WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.100 Welcome to today's Deep Dive. We're really thrilled 00:00:03.100 --> 00:00:04.960 to have you with us. Absolutely. Thanks for joining 00:00:04.960 --> 00:00:07.240 us. Have you ever been listening to a piece of 00:00:07.240 --> 00:00:10.400 music, maybe a driving rock anthem or, you know, 00:00:10.419 --> 00:00:12.240 a hip -hop track commanding the crowd to move? 00:00:12.699 --> 00:00:15.519 and wondered how that exact DNA was formed. Right, 00:00:15.580 --> 00:00:18.179 or how massive cultural movements actually get 00:00:18.179 --> 00:00:20.980 their names. Exactly. So today, we are pulling 00:00:20.980 --> 00:00:23.660 from a fascinating Wikipedia article detailing 00:00:23.660 --> 00:00:26.420 the brief, explosive, and frankly staggering 00:00:26.420 --> 00:00:29.780 life of Clarence Smith, better known as Pinetop 00:00:29.780 --> 00:00:32.020 Smith. It's an incredible story. It really is. 00:00:32.140 --> 00:00:34.799 Our mission with this deep dive is to explore 00:00:34.799 --> 00:00:38.460 how a young man in the 1920s accidentally named 00:00:38.460 --> 00:00:42.000 a colossal musical genre, laid the rhythmic groundwork, 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:45.060 work for rock and roll and created a cultural 00:00:45.060 --> 00:00:48.219 ripple effect that has lasted a century all before 00:00:48.219 --> 00:00:51.520 his tragic death at just 24 years old yeah 24. 00:00:51.700 --> 00:00:54.079 it is a remarkable narrative and what we are 00:00:54.079 --> 00:00:56.399 really looking at today is the anatomy of a cultural 00:00:56.399 --> 00:00:59.520 paradigm shift we are examining how a single 00:00:59.520 --> 00:01:03.170 highly specific recording can fundamentally alter 00:01:03.170 --> 00:01:05.810 the trajectory of popular music. It serves as 00:01:05.810 --> 00:01:08.329 a perfect case study demonstrating that innovation 00:01:08.329 --> 00:01:11.549 rarely happens in a sterile, isolated laboratory. 00:01:12.129 --> 00:01:14.890 Instead, it happens in the crowded, sweaty, urgent 00:01:14.890 --> 00:01:17.849 reality of everyday life. When those raw moments 00:01:17.849 --> 00:01:20.609 get captured on wax, they have the power to change 00:01:20.609 --> 00:01:22.409 the world. So let's set the scene and go back 00:01:22.409 --> 00:01:25.670 to his origins. Clarence Smith was born on June 00:01:25.670 --> 00:01:28.909 11, 1904, down in Pike County, Alabama. Deep 00:01:28.909 --> 00:01:31.950 South. Very much so. Now, diving into the sources, 00:01:32.109 --> 00:01:33.849 there's actually a bit of a historical debate 00:01:33.849 --> 00:01:37.530 regarding the exact town of his birth. Some records 00:01:37.530 --> 00:01:40.109 claim he was born in Troy, Alabama, while others 00:01:40.109 --> 00:01:42.189 point to Orion. Which is a smaller community 00:01:42.189 --> 00:01:44.709 just north of Troy. Right. The Wikipedia article 00:01:44.709 --> 00:01:46.650 notes that his family definitely lived in Orion 00:01:46.650 --> 00:01:49.310 when he was born and then relocated to Troy shortly 00:01:49.310 --> 00:01:52.489 after. Which is incredibly common when researching 00:01:52.489 --> 00:01:54.870 early 20th century Southern history, especially 00:01:54.870 --> 00:01:57.329 regarding black families in rural areas. Because 00:01:57.329 --> 00:02:00.250 of the record keeping. Yeah, exactly. The meticulous 00:02:00.250 --> 00:02:02.390 record keeping we expect today simply wasn't 00:02:02.390 --> 00:02:05.269 afforded to those communities at the time. But 00:02:05.269 --> 00:02:07.750 regardless of where the exact municipal lines 00:02:07.750 --> 00:02:10.250 were drawn, his foundation was firmly rooted 00:02:10.250 --> 00:02:13.139 in the rural South. He was an Alabama kid through 00:02:13.139 --> 00:02:15.379 and through. Yeah. And the source provides this 00:02:15.379 --> 00:02:19.379 fantastic, really humanizing detail early on. 00:02:19.740 --> 00:02:22.860 He earned the nickname Pinetop simply because 00:02:22.860 --> 00:02:25.599 he loved climbing trees as a child. I love that 00:02:25.599 --> 00:02:28.400 detail. Me too. Yeah. It instantly strips away 00:02:28.400 --> 00:02:30.800 the mythology and grounds him. You aren't just 00:02:30.800 --> 00:02:33.000 reading about a foundational architect of American 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:35.879 music. You are picturing this