Top Ten Rock Vocalists

@slaw, I’ve always loved that quote, but I don’t know it’s origin. It may have come from one of the Blues shouters, perhaps Big Joe Turner himself. I got to see & hear Joe live, shortly before his death in ’85. It was at Club Lingerie on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, where he was backed by The Blasters, whose tenor sax player was Lee Allen (the bands of Fats Domino, Lloyd Price, and Little Richard). I can’t put into words what a joy that night of music was! Joe was by then in his mid-70’s, but his voice was still huge. Not just one of my Top 10 Rock ’n’ Roll singers, but Top 3, the other two being Little Richard and early Elvis.

Joe was dressed in a suit and tie (with tie pin and cufflinks), and sat on a wooden table chair (he WAS quite big, well over 300 lbs. I’d say) onstage. At a table above the dance floor sat a group of Joe’s family and friends, each with a cocktail. They looked like extras from a 1940’s movie---the men dressed just as was Joe (one in a double-breasted suit coat), the women in velvet dresses and one of those hats with an attached veil that came down over their heavily-made up eyes (I myself love eyeliner and smoke-colored mascara. On a woman, I mean ;-), and one or two a rabbit stole across her shoulders. What a trip back in time!