WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.859 Welcome. If you are joining us today, I already 00:00:02.859 --> 00:00:06.679 know something about you. You are a curious learner. 00:00:07.059 --> 00:00:08.839 Absolutely. You're the kind of person who doesn't 00:00:08.839 --> 00:00:11.839 just want the timeline of what happened. You 00:00:11.839 --> 00:00:13.759 want the why and the how underneath it all. Which 00:00:13.759 --> 00:00:16.199 is exactly why we're here. Well, you are in for 00:00:16.199 --> 00:00:18.899 a truly fascinating journey today. We have an 00:00:18.899 --> 00:00:21.519 incredible deep dive queued up for you, pulling 00:00:21.519 --> 00:00:24.260 from a pretty massive stack of historical archives, 00:00:24.500 --> 00:00:28.609 biographical records, and... Musical analyses. 00:00:28.870 --> 00:00:30.949 The source material on this one is just fantastic. 00:00:31.309 --> 00:00:34.649 It really is. So our mission today, we are focusing 00:00:34.649 --> 00:00:38.570 on a single extraordinary individual, a 24 -year 00:00:38.570 --> 00:00:40.869 -old pianist who managed to fundamentally lay 00:00:40.869 --> 00:00:43.170 the groundwork for rock and roll. Yeah. He literally 00:00:43.170 --> 00:00:45.909 named an entire musical genre and left a permanent 00:00:45.909 --> 00:00:48.850 mark on global culture, all before his life was 00:00:48.850 --> 00:00:51.549 tragically and suddenly cut short. We are unpacking 00:00:51.549 --> 00:00:54.310 the life and wild legacy of Clarence Smith. Better 00:00:54.310 --> 00:00:57.549 known to history as Pinetop. Exactly. Clarence 00:00:57.549 --> 00:00:59.670 Pinetop Smith. It is a phenomenal narrative. 00:00:59.869 --> 00:01:02.149 And to truly grasp the weight of it, we have 00:01:02.149 --> 00:01:05.030 to look at the broader cultural tectonic plates 00:01:05.030 --> 00:01:07.349 that were shifting at the time. Right. The big 00:01:07.349 --> 00:01:09.890 picture. Exactly. What we are examining today 00:01:09.890 --> 00:01:13.269 isn't just a biography. It is the exact moment 00:01:13.269 --> 00:01:16.430 a massive musical transition occurred. You mean 00:01:16.430 --> 00:01:19.370 the shift out of the ragtime era? Yes. We are 00:01:19.370 --> 00:01:21.629 looking at the connective tissue that links ragtime 00:01:21.629 --> 00:01:24.689 straight to the roaring birth of rock and roll. 00:01:24.849 --> 00:01:27.879 It's wild to think about. It is. And beyond the 00:01:27.879 --> 00:01:31.180 music, this serves as a profound case study in 00:01:31.180 --> 00:01:33.760 how a cultural legacy can take on a mind of its 00:01:33.760 --> 00:01:37.060 own. It echoes through decades, changes shapes 00:01:37.060 --> 00:01:40.140 and outlives its original creator in ways that, 00:01:40.180 --> 00:01:42.950 frankly, border on the surreal. Yeah, that legacy 00:01:42.950 --> 00:01:45.310 piece is huge. And just to give you a quick teaser 00:01:45.310 --> 00:01:47.790 of where this journey is heading today. How does 00:01:47.790 --> 00:01:50.109 a guy playing piano at a crowded, sweaty house 00:01:50.109 --> 00:01:52.689 rent party end up directly handing Ray Charles 00:01:52.689 --> 00:01:55.549 his biggest early hits? A great question. Right. 00:01:55.609 --> 00:01:57.689 How does his music sell five million records 00:01:57.689 --> 00:01:59.769 posthumously during the height of World War II? 00:01:59.930 --> 00:02:02.670 Also wild. And how does his brief life inspire 00:02:02.670 --> 00:02:05.530 a wildly dangerous avant -garde public monument 00:02:05.530 --> 00:02:08.909 decades later? Okay, let's unpack this. To really 00:02:08.909 --> 00:02:11.069 understand the phenomenon, we have to start at 00:02:11.069 --> 00:02:13.990 the origins, long before the hit records, the 00:02:13.990 --> 00:02:16.490 stolen identities, and the historical monuments. 00:02:16.789 --> 00:02:20.810 Right. So let's look at where it all began. Clarence 00:02:20.810 --> 00:02:24.629 Smith was born on June 11th, 1904, down in Pike 00:02:24.629 --> 00:02:27.509 County, Alabama. A vital starting point. Now, 00:02:27.530 --> 00:02:29.469 going through the historical notes, there is 00:02:29.469 --> 00:02:32.270 a slight dispute about the exact geography. Which 00:02:32.270 --> 00:02:34.210 is pretty common, honestly. Yeah, some records 00:02:34.210 --> 00:02:37.430 point to Troy, Alabama. Others insist on Orion, 00:02:37.689 --> 00:02:40.550 Alabama, which is just a bit north. And the Encyclopedia 00:02:40.550 --> 00:02:42.909 of Alabama kind of reconciles this by noting 00:02:42.909 --> 00:02:45.689 that his parents, Sam and Molly Smith, were living 00:02:45.689 --> 00:02:47.930 in Orion when he was born. Okay, so Orion first. 