Talking Silver Cloud Blues

[johnfowles]

Or is it "Silver Cloud Talking Blues (see below)??
This if you do not already know is a rare Gord penned ditty about Ronnie Hawkins' attempt to buy a Rolls Royce based on a true incident.
On Wayne's site he includes it on his "covers" page but says little about it
It is in fact one of the few songs that Gord wrote but never ever recorded himself.However there is an amusing rendition by John D Loudermilk that WAS issued as a 45 single (are you listening 45s Frank??). I first heard it back in 1999 when it was played on BBC Radio Merseyside in a great interview with Gord recorded in Toronto by the BBC personality Spenser Leigh complete with Gord's spoken introduction
it was also included in an album called "It's My Time"

and Amazon have a short sample of John's version on:-
http://www.amazon.com/gp/recsradio/r...k=010&disc=001
I have just bid victoriously to the tune of $11.00 (plus $3.00 postage from Texas) on an auction for a copy of the single:-

[img]http://www.johnfowles.org.uk/lightfoot/images/SilverCloudTalk.gif[/img]
I wanted to illustrate the confusion over the question of the correct song title
Wayne's site in his listing of "unreleased songs" at
http://www.lightfoot.ca/unresngs.htm
includes
"TALKIN' SILVER CLOUD BLUES
This was a poem, no music, about Ronnie Hawkins going into a
Toronto Rolls dealership and buying a new car - with cash!"
which is the title referred to on several websites including lyrics ones and
in particular a Ronnie Hawkins biography page at:-
http://www.oldies.com/artist-biograp...e-Hawkins.html
"while his experience in buying a Rolls-Royce was recounted in Gordon Lightfoot's "Talkin' Silver Cloud Blues".
also on that page I was highly amused to read this about another sadly recently departed pioneer rocker:-
"The burly singer also appeared in Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue enjoyed some amusing lines as "Bob Dylan' in Renaldo And Clara; Hawkins" segment with "happy hooker" Xaviera Hollander includes the line: "Abraham Lincoln said all men are created equal, but then he never saw Bo Diddley in the shower."
whereas on the Loudermilk single it is shown as
"Silver Cloud Talking Blues"
I am pretty miffed at this forum
in my last posting I particularly wanted to display the scan of the actual 45 record,
spoon my first attempt I used the address as shown on the actual ebay auction to wit

http://www.karavanrecords.net/George...rCloudTalk.gif

However immaculately inserting it inside the bulletin board image tabs [img] and [/img]
[img]http://www.karavanrecords.net/George/SilverCloudTalk.gif[/img]
This as you can readily see did not work.So thinking it might be a fault in the link I uploaded the image
to my own site at:-
http://www.johnfowles.org.uk/lightfo...rCloudTalk.gif
and again adding the correct tags to produce a syntaxically perfect display code
[img]http://www.johnfowles.org.uk/lightfoot/images/SilverCloudTalk.gif[/img]
and yet again zilch. yet if you click both of the bare URLs the picture will open.
This sort of absurdity has happenned to me several times now and I am sick of it as it wastes valuable time.
But I am determined that you should see the image so I will now resort reluctantly to attaching it.
You should thus be able to see it by clicking the thumbnail below

the seller states quite categorically
"John Loudermilk was a wonderful songwriter who gave us many, many hits in the late '50s through the '60s. Beyond writing songs, he too was trying to be a successful singer, and cut many records for RCA, most which have a fun novelty nature to them. He didn’t write this one, but it sure is a fun song!

THIS SINGLE is from May of 1966 and had John singing his version of the Gordon Lightfoot tune "Silver Cloud Talkin' Blues." This is a very cool little talkin' blues that Gordon never recorded, and it seems that Loudermilk is the only one that ever put it to wax.

The song is about a rocker buying a new Rolls Royce and is said to have been inspired by Ronnie Hawkins on a buying trip to a Toronto Rolls dealer. Wanna hear something that really adds to it? Gordon plays guitar on the session and that organ in the mix is Ray Stevens !

