Customer Rating: 
Summary: Hey there all you Hound Dawgs and Houndettes!
Comment: Get your mojo working with this CD from Mojo Records. "The Copulatin' Blues" is bound to put some of ya'll in heat.This CD contains tracks spanning from 1929-1947. I've only heard of one of the songs before, but there are legendary artists like Jelly Roll Morton, Alberta Hunter, and Sidney Bechet & his New Orchestra.
While the recording quality isn't as good as on "Risqué Rhythms: Nasty 50's R& B", I think it would loose its charm if it was. These songs are rough and gritty. The recording studio did not (or could not) over produce the rawness out of the music so the edges are sharp. These are "race records" being saved from complete obscurity.
The songs offer varying degrees of subtlety from the play-on-words in the song "Yas! Yas! Yas!" by Jimmy Strange, the Yas Yas Yas Man to the explicit version of "Shave `Em Dry" by Lucille Bogan and the downright X-rated "Winin' Boy" by Mr. Jelly Roll Morton.
"Sissy Man Blues" records the lamentations of a man so hard up for sex, he'll take on a sissy man. And you have to be kin to Hard-Hearted Hannah to pass up Bo Carter's plea in "Please Warm My Weiner." He sounds so pitiful you just want to throw him a bun-or two.
One of my favorite tracks is "New Rubbin' On That Darn Old Thing" by Oscar's Chicago Swingers. It's not as edgy as the other songs, but it gets you be-boppin' to the beat. "Get Off With Me" by Coot Grant and Kid Wesley Wilson wins points not only for being evocative, but for Coot's charming, beguiling voice. She may sound like an innocent girl, but the sailors know better.
Alberta Hunter's "You Can't Tell The Difference After Dark" is the one tune I have heard before. This CD has the original 1935 release and Hunter's torch performance makes me think of Marlene Dietrich. But my first encounter with this song was on "The Glory of Alberta Hunter" album recorded in 1982 a few years before her death when her voice is older and more mature. Lesbian or not, at the time Hunter sounds like a grandmother who knows that there may be snow on the roof but grandpa still keeps the home fires burning. Frankly, I prefer this later version rather than the original on this CD.
Overall there is inconsistency in the CD because of the range of years it covers. You can hear the changes in recording quality and even songwriting ability. "Risqué Rhythms" is a more cohesive compilation because its scope is better defined. But the purpose of this copulatin' blues CD is aptly presented.
Anyway, as a whole "The Copulatin' Blues" is a good investment.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Old Blues Album
Comment: This is really great material. The lyrics and music are fantastic and really transport you to another time and place. I highly recommend this and related albums including "Reefer Songs" which was also reprinted on this label and anything on the Jass or Stash labels if you can find them.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Raw Blue
Comment: A must have for Blues lovers. All the rawness of old blues, celebrating sex or the lack of it, with humor, passion and the sincerity of the true blues singer. Fine audio quality with all the cracks and pops preserverd far behind the vocals. Everything you'd expect from a great label.
Customer Rating:
Summary: It is the Blues
Comment: If you like blues I advise you to listen it! They just made it how it must be!