00:02:48.169 --> 00:02:50.129 Right, and then the family moved. moved to Troy 00:02:50.129 --> 00:02:52.789 shortly after. But it's interesting to ask why 00:02:52.789 --> 00:02:55.770 there is always this geographical haze when we 00:02:55.770 --> 00:02:58.310 look back at early blues pioneers. It happens 00:02:58.310 --> 00:03:00.610 a lot, right? It is a common thread you find 00:03:00.610 --> 00:03:02.909 when researching African -American families in 00:03:02.909 --> 00:03:05.550 the rural South during the turn of the 20th century. 00:03:05.770 --> 00:03:07.870 Because the records just weren't there. Exactly. 00:03:08.430 --> 00:03:11.550 Record keeping was often fragmented, marginalized, 00:03:11.750 --> 00:03:14.710 or entirely reliant on oral family histories 00:03:14.710 --> 00:03:18.159 rather than centralized municipal data. That 00:03:18.159 --> 00:03:20.419 makes a lot of sense. What is absolutely undeniable, 00:03:20.439 --> 00:03:22.840 though, is that his foundational years, you know, 00:03:22.840 --> 00:03:25.139 the sights, sounds, and rhythms that shaped his 00:03:25.139 --> 00:03:27.759 early consciousness, were entirely rooted in 00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:29.979 Alabama. And there is a detail from his childhood 00:03:29.979 --> 00:03:32.099 that I absolutely love because it strips away 00:03:32.099 --> 00:03:34.680 all that mythology and just gives you the human 00:03:34.680 --> 00:03:37.360 being. The nickname. Yes. You hear a legendary 00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:40.180 name like Pinetop Smith, and you might assume 00:03:40.180 --> 00:03:43.539 it has some deep, mystical, Delta Blues origin 00:03:43.539 --> 00:03:46.060 story. Like he made a deal at the crossroads 00:03:46.060 --> 00:03:48.060 or something. Exactly. But he got the nickname 00:03:48.060 --> 00:03:50.539 Pinetop as a kid simply because he loved climbing 00:03:50.539 --> 00:03:53.319 trees. I love that. He was just a boy who wanted 00:03:53.319 --> 00:03:55.280 to be up in the pines. It is such a relatable, 00:03:55.439 --> 00:03:58.400 everyday image. It really grounds him in reality. 00:03:58.759 --> 00:04:01.520 It does. Eventually, as a teenager, he moves 00:04:01.520 --> 00:04:04.539 with his family up to Birmingham. But his real 00:04:04.539 --> 00:04:07.099 professional pivot happens a few years later. 00:04:07.360 --> 00:04:10.639 Yes. 1920 is the critical juncture here. He leaves 00:04:10.639 --> 00:04:13.280 the South entirely. He does. He moves to Pittsburgh, 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:16.819 Pennsylvania. And this is where the rigorous, 00:04:17.139 --> 00:04:20.519 often unforgiving grind really begins. Because 00:04:20.519 --> 00:04:22.500 he's not just playing parlor piano for friends 00:04:22.500 --> 00:04:25.420 anymore. Not at all. He becomes a working entertainer 00:04:25.420 --> 00:04:27.779 on the theater owner's booking association circuit, 00:04:28.040 --> 00:04:31.699 universally known as T .O .B .A. T .O .B .A. 00:04:31.699 --> 00:04:34.139 And this was the legendary Black Vaudeville circuit. 00:04:34.300 --> 00:04:36.680 Exactly. The precursor to what would later be 00:04:36.680 --> 00:04:39.459 called the Chitlin circuit. And it was notoriously 00:04:39.459 --> 00:04:41.560 demanding. Looking at early... playbills from 00:04:41.560 --> 00:04:43.680 that era, you realize he wasn't just sitting 00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:45.639 behind a piano with his head down. He couldn't 00:04:45.639 --> 00:04:47.699 afford to. Right. He was a versatile entertainer. 00:04:47.720 --> 00:04:50.420 He was working as a singer, a tap dancer, and 00:04:50.420 --> 00:04:52.740 even a comedian. It's incredible. What did it 00:04:52.740 --> 00:04:54.939 actually take to survive on a circuit like that? 00:04:55.100 --> 00:04:58.079 It required absolute thick skin and relentless 00:04:58.079 --> 00:05:02.230 adaptability. The TOBA circuit was grueling. 00:05:02.250 --> 00:05:05.170 I can imagine. Performers dealt with brutal travel 00:05:05.170 --> 00:05:08.430 schedules, segregated and often substandard accommodations, 00:05:08.930 --> 00:05:11.529 and audiences who demanded their money's worth. 