The Comedy of Errors: Lonnie Mack - Sa-Ba-Hoola (8 May 1992)

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John Peel was indebted to music. It gave him - to varying degrees - fame, security, status and influence. But there were prices to be paid in this relationship and on this programme, Peel ruefully lamented one of them.  He made his living passing judgement on the musical and artistic quality of hundreds of records, across dozens of genres, through decades of history and yet he had no real musical talent himself.  He never mastered a musical instrument, his singing voice as evidenced by his backing vocals on Altered Images’ 1982 cover of Song Sung Blue was workmanlike rather than melodic (good whistling though) and he only danced on rare occasions.  This vexed him considerably and on this show, the frustration reared its head thanks to a record which Peel had spent two months underselling to his audience.

On 1 March 1992 Peel played I’ve Had It, a track from a reissued compilation album of recordings by Lonnie Mack called Lonnie On the Move.  While declaring his admiration for Mack as a guitar player, Peel ensured that the pluggers at Ace Records, who issued the album, would be throwing themselves from the window in despair after he said that the album was “for students only.  I mean there’s nothing on there that’s going to fundamentally change your life”.  All the same, I would have included it here on the blog had there been a recording of the tune to share.  Two months later, another selection from Lonnie On The Move found its way onto his playlist and yet again, Peel did his best to kill interest in further research into the album by warning listeners that there “Wasn’t much to get the pulses racing”.  However such talk appears silly once Sa-Ba-Hoola gets started.
An instrumental released in the UK through Stateside in 1964, it’s a marvellous example of Mack’s funky jazz-blues guitar skills.  No wonder they called his first album, The Wham of That Memphis Man (1963), because his riffs land with a wallop and keep jigging on from there, especially in the euphorically escalating bridge at 1:15.
“Why can’t I do that and why didn’t someone give the orchestra a dime and tell them to go to the pictures?” wailed Peel after playing the track.  For my sins, I like the orchestra’s contribution - it provides an extra kick to the recording and doesn’t obscure Mack’s skill at all.  Best of all is the economy of the whole thing.  121 seconds in total and this struck me after seeing a picture on Twitter earlier in the week of Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton circa 1967 and labelled, “When it felt like guitar solos could save the world”.  Superb players both of them of course, but the moment they decided to take 10 minutes to do what Mack did in 2 was a detour that I often wish rock music hadn’t taken.  I also know exactly how Peel felt in regards to wishing I could play the guitar - the urge usually hits me after hearing The Mono Men.

I’d still rather listen to Peel sing than Clare Grogan though.



Videos courtesy of cimmamomimf (Mack) and James Parker (Altered Images)