adventurous kid 00:02:35.879 --> 00:02:38.680 scrambling up pine trees in the oppressive Alabama 00:02:38.680 --> 00:02:41.740 heat. It creates a brilliant juxtaposition. You 00:02:41.740 --> 00:02:44.000 have this image of an innocent kid in the pines, 00:02:44.039 --> 00:02:46.639 but his surroundings and his reality were about 00:02:46.639 --> 00:02:49.659 to change drastically and rapidly. Because he 00:02:49.659 --> 00:02:52.090 doesn't stay there. No, he doesn't. As a teenager, 00:02:52.270 --> 00:02:54.389 his family moved to Birmingham, Alabama. And 00:02:54.389 --> 00:02:57.169 then in 1920, he made a massive geographic and 00:02:57.169 --> 00:02:59.069 cultural leap up to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 00:02:59.189 --> 00:03:01.289 Which places him squarely within the currents 00:03:01.289 --> 00:03:04.259 of the Great Migration. Exactly. He was stepping 00:03:04.259 --> 00:03:07.319 out of the agrarian south and directly into the 00:03:07.319 --> 00:03:10.520 booming industrial north. Pittsburgh in 1920 00:03:10.520 --> 00:03:13.780 was a major cultural crossroads, teeming with 00:03:13.780 --> 00:03:16.419 new money, industrial workers, and a rapidly 00:03:16.419 --> 00:03:19.219 expanding nightlife. A perfect incubator. Yes. 00:03:19.340 --> 00:03:22.039 This environment is where he truly begins his 00:03:22.039 --> 00:03:24.419 hustle as a working entertainer. Okay, let's 00:03:24.419 --> 00:03:27.240 unpack this. Because his time as an entertainer 00:03:27.240 --> 00:03:29.819 in this era wasn't just about sitting quietly 00:03:29.819 --> 00:03:32.289 at a piano in the corner of a polite room. he 00:03:32.289 --> 00:03:34.810 started touring on the TOBA circuit. The Theater 00:03:34.810 --> 00:03:36.849 Owners Booking Association. Right. For those 00:03:36.849 --> 00:03:38.530 of you who might not be familiar with the acronym, 00:03:38.590 --> 00:03:41.449 it was essentially the premier and often grueling 00:03:41.449 --> 00:03:44.449 vaudeville circuit for black entertainers at 00:03:44.449 --> 00:03:46.689 the time. And the sources make it clear that 00:03:46.689 --> 00:03:49.370 surviving on this circuit required serious versatility. 00:03:49.710 --> 00:03:52.469 You could not survive as a one -trick pony on 00:03:52.469 --> 00:03:54.650 the TOBA circuit. The crowds were demanding, 00:03:54.870 --> 00:03:57.110 the schedules were punishing, and the pay often 00:03:57.110 --> 00:04:00.090 required you to be a master of all trades. So 00:04:00.090 --> 00:04:03.099 he wasn't just playing piano. Not at all. Pinetop 00:04:03.099 --> 00:04:05.659 wasn't just a pianist. The historical record 00:04:05.659 --> 00:04:07.719 highlights that he was a singer and a comedian, 00:04:07.979 --> 00:04:10.860 touring and accompanying absolute royalty of 00:04:10.860 --> 00:04:13.379 the blues. We are talking about legends like 00:04:13.379 --> 00:04:16.620 Ma Rainey. Yes, Ma Rainey and the famous comedy 00:04:16.620 --> 00:04:20.199 duo Butter Beans and Suzy. But how does that 00:04:20.199 --> 00:04:23.399 vaudeville background actually translate to the 00:04:23.399 --> 00:04:26.120 musical legacy we are talking about today? I 00:04:26.120 --> 00:04:28.220 mean, it's one thing to do crowd work in a packed 00:04:28.220 --> 00:04:30.120 theater, but it seems like a different skill 00:04:30.120 --> 00:04:32.720 set entirely to sit down and invent a musical 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:36.000 genre. That is the critical bridge. His background 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:37.939 in comedy and vaudeville crowd work directly 00:04:37.939 --> 00:04:40.019 informed the interactive architecture of the 00:04:40.019 --> 00:04:42.160 music he would soon record. Oh, because he knew 00:04:42.160 --> 00:04:44.800 how to work a room. Precisely. Working with acts 00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:47.120 like Butterbeans and Suzy taught him timing, 00:04:47.259 --> 00:04:50.139 pacing, and how to hold a restless audience in 00:04:50.139 --> 00:04:52.160 the palm of his hand. He learned how to talk 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:54.779 to a room, how to command attention, and how 00:04:54.779 --> 00:04:56.420 to make the audience feel like they were part 00:04:56.420 --> 00:04:58.360 of the performance. This makes so much sense. 00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:00.220 When he eventually transitions to recording, 00:05:00.379 --> 00:05:02.279 he doesn't leave that showmanship at the door. 00:05:02.459 --> 00:05:05.029 He bakes it directly into the vaudeville. That 00:05:05.029 --> 00:05:07.910 makes the timeline even more compelling. Jump 00:05:07.910 --> 00:05:10.829 forward to the mid -1920s. Pintop has survived 00:05:10.829 --> 00:05:13.329 the vaudeville crucible, he's built a reputation, 00:05:13.589 --> 00:05:15.949 and networking starts to play a crucial role. 00:05:16.189 --> 00:05:18.829 A fellow musician, the brilliantly named Cal 00:05:18.829 --> 00:05:21.449 Cal Davenport. Great name. Incredible name. Cal 00:05:21.449 --> 00:05:23.910 Cal Davenport recognizes Pintop's unique talent 00:05:23.910 --> 00:05:26.569 and recommends him to J. Mayo Williams of Vocalion 00:05:26.569 --> 00:05:30.029 Records. A major label. Huge. This connection 00:05:30.029 --> 00:05:34.750 catalyzes a massive life event. In 1928, Pinetop 00:05:34.750 --> 00:05:37.410 packs up, moves his wife and young son to Chicago, 00:05:37.610 --> 00:05:39.970 Illinois, with the explicit goal of recording 00:05:39.970 --> 00:05:42.970 his music. What's fascinating here is the sheer 00:05:42.970 --> 00:05:45.410 density of talent he immerses himself in upon 00:05:45.410 --> 00:05:48.050 arriving in Chicago. When Pinetop Smith moves 00:05:48.050 --> 00:05:50.949 to the city in 1928, he doesn't just rent an 00:05:50.949 --> 00:05:53.500 isolated apartment. He moves his family into 00:05:53.500 --> 00:05:55.779 a rooming house. Right. And living in that exact 00:05:55.779 --> 00:05:58.439 same rooming house are Albert Ammons and Mead 00:05:58.439 --> 00:06:00.620 Lux Lewis. It's almost unbelievable. You essentially 00:06:00.620 --> 00:06:02.839 have the three foundational pillars of boogie 00:06:02.839 --> 00:06:05.160 -woogie piano all living under a single roof. 00:06:05.379 --> 00:06:07.579 Precisely. It functioned as an impromptu boogie 00:06:07.579 --> 00:06:10.000 -woogie think tank. When you consider the layout 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:13.600 of a 1928 Chicago rooming, house -cramped quarters, 00:06:13.939 --> 00:06:17.079 thin walls, shared spaces, the cross -pollination 00:06:17.079 --> 00:06:19.980 of ideas must have been staggering. They couldn't 00:06:19.980 --> 00:06:22.500 escape each other's music. No. couldn't. You 00:06:22.500 --> 00:06:25.319 have these three giants of the piano, likely 00:06:25.319 --> 00:06:27.620 hearing each other practice through the floorboards, 00:06:27.860 --> 00:06:30.600 inadvertently pushing each other, refining their 00:06:30.600 --> 00:06:33.399 heavy left -hand techniques, and competing in 00:06:33.399 --> 00:06:36.600 an environment of constant musical osmosis. It 00:06:36.600 --> 00:06:39.079 paints such a vivid picture of the creative pressure 00:06:39.079 --> 00:06:42.000 cooker he was operating in, and all of that kinetic 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:44.279 energy translates directly into the recording 00:06:44.279 --> 00:06:48.910 studio. On December 29th, 1928, Pinetop goes 00:06:48.910 --> 00:06:51.730 into the Vocalion studio and tracks what would 00:06:51.730 --> 00:06:54.649 become his absolute masterpiece. A historic session. 00:06:54.930 --> 00:06:56.850 It's a song he claims he originally improvised 00:06:56.850 --> 00:06:59.089 while playing at a packed house rent party back 00:06:59.089 --> 00:07:02.689 in St. Louis, Missouri. He titles the track Pinetop's 00:07:02.689 --> 00:07:04.490 Boogie Woogie. And we really need to pause on 00:07:04.490 --> 00:07:06.490 that title. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:07:06.870 --> 00:07:09.110 Because looking at the historical data, this 00:07:09.110 --> 00:07:11.149 was the very first recording to have the phrase 00:07:11.149 --> 00:07:15.339 Boogie Woogie in the title. Yes, ever. Furthermore, 00:07:15.339 --> 00:07:18.360 it is the first known use of the term on a commercial 00:07:18.360 --> 00:07:21.339 record period. He literally cemented the name 00:07:21.339 --> 00:07:23.930 of the genre in that single session. Before December 00:07:23.930 --> 00:07:26.670 1928, musicians across the country were playing 00:07:26.670 --> 00:07:30.050 variations of this driving, heavy -handed, ostinato 00:07:30.050 --> 00:07:33.550 -based piano style. But it was fractured. It 00:07:33.550 --> 00:07:35.490 didn't have a banner to rally under. Exactly. 00:07:35.490 --> 00:07:38.670 It was a regional sound without a unified, universal 00:07:38.670 --> 00:07:42.449 brand. By pressing that phrase onto a vocalian's 00:07:42.449 --> 00:07:45.949 78 RPM record, Pinetop Smith gave the entire 00:07:45.949 --> 00:07:48.920 movement a moniker that stuck permanently. But 00:07:48.920 --> 00:07:51.060 the revolution of this track goes far beyond 00:07:51.060 --> 00:07:52.959 the title printed on the label, doesn't it? Oh, 00:07:52.980 --> 00:07:54.720 absolutely. It's the internal anatomy of the 00:07:54.720 --> 00:07:56.980 recording itself. He took the chaotic, sweaty, 00:07:57.199 --> 00:07:59.160 interactive energy of a St. Louis rent party 00:07:59.160 --> 00:08:01.939 and somehow distilled it into a studio recording. 00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:04.579 If you listen to Pinetop's Boogie Woogie, you 00:08:04.579 --> 00:08:06.600 immediately realize it isn't a passive listening 00:08:06.600 --> 00:08:09.639 experience. Pinetop actively talks over his own 00:08:09.639 --> 00:08:11.420 piano playing. He's the master of ceremonies. 00:08:11.720 --> 00:08:13.800 He is directing the invisible dancers in the 00:08:13.800 --> 00:08:16.459 room. He calls out specific instructions, looking 00:08:16.459 --> 00:08:18.959 for the girl with the red dress on. He commands 00:08:18.959 --> 00:08:21.720 her to not move a peg until he gives the word, 00:08:21.839 --> 00:08:23.839 and then he instructs the room to shake that 00:08:23.839 --> 00:08:27.079 thing and mess around. He is literally puppeteering 00:08:27.079 --> 00:08:29.620 the party from behind the piano. Which is exactly 00:08:29.620 --> 00:08:32.059 where his vaudeville crowd work manifests. He 00:08:32.059 --> 00:08:34.399 isn't just playing music, he is hosting an event. 00:08:34.659 --> 00:08:37.379 And it feels incredibly modern. If you think 00:08:37.379 --> 00:08:39.360 about the culture of modern music, whether you 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:42.200 are at a club listening to a DJ cut the beat 00:08:42.200 --> 00:08:44.600 to tell the crowd to jump, or listening to a 00:08:44.600 --> 00:08:47.279 hip -hop hype track, you are participating in 00:08:47.279 --> 00:08:50.360 a tradition that Pinetop Smith was blueprinting 00:08:50.360 --> 00:08:53.840 in 1928. He invented the interactive dance track. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:56.039 He absolutely did, and the musical architecture 00:08:56.039 --> 00:08:58.559 supporting those vocal commands is equally profound. 00:08:58.980 --> 00:09:01.169 Let's get into the music theory side of it. The 00:09:01.169 --> 00:09:03.250 source material emphasizes that the song features 00:09:03.250 --> 00:09:06.169 highly strategic rhythmic breaks. Rather than 00:09:06.169 --> 00:09:08.990 just playing a continuous loop, Pinetop utilizes 00:09:08.990 --> 00:09:11.570 these moments of suspended rhythm. Stopping the 00:09:11.570 --> 00:09:13.710 momentum. Right, dropping the bottom out of the 00:09:13.710 --> 00:09:16.529 track to create a vacuum of tension before crashing 00:09:16.529 --> 00:09:19.750 back in with that relentless left hand. These 00:09:19.750 --> 00:09:23.090 breaks were a tool inherited from ragtime, but 00:09:23.090 --> 00:09:25.610 the way Pinetop weaponized them alongside his 00:09:25.610 --> 00:09:28.289 syncopated treble melodies was a fundamental 00:09:28.289 --> 00:09:30.830 foreshadowing of rock and roll. It's the manipulation 00:09:30.830 --> 00:09:34.019 of kinetic energy. Yeah. He's using the syncopation 00:09:34.019 --> 00:09:36.980 and those sudden stops to physically force a 00:09:36.980 --> 00:09:39.740 reaction out of the dancers. Exactly. The driving 00:09:39.740 --> 00:09:42.440 bass line, the rebellious energy, the tension 00:09:42.440 --> 00:09:46.539 and release. It is the exact rhythmic DNA that 00:09:46.539 --> 00:09:49.059 would eventually evolve into rock music. When 00:09:49.059 --> 00:09:51.299 historians map the roots of rock and roll, that 00:09:51.299 --> 00:09:54.639 December 1928 session is a massive glowing waypoint. 00:09:54.840 --> 00:09:56.519 And you can track that direct lineage to the 00:09:56.519 --> 00:09:58.519 legends who followed. Look at Ray Charles. Oh, 00:09:58.519 --> 00:10:00.399 definitely. When Ray Charles was building his 00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:02.899 own massive hits decades later. later, he knew 00:10:02.899 --> 00:10:05.159 exactly which cultural reservoir to draw from. 00:10:05.320 --> 00:10:08.059 He used those exact same lyrical commands around 00:10:08.059 --> 00:10:10.379 where I say because he understood the primal 00:10:10.379 --> 00:10:13.820 power of Pinetop's blueprint. So by early 1929, 00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:17.059 Pinetop Smith is riding an incredible wave of 00:10:17.059 --> 00:10:20.000 momentum. Following the success of his Boogie 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:23.299 Woogie Anthem, he records several more 78 RPM 00:10:23.299 --> 00:10:26.679 singles for Vocalian. Capitalizing on the hit. 00:10:26.759 --> 00:10:29.480 Yeah. He lays down tracks with incredibly evocative 00:10:29.480 --> 00:10:32.320 titles like I'm Sober Now, Jump Steady Blues, 00:10:32.580 --> 00:10:34.700 and Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out. 00:10:35.360 --> 00:10:37.720 Vocalian recognizes they have a burgeoning star, 00:10:37.899 --> 00:10:40.100 and he is scheduled for another major recording 00:10:40.100 --> 00:10:43.320 session to capitalize on his rising fame. He 00:10:43.320 --> 00:10:45.799 never makes it to that session. No. The trajectory 00:10:45.799 --> 00:10:48.120 of his life and potentially the accelerated evolution 00:10:48.120 --> 00:10:51.450 of American music hits a violent wall. On March 00:10:51.450 --> 00:10:55.330 15th, 1929, Clarence Pinetop Smith was shot and 00:10:55.330 --> 00:10:57.450 killed during a fight in a Chicago dance hall. 00:10:57.529 --> 00:10:59.549 Just devastating. This is the exact day before 00:10:59.549 --> 00:11:01.330 he was scheduled to be back in the Vocalian studio. 00:11:01.429 --> 00:11:04.230 He was 24 years old. It is a devastating pivot 00:11:04.230 --> 00:11:06.809 in the narrative. And the sources point to a 00:11:06.809 --> 00:11:08.990 thick layer of tragedy and mystery surrounding 00:11:08.990 --> 00:11:10.549 the event. Because it wasn't even his fight, 00:11:10.590 --> 00:11:13.110 was it? Accounts differ on the specific mechanics 00:11:13.110 --> 00:11:15.870 of the brawl, but several sources suggest Pinetop 00:11:15.870 --> 00:11:18.269 wasn't even the intended target of the gunfire. 00:11:18.429 --> 00:11:21.049 He may have simply been tragic collateral damage 00:11:21.049 --> 00:11:23.330 in a chaotic room he had no part in fighting 00:11:23.330 --> 00:11:26.190 in. To survive the grueling vaudeville circuits, 00:11:26.470 --> 00:11:29.350 to finally get your family to Chicago, to name 00:11:29.350 --> 00:11:31.809 a genre, and then to be taken out by a stray 00:11:31.809 --> 00:11:35.600 bullet at 24. It's difficult to process. And 00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:37.659 it was incredibly difficult for the musical community 00:11:37.659 --> 00:11:39.779 to process at the time. How do you reconcile 00:11:39.779 --> 00:11:43.080 the sudden, violent erasure of a man who was 00:11:43.080 --> 00:11:46.580 the literal architect of the party? The shockwaves 00:11:46.580 --> 00:11:49.059 were palpable. I can only imagine. To give you 00:11:49.059 --> 00:11:51.179 a sense of how deeply this scarred the jazz and 00:11:51.179 --> 00:11:54.000 blues world, consider that a full 10 years later, 00:11:54.100 --> 00:11:57.659 in 1939, Downbeat magazine ran a retrospective 00:11:57.659 --> 00:11:59.639 headline about the incident. It didn't focus 00:11:59.639 --> 00:12:02.440 on his musical theory or his record sales. The 00:12:02.440 --> 00:12:05.159 headline simply read, I saw pine tops spit blood. 00:12:05.399 --> 00:12:08.399 Wow. That is visceral. It strips away all the 00:12:08.399 --> 00:12:10.120 glamour of the jazz age and leaves you with the 00:12:10.120 --> 00:12:12.139 brutal reality of the nightlife they were operating 00:12:12.139 --> 00:12:14.500 in. It really does. And despite his massive contribution 00:12:14.500 --> 00:12:17.200 to culture, it took an embarrassingly long time 00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:19.679 for him to receive proper physical recognition. 