00:05:11.649 --> 00:05:14.430 So it was a tough crowd. Very tough. If you couldn't 00:05:14.430 --> 00:05:17.509 hold the room, you were off the stage. So versatility 00:05:17.509 --> 00:05:20.569 wasn't just a party trick for him. It was a survival 00:05:20.569 --> 00:05:21.990 mechanism. So you had to be able to do it all. 00:05:22.089 --> 00:05:24.990 You had to read a raucous Friday night crowd, 00:05:25.410 --> 00:05:28.430 understand pacing, project your personality to 00:05:28.430 --> 00:05:30.589 the back of the room, and keep people engaged 00:05:30.589 --> 00:05:33.889 by any means necessary. And he was clearly doing 00:05:33.889 --> 00:05:35.949 something right because he starts working as 00:05:35.949 --> 00:05:38.870 an accompanist for some absolute titans of the 00:05:38.870 --> 00:05:41.269 era. Some really big names. Yeah, he's backing 00:05:41.269 --> 00:05:44.100 up blues legends. like Ma Rainey as well as the 00:05:44.329 --> 00:05:46.870 Famous comedy music duo Butter Beans and Suzy. 00:05:46.990 --> 00:05:49.810 That is the ultimate trial by fire. Because the 00:05:49.810 --> 00:05:52.810 expectations are so high. Exactly. When you are 00:05:52.810 --> 00:05:54.910 accompanying the mother of the blues like Ma 00:05:54.910 --> 00:05:57.649 Rainey, you have to be musically flawless. No 00:05:57.649 --> 00:06:00.689 room for error. None. You must provide a rock 00:06:00.689 --> 00:06:03.709 solid foundation while simultaneously knowing 00:06:03.709 --> 00:06:06.209 when to step back and let the star shine and 00:06:06.209 --> 00:06:08.430 when to fill the dead space to keep the energy 00:06:08.430 --> 00:06:11.509 alive. It's a delicate balance. It is. And if 00:06:11.509 --> 00:06:34.220 we connect this to his later G. Right. The Chicago 00:06:34.220 --> 00:06:38.139 move. Yes. In 1928, he heads to Chicago. He gets 00:06:38.139 --> 00:06:40.240 a recommendation from a fellow musician, Cal... 00:06:40.620 --> 00:06:43.319 Cal Davenport, who points him toward J. Mayo 00:06:43.319 --> 00:06:46.139 Williams. A prominent producer at Vocalion Records? 00:06:46.579 --> 00:06:49.439 Exactly. Pinetop packs up, takes his wife and 00:06:49.439 --> 00:06:53.360 young son, and moves to the city. Now, I was 00:06:53.360 --> 00:06:55.079 reading about his living situation in Chicago, 00:06:55.300 --> 00:06:57.639 and the concentration of talent seems almost 00:06:57.639 --> 00:06:59.800 impossible. It's one of those amazing historical 00:06:59.800 --> 00:07:02.199 coincidences. Who was he actually rubbing shoulders 00:07:02.199 --> 00:07:04.850 with when he got there? He landed right in the 00:07:04.850 --> 00:07:07.509 epicenter of a musical revolution. For a time, 00:07:07.509 --> 00:07:09.329 he was living in the exact same rooming house 00:07:09.329 --> 00:07:12.269 as Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis. That is 00:07:12.269 --> 00:07:14.470 basically the holy trinity of early boogie -woogie 00:07:14.470 --> 00:07:17.569 piano all living under one roof. Precisely. It 00:07:17.569 --> 00:07:20.269 was a true incubator. Imagine the south side 00:07:20.269 --> 00:07:22.689 of Chicago in 1928. It must have been electric. 00:07:23.149 --> 00:07:25.990 It was a cultural magnet for black artists migrating 00:07:25.990 --> 00:07:28.689 from the South. These musicians weren't operating 00:07:28.689 --> 00:07:31.290 in isolation. They were literally living on top 00:07:31.290 --> 00:07:33.189 of one another in these rooming houses. Just 00:07:33.189 --> 00:07:35.970 constantly sharing ideas. Sharing ideas, competing, 00:07:36.410 --> 00:07:39.290 swapping rhythmic techniques, and relentlessly 00:07:39.290 --> 00:07:41.449 pushing the boundaries of what the piano could 00:07:41.449 --> 00:07:44.709 do. It was a hyper -competitive but deeply collaborative 00:07:44.709 --> 00:07:47.649 environment. And all of that energy, that vaudeville 00:07:47.649 --> 00:07:49.709 training, and that rooming house collaboration 00:07:49.709 --> 00:07:53.089 culminates on a single pivotal... date in this 00:07:53.089 --> 00:07:57.310 deep dive. December 29, 1928. Yes. This is the 00:07:57.310 --> 00:07:59.449 day Pinetop Smith sits down in the Vocalion studio 00:07:59.449 --> 00:08:02.689 and records Pinetop's Boogie Woogie. What's fascinating 00:08:02.689 --> 00:08:05.709 here is the sheer rhythmic architecture of what 00:08:05.709 --> 00:08:08.269 he laid down that day. Let's get into the music 00:08:08.269 --> 00:08:10.389 a bit. Well, we know that the piece featured 00:08:10.389 --> 00:08:13.170 rhythmic breaks, which were a staple of ragtime. 00:08:13.629 --> 00:08:15.889 But it's what he was doing with his left hand 00:08:15.889 --> 00:08:18.370 that changed the world. The bassline. Right. 