Since this tune isn't on a Gordon LP, this is the only way to hear it. On the flip you get John singing his own song "Run On Home Baby Brother." It's a nice little romp too."
My question is does anybody have confirmation or could tell by listening to it that Gord really was accompanying John on this recording??
Are you reading this Tom Salter?If so you will know that you are hereby advised that this must be added to your list of vistories to be done as it "just" qualifies as one of Gord's recordoings!!.
The Silver Cloud in question is arguably the best looking Royce ever built.
I have displayed below a small thumbnail as a link to the full sized picture which be warned Ron is over 289663 Bytes and this particular Silver Cloud III is for hire by a company in Buckinghamshire,England and is shown complete with UK issue wedding ribbons just like one that one of my kind friends in Sherborne,Dorset England hired to take us away from our reception just 9 years ago last Monday.Yes I remembered!!

If there is anybody who has never heard it and would like to please send me a Private Message and I'll see if I can help.

thank you, very much for posting this John! I find this to be very fascinating.

I suspect that just the words are Gordon's. The music and talking/singing style (from the little I got to hear) is reminiscent of Woody Guthrie's, "Talking Dust Bowl Blues" or other similar songs where Woody tells a story while playing along with the guitar - not necessarily a particular melody, but to tell a story and keep it flowing.

I'd bet $$$ that Gordon didn't write any particular melody and that even if that's him playing guitar on this recording -it's a simple folk/blues background that was commonly used by Woody in songs like the one I had mentioned. Very interesting to know that might be Gordon and even Ray Stevens in there! Now need to find out for sure!

Great find John and I'm really getting into listening to Loudermilk's samples on Amazon. Never heard of him b4 and I'm loving his voice, etc., quite much!

AWESOME!!! Did anyone listen to this on Amazon - Loudermilk's, "Lament of the Cherokee Indian Reservation"? Much better than the Raider's rendition!!!! kewl to know Loudermilk wrote this!

[johnfowles]

the main problem I have with John D Loudermilk is that despite him having an unusual name,
so does Loudan Wainwright the umpteenth and I always confuse them !!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muo30yeL8yA

[RM]

Originally Posted by podunklander

But I'll go ahead and do a search for this Wainwright person

Check Youtube, as I'm sure "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road" will be there somewhere.

[BILLW]

Originally Posted by RM

Check Youtube, as I'm sure "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road" will be there somewhere.

A fine novelty song but check out The Man Who Couldn't Cry which was covered by Johnny Cash for a nice example of his songwriting. Johnny's version is on Youtube. And check out all his other stuff at:

http://www.lwiii.com/

Bill

P. S. I see on his website that he's performing at something called the Mariposa Folk Festival in some funny sounding town on Saturday 5 July ?

[charlene]

Yep - he's there as well as a few others I'd like to see.
There also will be one event of Lightfoot songs at Mariposa..perhaps Mr. L. himself will drop by as he did a few years ago and gave everyone a treat by performing MY song, "I'll Tag Along" ..


http://www.mariposafolk.com/signpost.php?dest=festival

JPCormier has a new CD out on July 8 and no doubt will perform tunes from it at Mariposa and will be at Hugh's Room on July 8 for the CD release..

JP, Dala and Pavlo will be doing the Lightfoot-ed Songs on the last day..wow - should be a great time.. (Pavlo's promoter is the same wonderful fellow that Gord has - Bernie Fiedler)

[charlene]

TALKIN' SILVER CLOUD BLUES - cover version by JD Laudermilk. -not recorded by GL. About Ronnie Hawkins and when he walked into a car dealership in TOronto and bought a Rolls with cash..THIS SINGLE is from May of 1966 and had John singing his version of the Gordon Lightfoot tune "Silver Cloud Talkin' Blues." This is a very cool little talkin' blues that Gordon never recorded, and it seems that Loudermilk is the only one that ever put it to wax.
Onstage Gordon sometimes will ask if anyone remembers Mose Allison..He recorded one of JDLaudermilks tunes... check out wikipedia and see the hit tunes this fellow wrote for other artists: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Loudermilk

Gordon Lightfoot cover: Talkin´Silver Cloud...

[loveabiggibson]

It sounds like it could be Gord on the 6-string rhythm guitar...

[patybear]

After listening to this, I agree with you, Loveabiggibson. It COULD be Gordy on the 6 string rhythm guitar. It sure SOUNDS like Gordon's style.

[Carol Poppenga]

I agree. The guitar is under Gordon's hand in this. IMHO---yes, I do believe most certainly.
Listen to this---I think you'll see the closeness of it to the Silver Cloud Blues style/manner:
http://youtu.be/L9yZpG6jYsY