BIOGRAPHY AND DISCOGRAPHY

The most well-rounded talent of rock’s first half dozen years, Amos Milburn combined a soulful voice with exceptional songwriting skills and impressive chops on the piano to become one of the brightest stars in the early rock universe.

The Texas born Milburn showed an early inclination towards rocking with a handful of cuts as a teenager which pre-dated rock ‘n’ roll’s official birth but gave notice there was a new style poised to emerge. Signed to Aladdin Records in Los Angeles he was paired with A&R man Maxwell Davis and the two forged an innate working relationship the equal of any artist and producer in rock history, their abilities meshing perfectly as Davis’s saxophone was the ideal compliment to Milburn’s style.

Milburn singlehandedly carried Aladdin’s rock reputation for years, scoring 19 hits, including four #1’s over his time with the company. His catalog ran the gamut from scorching party anthems to mournful laments and sublime songs of seduction making each varied approach seem completely natural and entirely effortless.

In an ill-advised effort to capitalize on his early 50’s successes on songs with a drinking theme Aladdin began recycling lyrical ideas on a succession of releases to diminishing acclaim, thereby turning one of the most versatile artists of the era into a something of one-note performer just as rock was crossing over as a whole to an audience less receptive to that topic, crippling his ability to continue his run at the top.

Upon leaving Aladdin in 1957 Milburn recorded – without the same success – for a variety of big name labels from King to Motown, but despite some stellar performances his days as a hit-maker were over and without the nostalgic interest in his era of rock he struggled to maintain a viable career as a live performer.

After suffering a series of strokes in the 1970’s the World War Two vet lived on military benefits, losing a leg along the way, before passing away January 3, 1980 at the age of 52, silencing one of the top hundred rock artists ever.
 
 
AMOS MILBURN DISCOGRAPHY (Reviews To Date On Spontaneous Lunacy):
 
BLUES AT SUNDOWN
(Aladdin 201; October, 1947)
The introduction of soulfulness into rock… served up with a laconic delivery perfect for ballads and mournful laments. (6)

MY LOVE IS LIMITED
(Aladdin 201; October, 1947)
A record lurking in the shadows, a song for walking home long past midnight with a bit of a buzz on, a smile on your face and a half-focused faraway dreamy look in your eyes. (7)

ALADDIN BOOGIE
(Aladdin unreleased)
A storming rocker that was inexplicably left on the shelf just when the genre was taking off, thereby depriving Milburn of a more prominent early role in the music’s story as the high-octane performance shows he was on point from the very start. (7)

SAD AND BLUE
(Aladdin 202; November, 1947)
Arguably nobody in rock’s formative years had better vocal control than Amos Milburn, his ballad singing in particular was an ongoing lesson in the use of dynamics, making this gripping stuff. (6)

THAT’S MY CHICK
(Aladdin 202; November, 1947)
Intended as a quasi-novelty record Milburn doesn’t quite go along with the program, adding in a lecherous vibe to his vocals but shows his disdain for the song with a frothy piano solo all while the guitarist plays it straight as if he was oblivious to it all. (3)

BYE BYE BOOGIE
(Aladdin 206; January, 1948)
Milburn seems as if he were shot out of a canon after drinking a fifth of nitroglycerin, letting rip and trusting you’ll hang on for the ride in one of his most exhilarating performances. (8)

TRAIN TIME BLUES
(Aladdin 206; January, 1948)
A slow burn ballad that’s the perfect compliment to the storming flip side, this Cecil Gant song from a few years earlier is re-imagined with a soulful vocal and hypnotic support from the guitar and saxophone combination. (7)

NICKLE PLATED BABY
(Aladdin unreleased)
A storming piano rocker with a multi-layered arrangement featuring sax and guitar, each instrument easing in and out of the spotlight while Milburn delivers some great lyrics with casual nonchalance despite the frantic tempo. (8)

I STILL LOVE YOU
(Aladdin 211; May, 1948)
Milburn drags out each line to their absolute breaking point, stretching out the words as if in a drug-induced haze yet conveying the deepest feelings in the WAY he delivers them… the effect is mesmerizing. (7)

POOL PLAYING BLUES
(Aladdin 211; May, 1948)
A song that doesn’t have much to with the game of billiards, but rather how Amos Milburn uses the game’s particulars as substitutes for various forms of sexual hanky panky which at least makes it worth taking for a spin. (5)

CHICKEN SHACK BOOGIE
(Aladdin 3014; October, 1948)
A perfect representation of all rock ‘n’ roll music was to this stage = an addicting groove, alluring lyrics promising sin and depravity and Milburn and Maxwell Davis acting as degenerate pied pipers leading the masses to the place “where all the bad cats meet”. ★ 10 ★

IT TOOK A LONG, LONG TIME
(Aladdin 3014; October, 1948)
Solid, if somewhat redundant stylistically from earlier efforts, but when each component is so well-crafted it’s hard to complain… though it’s hardly going to set the world on fire nobody did this type of performance better. (7)

BEWILDERED
(Aladdin 3018; December, 1948)
Milburn’s career defining ballad and an enduring hit that rendered all competing versions over the years all but irrelevant. A record that not only lives up to its exalted reputation but far surpasses it. Perfect in every conceivable way. ★ 10 ★

A&M BLUES
(Aladdin 3018; December, 1948)
Maybe not much more than an improvised throwaway but with Milburn’s talents that’s still well worth hearing, as the storyline is timely and tight while the musical backing has you almost wishing they cut it as an instrumental. (6)

JITTERBUG PARADE (a/k/a – JITTERBUG FASHION PARADE)
(Aladdin 3023; April, 1949)
Ill-advised retread of Chicken Shack Boogie may muscle up the arrangement enough to make it moderately pleasing but its existence is completely unnecessary, especially for someone who’s not lacking for popularity or material. (6)

HOLD ME BABY
(Aladdin 3023; April, 1949)
A year and a half old recording pulled out of mothballs to serve as the B-side wound up being a huge hit (#2) in its own right thanks to Milburn’s usual display of vocal artistry and scorching sax work from Maxwell Davis that combined to make this sound completely up to date. (7)

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT
(Aladdin 3026; June, 1949)
Another masterful record highlighted by deep emotions lurking under the storyline, Milburn’s sublime vocals and the perfect support of Maxwell Davis and Gene Phillips with terrific production that frames it all so well. (7)

POT LUCK BOOGIE
(Aladdin 3026; June, 1949)
An instrumental featuring the byplay of Milburn and Maxwell Davis that was pulled off the shelf after almost two years may be just serviceable B-side filler but it shows that all involved had the pulse of the rock style from the very beginning. (5)

ROOMIN’ HOUSE BOOGIE
(Aladdin 3032; August, 1949)
Another retread of a certain party at a Chicken Shack but this one not only was nearly as big of a hit it was also a pretty jumping bash all things considered… nothing new about it but a good time was had by all so it’s kind of hard to complain. (7)

EMPTY ARMS BLUES
(Aladdin 3032; August, 1949)
A two year old track pulled from the vaults scored Milburn yet another hit, this one a song that acted as a prototype of many of his mid-tempo sides which vacillated between two extremes musically and vocally but effectively bridged the gap between the dueling perspectives. (6)

BOW-WOW!
(Aladdin 3037; October, 1949)
Milburn’s road band, The Chickenshackers, get a chance to strut their stuff for the first time on record as Amos gives them plenty of room on an instrumental with 17 year old saxophonist Don Wilkerson tearing things up. (6)

LET’S MAKE CHRISTMAS MERRY, BABY
(Aladdin 3037; October, 1949)
Just the second original holiday song from a rock artist, Milburn eschews traditional sentiments about peace on earth and good will towards men in favor of a piece of action and good sex for him thus explaining why this huge hit at the time never became a Christmas standard. (8)

REAL PRETTY MAMA BLUES
(Aladdin 3038; November, 1949)
The “Blues” in the title is a misnomer for this is a storming rocker through and through with some of Milburn’s best playing and singing on a tightly constructed arrangement which shows off his tough as nails road band and proves why Amos was the 1940’s most potent rock star. (9)

TELL ME HOW LONG HAS THE TRAIN BEEN GONE
(Aladdin 3043; January, 1950)
A quirky change-of-pace for Milburn who retains his serious demeanor here as he tries to resist being upended by a band-mate making wise-ass interjections… unusual in structure though it may be it does provide laughs as well as a great vocal and catchy melody. (7)

I’M JUST A FOOL IN LOVE
(Aladdin 3043; January, 1950)
An uncharacteristic song from Milburn that seems emotionally detached, both vocally and in terms of instrumentation, its lack of urgency replaced by a dreamy, almost stoned, sensibility that fails to leave much of an impression at all. (4)

JOHNSON RAG
(Aladdin 3049; February, 1950)
A poorly chosen single for rock’s top artist, a cover of three decade old song currently undergoing a widespread popular revival but which is thematically unsuited for rock ‘n’ roll even though Amos and the band manage to inject some serious musical firepower into it. (5)

WALKING BLUES
(Aladdin 3049; February, 1950)
The laid-back vocal style doesn’t quite connect with the unusual lyrical perspectives that are far more sinister than anything he’s done to date, so while this sounds good in passing, especially Johnny Brown’s guitar in support, the song is more of curiosity than anything. (6)

SQUARE DANCE BOOGIE
(Aladdin 3056; April, 1950)
An unlikely theme but an incendiary performance as Milburn addresses the subject with a keen eye in the lyrics but totally upends the normal musical accompaniment to such a scene by engaging in a pure rock throw-down. (7)

ANYBODY’S BLUES
(Aladdin 3056; April, 1950)
Pulled from the vaults after nearly three years, this languid ballad doesn’t suffer at all from the passage of time… it’s vintage Milburn with his warm effortless vocals, quirky piano playing and Maxwell Davis’ distinctive all-enveloping sax creating an indelible mood. (8)

BIRMINGHAM BOUNCE
(Aladdin 3058; May, 1950)
Continuing the recent flurry of cover records from unlikely sources, Milburn takes this novelty country tune that mentions rock ‘n’ roll but had no other musical connection to it in Hardrock Gunter’s original, and turns it into a fairly credible rocker with some intense playing. (5)

I LOVE HER
(Aladdin 3058; May, 1950)
Another 1947 recording dredged up for a quick B-side this one suffers from trite lyrics and a simplistic story – written by others – but is redeemed by Milburn’s delivery, piano playing and especially Maxwell Davis’s beautifully haunting and evocative tenor sax. (5)

HARD LUCK BLUES
(Aladdin 3059; June, 1950)
Though well-performed in a more bluesy style than Roy Brown’s original, the decision to record this – one of a flurry of cover records that has taken up most of Amos’s releases in 1950 – is beneath someone of his stature and should be avoided on principle alone. (3)

TWO YEARS OF TORTURE
(Aladdin 3059; June, 1950)
Yet another pointless cover version of a rising hit, Milburn’s vocal inflections seems to alter the perspective of the composition without changing a word making the larger worldview much more personal, a change that’s not for the better. (3)

SAX SHACK BOOGIE
(Aladdin 3064; August, 1950)
Though he’s got to be penalized for re-making Chicken Shack Boogie yet again, at this point it was just what he needed to remind Aladdin Records what he did so well as both he and the band really cook on it, returning him to the status of hitmaker. (8)

REMEMBER
(Aladdin 3064; August, 1950)
Shameless reworking of another of his all-time classics, this time desecrating the memory of Bewildered with a lyrically insipid hack job… even though it’s sung and played with a degree of competence it’s beneath his dignity and should be avoided for that reason alone. (1)

BAD, BAD WHISKEY
(Aladdin 3068; October, 1950)
A perfect record in every way – lyrically poignant, melodically alluring and vocally gripping with a sparse minimalist arrangement that nevertheless hooks you with each component, this may present Milburn sinking into the abyss but he’s never been more in control of a mood. (9)

I’M GOING TO TELL MY MAMA
(Aladdin 3068; October, 1950)
Highlighted by the obvious sexual connotations that aren’t downplayed lyrically or in the delivery as Milburn sounds genuinely excited while the band churns efficiently behind him with some solid sax solos and one of his own on piano thrown in. (6)

LET’S ROCK AWHILE
(Aladdin 3080; February, 1951)
An unambiguous sexual come-on that manages not to be overanxious or needlessly graphic, the casual confidence in his propositioning a girl might be off-putting in lesser hands but he and the band are so relaxed in their deliveries that you can’t help but be enthralled. (8)

TEARS, TEARS, TEARS
(Aladdin 3080; February, 1951)
With its prominent guitar rather than his usual horn-led arrangement, this bluesy mournful lament is slightly atypical for Milburn but no less effective for those changes, helped by a solid story and great musicianship. (7)

EVERYBODY CLAP HANDS
(Aladdin 3090; May, 1951)
A pointless attempt at covering an insipid pop novelty record finds Milburn and Maxwell Davis adding as much legitimacy to it as they can by emphasizing the rhythm and adding an actual melody, but at its core this is still a worthless song from a dying style. (3)

THAT WAS YOUR LAST MISTAKE – GOODBYE
(Aladdin 3090; May, 1951)
Not bad but not memorable either, sticking to a style that Milburn does well with a few good lines and a tight arrangement, but it’s too indistinct with a title that only reinforces that image rather than making a stronger impression from the jump. (6)

JUST ONE MORE DRINK
(Aladdin 3093; June, 1951)
Despite their shameless attempt to recreate “Bad, Bad Whiskey” right down to the melody and the topic itself, the slight changes they make, slowing it down, flipping the instrumental roles, plus Milburn’s mesmerizing vocals means you’ll order another round in spite of yourself. (8)

AIN’T NOTHING SHAKING
(Aladdin 3093; June, 1951)
An underwhelming contribution from a jazz trumpeter/songwriter which finds producer Maxwell Davis trying to keep a jazz feel with the horn section, then adds a blues guitar over Milburn’s rock piano with his vocals not really knowing where to pledge his allegiance. (4)

BOOGIE WOOGIE
(Aladdin 3105; September, 1951)
A throwaway instrumental track that is competently played but creatively lacking and since this was nearing two years old at the time of its release they aren’t even bothering to offer anything fresh to reward his fans for their loyalty. (3)

SHE’S GONE AGAIN
(Aladdin 3105; September, 1951)
Though the formula of these self-pitying melancholy tunes of his may be old hat by now, you can’t complain about the results when he’s got every aspect of them mastered from the vocal dejection to the band’s subtle support and a new enough plot to hold your interest. (7)

THINKING AND DRINKING
(Aladdin 3124; February, 1952)
A lazy effort on his only minor hit from 1952 finds him revisiting the drinking theme without an actual story and thanks to very repetitive lyrics it takes a well-played, but subdued, arrangement to make this go down a little easier. (4)

TROUBLE IN MIND
(Aladdin 3124; February, 1952)
Though an older standard, Milburn injects this with such pathos and a stellar subdued arrangement with exquisite sax work on the lead-in, that it becomes one of his most touching and soulful performances, perfectly suited to his style. (8)

PUT SOMETHING IN MY HAND
(Aladdin 3125; March, 1952)
In spite of Milburn’s vocal choices adding a lot to the relatively flat story, this is a few years out of date stylistically as by now this type of song and arrangement veers towards outside styles as rock has moved past this approach for fresher ideas. (5)

FLYING HOME
(Aladdin 3125; March, 1952)
A train wreck of a song as Jerry Leiber adds nonsensical lyrics to what had been an instrumental jazz classic – in two versions – trying to replicate the fast-paced excitement of Charlie Christian’s guitar and Illinois Jacquet’s sax with Milburn’s scat vocals with disastrous results. (1)

ROLL MR. JELLY
(Aladdin 3133; May, 1952)
A good state-of-the-union address for Milburn who, like the band, gets better as it goes along until they’re firing on all cylinders down the stretch and whether you take this for a boast about sexual or musical prowess, the message is equally profound. (7)

I WON’T BE A FOOL ANYMORE
(Aladdin 3133; May, 1952)
Though well done, there’s nothing that stands out here and while it’s not recycling a previous story or melody it still has the same basic vibe as countless other Milburn records meaning there’s nothing really memorable about it… professional, but nonessential. (5)

GREYHOUND
(Aladdin 3150; September, 1952)
Another well-written song by Rudy Toombs gives Milburn something new to tackle as the sad laid back opening leads to an increasingly energetic and determined finish while the band churns behind him on this minor regional hit and underrated gem. (8)

KISS ME AGAIN
(Aladdin 3150; September, 1952)
Taking an opera song from just after the turn of the century and adapting it to rock is impressive in theory, but while Maxwell Davis’s arrangement is to be commended, Milburn’s vocal teeters between rock and a jazz lounge delivery which undercuts the song. (4)

ROCK, ROCK, ROCK
(Aladdin 3159; November, 1952)
Not quite as rousing as the title suggests, but this is a good mid-tempo song about sex with Milburn’s sly lethargic vocals backed by some grinding sax work by Maxwell Davis on a song given them by labelmate Peppermint Harris. (8)

BOO HOO
(Aladdin 3159; November, 1952)
Though everything is carried out with competency, there’s not much here to heartily recommend, as the story of heartbreak is accurate but simplistic, the accompaniment is fitting but slight and the vocal is earnest but unexceptional. (5)