00:08:18.430 --> 00:08:21.310 He employed that driving, repetitive, eight -to 00:08:21.310 --> 00:08:23.410 -the -bar locomotive bassline. She just keeps 00:08:23.410 --> 00:08:26.529 rolling forward. He was taking the syncopation 00:08:26.529 --> 00:08:29.790 of ragtime. and injecting it with a relentless, 00:08:30.089 --> 00:08:32.710 forward -leaning momentum. It feels heavier than 00:08:32.710 --> 00:08:35.929 a ragtime. It is. That specific left -hand engine 00:08:35.929 --> 00:08:39.370 was the fundamental rhythmic blueprint that early 00:08:39.370 --> 00:08:41.990 rock and roll guitarists and drummers would directly 00:08:41.990 --> 00:08:45.070 adopt decades later. And the music itself is 00:08:45.070 --> 00:08:48.570 only half the story. There's the title, Pinetop's 00:08:48.570 --> 00:08:51.590 Boogie Woogie. A historic title. Archival records 00:08:51.590 --> 00:08:53.690 indicate this was the first known use of the 00:08:53.690 --> 00:08:55.450 phrase boogie woogie on a commercial record. 00:08:55.899 --> 00:08:57.899 And definitely the first to use it in a title. 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:00.700 Which is huge. He cemented the moniker for an 00:09:00.700 --> 00:09:03.519 entire musical genre in one afternoon. It is 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:05.820 exceedingly rare for historians to be able to 00:09:05.820 --> 00:09:07.840 point to a single recording session and say, 00:09:07.919 --> 00:09:10.799 here is the exact moment the genre got its name. 00:09:10.919 --> 00:09:13.620 It usually evolves so slowly. Right. The phrase 00:09:13.620 --> 00:09:15.460 had likely been floating around in slang, but 00:09:15.460 --> 00:09:17.940 Smith codified it. He gave it a permanent global 00:09:17.940 --> 00:09:20.600 identity. But honestly, when you listen to the 00:09:20.600 --> 00:09:22.580 track, the most magnetic part isn't just the 00:09:22.580 --> 00:09:25.409 piano playing. It's his voice. It's his voice. 00:09:25.889 --> 00:09:28.710 He talks over the entire recording. He's actively 00:09:28.710 --> 00:09:31.529 instructing the dancers. The notes mention he 00:09:31.529 --> 00:09:34.590 originated this specific routine at a house rent 00:09:34.590 --> 00:09:36.690 party in St. Louis, Missouri. You can really 00:09:36.690 --> 00:09:39.129 hear that party atmosphere. You hear him directing 00:09:39.129 --> 00:09:42.009 the girl with the red dress on. to not move a 00:09:42.009 --> 00:09:44.470 peg until he tells her to shake that thing and 00:09:44.470 --> 00:09:47.029 mess around. It's brilliant. It is so vibrant 00:09:47.029 --> 00:09:48.909 and immersive. You aren't just listening to a 00:09:48.909 --> 00:09:52.490 song. You are being yanked directly into a crowded, 00:09:52.529 --> 00:09:55.070 sweaty living room in St. Louis. That is the 00:09:55.070 --> 00:09:57.529 vaudeville training showing its immense value. 00:09:58.049 --> 00:10:00.190 He understood that a record shouldn't just be 00:10:00.190 --> 00:10:02.049 a static performance. Right, it should be an 00:10:02.049 --> 00:10:05.669 event. Exactly. And if we trace those specific 00:10:05.669 --> 00:10:08.919 lyrical and interactive choices forward, The 00:10:08.919 --> 00:10:11.120 lineage is incredibly direct. You mean with Ray 00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:13.539 Charles? Yes. Those exact phrases mess around 00:10:13.539 --> 00:10:16.200 in what I say were the direct, undeniable inspiration 00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:19.139 for Ray Charles. That is incredible to think 00:10:19.139 --> 00:10:22.299 about. Decades later, Charles would build massive, 00:10:22.399 --> 00:10:25.059 career -defining hits around those exact concepts 00:10:25.059 --> 00:10:27.549 and audience interactions. Smith established 00:10:27.549 --> 00:10:29.750 a template for call and response that became 00:10:29.750 --> 00:10:33.009 a permanent staple of R &B and early rock. It 00:10:33.009 --> 00:10:35.490 feels like the ultimate liftoff moment. He has 00:10:35.490 --> 00:10:38.149 the hit. He has codified the genre name. He has 00:10:38.149 --> 00:10:40.409 the interactive style that audiences are eating 00:10:40.409 --> 00:10:42.850 up. He has it all. He is standing on the absolute 00:10:42.850 --> 00:10:46.129 precipice of superstardom. And then we hit March 00:10:46.129 --> 00:10:50.490 15, 1929. Yes. The tonal shift here is abrupt 00:10:50.490 --> 00:10:53.629 and jarring, but it reflects a harsh reality 00:10:53.629 --> 00:10:56.309 of the environment and the era. On March 15th, 00:10:56.309 --> 00:10:59.129 1929, the very day before he was scheduled to 00:10:59.129 --> 00:11:01.190 be back in the Vocalion studio for his next major 00:11:01.190 --> 00:11:03.750 recording session, Clarence Pinetop Smith was 00:11:03.750 --> 00:11:06.029 killed. Such a tragedy. He was shot in a dance 00:11:06.029 --> 00:11:08.190 hall fight in Chicago. He was only 24 years old. 00:11:08.289 --> 00:11:11.230 It is a profound, incalculable loss for American 00:11:11.230 --> 00:11:13.830 music. And it was so sudden. And the historical 00:11:13.830 --> 00:11:16.409 record surrounding that night contains a significant 00:11:16.409 --> 00:11:19.429 amount of ambiguity. It remains unclear whether 00:11:19.429 --> 00:11:21.450 Smith was the intended target of the violence 00:11:21.450 --> 00:11:24.750 or if he was simply an innocent bystander caught 00:11:24.750 --> 00:11:27.389 in the crossfire of someone else's dispute in 00:11:27.389 --> 00:11:30.610 a chaotic dance hall. It is just senseless. And 00:11:30.610 --> 00:11:32.409 the way it was remembered by those who were actually 00:11:32.409 --> 00:11:35.110 in the room that night is haunting. Truly haunting. 