Another of the jump blues specialists whose romping output can be pinpointed as a direct precursor of rock & roll, guitarist
Jimmy Liggins was a far more aggressive bandleader than his older brother
Joe, right down to the names of their respective combos (
Joe led the polished
Honeydrippers;
Jimmy proudly fronted
the Drops of Joy). Inspired by the success of his brother (
Jimmy toiled as
Joe's chauffeur for a year), the ex-pugilist jumped into the recording field in 1947 on
Art Rupe's Specialty logo. His "Tear Drop Blues" pierced the R&B Top Ten the next year, while "Careful Love" and "Don't Put Me Down" hit for him in 1949. But it's
Liggins' rough-and-ready rockers -- "Cadillac Boogie," "Saturday Night Boogie Woogie Man," and the loopy one-chord workout "Drunk" (his last smash in 1953) -- that mark
Liggins as one of rock's forefathers. His roaring sax section at Specialty was populated by first-rate reedmen such as
Harold Land,
Charlie "Little Jazz" Ferguson, and the omnipresent
Maxwell Davis.
Liggins left Specialty in 1954, stopping off at Aladdin long enough to wax the classic-to-be "I Ain't Drunk" (much later covered by
Albert Collins) before fading from the scene. ~ Bill Dahl