“Ain’t That Just Like a Woman” — Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five

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My last post featured a song by the French rock band Téléphone.  Glancing at the heading, some of you might think that this one also features a French singer, but it doesn’t — that guy would be Louis Jourdan, who is probably best known for singing the song “Gigi” in the movie of the same name.  This definitely ain’t “Gigi.”  It also ain’t a cover of a well-known Bob Dylan tune (though there is a Dylan connection that I’ll discuss later). 

No, this track is by Louis Jordan.

Jordan was a singer, bandleader and saxophone player who, despite segregation, managed to be very popular with both black and white audiences during the 1940s.  He was a leading exponent of the musical style known as Jump Blues, which melded elements of swing-era jazz with boogie-woogie and the blues.

Jordan’s music had a strong beat that was good for dancing and lyrics that often were humorous and laced with 40’s-era “jive” slang and/or sexual innuendo.  He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, in the category “Early Influence,” and there’s a good overview of his career on their website.¹

Okay all you hep cats, let’s give a listen to “Ain’t That Just Like a Woman” from 1946 — and check out the electric guitar intro played by the Tympany Five’s  Carl Hogan.

Ain’t that just like… “Johnny B. Goode?”  Things must have been more than a little strained backstage at this show:

Chuck was also influenced by Jordan’s lyrics — compare the words of “Ain’t That Just Like a Woman”² with Berry’s “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man.”³

Speaking of the lyrics:

• Jordan implies that Nero was a woman — there were many rumors about Nero (including that he played his lyre and sang while Rome burned) but none, to my knowledge, about him being a woman.  Weird!
• Though certainly not as wickedly satirical or surreal, Jordan’s references to Biblical and historical figures in this song suggest a template for Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited.”  Skeptical?  Well, Dylan played a half-dozen Louis Jordan tracks on his Theme Time Radio Hour show on satellite radio.  And back in the 60’s, he explicitly referenced a tune recorded by Louis Jordan called “Open the Door, Richard” in the chorus of his song on The Basement Tapes entitled “Open the Door, Homer.”⁴

I’m not the only one who’s noticed the connection.  Wikipedia, discussing Jordan’s 1949 hit tune “Saturday Night Fish Fry,” says: 

“Its distinctive comical adventure narrative is strikingly similar to the style later used by Bob Dylan in his classic ‘story’ songs like ‘Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream’ and ‘Tombstone Blues’.”⁵

I first became aware of Louis Jordan through other artists — Asleep at the Wheel, who I used to see at the Longbranch Saloon in Berkeley back in the early 70’s, covered his “Choo Choo Ch’ Boogie.”  Later, Joe Jackson’s Jumpin’ Jive album included several Jordan tunes; one, “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby?” seemed oddly familiar to me; it turns out that it was used in a Tom and Jerry cartoon that I must have seen as a kid.

I couldn’t end this post without commenting on the name of Jordan’s band — The Tympany Five misspelled the word ‘tympani’ and, most of the time, had 6 to 8 members.

1. http://rockhall.com/inductees/louis-jordan/bio/

2. http://www.louisjordan.com/lyrics/AintThatJustLikeAWoman.aspx?l=1

3. http://www.chuckberry.com/music/lyrics/browneyed.htm

4. http://www.bobdylan.com/#/songs/open-the-door-homer

5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Jordan