00:11:35.450 --> 00:11:37.649 There is a headline from Downbeat magazine published 00:11:37.649 --> 00:11:41.309 in 1939, a full 10 years after the fact, written 00:11:41.309 --> 00:11:43.129 by an eyewitness. I know the one we're talking 00:11:43.129 --> 00:11:46.409 about. And it read, I saw a pine top spit blood 00:11:46.409 --> 00:11:49.789 and fall. That is such a visceral, traumatic 00:11:49.789 --> 00:11:53.009 memory for a witness to carry for a decade. It 00:11:53.009 --> 00:11:55.129 speaks volumes about the shock of the event. 00:11:55.269 --> 00:11:58.309 The sudden, violent erasure of a monumental talent 00:11:58.309 --> 00:12:01.289 leaves a deep psychological scar on a community. 00:12:01.490 --> 00:12:03.809 It really does. And unfortunately, the tragedy 00:12:03.809 --> 00:12:06.210 of his death was heavily compounded by how his 00:12:06.210 --> 00:12:08.370 legacy and his remains were treated in the aftermath. 00:12:08.610 --> 00:12:10.950 Right. He was buried at Restvale Cemetery in 00:12:10.950 --> 00:12:14.049 Alsop, Illinois. but it was in an unmarked graze 00:12:14.049 --> 00:12:16.929 for entirely too long. It wasn't until the year 00:12:16.929 --> 00:12:21.909 2014 85 years after he was killed, that an organization 00:12:21.909 --> 00:12:24.970 called the Killer Blues Headstone Project finally 00:12:24.970 --> 00:12:28.570 secured and placed a headstone for him. 85 years. 00:12:28.870 --> 00:12:32.250 85 years. The man who named Boogie Woogie and 00:12:32.250 --> 00:12:35.830 laid the tracks for rock and roll sat in an unmarked 00:12:35.830 --> 00:12:39.250 grave for nearly a century. It is a deeply bittersweet 00:12:39.250 --> 00:12:42.070 reality. It highlights a recurring theme in early 00:12:42.070 --> 00:12:45.769 American music history. Well, marginalized artists 00:12:45.769 --> 00:12:48.269 often struggled for basic dignity and death, 00:12:48.490 --> 00:12:50.669 even while their cultural contributions were 00:12:50.669 --> 00:12:53.309 quietly circulating and changing the entire landscape 00:12:53.309 --> 00:12:55.450 of global music. Which brings us to the ripple 00:12:55.450 --> 00:12:58.110 effect. Because even though his life ended at 00:12:58.110 --> 00:13:01.330 24, his output in those few weeks of recording 00:13:01.330 --> 00:13:04.110 was incredibly prolific. He got a lot done in 00:13:04.110 --> 00:13:07.570 a very short window. The Vocalion's 78 RPM singles 00:13:07.570 --> 00:13:10.169 catalog shows that right around the time of his 00:13:10.169 --> 00:13:12.190 death, he had recorded several other tracks. 00:13:12.669 --> 00:13:15.470 Pinetops Blues, I'm Sober Now, Jump Steady Blues, 00:13:15.669 --> 00:13:17.610 and Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out. 00:13:17.710 --> 00:13:19.450 He was laying down a massive amount of material. 00:13:19.710 --> 00:13:22.470 And that material absolutely did not disappear. 00:13:22.769 --> 00:13:25.450 It was deeply respected by his peers immediately. 00:13:26.340 --> 00:13:29.259 Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson both cited him 00:13:29.259 --> 00:13:32.279 as a primary influence. But the mainstream explosion, 00:13:32.340 --> 00:13:34.860 that took a little longer, right? Yes. The massive 00:13:34.860 --> 00:13:37.820 mainstream explosion of his work took a different 00:13:37.820 --> 00:13:41.460 vehicle to reach the masses. That arrived almost 00:13:41.460 --> 00:13:44.679 a decade later in 1938. Tommy Dorsey and his 00:13:44.679 --> 00:13:47.080 orchestra. Exactly. They take Boogie Woogie, 00:13:47.200 --> 00:13:50.700 they arrange it for a massive big band, and they 00:13:50.700 --> 00:13:53.240 record it. Now, it wasn't an overnight sensation, 00:13:53.320 --> 00:13:55.679 but it eventually caught fire during World War 00:13:55.679 --> 00:13:58.539 II. It became huge. It ultimately became Tommy 00:13:58.539 --> 00:14:00.580 Dorsey's best -selling record with over 5 million 00:14:00.580 --> 00:14:03.899 copies sold. But why did a big band arrangement 00:14:03.899 --> 00:14:07.000 of a gritty Chicago house rent party song resonate 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:09.379 so powerfully during the Second World War? It's 00:14:09.379 --> 00:14:11.340 an interesting phenomenon. Was it just broader 00:14:11.340 --> 00:14:13.000 distribution or was something else happening? 