00:12:20.299 --> 00:12:24.840 He lay in an unmarked grave for decades. A terrible 00:12:24.840 --> 00:12:28.409 oversight. It wasn't until 2014, 85 years after 00:12:28.409 --> 00:12:31.029 his death, that the Killer Blues Headstone Project 00:12:31.029 --> 00:12:34.049 finally placed a proper monument for him at Restvale 00:12:34.049 --> 00:12:37.330 Cemetery in Elcip, Illinois. While the physical 00:12:37.330 --> 00:12:39.830 headstone in 2014 provided long overdue closure, 00:12:40.190 --> 00:12:42.649 there was also a conceptual monument proposed 00:12:42.649 --> 00:12:45.350 for Pinetop decades earlier that captures his 00:12:45.350 --> 00:12:48.769 essence perfectly. Yes, the Claes Oldenburg proposal. 00:12:49.129 --> 00:12:51.649 I am absolutely obsessed with this detail from 00:12:51.649 --> 00:12:54.149 the source. Claes Oldenburg, the renowned pop 00:12:54.149 --> 00:12:56.350 artist famous for his massive public installations, 00:12:56.809 --> 00:12:59.509 proposed a monument for Pinetop in a book covering 00:12:59.509 --> 00:13:03.889 his project ideas between 1965 and 1969. It wasn't 00:13:03.889 --> 00:13:06.480 a traditional statue. Not at all. He didn't propose 00:13:06.480 --> 00:13:08.379 a traditional bronze statue of a man sitting 00:13:08.379 --> 00:13:10.980 at a piano. Instead, Oldenburg proposed running 00:13:10.980 --> 00:13:13.580 a wire the entire length of North Avenue in Chicago. 00:13:13.980 --> 00:13:16.299 It would extend west from Clark Street all the 00:13:16.299 --> 00:13:18.980 way to Larrabee Street. And Larrabee Street is 00:13:18.980 --> 00:13:20.860 the crucial detail there, as that was the intersection 00:13:20.860 --> 00:13:22.980 where the dance hall was located and where Pinetop 00:13:22.980 --> 00:13:25.240 was murdered. Exactly. And this wouldn't just 00:13:25.240 --> 00:13:27.759 be an inert wire. Oldenburg proposed that an 00:13:27.759 --> 00:13:29.539 electric impulse would run through it colored 00:13:29.539 --> 00:13:32.250 blue. So you would have this long, continuous, 00:13:32.289 --> 00:13:35.289 visually striking blue line pulsing down the 00:13:35.289 --> 00:13:38.750 street as far as the eye could see. And Oldenburg 00:13:38.750 --> 00:13:41.429 explicitly described this conceptual wire as 00:13:41.429 --> 00:13:44.350 being blue and dangerous. If we connect this 00:13:44.350 --> 00:13:46.350 to the bigger picture, it is arguably the most 00:13:46.350 --> 00:13:49.490 fitting tribute imaginable. A static marble column 00:13:49.490 --> 00:13:52.429 or a quiet bronze plaque feels antithetical to 00:13:52.429 --> 00:13:54.970 a man who invented a genre entirely based on 00:13:54.970 --> 00:13:57.730 kinetic movement. It's too quiet. Right. but 00:13:57.730 --> 00:14:01.769 a live, pulsing, dangerous blue wire that physicalizes 00:14:01.769 --> 00:14:04.850 the raw electric energy of the early blues. It 00:14:04.850 --> 00:14:07.269 embodies the high voltage danger of the speakeasies 00:14:07.269 --> 00:14:09.710 and dance halls he inhabited, the electric spark 00:14:09.710 --> 00:14:12.230 of his musical genius, and the sudden, shocking 00:14:12.230 --> 00:14:14.750 way his current was cut short. It is the blues 00:14:14.750 --> 00:14:17.710 made manifest. And, even though the man himself 00:14:17.710 --> 00:14:20.929 was gone, that electric pulse he generated just 00:14:20.929 --> 00:14:24.070 kept traveling. The posthumous boom of his music 00:14:24.070 --> 00:14:26.940 was absolutely staggering. Other heavyweight 00:14:26.940 --> 00:14:29.899 pianists of the era, like Pete Johnson, openly 00:14:29.899 --> 00:14:32.840 cited Pinetop as a primary influence, carrying 00:14:32.840 --> 00:14:35.399 his rhythmic theories forward. The Whipple effect 00:14:35.399 --> 00:14:37.779 is where this tragedy transitions into a triumph 00:14:37.779 --> 00:14:40.399 of legacy. Let's examine what happens in 1938. 00:14:41.179 --> 00:14:43.659 Big band leader Tommy Dorsey decides to arrange 00:14:43.659 --> 00:14:46.080 a full orchestral version of Pinetop's Boogie 00:14:46.080 --> 00:14:48.019 Woogie. Bringing it to a massive new audience. 00:14:48.200 --> 00:14:50.539 Yes. Initially, it wasn't an overnight sensation. 00:14:50.840 --> 00:14:53.320 But as the globe plunged into World War Two, 00:14:53.419 --> 00:14:55.820 that specific arrangement exploded in popularity. 