Boogie Down (Me): George’s Playhouse Boogie (#10)

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Day two of prison. The weather is really not bad enough to keep me in if I needed to go out; however, as I told someone else, there’s no sense in going out when I have everything here that I need for a couple of days. I carry a thermal mummy sleeping bag in my car all winter long in case of emergency, but I don’t ever want to pull it out of its bag. So, I’ll stay home and boogie. Here’s today’s song on my side of the list of songs with “boogie” in the title. #10: George’s Playhouse Boogie - Maddox Brothers and Rose Linda? Listen to the first few notes to hear what “boogie woogie” was, then NO! This dates to 1949, so that shows you how the definition of the term boogie has changed over the years. People in the 70s associated it with dancing and disco. In the 40s, however, it was a play on the music style that dated to the 1870s! You may hear older songs, especially those based on boogie woogie, mention “eight to the bar.” That was a term for boogie woogie, too. This wasn’t country music’s first boogie woogie song (it’s coming up later in the countdown, of course). This rhythm can be found in a lot of songs, such as Red Foley’s “Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy” and “Tennessee Saturday Night.” Now, here’s something that will probably shock the daylights out of you (unless you’re used to my weirdness, ahem, uniqueness ). Rose Maddox is my favorite female country singer. That’s right. No Dolly or Loretta or Patsy. Love them, of course, but there’s just something about Rose that hit me. Maybe because I didn’t grow up with her the way I did with Dolly and Loretta and Patsy. Anyway, this song dates to 1949, using the standard boogie woogie riffs. It’s about a real place in Stockton, California (yes, “on the Waterloo Road”) where the Maddox Brothers and Rose played in the 1940s. In the 50s the name was changed to the Uptown. You don’t need any of that knowledge to enjoy this, but you know how I am…if it’s in my head you’re going to be subjected to it. You can hear the early elements of rockabilly or rock and roll in this. The influence of the Maddox Brothers and Rose is so understated that they’ll probably never make the Country Music Hall of Fame, no matter how important they were. And that’s sad. But I’ll keep listening! George’s Playhouse Boogie Written by the Maddox Brothers and Rose Recorded by the Maddox Brothers and Rose Released as a single, 1949 That’s Friendly Henry the working girl’s friend: