Original subtitles

This programme contains some strong language

BAND PLAYS

# You people can talk about your kosher-rolling mamas

# While you're cheating with your high-speeding brown

# I got a woman way down in Mobile, Alabama

# She's the warmest thing in that town

# Doggone her skin

# She ain't got no papa, leave me alone

# She ain't got no big boy, please take me home

# This mama just got one object in view

# And what she said to me I know she's bound to say to you

# She'll say

# Papa, if you ain't got no matrimonial inclinations

# Then keep your hands to yourself

# Daddy, if you ain't got no bungalow-made reservations

# Son, don't let your hands be felt

# Girl, I'm this red-hot papa you heard so much talk about

# But this is an ice-bestest woman

# Who'll mortally put your fire out, hmm

# Papa, if you ain't got no matrimonial inclinations

# Just keep your hands to yourself

# Do-do-do

# When I first met you

# I had no shoes

# But look at me now

# I've got these bare-footed blues

# Papa, if you ain't got no matrimonial intentions

# Please keep your hands to yourself

# Do-do-do... #

BAND PLAYS

# Papa, if you ain't got no matrimonial inclinations

# Please keep your hands to yourself

# Daddy, if you ain't got no bungalow-made reservations

# Son, don't let your hands be felt

# Well, I'm this red-hot papa you heard so much talk about

# But you're a ice-bestest woman who mortally put my fire out

# Papa, if you ain't got no matrimonial intentions

# Oh, death, where is that sting? #

Power it up. Feel lucky? Is that one of the first amplifiers ever made?

Yes, the amplifier rack. Electric.

It would have been wheeled into the early studios.

They installed them in '25. The first audio amplifiers ever built.

Whoa!

That is wild. It's fantastic.

This is one of the first condenser microphones. This is from 1928.

BAND PLAYS

Just keep the pace.

Did you say it took 20 years to put all this together?

Like ten years or so, yeah.

I was kind of researching the history of it. Yes, I see.

It's very complicated.

But it's brilliant because they were dealing with rocks

not long before this! Exactly.

This is the kind of machine they recorded Charlie Patton on in 1929.

And it's the only one in the world. It's the only one left.

That's the first time one's been working in 80 years.

It's pulley-driven.

You've got three minutes to finish your song before the weight hits

the floor.

GUITAR PLAYS

# If the river was whisky and I was a duck

# I'd dive to the bottom and I'd never come up

# Tell me how long have I got to wait?

# Can I get you now? Must I hesitate?

# If the river was whisky and the banks were wine

# You'd see me in bathing just any old time

# Tell me how long have I got to wait?

# Can I get you now? Must I hesitate?

# Look here, woman, what you went and you done

# You caused me to love you, now your manner's gone

# Tell me how long have I got to wait?

# Can I get you now? Must I hesitate?

# Hesitating stockings and hesitating shoes

# Believe me, I've got the hesitation blues

# Tell me how long have I got to wait?

# Can I get you now? Must I hesitate? #

MUSIC PLAYS BACK

That's pretty great.

APPLAUSE

Well done. That's fantastic.

You don't get to see that every day, do you?

Cut a record and play it back in the next five minutes.

That's the master now, OK? Don't play that ever again.

LAUGHTER

# ..She ain't got no papa leave me alone

# She ain't got no big boy, please take me home... #

Yes.

# ..The one thing she got, this object in view

# Well, what she said to me

# Lord, I know she'll see it through... #

Recording studios in general have sort of been churches for music.

Always have been and basically always will be, I hope.

You had to come rehearsed with your songs ready to go.

This is your one moment to do that.

And all the recordings since the beginning of this recording

technology were like that.

You came to the room prepared for this moment.

So, that's like going to church, that's like getting on your

best clothes and going to church for this moment to happen.

So, we should record in this 1920s style.

I mean, everybody, record everybody in this style, you know?

Rappers, pop singers, blues singers, country artists.

I mean, it's sort of like if the field is wide open.

All these amazing artists are going to record

with the very first electric recording machine.

And this is a very romantic way of recording.

You can't fix this later.

Any mistakes that happen are going to be there in the finished record,

which is a great place to be.

It's a scary place to be for some people, too.

This gave me a chance to go, like, through a time machine.

It's like, you know,

you hear old records and you hear that sound, the way they

sound and you just, you can picture how it must have been back then.

You kind of picture the world and you hear the music in the

song from back then.

You can hear a different world.

And so recording here is like that time machine.

It brought me back to that world.

MUSIC PLAYS

# I went to my window

# My window was propped

# I went to my door

# My door was locked

# I stepped right back

# I shook my head

# A big, black nigger in my folding bed

# I shot through the window

# I broke the glass

# I never seen a little nigger run so fast

# He's on the road again

# Lord, a natural-born... #

BAND WARMS UP

# I wouldn't marry a black woman here's the reason why Why?

# Black women's evil, do things on the sly No!

# You look for your supper to be good and hot Hot!

# She never put the neck bone in the pot

# She's on the road again Sure as you're born

# Lord, a natural-born Eastman She's on the road again

# She's on the road again Sure as you're born

# Lord, a natural-born Eastman On the road again

# I went to my window my window was propped

# I went to my door my door was locked

# I stepped right back I shook my head

# A big, black nigger's in my folding bed

# I shot through the window

# I broke the glass

# I never seen a little nigger run so fast

# He's on the road again Sure as you're born

# Lord, a natural-born Eastman On the road again

# He's on the road again Sure as you're born

# God, a natural-born Eastman On the road again

# Your friend at your house just to rest his hat

# Next thing he wanna know where your husband's at

# She says, "I don't know he's on his way to the pen"

# Come on, Mama, let's get on the road again

# She's on the road again Sure as you're born

# Lord, a natural-born Eastman She's on the road again

# He's on the road again # Sure as you're born

# Lord, a natural-born Eastman On the road again

# I'm with my black woman let me tell you why Why?

# Black women's evil, do things on the sly No!

# You look for your supper to be good and hot Hot!

# She never put the neck bone in the pot

# She's on the road again Sure as you're born

# Lord, a natural-born Eastman She's on the road again

# She's on the road again Just as sure as you're born

# Lord, a natural-born Eastman On the road again

# Yeah!

# Uh-huh

# Yeah. #

The lyrics in the song that we did was basically

a street rap record today.

MUSIC PLAYS

When you hear me saying it,

you might think I wrote it because it sounds like something today.

This is it, man. This is cool.

And these guys are talking about carrying guns, shooting something,

protecting their honour, chasing after some woman

who's done them dirty.

This is not high-society black folks, this is the down under,

you know, street, wild black folk that they're singing about.

And it's the same as today, it's the same as rap music today.

So, it just tells you something about our American culture,

American music and, you know,

when they look down on hip-hop music and look down

because of the words that we use and stuff like that,

it didn't start with hip-hop, it started a long time ago.

It started with America.

BAND PLAYS

KNOCK AT THE DOOR

Come on in. I know you.

Welcome, welcome.

Welcome, welcome. So, you guys are the mix.

Where we place you is the faders.

One foot this way. Fader up.

I like that concept. Very easy to understand. Yeah, exactly.

Got about ten seconds. It's rocking. Let's do it.

BAND PLAYS

# Well, the ugliest li'l thing you ever see before

# He didn't be a tramp, he's no hobo

# He's an ugly li'l baby on the scout

# He's a terrible li'l creature hush yo' mouth

# He's an awful li'l thing

# He's a killer diller from the South

# He walked in the store where I was at

# I looked to his face looked like a cryin' cat

# He's an ugly li'l creature on the scout

# He's a terrible li'l creature, hush yo' mouth

# He's an awful li'l thing

# He's a killer diller from the South

# He walked down the street lookin' in a showcase

# His stacker walked out, said you can take my place

# Cos he's a ugly li'l sucker on the scout

# He's a terrible li'l baby, hush yo' mouth

# He's an awful li'l sucker

# He's a killer diller from the South

# He walked in the hotel and everybody left

# He looked in the glass and just smiled to himself

# Cos he's an ugly li'l baby on the scout

# A terrible li'l somethin', hush yo' mouth

# He's an awful li'l creature

# He's a killer diller from the South. #

This is the weight that powers the entire cutting lathe.

It's like a grandfather clock and the length of the rope

determines how long you can record for.

So, as the weight hits the ground,

the recording's over and the song is done.

As the weight falls,

there is a governor in here that controls the speed of the belt

and it does that by having these three lead weights on springs

and so as the balls fly out, they'll go, say like 45rpm, 60rpm,

78rpm and when it hits the speed you want, it's touching the leather

pads, here, applying friction and slowing the machine down.

That's was controls the speed of the motor,

and then from there it follows a belt to the turntable, here,

and then it goes through a series of gears.

Into a gearbox, here.

That controls the lines printed on the record.

And then from there, it goes into the feed screw, here,

and that's what makes the lines on the record.

The cutting head is basically a small speaker,

so you're just moving the speaker back and forth

and attached to that is the cutting stylus.

Sitting on the floor is the bellows pump which sucks

the shavings from the stylus as it cuts the record.

BAND PLAYS

Hey, Nick? Nick?

So, here's the story with the warning lights up here.

So, when Nick hits the blue light,

he's got the machines turning and that means we should be quiet

until the red light goes out and then the song can start.

And then it'll stay red the whole time until he lifts the needle off

and then he'll hit the blue light to let you know you can speak again.

Make sure you do it for a long time at the end. OK.

So, after the blue, we're good.

Yeah, once it says blue, then it's time to get ready for the cutting

and then at the end, blue means we can talk again.

Do you want to just go right in and do a cut? Yes. All right.

All right, Nick, you ready?

LOUD BANG

Oh!

What was that?

The weight broke.

We broke the machine going too heavy.

What was that?

You got another one? We have length on that one.

Of all the things that could've gone wrong. The weight breaks.

Exactly.

I can't even lift it.

So, what's the weight of the... 105 pounds.

That would break a foot, wouldn't it? Probably break a toe.

If you were able to relieve it from here,

I could go take it over to that car shop next door. Oh, really?

There's an upholstery place or what? If they do upholstery...

You know what? There is an upholstery place.

I'll take it over. There's a place right down the street. Oh, yeah?

I'll take it over. If you... Let me get it off of here. Yeah.

Could that be repaired, like, so it'll be as good as new?

Yeah, it should be fine. I mean, that's a freaky thing, man.

What the hell?! We're not going to use this,

we're going to extend it and make a new piece right here.

Oh, I see. Wrap that round and sew that right there.

There's this place I pass every day coming here.

They look like they're always open.

Here you go. Let's see what this girl's got.

We kind of have an emergency here. This broke. OK.

And I need to put a new piece through here.

Do you have a sewing machine here?

Oh, yes. This one here?

SEWING MACHINE NOISE

Thank you so much for letting us do this. We really appreciate it.

You have lots of talent. Do I know you? I don't know.

Maybe we went to school together. Maybe previous life.

OK.

Here we go.

OK.

Yeah, seems to be OK now.

All right. OK, here we go.

BAND PLAYS

THEY SING IN SPANISH

PIANO PLAYS

HE MURMURS LYRICS

# I cheated on myself

# Got to keep on getting high

# If I can't save my sinnin' ways

# Gonna keep on getting high. #

Do you like that?

I like the way you started. When I'm awake, I'm looking back.

HE MUMBLES

# I cheated just to get on by

# If I can't save my sinning ways... #

Change there.

# ..My sinning ways

# Want to keep on going... #

Yes, like that.

PIANO PLAYS

That was done twice, there? Can you do that twice at once?

Those three chords, "living in me"?

# Keep out the devil

# Living in me

# Living in me... #

That was cool. Yeah? Hang on a minute.

# Living in me... #

Nice.

# ..To keep drowning the devil

# Living in me. #

Yes. Want to play on this?

Well, if I could just lean next to you and sort of like get

really lots of tambourine, really annoying.

LAUGHTER

I don't know what note to hit there. You're going...

# Good old-fashioned love

# Two fingers of whisky

# Good ol'-fashion... #

What did you say?

# ..Two fingers of whisky

# Good ol'-fashioned rye

# Two fingers of whisky

# Good ol'-fashioned rye

# Two fingers of whisky

# That is all I need

# To keep drowning the devil

# Living in me... #

Is that Mr Taupin? Yes, it is. Ah!

You know Jack? No, I don't. How are you? Great to see you.

How are you? Really great. Yeah?

He'll tell you. Bessie Smith made a record here. Really.

Amplifier, it's the very first amplifier. That's great.

I just saw that, I thought it was an espresso machine.

LAUGHTER

That's outrageous. Yeah, that's great.

I'll let you...

Bernie Taupin ever come in

and not liked what you're doing with the lyrics?

Never done. In 46 years of writing,

he's never said anything bad about us.

He just walks in? Walks away from it and that's the way it happens.

He walks in and hears it and that's the way.

It's never been in the same room. Weird, isn't it? So cool.

I still get excited,

playing a melody to the newly written lyric as I did when I

started 46 years ago and I never questioned the way we write

and it's just kismet.

So cool.

PIANO PLAYS

All right, we're ready to go. Got my guitar.

BUZZER

# I cheated just to get on by

# Yeah, I cheated just to get on by

# If I can't save my sinning ways

# Gonna keep on getting high

# I'm sleeping off the weekend run

# Sleeping off the weekend run

# When I'm awake, I'm looking back

# At all the ships I've sunk

# Two fingers of whisky

# Good ol'-fashioned rye

# Wish I were bound for glory

# And Prohibition dry

# Two fingers of whisky

# That is all I need

# To keep drowning the devil

# Living in me

# I'm hanging on the hook of the moon

# Yeah, hanging on that crescent moon

# If I don't get out of this battle

# Lord, you're gonna see me soon

# Just like a dog I wanna howl

# Like an old dog I wanna howl

# Used up all my aces

# So, who's gonna save me now?

# Two fingers of whisky

# Good old-fashioned rye

# Wish I were bound for glory

# And Prohibition dry

# Two fingers of whisky

# That's all I need

# To keep drowning the devil

# Living in me

# Ohh, two fingers of whisky

# Good ol'-fashioned rye

# Wish I were bound for glory

# And Prohibition dry

# Two fingers of whisky

# That is all I need

# To keep drowning the devil

# Living in me

# Living in me. #

BUZZER

Yeah. That was good. That was my favourite. It rocked, too.

And the choir parts felt good.

Yay.

GUITARS PLAY

# It's all out on the old railroad

# It's all out on the sea

# All out on the old railroad

# As far as I can see

# Swing and turn Jubilee

# Live and learn Jubilee

# Hardest work I ever did

# Working on the farm

# Easiest work I ever did

# Swinging my true love's arm

# Swing and turn Jubilee

# Live and learn Jubilee

# If I had a needle and thread

# As fine as I could sew

# I'd sew my true love to my side

# And down this creek I'd go

# Swing and turn Jubilee

# Live and learn Jubilee. #

BAND PLAYS

When I first auditioned at Columbia Records,

somebody said, "You're so young." And everybody said...

I was 15. And I said,

"Yeah, but I'm channelling an old man

"that worked on the railroad that's 90 years old."

And he was kind of like, "What in the world?"

But it's weird, I've heard these melodies, these old melodies.

And I don't know... I feel like, sometimes, I'm just channelling

things that I've heard since I was a little, bitty girl.

Looking at what you recorded, you would have plugged into this,

back in the '20s... When those record companies,

Columbia and Victor, they started organising talent contests

throughout the South,

thousands of people were travelling for hundreds of miles

for these auditions... So they would advertise in local papers and say,

"Columbia Records are coming to Johnson City, Tennessee.

"If you would like to be immortalised in a phonograph record,

"turn up on the 14th of April..."

And I would have went if I saw that in the paper,

even in my lifetime, so... Yeah. Yeah, I would have.

And so most of the people making the records

had never heard records themselves.

Yeah.

Radio hadn't come to rule America, so if you were living

in Avalon, Mississippi,

you hadn't really heard anything outside of your local town.

So, you can see all the strands of what make up American culture

before it starts mingling together.

Music did it. Yeah, and music did it.

Which makes music so important, that's what tells a story,

when you sing it or when you put a story in words to music,

somehow people take it gentler.

I don't know, there's something about it that makes it instantly relatable.

MUSIC: Like A Rose by Ashley Monroe

# I was only 13

# When Daddy died

# Momma started drinking

# And my brother just quit trying

# I'm still bouncing back

# Heaven only knows

# How I came out like a rose

# Ran off with whats-his-name

# When I turned 18

# It got me out of North Dakota

# But it did not change a thing

# I left it in a yard

# All covered up with snow

# And I came out like a rose

# Sitting in this diner with a coffee in my hand

# Waiting on a bus to some promised land

# Well, I got a one-way ticket

# As far as it goes

# And I came out like a rose

# So I'm headed South to anywhere

# That ain't so damn cold

# Where I can warm my heart and shake the chill from my bones

# It took a while to get here

# It's been a long, hard road

# And I came out like a rose

# Sitting in this diner With a coffee in my hand

# Waiting on a bus to some promised land

# Well, I got a one-way ticket

# As far as it goes

# And I came out like a rose

# Well, it took a while to get here

# It's been a long, hard road

# And I came out like a rose

# Oohh

# Ahhh

# Ahhhh... #

ECHOING MUSIC

TUNING UP

Here we go...

One chord...

Four chord...

HE SINGS

OK, so it probably will be...

# Da, da, da, da

# Ta, da, da, da... #

Are you ready? Yeah. OK, Nick, let's bootleg...

MUSIC: High Water Everywhere by Charley Patton

# Backwater at Blytheville

# Backed up all around

# Backwater at Blytheville Done took Joiner town

# It was 50 families and children come to sink and drown

# The water was risin' up at my friend's door

# The water was risin' up to my friend's door

# The man said to his womenfolk

# Lord, we got to go

# We had to get outta there

# The water was risin' Got up all in my bed

# Yeah, the water was risin',

# Got all up in my bed

# I thought I would take a trip

# Out on that old ice sled

# Oh, I can hear, Lord, water up on me

# Oh, I can hear water up on my door

# I couldn't get no boats

# Nobody going there no more

# So the water was risin' our men sinkin' down

# Oh, the water was risin'

# People sinking down

# It was 50 men women and children come to sink and drown

# Oh, Lordy, grown men, women

# Grown men, women, they drown

# Oh, women and children, oh, they sinkin' down

# I couldn't see nobody's house

# Nobody could be found

# Backwater at Blytheville Backed up all around

# Backwater at Blytheville, done took Joiner town

# It was 50 families and children come to sink and drown. #

I love a lot of Charley Patton stuff. He was kind of like

the template for a whole lot of people, um...

Howlin' Wolf, Papa Charlie Jackson and the interesting thing

about his voice is that it goes back to an older African style,

where they mask the voice in this kind of rough sound

and usually surround themselves with some sort of spirit,

raffia-styled thing and nobody knows who this person is

cos he changes his voice and comes out at a certain part of

the ceremony to raise the consciousness or excitement,

or bring down a certain spirit or deity or whatever.

So, it's just interesting hearing it come up in the blues

the way it did and then travel though several generations

of the blues and today's song -

High Water Everywhere is the narration of huge flood

that happened in this town - from somebody that was at

ground zero. It's not a happy song, but it's very powerful

the way he delivers it, with himself as just a single musician

and a guitar. Every time I hear it, it just,

it's one of those songs that just stop you and make you listen to it.

What was it that inspired you to participate in these sessions?

Just the idea of it, to be back at the front of the recording industry,

I mean, this is incredible.

You know, I mean, the same machines that my heroes

and mentors have played on and that this industry got

jump-started from, I'd certainly like to be a part of that, you know.

And reverence for them is to come back and do it this way. Yeah.

Yeah, and it's the sound - I don't think you can get any better

than vinyl. I mean, you can get clean, blah-blah-blah,

pristine, you know, get all this. But you can't get that juice.

It's like - give two people a chicken and some vegetables

and two stoves to cook on...

Unless they're twins and they grew up in the same house,

one chicken is going to be good and one chicken's going to be

off the hook!

HE CHUCKLES

And that's the way this is for me - off the hook, I love it.

Are you telling me this capsule is the exact same capsule

inside this mic? Yeah, yeah, the same uh...

diaphragm but the electronics are different.

Same diaphragm, different electronics.

And this is the very first microphone? Right, yeah.

This is one they started to use in 1925 and '26 and '27.

This is actually an omnidirectional microphone,

however, it's very directional, high frequencies,

so even though, in theory, you won't be able to sit here

or here and sound the same, because of its directional high frequencies,

there's a big EQ shift as you move from left to right on

the microphone, as you've experienced. Yeah.

I like this part of it, though, I like the positioning

of the people instead of the microphones. Right.

Makes it a completely different experience,

you would never do that in a modern recording studio... Uh-huh.

You would never keep the microphone in one place and move people

around it, really. You basically put things where you want them

and put the mics near them or as far away as to your taste. Right.

This is a more interesting way to do it. Yeah.

So, Bernard tells me that Justin Bieber and the Beatles are

coming on. Nice, excellent. So, we'll be right back after

these messages.

# Sing the blues... #

OK, that's really good.

What is it, though, where's it coming in? 3.50?

Oh, time-wise, we have four minutes, about 4.10. Is it, really?

I think we played the slow part really slow.

We need to come down to around 3.30. That's all the time we

have on this machine. 4.10 now, under four is better.

The other option will just be

that I pick it up...

You know. I do that pick up St Louis Blues

and then just end it on the verse.

It seems like that's a little too quick...

Is that after the guitar solo?

No, this is where it picks up the first time...

That would be just be me singing the whole time.

And then the guitar solo?

And then the guitar solo, but that's probably only going to

give you 10, 15 seconds. Can you do a shorter guitar solo?

Hold on a second, yeah.

That's how we do it. OK.

So you do half of that and we go into the two and into the five

and then into that outro. Let's see how long that is...

What have we got? 3.23. Well done!

Yeah, we got it, all right!

You have a pop single!

LAUGHTER

MUSIC: St Louis Blues

# Oh, I hate to see that evening sun go down

# Yes, I do

# Oh, I hate to see that evening sun go down...

INDISTINCT

# ..Feelin' tomorrow just like I feel today

# Feelin' tomorrow just like I feel today

# I'll pack my truck go back to St Louis today

# St Louis woman with her diamond ring

# She drags that man around her

# Just like a little apron string

# If it wasn't for her and her hair

# If it wasn't for that St Louis woman

# You know he would have gone nowhere

# Nowhere... #

Let me tell you about it...

# I got the St Louis Blues

# St Louis Blues

# As blue as I can be

# Oh, I hate to see that evening sun go down

# Oh

# Wah-wah-wah-wah-wah

# It means that gal of mine

# Oh, she's making her last go-round

# Oh, my good gal has left me

# Left the South, sing the blues. #

MUSIC ECHOES

MUSIC: The Cuckoo by Clarence "Tom" Ashley

# Oh, the cuckoo

# She's a good bird

# And she warbles as she flies

# And she never hollers coo-coo

# Till the fourth day of July

# Jack of diamonds

# I know you of old

# You robbed my poor pockets

# Of my silver and gold

# I've gambled in England

# And I've gambled in Spain

# I bet you ten dollars

# That I'll beat you the very next game

# Gonna get me, get me a shotgun

# Just as long as I am tall

# Gonna fill my big shotgun

# Gonna build me a log cabin

# On a mountain far away

# Gonna live there

# With my true love

# Till we both have passed away

# Sometimes I wonder

# What makes women love men

# And I look back and I wonder

# What makes men love them. #

Come on in - the lathe room.

Nice and toasty!

Like the old wax days, nice and toasty.

So, here's the machine,

it's weight-driven,

this is a big hunk of lead right here.

That's 105 pounds or so.

Phew!

That's your microscope. Exactly, yeah.

All right, diggity.

Yeah, you all been messing around...!

How long did it take you to put this together?

It's been a long time cos the Western Electric rack especially,

it was only leased equipment so none really survived all-intact,

so it's kind of pieced together, each individual piece until

it was a complete system. That only happened about a year ago

but I've been working on it for a decade or so,

trying to piece it all together.

LAUGHTER

You've done this so that nerds like me...

And others...can sit here and go,

"Ho-ho-ho!"

LAUGHTER

All right, let's go for it.

We shall see. Sounds good.

That's good, start with it there.

Can I see what's in the box?

Yeah. Just some spare parts but, yeah...

Don't put your fingers in there, might zap you!

Sounds, sounds good. Oh, man.

There's a tube in the bottom there.

So, how many folks were like me and would sit their chewing gum

right on it before they start?!

Probably a lot! The cigarette marks there... Yeah.

"Bubba, I can't hear you." "Hold on..."

LAUGHTER

Keep in mind, Jerron, the project of your voice. Yeah, yeah,

my guitar tends to get out of...

Out of control!

I can hear me all right, but I can't hear the guitar... Yeah, yeah...

It's up in here? Yeah.

So, just think in terms of projecting it into that mic,

your voice, a little bit, without thinking about it too much.

LAUGHTER

# Candyman, salty dog

# Just give anything to see that candyman home

# Candyman, Santa Claus

# If you can't be my candyman

# You can't see my Santa Claus

# Big leg

# Aw, sure

# I know that big leg gal

# Run, get the pitcher, get my baby some beer

# Wish I was in New Orleans

# Just sitting on the candy store

# Little red light

# Little green light

# Little red light

# Little green light

# Little red light

# Little green light

# Stop on the red and go on the green

# Don't mess with us in between

# Candyman, salty dog

# Candyman, Santa Claus

# Candyman, fattenin' hog

# I wish I was in New Orleans

# Sitting on a candy store. #

Yes, sir!

# And that ain't all... #

Yay!

THEY SING IN HAWAIIAN

THEY SING IN HAWAIIAN

Thank you so much for coming down. Thank you so much for having me.

This is the earliest and never-before-seen picture

of Ma Rainey.

Mm, it was my mother's favourite singer.

Really?

My mother was born and raised on a

plantation in Louisiana in 1906.

So, these were her singers. I had never heard their names.

When she told me many of these names -

Memphis Minnie, Clara Smith, who you never hear of.

You hear of Bessie, but you never hear of Clara.

Lead Belly. I never heard anyone mention those names

for the first 30 years of my career.

I'd only heard those names from my mother.

We had a jukebox in the living room.

My mother had records on that jukebox by all the people

that she liked.

She would sing those songs along with them, or whatever.

I don't think that I was trying to learn to sing like her,

it's just that was the only singing that I'd heard,

so when I started to sing, I sung like she sung. Wow.

Blacks from this time were totally bastardised,

so by the time I started singing,

I wanted to be anything but her.

Anything.

So this all comes to my ear in two kinds of ways, you know?

It's a great discovery for you, it's...

It's a lot of different things for me.

It makes me feel a lot of different ways.

Because when I first started singing -

my first record came out in 1962 -

if they said, "OK, you're going on a tour",

which was more like a minstrel show.

But if BB King was the star, you did not want to go,

cos he reminded you of this.

Everybody knew that was Uncle Tom-ish and coonish.

So you wanted to go with whoever was new -

The Drifters and whatever.

You didn't want to go with BB King.

Every time I think of that, it hurts me.

I wish I could go anywhere with him now.

Just anywhere - down to the corner store or wherever.

So, this early music,

does it actually represent the tough times of the...?

Oh, absolutely. That was what they sung about.

Because when they write the stories about the love songs and whatever,

they're almost...

..lewd and lascivious,

because our love lives and sexual lives

at that point weren't private.

Especially during slavery, there was certainly no privacy

in your sex life or love life. They talked about it freely,

they talked about you doing it freely,

and the songs certainly show that.

One of the things that made whites kind of look down

on a lot of the music was because it said things

that you weren't supposed to say.

You just weren't supposed to say many of those things.

Ain't Nobody's Business is a perfect example.

You didn't say those things. Bing Crosby wasn't saying that.

VOLUME INCREASES # ..Ain't nobody's business but mine

# If I were me I'd have let you alone

# I wish to God I'd stayed at home

# It ain't nobody's business but my own

# It ain't nobody's business, honey

# How in the world I spend my money

# Ain't nobody's business but mine... #

# I said my old man he wrote me a letter

# He told me he was gonna treat me better

# Nobody's business but mine

# Now he wrote this letter He wrote it and said

# Hey, if you're gonna do better

# Child, you better make haste

# Ain't nobody's business but my own

# It ain't nobody's business, honey

# How I find my money

# Nobody's business but mine

# It ain't nobody's business, kid

# Who I do my business with

# Nobody's business but my own

# Now, baby, I said you ought've been told

# 14 years before you wrote me

# So I had me some place else to go

# Now I ain't got a rooster Ain't got no corn

# The poor roustabout ain't got no home

# Nobody's business but my own

# It ain't nobody's business, kid

# Where I've got my money hid

# Nobody's business but mine

# It ain't nobody's business, honey

# Where I find my money

# Nobody's business but my own

# My business, business, baby

# Business, business, baby

# Nobody's business but my own. #

Do you want me to just go through these things real quick, or...?

Yeah, please, yeah, take us through these.

Do all those parts work or are most of them just for show?

It's all just for show. I have...

There's this iPod hidden inside here.

LAUGHTER

I just turn all the tunes on first, you know.

So here in the live rooms,

the musicians play and sing into the microphone.

Their sound waves hit a very thin aluminium foil called the diaphragm.

This creates fluctuations of voltage through a small amplifier

that is just under the microphone.

This amplifies the voltage just enough to send it down

through the 50ft or so of cable, all the way to the recording room.

The sound then enters the amplifier

here at the microphone input.

So, here is the microphone amplifier.

This is the level control here.

From 0 all the way to 12.

So these are the amplifying tubes here.

They're pretty much the heart of this 1920s recording system.

AT&T once called these "A bottle of magic".

The tube is what provides the amplification of the sound

through the entire system.

It allows a small amount of voltage to modulate

the invisible river of electrons going through the tube.

This electron river is created by this bright filament here,

boiling off electrons that are being attracted

to the plate on the opposite side of the tube.

The music recording is actually inside of this bottle.

Or, in other words, a "bottle of magic".

So, basically, the job of these amplifiers

is to take the small amount of voltage

from the output of the microphone

and create enough power to move the stylus back and forth

and actually cut the record.

In a modern recording situation,

this entire 70lb amplifier can be made in a one-inch little chip.

You know, it's...

This is the very earliest incarnation of this.

What do you think about this?

What do you think about Just A Closer Walk, a capella?

Just a little bit of guitar and vocals?

That's cool, too, yeah.

Old-school gospel. That'd be great, yeah.

Just a capella?

We'll do just one guitar kind of thing.

OK, great, yeah.

Yeah, let's try it.

You want to hear it? That's great. Let's hear it.

# I am weak, but Thou art strong

# Jesus keeps me from all wrong

# I'll be satisfied as long

# As I walk, dear Lord, walk close to Thee

ALL: # Just a closer walk with Thee

# Just a closer walk with Thee Just a closer walk with Thee

# Grant it, Jesus, is my plea

# Just a closer walk with Thee Just a closer walk with Thee

# Daily walking close to Thee

# Let it be, dear Lord, let it be

# When my feeble life is o'er... #

SOUND DIPS

MUFFLED: # Time for me will be no more

# Guide me gently, safely o'er

# To Thy king... #

We've had a mic cut out.

I wondered what that feedback is. Is it still happening, Nick?

Is it still happening?

Maybe somebody doesn't want you to play this.

CHUCKLING

FEEDBACK

Nick, what do you think?

Looks like it's on the microphone side.

INAUDIBLE

It appeared out of nowhere.

Nothing changed, nobody was moving around.

Nothing, yeah. In the middle of the take.

Gentlemen, we seem to have encountered

a minor problem with the machine.

We've got a kind of hum on it,

which we're trying to troubleshoot at the moment.

I'm going to check the mic one more time and I'll see if...

I'm going to bring the mic in here.

# Aaaah-aah-aah-aaah! #

# Daily walking close to Thee

# Let it be, dear Lord, let it be

# Through this world of toils and snares

# If I falter, Lord, who cares?

# Now who with me my burden share?

# Oh, none but Thee

# Dear Lord, none but Thee

# Just a closer walk with Thee

# Just a closer walk with Thee Just a closer walk with Thee

# Grant it, Jesus, is my plea

# Just a closer walk with Thee Just a closer walk with Thee

# Daily walking close to Thee

# Let it be, dear Lord, let it be

# Let it be, dear Lord, let it be. #

All right, it get that?

Cut it. Release it in Japan.

So I think I see the problem here now.

OK.

It got hot in this room, and so these...

The microphone power supply that was powering the mic in the other room

and it got too hot and burnt it.

Do what you need to do.

We'll try and start as late as possible tomorrow, yeah?

Sure. Yeah?

So, yesterday the machine overheated.

Everything was too hot to handle.

Something broke, so I think Nick might have spent the night

trying to get everything fixed up.

So, we're hoping that it's going to be working again today.

But we're not quite sure what's going to happen.

You need to be much more... You need to be gentle with this,

it's very sensitive.

If we move the position...

Well, that's how it normally looks, isn't it?

OK? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ready?

MAN SPEAKS SPANISH

SHE RESPONDS IN SPANISH

This is a rehearsal.

OK.

Then we will listen back on the... Yeah.

And her payment afterwards is $25.

LAUGHTER

No, no, no, no, I need 30.

Oh, 30, 30. We can do... We'll talk about it.

Because I need five for my... LAUGHTER

For the crew.

Right, guys, let's get ready.

God bless you, and thank you again.

Thank you, God bless you.

Thank you.

SHE SPEAKS SPANISH

SINGING

We got this...? Yeah, it's cool, it's loud.

It's sort of like, everything's loud.

OK. It's like, if...if every instrument and every voice just

kind of went down a third of the volume... Should I go down, too?

..it would be a better recoding.

I think you'll be fine. I'm OK. Your vocal will be fine. I think we need

to lower this mic, to get this guitar.

Everything's so loud it's not even getting picked up. Yeah, yeah.

Which is crazy cos it's right in front of the mic!

LAUGHTER

Let's see how crazy it is. Yeah. But I'm having a hard time figuring out what to do with your voice

because it's sort of the right vibe but it's sort of distorted, so I

don't really know...

I keep thinking you are aiming there but when I look, you are not, you

are aiming off, so...

Yeah. It's sort of trying to find that... I'm pretty much this way.

I can try this way again.

OK, you guys want to try it from the top? Yeah. OK, great.

Ready in there?

That looks really cool.

LAUGHTER

It's amazing. All right.

GUITAR PLAYS

# 14 rivers, 14 floods

# Bend your body to the heavens above

# Don't get drunk

# Don't get dry

# Just bring your money next Saturday night... #

Wait, that's too...? It's good. No, yeah, that's too much.

You couldn't hear the guitar at all.

Yeah. We've got a situation like, when they're loud, it is just

blowing up the mic and it's distorted. Yeah.

When you're quiet, you sound like you're 100 feet away.

BUZZ

It's weird but you have to sing different for that kind of mic.

You have to do everything different. It's sort of shows you how much they

were sculpting their own stuff. BUZZ

The loud part is so amazing.

I'd don't even know how to say,

"do that quieter" cos it's so amazing.

Yeah. I mean, can it be done quieter like that? Of course not. LAUGHTER

It feels like a ridiculous request so... BUZZ

Can we do just the three-part part where everyone is facing in that

direction? This direction? It's still too loud.

You literally want us to face that way? Just to see. Let's try it. OK.

BUZZ

BUZZING CONTINUES

# 14 rivers, 14 floods... #

Like about that level. Are you happy at that?

If you did that...

# Bend your body to the heavens above... #

Yeah. In itself huge, whereas we're belting it out.

It's a little distorting, mid-range.

Yeah. So, not as...

GUITAR INTRO

# 14 rivers, 14 floods

# Bend your body to the heavens above

# Don't get drunk

# Don't get dry

# Just bring your money next Saturday night... #

PLAYS HARMONICA

# Ooh, hum

# 14 miles on the ten-tonne trail

# With a half-dead mule

# And nothing on my mind

# All my life

# I've been talking fast

# Taking all the things Taking all the things

# That I should've let pass

# Hum

# Ooh, hum

# Put my hat on my coffin nail

# Put another brick in the fireplace

# Well, I don't know about you or me

# But someone got loose

# Someone got loose

# On the downtown street... #

TEMPO SPEEDS UP

# 14 rivers, 14 floods

# 14 rivers, 14 floods

# 14 rivers, 14 floods

# 14 rivers, 14 floods

# 14 rivers 14 rivers

# 14 rivers, rivers, rivers

# Rivers, rivers

# Rivers, rivers, rivers, rivers

# 14 rivers, 14 floods

# 14 rivers! #

Well, thanks, everybody. Real good job. Yeah, thank you.

TAMBOURINES RATTLE

CHEERING

Yeah!

# I've always heard that haste makes waste

# So I believe in takin' my time

# The highest mountain can't be raced

# It's something you must slowly climb

# I want a slow and easy man

# He needn't ever take the lead

# Cos I work on that long-time plan

# And I ain't a-lookin' for no speed

# I'm a one-hour mama

# So no one-minute papa

# Ain't the kind of man for me

# Set your alarm clock, papa

# One hour, that's proper

# Then love me like I like to be

# I don't want no lame excuses

# 'Bout my lovin' being so good

# That you couldn't wait no longer

# Now I hope I'm understood

# I'm a one-hour mama

# So no one-minute papa

# Ain't the kind of man for me

# I can't stand no greenhorn lover

# Like a rookie going to war

# With a load of big artillery

# But he don't know what it's for

# He's got to bring me a reference

# With a great long pedigree

# And must prove he's got endurance

# Or he don't mean that to me

# I don't like no crowin' rooster

# What just kicks a lick or two

# Action is my only booster

# Of just what my man can do

# I don't want no limitation

# My requirements ain't no joke

# Cos I've got pure indignation

# For a guy what's lost his stroke

# I'm a one-hour mama

# So no one-minute papa

# Ain't the kind of man for me

# Set your alarm clock, papa

# One hour, that's proper

# Then love me like I like to be

# I may want love for one hour

# Then decide to make it two

# Takes an hour before I get started

# Maybe three 'fore I'm through

# I'm a one-hour mama

# So no one-minute papa

# Ain't the kind of man for me

# Ohhhhh!

# Hmmmm. #

CYMBALS CLASH

The thing that draws me to this is my grandmother. Hearing her sing.

Like, she was really into blues and jazz. She had an incredible record

collection but we lived in the country, you know, and it was just

the sort of juxtaposition. But just hearing her sing when she would be

cleaning the house or whatever, it just...

It's clear she listened to a lot of these singers and that's

my first connection to it. It's like,

Grandma, you know. So it's kind of a visceral one for me.

When I was 17 or 18, I heard Skip James for the first time.

It was the first time I like, cried - hearing a song.

Just like thinking about the power of one person, one instrument.