00:14:13.179 --> 00:14:15.860 It was a perfect storm of cultural timing and 00:14:15.860 --> 00:14:18.259 musical energy. You have to look at the zeitgeist 00:14:18.259 --> 00:14:21.409 of the early 1940s. Okay, set the scene. The 00:14:21.409 --> 00:14:23.669 nation is industrializing rapidly for the war 00:14:23.669 --> 00:14:25.570 effort. There is a tremendous amount of anxiety 00:14:25.570 --> 00:14:29.230 and the home front is looking for escapism. The 00:14:29.230 --> 00:14:32.169 driving eight to the bar rhythm of Boogie Woogie 00:14:32.169 --> 00:14:35.169 mimics the sound of locomotives, of factories, 00:14:35.429 --> 00:14:38.850 of forward motion. It was incredibly propulsive 00:14:38.850 --> 00:14:41.149 and danceable. So it matched the energy of the 00:14:41.149 --> 00:14:44.110 country. Exactly. When a polished mainstream 00:14:44.110 --> 00:14:48.149 white orchestra like Tommy Dorsey's smoothed 00:14:48.149 --> 00:14:50.149 out the gritty edges of the original record. 00:14:50.279 --> 00:14:53.879 but kept that locomotive rhythm, it became the 00:14:53.879 --> 00:14:56.899 exact energetic release the country was craving. 00:14:57.039 --> 00:14:59.629 And it wasn't just Dorsey. Bing Crosby issued 00:14:59.629 --> 00:15:02.629 a version in 1946, and Count Basie did one too. 00:15:03.009 --> 00:15:05.090 Everyone was cashing in on this sound. Which 00:15:05.090 --> 00:15:07.710 is the ultimate double -edged sword of cultural 00:15:07.710 --> 00:15:10.429 transmission. The music reaches millions of people, 00:15:10.509 --> 00:15:13.190 it brings immense joy, and it literally defines 00:15:13.190 --> 00:15:15.750 an era of American history. But the original 00:15:15.750 --> 00:15:18.149 architect of that sound, the 24 -year -old kid 00:15:18.149 --> 00:15:21.289 from Alabama, is entirely absent from the financial 00:15:21.289 --> 00:15:23.529 windfall, the radio play, and the immediate public 00:15:23.529 --> 00:15:25.690 applause. Okay, here's where it gets really interesting, 00:15:25.769 --> 00:15:27.889 though. Oh, the identity theft part. Because 00:15:27.889 --> 00:15:29.950 it wasn't just his music that got borrowed as 00:15:29.950 --> 00:15:32.149 the decades rolled on. It was his actual identity. 00:15:32.509 --> 00:15:35.710 In the 1950s, a piano player named Joe Willie 00:15:35.710 --> 00:15:38.809 Perkins recorded his own version of Pinetop's 00:15:38.809 --> 00:15:41.690 Boogie Woogie. And because of the success of 00:15:41.690 --> 00:15:44.470 that recording, Joe Willie Perkins became universally 00:15:44.470 --> 00:15:48.029 known in the industry as Pinetop Perkins. A completely 00:15:48.029 --> 00:15:51.309 new Pinetop. Right. He went on to be Muddy Waters 00:15:51.309 --> 00:15:55.470 pianist and had a massive legendary career operating 00:15:55.470 --> 00:15:58.299 under that borrowed nickname. The irony in that 00:15:58.299 --> 00:16:00.799 specific situation is profound and incredibly 00:16:00.799 --> 00:16:03.960 layered. How so? Well, in 2004, when Pinetop 00:16:03.960 --> 00:16:06.320 Perkins was in his 90s, he released an album 00:16:06.320 --> 00:16:09.570 called Ladies' Man. On that record, he included 00:16:09.570 --> 00:16:11.870 a song that actively played on the fact that 00:16:11.870 --> 00:16:15.169 almost the entire blues -listening public mistakenly 00:16:15.169 --> 00:16:16.870 thought he had written Pinetop's Boogie Woo. 00:16:17.009 --> 00:16:20.289 Yes. The misconception became so deeply embedded 00:16:20.289 --> 00:16:22.210 in the culture that the artist who borrowed the 00:16:22.210 --> 00:16:24.570 name was making meta -commentary about the public, 00:16:24.649 --> 00:16:27.450 assuming he owned the song. It's wild. It's like 00:16:27.450 --> 00:16:29.909 a copy of a copy taking on a life of its own. 00:16:29.990 --> 00:16:32.190 And the misattribution doesn't stop with the 00:16:32.190 --> 00:16:34.600 nickname. We mentioned Ray Charles earlier. Right, 00:16:34.639 --> 00:16:37.600 we talk about how Pinetop Smith's Rent Party 00:16:37.600 --> 00:16:41.000 lyrics directly influenced him. Well, when Ray 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:43.279 Charles adapted the song into his massive hit 00:16:43.279 --> 00:16:45.759 Mess Around, the authorship wasn't credited to 00:16:45.759 --> 00:16:47.700 Clarence Smith. He was credited to someone else 00:16:47.700 --> 00:16:50.519 entirely. He was credited to someone named Anujadra, 00:16:50.620 --> 00:16:53.120 which, if you spell it backward, is Erdogan. 