00:14:56.139 --> 00:14:58.320 It went on to become Tommy Dorsey's best selling 00:14:58.320 --> 00:15:00.840 record, moving over five million copies. Why 00:15:00.840 --> 00:15:03.399 do you think that specific track resonated so 00:15:03.399 --> 00:15:05.720 deeply with an America that was engulfed in a 00:15:05.720 --> 00:15:08.879 world war? What was it about a 1920 St. Louis 00:15:08.879 --> 00:15:11.740 rent party song? that captured the zeitgeist 00:15:11.740 --> 00:15:14.259 of the 1940s. It comes down to the psychology 00:15:14.259 --> 00:15:16.620 of the rhythm. During World War II, America was 00:15:16.620 --> 00:15:18.940 an industrial machine operating at maximum capacity, 00:15:19.179 --> 00:15:21.919 and the culture required an escapism that matched 00:15:21.919 --> 00:15:24.440 that relentless forward -moving momentum. They 00:15:24.440 --> 00:15:27.740 needed something driving. Precisely. Pinetop's 00:15:27.740 --> 00:15:30.220 driving, four -to -the -bar rhythm, offered exactly 00:15:30.220 --> 00:15:32.960 that. It was optimistic, it was unyielding, and 00:15:32.960 --> 00:15:35.679 it forced you to move. It provided a kinetic 00:15:35.679 --> 00:15:38.019 release for a population under immense psychological 00:15:38.019 --> 00:15:48.980 pressure. That makes perfect sense. Five million 00:15:48.980 --> 00:15:52.029 copies in that era. is an astronomical figure, 00:15:52.169 --> 00:15:54.330 and the industry recognized the power of that 00:15:54.330 --> 00:15:57.230 blueprint. Heavyweights like Bing Crosby recorded 00:15:57.230 --> 00:16:00.610 a version in 1946 alongside the Lionel Hampton 00:16:00.610 --> 00:16:02.750 Orchestra. Count Basie put out his own interpretation, 00:16:02.990 --> 00:16:05.330 too. Right. The song essentially developed a 00:16:05.330 --> 00:16:08.049 life entirely independent of its creator. And 00:16:08.049 --> 00:16:10.230 then you have the musicians who literally adopted 00:16:10.230 --> 00:16:12.730 his identity to ensure the music stayed alive. 00:16:13.029 --> 00:16:15.110 The legacy of the name itself is fascinating. 00:16:15.840 --> 00:16:18.740 Starting in the 1950s, a talented pianist named 00:16:18.740 --> 00:16:21.519 Joe Willie Perkins recorded his own version of 00:16:21.519 --> 00:16:24.059 Pinetop's Boogie Woogie. From that moment on, 00:16:24.159 --> 00:16:26.240 he became universally known in the industry as 00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:29.019 Pinetop Perkins. Talk about a tribute. He adopted 00:16:29.019 --> 00:16:31.179 the moniker and carried it for the rest of his 00:16:31.179 --> 00:16:33.679 extensive career, eventually becoming the legendary 00:16:33.679 --> 00:16:36.059 pianist for Muddy Waters. I love that he didn't 00:16:36.059 --> 00:16:38.320 run from the comparison. He leaned into it. He 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:40.909 wore it like a badge of honor. He lived to be 00:16:40.909 --> 00:16:43.669 a very old man, and the source notes a brilliant 00:16:43.669 --> 00:16:47.909 moment from his 2004 album, Ladies' Man. In his 00:16:47.909 --> 00:16:50.850 90s, Pinetop Perkins actually recorded a track 00:16:50.850 --> 00:16:54.169 where he jokingly addresses the widespread misconception 00:16:54.169 --> 00:16:56.710 that he had written the original Boogie Woogie 00:16:56.710 --> 00:16:59.389 anthem. He playfully sets the record straight 00:16:59.389 --> 00:17:02.149 that the genius belonged to Clarence Smith. That 00:17:02.149 --> 00:17:04.609 is a beautiful full circle tribute. And the influence 00:17:04.609 --> 00:17:06.789 didn't just stay confined to traditional blues 00:17:06.789 --> 00:17:09.680 or big band. we see it jump across completely 00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:12.619 different genres. We already discussed Ray Charles 00:17:12.619 --> 00:17:15.380 adapting the lyrics for Mess Around, which, as 00:17:15.380 --> 00:17:17.299 a fun side note from the sources, was officially 00:17:17.299 --> 00:17:20.339 credited to a writer named A. Nugentre. Which 00:17:20.339 --> 00:17:22.799 is just Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Erdogan's 00:17:22.799 --> 00:17:25.240 name spelled backward. I love that little trivia. 00:17:25.420 --> 00:17:27.900 But beyond R &B, the jazz world kept returning 00:17:27.900 --> 00:17:32.069 to him. In 1975, the Bob Thiel Orchestra released 00:17:32.069 --> 00:17:35.029 a modern jazz album that took its title directly 00:17:35.029 --> 00:17:37.609 from that visceral downbeat headline, calling 00:17:37.609 --> 00:17:40.450 the record I Saw Pinetop Spit Blood, featuring 00:17:40.450 --> 00:17:42.589 a modernized treatment of his boogie woogie. 