Back in the Day, 1928

Tampa Red & Georgia Tom

"It's Tight Like That"   single

(Vocalian)

"'It’s more of a combination between suggestive lyrics and comedy mixed with Blues as a background, and they had a bunch of people that were doing this so-called Hokum Blues, which was almost like a code language,' said John Tefteller of Tefteller’s World’s Rarest Records, in a 2012 Goldmine article. 'They could use words that people in the black community knew what they meant.'"

Some say "It's Tight Like That" was among the earliest waxings of the 'Hokum' style, and that the disc proved quite popular. (Indeed, future days saw numerous reinterpretations, both by Tampa Red and others.) Red and Georgia Tom had thrown in together to play brothels and house parties. The two produced an eventual 60 records, sometimes using names "The Hokum Boys" and "Tampa Red's Hokum Jug Band."

Their rough-hewn, acoustic-and-piano renderings - topped by candid vocalizations that had for years knocked around several unabashedly natural blocks - attracted and retained approbation. Many Easy Riders grinned expectantly when finger-picked gut-box and bawdy-house 88s embraced ribald themes. 

Early Hokum Blues efforts were primitive. rural double-entendre ribaldries whose slyly smutty imprints thrived in decades-later waxings like Billy Ward and the Dominoes' "60 Minute Man" and Dorothy Ellis' "Drill Daddy Drill."

It hardly shocks that unromanced sparkler Tampa Red earned renown that endures in the minds of Blues connoisseurs. But the case of Georgia Tom does give pause: Under his birth name of Thomas Dorsey, Georgia later enjoyed celebration as the "father of Gospel," penning various beloved praiseful selections (such as "Take My Hand, Precious Lord) that stirred passions in beholders' higher ambitions, just as his earlier works had done with regard to barrel-house revelers' earthy ones.

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