00:16:53.320 --> 00:16:56.580 It was a pseudonym for Ahmet Erdogan, the famous 00:16:56.580 --> 00:16:59.080 record executive at Atlantic Records. Which was 00:16:59.080 --> 00:17:02.039 a very common practice. So once again, the true 00:17:02.039 --> 00:17:05.119 origin gets legally obscured. This forces us 00:17:05.119 --> 00:17:07.519 to look closely at the fundamental clash between 00:17:07.519 --> 00:17:10.160 oral tradition and rigid copyright law during 00:17:10.160 --> 00:17:12.259 the 20th century. They just didn't mix well. 00:17:12.400 --> 00:17:15.400 Not at all. Early blues, jazz, and boogie woogie 00:17:15.400 --> 00:17:17.880 were largely developed in communal live settings, 00:17:18.059 --> 00:17:20.200 like those crowded house rent parties. Where 00:17:20.200 --> 00:17:22.420 things are just passed around. Right. Riffs, 00:17:22.500 --> 00:17:24.579 lyrics, and rhythms were passed around by ear, 00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:27.559 modified, and shared. But when those organic, 00:17:27.759 --> 00:17:30.460 community -owned creations intersected with the 00:17:30.460 --> 00:17:33.019 highly structured, legalistic machinery of the 00:17:33.019 --> 00:17:35.220 recording industry, the people with the contracts 00:17:35.220 --> 00:17:37.900 won. Exactly. The people holding the pens and 00:17:37.900 --> 00:17:39.980 the contracts usually ended up with their names 00:17:39.980 --> 00:17:42.599 on the royalties. The original creators, especially 00:17:42.599 --> 00:17:45.359 marginalized artists, were frequently left entirely 00:17:45.359 --> 00:17:48.460 off the paperwork. But despite the lack of official 00:17:48.460 --> 00:17:51.000 paperwork and the stolen credits, the artistic 00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:53.720 community definitely remembered him. And they 00:17:53.720 --> 00:17:56.460 remembered him in some incredibly unique, boundary 00:17:56.460 --> 00:17:59.720 -pushing ways. The tributes. Yes. The archives 00:17:59.720 --> 00:18:02.240 detail two avant -garde tributes that just blow 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:06.119 my mind. In 1975, the Bob Thiel Orchestra released 00:18:06.119 --> 00:18:08.640 a modern jazz album. And they didn't just casually 00:18:08.640 --> 00:18:11.750 cover his music? No. They titled the entire album 00:18:11.750 --> 00:18:14.369 I Saw Pinetop Spit Blood. Taking that haunting 00:18:14.369 --> 00:18:17.869 1939 downbeat headline. Exactly. And turning 00:18:17.869 --> 00:18:20.569 the trauma into high art. They included a sprawling 00:18:20.569 --> 00:18:22.869 treatment of Pinetop's Boogie Woogie right alongside 00:18:22.869 --> 00:18:25.589 the title track. It was a bold reclamation of 00:18:25.589 --> 00:18:27.849 his narrative. And then there's the visual tribute, 00:18:27.990 --> 00:18:30.589 which is arguably even more striking in its conception. 00:18:30.910 --> 00:18:33.529 The Oldenburg Proposal. Yes. The renowned pop 00:18:33.529 --> 00:18:36.569 artist Claes Oldenburg proposed a physical monument 00:18:36.569 --> 00:18:40.220 to Smith in his 1969 book Proposal. for monuments 00:18:40.220 --> 00:18:42.940 and buildings. But knowing Oldenburg, this isn't 00:18:42.940 --> 00:18:45.119 gonna be a standard bronze statue of a guy sitting 00:18:45.119 --> 00:18:47.720 politely at a piano in a park, is it? Not at 00:18:47.720 --> 00:18:50.599 all. Oldenburg proposed running a massive exposed 00:18:50.599 --> 00:18:53.200 electric wire down the length of North Avenue 00:18:53.200 --> 00:18:56.180 in Chicago. Just a live wire. Yes, moving west 00:18:56.180 --> 00:18:58.339 from Clark Street all the way to the corner of 00:18:58.339 --> 00:19:00.700 Larrabee, which is the exact intersection where 00:19:00.700 --> 00:19:03.279 Smith was murdered. Wow. Oldenburg envisioned 00:19:03.279 --> 00:19:07.259 a visible electric impulse, colored blue, constantly 00:19:07.259 --> 00:19:09.940 running along the suspended wire. That is intense. 00:19:10.299 --> 00:19:12.839 In his own words, Oldenburg described the concept 00:19:12.839 --> 00:19:16.200 by saying, Pinetop Smith invented boogie -woogie 00:19:16.200 --> 00:19:18.380 blues at the corner of North and Larrabee where 00:19:18.380 --> 00:19:21.259 he finally was murdered. The electric wire is 00:19:21.259 --> 00:19:25.019 blue and dangerous. It is such a brilliant, uncompromising 00:19:25.019 --> 00:19:28.079 piece of conceptual art. It really is. It perfectly 00:19:28.079 --> 00:19:30.380 captures the raw electricity and the propulsive 00:19:30.380 --> 00:19:34.819 danger of his music, but it also refuses to sanitize 00:19:34.819 --> 00:19:37.259 his story. It forces you to look at the sudden 00:19:37.259 --> 00:19:40.000 violent danger that ended his life. Exactly. 