00:17:42.690 --> 00:17:45.170 And the lineage continues straight into the 21st 00:17:45.170 --> 00:17:47.490 century, with artists like Gene Taylor releasing 00:17:47.490 --> 00:17:51.420 covers as recently as 2003. It proves that every 00:17:51.420 --> 00:17:53.759 successive generation of musicians, regardless 00:17:53.759 --> 00:17:56.559 of their specific genre, eventually finds their 00:17:56.559 --> 00:17:59.940 way back to that December 1928 recording session. 00:18:00.140 --> 00:18:02.240 It's unavoidable. Whether they are playing traditional 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:05.220 blues, swinging big band or modern rock, they 00:18:05.220 --> 00:18:07.500 are unknowingly tapping into the electric current 00:18:07.500 --> 00:18:10.019 that Pinetop Smith wired directly into the cultural 00:18:10.019 --> 00:18:13.039 mainframe. So what does this all mean? We have 00:18:13.039 --> 00:18:15.019 spent this time looking at a young man who died 00:18:15.019 --> 00:18:17.579 at 24 years old, leaving behind only a small 00:18:17.579 --> 00:18:20.380 handful of recordings. Yet his structural impact 00:18:20.380 --> 00:18:22.799 on American music was so profound that decades 00:18:22.799 --> 00:18:26.559 later, in 1991, he was posthumously inducted 00:18:26.559 --> 00:18:29.140 into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. He left behind 00:18:29.140 --> 00:18:32.680 a legacy that is truly undeniably immortal. It 00:18:32.680 --> 00:18:35.240 means that profound innovation does not strictly 00:18:35.240 --> 00:18:38.589 require a long runway. Sometimes, true cultural 00:18:38.589 --> 00:18:41.589 shifts are born from a single moment of unfiltered, 00:18:41.609 --> 00:18:44.569 joyful connection. Think about the core of what 00:18:44.569 --> 00:18:47.210 we've explored with you today. A young man trying 00:18:47.210 --> 00:18:49.769 to entertain his friends in a cramped St. Louis 00:18:49.769 --> 00:18:52.750 apartment. He wasn't trying to invent rock and 00:18:52.750 --> 00:18:55.190 roll. He was just trying to make the room sweat. 00:18:55.349 --> 00:18:56.970 He wanted the girl in the red dress to shake 00:18:56.970 --> 00:18:59.970 that thing. Exactly. And that simple, localized 00:18:59.970 --> 00:19:03.049 act of creation managed to outlive him by a century, 00:19:03.230 --> 00:19:05.950 naming a global genre and laying the rhythmic 00:19:05.950 --> 00:19:07.990 foundation for the music you listen to today. 00:19:08.130 --> 00:19:10.589 It is staggering to think about how much of our 00:19:10.589 --> 00:19:12.809 modern culture is built on the foundation of 00:19:12.809 --> 00:19:15.740 a 24 -year -old's house party. It is. But it 00:19:15.740 --> 00:19:18.119 also forces us to consider the inverse, and this 00:19:18.119 --> 00:19:19.619 is the thought I want to leave you with today. 00:19:19.960 --> 00:19:23.460 We are incredibly lucky that Cal Davenport introduced 00:19:23.460 --> 00:19:26.640 Pinetop to Vocalion Records. We are lucky that 00:19:26.640 --> 00:19:29.279 his genius was captured on wax just three months 00:19:29.279 --> 00:19:31.799 before a stray bullet took his life. Just three 00:19:31.799 --> 00:19:34.599 months. But if the inventor of rock and roll's 00:19:34.599 --> 00:19:37.940 rhythmic DNA was recorded purely by chance, in 00:19:37.940 --> 00:19:40.779 the absolute final days of his life, How many 00:19:40.779 --> 00:19:43.279 other foundational geniuses from that era were 00:19:43.279 --> 00:19:46.900 permanently lost to history? How many other brilliant 00:19:46.900 --> 00:19:50.400 pioneers of the TOBA circuit whose musical innovations 00:19:50.400 --> 00:19:53.059 are still pulsing through our culture today will 00:19:53.059 --> 00:19:55.519 we never know the names of simply because they 00:19:55.519 --> 00:19:57.500 never had the chance to step in front of a studio 00:19:57.500 --> 00:20:00.500 microphone? That is a haunting and powerful question 00:20:00.500 --> 00:20:02.940 to end on. Thank you so much for joining us on 00:20:02.940 --> 00:20:04.819 this deep dive into the extraordinary electric 00:20:04.819 --> 00:20:08.519 and far too brief life of Pinetop Smith. We appreciate 00:20:08.519 --> 00:20:10.500 you taking the time to unpack this history with 00:20:10.500 --> 00:20:12.680 us, and we look forward to sharing our next discovery 00:20:12.680 --> 00:20:15.000 with you. Until then, keep listening and keep 00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:16.839 exploring the roots of the music you love.