PIANO PLAYS

# Yo, all I need is one mic, one beat

# One stage, one person front, face on the front page

# Only if I have one gun, one girl one crib, one god

# Show me how to do things his son did, pure

# Like a cup of virgin blood mixed with 151

# One sip probably makes me flip

# Write my name on the hollow-tips

# Plotting shit

# Mad violence who I'm gon' body, this hood politics, acknowledge it

# Leave bodies chopped up in garbages

# Seeds watch us grow up, try to follow us

# Police watch us, roll up, try knocking us

# One knee I ducked, could it be my time is up?

# I got up the cops shot again

# Bus stop glass bursts, fiend drops his Heineken

# Ricocheting between the spot that I'm hiding in

# Blacking out as I shoot back

# Fuck gettin' hit

# This is my hood, I'm a rep, to the death of it

# To everybody come home, little niggas is grown

# Hoodrats, don't abortion your womb

# We need more warriors soon

# Slip from the star sun and the moon

# In this life of police chases, street sweepers and coppers

# Stick-up kids with no conscience leaving victims with doctors

# If you really think you're ready to die

# This is what Nas is about

# See all I need is one mic

# All I need is one mic

# All I need is one blunt, one page, one pen

# One prayer - tell God forgive me for one sin

# Matter of fact, more than one

# Look back at all the hatred against me

# Fuck all of them

# Jesus died at age 33, 33 shots from twin Glocks, 16 apiece

# 32 which means one of my guns was holding 17

# 27 hit your crew

# Everybody gotta die sometime

# Hope your funeral never gets shot up

# Bullets tear through the innocent

# Nothing is fair

# My heart is racing, tasting revenge in the air

# I let the shit slide for too many years

# Strapped up too many macs, too many nines

# You really with me get busy load up the semis

# Do more than just hold it explode the clip until it's empty

# There's nothing in our way - they bust, we bust, they rust, we rust

# Lead flying, feel it? I feel it in my gut

# That we take these bitches to war, lie 'em down cos we stronger now

# The time is now!

# I need one mic

# All I need is one mic

# All I need is one life, one try

# One breath from one man

# What I stand for speaks for itself

# They don't understand Don't wanna see me on top

# Too egotistical, talkin' all that slick shit

# Same way these bitches do

# Wonder what my secrets is Niggas'll move on you

# Only if they know what your weakness is

# I have none, too late to grab guns

# I'm blastin' cos I'm a cool nigga

# Thought I wouldn't have your ass done?

# Fooled you, niggas

# I need one mic

# All I need is one mic

# All I need is one mic

# All I need is one mic. #

# Stealin', stealin', pretty mama Don't you tell on me

# I'm stealin' back to my same old used to be

# I'm stealin', stealin' pretty mama, don't you tell on me

# I'm stealin' back to my same old used to be

# Now put your arms around me like the circle round the sun

# I want to love ya, mama Like the easy rider done

# If you don't believe I love ya Look at the fool I've been

# If you don't believe I'm sinkin' Look at the hole I'm in

# I'm stealin', stealin' Pretty mama don't you tell on me

# I'm stealin' back to my same old used to be

# Yes, I'm stealin', stealin'

# Pretty mama, don't you tell on me

# I'm stealin' back to my same old used to be

# The woman I'm lovin' Just my height and size

# She's a married woman Come to see me sometimes

# If you don't believe I love you Look at the fool I've been

# If you don't believe I'm sinkin' Look at the hole I'm in

# I'm stealin', stealin', pretty mama don't you tell on me

# I'm stealin' back to my same old used to be

# Yes, I'm stealin', stealin' Pretty mama don't you tell on me

# I'm stealin' back to my same old used to be

# All right, oh

# Come on

# Oh

# I'm stealin', stealin' pretty mama don't you tell on me

# I'm stealin' back to my same old used to be. #

I love this studio.

To walk in and see how we're recording this, um...

I just looked at it for a while and wondered what it would sound like,

it just made me feel like, wow,

somebody built this to make music, so other people could hear it.

But it just has, like, magical sound, the way that it's built.

It's true, it's just the truest sound you could ever get.

Thinkin' about the song now, I don't think I could ever forget the song.

And it's from Memphis, and Memphis is one of my favourite places

for, like, soul music, period.

I think the south brings that to everybody,

everybody wants to join in, no matter who they are.

Black, white, whoever they are, it's like everybody wants to sing a song like this, it just feels great.

SONG PLAYS ON RADIO

THEY SING IN FRENCH

Allons a lafayette!

Early electric recording is very interesting to me, uh,

largely because it's...

It was so well thought out and designed that it really set up,

you know, the next 90 years of recording technology.

And, uh, this recording system was the result

of a giant technological push by AT&T in the early 20th century.

AT&T's lab was often referred to as the "Ideas Factory",

and some of the greatest minds in the world came together

to work on this recording system.

I mean, it literally transformed the way the whole world communicated.

And, uh, it essentially enabled the record companies

to set up recording sessions all over the country,

where everyday people could record their songs

and then have those songs distributed across America.

And even though millions of records are being made in the 1920s,

it was only a couple of dozen systems making these recordings.

None of these recording systems have survived intact.

So, what we've reassembled here

is like the blueprint of American communication.

It's staggering that it's the only one that's survived.

And, uh, things have gotten smaller,

but the basics are still there. So, the microphone that was developed

in the mid-'20s is still the most popular microphone we use today,

it's just smaller and has better high-frequency response and such,

but it's the basic same... The same thing they worked out in the '20s.

Wouldn't use it at home.

Like it was when we was kids.

Yeah.

Some call him a sinner.

I say I call him a... Some call him...

Oh, I got that line. You got that line.

# I never robbed trains, I never did time

# I remember men whose last two agreements...

# Some call him a sinner

# I'd call him a winner... #

Some call him a sinner, I call him a winner.

That's what we got. There we go. He's the only man wilder than me.

Wait a minute. Don't stop.

I've never robbed trains and never did time.

I'm a man who's last to agree.

And I say some call me a sinner... And you say...

I call you a winner.

I call you... I call him a winner.

How could he go wrong?

Let's get blue light, Nick.

# He's the only man wilder than me

BOTH: # He's the only man wilder than me

# He's an outlaw, he's crazy And he's never been lazy

# He's busy on a lifelong spree

# He's the only man wilder than me

# I never robbed trains and I never did time

# A man whose last to agree

# Some call me a sinner I call him a winner

# And he's the only man wilder than me

# He's the only man wilder than me

# The only man wilder than me

# Some call me a sinner I call him a winner

# And he's the only man wilder than me. #

Pick one.

# If he ever really cared, he'd apologise

# Indifference has kept his mind free

# And he knows yesterday's dead and tomorrow is blind

# And he's the only man wilder than me

# He's the only man wilder than me

# He's the only man wilder than me

# Some call me a sinner I call him a winner

# And he's the only man wilder than me

# He's the only man wilder than me. #

It's him!

# He's the only man wilder than me. #

It's him!

APPLAUSE

What do you think? Let's do the Bob Wills Song.

Get the band in there? Yeah, let's get the band in there. Great.

# I got that old-fashioned love in my heart

# And there it will always remain

# Like an ivy clinging vine, clinging closer all the time

# Through the years and the tears, just to say

# Got that old-fashioned faith in my heart

# And nothing can tear it apart

# Dry land will turn to see But they'll find no change in me

# I got that old-fashioned love in my heart... #

Sing it, you sing.

# I got that old-fashioned love in my heart

# And there it will always remain

# Like an ivy clinging vine Clinging closer all the time

# Through the years and the tears just to say

# I got that old-fashioned faith in my heart

# And nothing can tear it apart

# Dry land may turn to sea But you'll find no change in me

# Got that old-fashioned love in my heart

# Dry land may turn to sea but they'll find no change in me

# Got that old-fashioned love in my heart. #

APPLAUSE