Perline Ellison and Her Razor

Making outrageous records to get noticed is nothing new. Songs about sex, drugs and mayhem go way back.

This present specimen can be put in the "mayhem" category. Blues singer Perline Ellison insists that her man behave or she will split his pants with her razor.

All this sounds serious, but it is little more than bravado, as these items often are. The 1944 record actually has a kind of old-timey feel to it, it part because it harkens back to the vaudeville blues tradition of 20 years before and in part because of the dated accompaniment.

Grant and Wilson

Nothing is known of Perline Ellison (by me, anyway), and as far as I can tell, she made no other records. She is an accomplished singer, but the real driving force behind the record is its composer, Wesley "Sox" Wilson, also known as Kid Wilson, a singer and song writer who had a popular stage duo with his wife Coot Grant in the 1920s and 30s - in the manner of the better-known Butterbeans and Susie.

While Wilson's mainstay was double-entendre songs, his best known works are "Gimme a Pigfoot (and a Bottle of Beer)" for Bessie Smith and "Price of Wails" for Fletcher Henderson.

Adding to the dated feel of the record is the accompaniment, led by Sammy Price, a Decca house pianist who also made records with his "Bluesicians". Price was a fine musician, but his style was firmly rooted in the 1920s.

You can hear the changes in music from that time until the 40s by listening to the flip side of this record, "New That Ain't Right", which is a take-off on Nat Cole's 1942-43 hit "That Ain't Right". This was Cole's first hit, and his smoother style is a contrast with the Ellison-Price version, good as it is.

"New That Ain't Right" is actually the "A" side of this record. My copy, however, is much more worn on the "B" side, as you might expect. There is some groove damage, but the basic sound is good.