The Wildest Guitar

Mickey Baker (1925-2012)

Guitarist and singer McHouston “Mickey” Baker died of heart and kidney failure on November 27 at the age of 87 at his home in Montrasuc-la-Conseillere, near Toulouse, in the south of France. While he is best known for his duets with Sylvia Vanderpool, Mickey Baker's influence on rock and roll guitar was every bit as great as better-known guitarists such as Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Ike Turner. He is less well known because many of his greatest recordings were made as a sideman, his name not appearing on the label.

McHouston Baker was born in Louisville, KY on October 15, 1925. His mother, Lillian, who was black, was 12 years old when he was born and it is believed that his father was a white musician who passed through Louisville at the time. He spent his earliest years in and out of orphanages, sometimes getting into trouble with the law. He made his way to New York in 1941 at the age of 15. He took up the guitar because he couldn't afford his first choice, a trumpet. He aspired to be a jazz musician, and his first gig was with a bebop group, Jimmy Neely's Incomparables. However, after the success of Pee Wee Crayton's guitar instrumental “After Hours Blues,” he decided he could make a better living playing rhythm and blues.

Mickey's Baker's first career was as a session musician, where he became the guitarist of choice for almost all New York R&B recordings in the '50s. He played in sessions for Atlantic, RCA, King, Decca, Okeh and others, often accompanied by his friend Sam “The Man” Taylor on tenor sax, backing such vocalists as Ruth Brown, Ray Charles, Joe Turner, the Drifters, the Coasters, Louis Jordan, Wynonie Harris and Screamin' Jay Hawkins.

Meanwhile, he recorded several instrumentals under his own name and pseudonyms such as “Big Red McHouston.” His first session was for Savoy (“Riverboat”/”Guitar Mambo”) in 1952. His biggest hit (at least in the New York area) was “Shake Walkin'” for Rainbow in 1955. In 1959, he released an instrumental album for Atlantic, The Wildest Guitar, which has grown in reputation over the years. Mickey's instrumentals for labels other than Atlantic are collected on the CD Rock With a Sock, released by Bear Country, a German reissue label.

While with Rainbow, he began a second career, recording duets with Sylvia Vanderpool (later Sylvia Robinson), who had previously recorded as “Little Sylvia” for Columbia, Savoy and Jubilee. They had a couple of moderately successful records, most notably "Real Gone Lover," but in late 1956, their Latin-tinged pop song, “Love is Strange,” went to #1 on the R&B charts (#11 on the pop charts). Mickey and Sylvia recorded a couple of dozen other songs, one of which (“There Ought to Be a Law”) charted, but many of them sounded like “Love is Strange” retreads. After Sylvia retired, he recorded with Kitty Noble as Mickey and Kitty.

The melody and guitar riff of “Love is Strange” were written by Bo Diddley under the title “Paradise,” but he never recorded it. He “gave” the song—or maybe sold it for a small amount—to Mickey, who retitled it and wrote the lyrics. After it became a hit, the Chess Brothers, who published Bo Diddley's songs, initiated a lengthy lawsuit that was eventually decided in Mickey's favor.  (Chicago guitarist Jody Williams, a member of Bo Diddley's combo at the time, also claims authorship of the riff.)

Most people assume the man who talks/sings with Tina Turner on “It's Gonna Work Out Fine” is Ike Turner—and he did sing it when they performed it live. However, Mickey Baker was the voice on their 1959 record.

In 1962, Mickey Baker moved to France, in part because African-American musicians were more popular and faced less discrimination in Europe. He lived in Paris for a while, then moved to the Toulouse area. There he embarked on a varied third career. He played and recorded blues and jazz, working with other American expatriates such as Champion Jack Dupree and Memphis Slim. He studied with European composers and began writing and recording classical music. He wrote a series of successful jazz guitar instruction books. Here he is in the '60s playing a song called “South of France Blues,” with Coleman Hawkins on tenor sax, for French TV.

My favorite album from his European period is a 1973 CD he recorded as McHouston Baker for Maison de Blues. Called Mississippi Delta Dues, it includes country blues songs by Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, Son House, Leroy Carr, J. B. Lenoir and three of Mickey's own compositions. It was released on CD in 2006 and is well worth seeking out. This song is not on the CD, but this 1972 performance of the New Orleans novelty tune "How Come My Dog Don't Bark?" is the closest to McHouston Baker singing country blues that I could find on the internet.

Unfortunately, Mickey Baker's death received little notice in this country. In the next few weeks, I will try to catch up with some other important deaths that occurred in late 2012, when I was not blogging.