow soldiers worked up a humorous chant to pass the time. After the war, he cleaned up the lyrics a little and put it to music with his guitar. He called it “Drinkin’ Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee.” Stick recorded two versions of it. One version, for the Harlem label in 1947, did not make a big impact.

***

He liked the song, though, and kept working on it. In 1949, he recorded a harder-driving, uptempo version with electric guitar.

The term “rock ’n’ roll” did not yet exist, and it was considered a “ jump blues” record in 1949. Although there are several claimants for the title, some scholars have proposed that McGhee’s “Drinkin’ Wine” was the first rock ’n’ roll recording.

***

McGhee’s “Drinkin’ Wine” was the first big hit for Atlantic Records. A younger white performer, piano player Jerry Lee Lewis, was just a teenager when he star ted doing his own versions of McGhee’s song. Lewis later recorded it for Sun Records in Memphis, and it became one of his signature numbers.

***

Meanwhile, Stick’s older brother, Brownie McGhee (1915-1996), who played guitar on the “Drinkin’ Wine” session, became better known as a bluesman, often with his longtime partner, harmonica player Sonny Terry. He worked for years as a guitarist for folksinger Woody Guthrie. Occasionally he was even an actor. He and Terry performed at the 1982 World’s Fair.

***

Much of Stick McGhee’s life is less well known. He had just one more hit, the instrumental “Tennessee Waltz Blues.” It’s assumed that he spent most of his later life in the New York area, and he remarried. A cigarette smoker, he died in 1961, at the age of 43, reportedly of lung cancer. He was buried in Long Island. However, at the time of his death, his widow, Lillie Frances McGhee, lived at 911 East Vine, along what’s now the eastern part of Summit Hill Drive.

Featured Photo: Granville “Stick” McGhee, at right, sharing a fun evening with his brother, Walter “Brownie” McGhee, at left, with guitar, probably around 1950. In this photo found in Knoxville by TAMIS, the location and other people are unidentified, but notes on the back suggest it was Stick and his wife Frances’ anniversary.

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