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:42.380 It doesn't allow the listener or the viewer to 00:19:42.380 --> 00:19:45.119 just enjoy the toe -tapping rhythm without acknowledging 00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:47.400 the harsh reality of the man who created it. 00:19:47.539 --> 00:19:50.480 It really is the perfect encapsulation of his 00:19:50.480 --> 00:19:53.759 legacy. So looking back at this incredible stack 00:19:53.759 --> 00:19:55.819 of history we've navigated today. It's quite 00:19:55.819 --> 00:19:58.740 a journey. We started with a kid in Alabama who 00:19:58.740 --> 00:20:01.809 just liked climbing pine trees. He survives the 00:20:01.809 --> 00:20:04.670 grueling gauntlet of the TOBA vaudeville circuit, 00:20:04.910 --> 00:20:08.150 moves to Chicago, lives in a rooming house packed 00:20:08.150 --> 00:20:11.309 with future legends, and sits down at a vocalian 00:20:11.309 --> 00:20:14.970 piano in 1928. A lot to happen in such a short 00:20:14.970 --> 00:20:17.069 life. In just a handful of recording sessions, 00:20:17.269 --> 00:20:20.640 he officially names a genre. He lays down the 00:20:20.640 --> 00:20:22.960 driving rhythmic DNA that will become rock and 00:20:22.960 --> 00:20:25.720 roll, and he creates interactive call and response 00:20:25.720 --> 00:20:28.500 lyrics that will directly inspire the career 00:20:28.500 --> 00:20:31.359 of Ray Charles. And all of this before a senseless 00:20:31.359 --> 00:20:34.259 bullet in a dance hall ends his life at 24. And 00:20:34.259 --> 00:20:36.500 then it took 85 years for him to get a headstone, 00:20:36.599 --> 00:20:39.220 while his rhythm sold millions of records for 00:20:39.220 --> 00:20:41.839 big bands, and other musicians literally built 00:20:41.839 --> 00:20:44.259 careers on his name. If we connect this to the 00:20:44.259 --> 00:20:46.900 bigger picture, the profound lesson here is about 00:20:46.900 --> 00:20:49.079 the true nature of innovation. Where it actually 00:20:49.079 --> 00:20:51.859 comes from. Exactly. We often assume that world 00:20:51.859 --> 00:20:54.940 changing ideas come from top down, highly funded 00:20:54.940 --> 00:20:57.759 institutions or carefully planned corporate think 00:20:57.759 --> 00:21:01.200 tanks. But true cultural innovation, the kind 00:21:01.200 --> 00:21:03.519 that shifts the very rhythm of how society moves 00:21:03.519 --> 00:21:06.599 and feels, often bubbles up from the most unassuming, 00:21:06.700 --> 00:21:10.019 marginalized and overlooked places. It's so true. 00:21:10.180 --> 00:21:13.759 It comes from a crowded, sweaty house rent party 00:21:13.759 --> 00:21:17.140 in St. Louis or a packed rooming house on the 00:21:17.140 --> 00:21:20.099 south side of Chicago. It is a powerful reminder 00:21:20.099 --> 00:21:22.799 of how critical it is to look past the mainstream 00:21:22.799 --> 00:21:25.960 polished surface of pop culture and dig deeply 00:21:25.960 --> 00:21:28.259 into the raw roots of the media we consume today. 00:21:28.480 --> 00:21:30.599 Because that's where the real story is. Yes. 00:21:31.019 --> 00:21:32.980 Pinetop Smith didn't get the chance to live to 00:21:32.980 --> 00:21:34.859 see the modern world he helped build. But make 00:21:34.859 --> 00:21:37.400 no mistake, we are absolutely still dancing to 00:21:37.400 --> 00:21:39.640 his rhythm. I love that perspective. And it leaves 00:21:39.640 --> 00:21:41.680 me with one final lingering thought for you to 00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:43.599 take away from this deep dive. Something to think 00:21:43.599 --> 00:21:46.259 about. If a completely casual set of dance instructions 00:21:46.259 --> 00:21:49.019 just shouted over a piano. to get people moving 00:21:49.019 --> 00:21:52.339 at a rent party in 1928 could inadvertently lay 00:21:52.339 --> 00:21:54.920 the absolute foundation for rock and roll and 00:21:54.920 --> 00:21:57.640 pop music. What's happening now? Exactly. What 00:21:57.640 --> 00:22:00.160 completely ordinary everyday moments happening 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:03.160 around you right now might be quietly sparking 00:22:03.160 --> 00:22:06.279 the next massive cultural revolution. Think about 00:22:06.279 --> 00:22:08.220 that the next time you are out listening to live 00:22:08.220 --> 00:22:10.859 music or watching a crowd react to a new sound. 00:22:11.059 --> 00:22:12.539 Thank you for learning with us today.