Former Accession # TI1-011

2:12 Bebe talks about having a fiddle with rattlesnake rattles in it. He would put two or three rattles in the violin to improve the tone. One day he realized someone had taken the rattles out. They had been in the violin for years and he never figured out who took them out. He got the idea about putting the rattles in by some old friends.
5:20 There weren't many musicians around where he lived when he was young so he heard music from records. There were house dances with accordion players. He heard a record by Amede Ardoin. Eunice Two-Step. Bebe played bass with Amede at a Creole house dance around Lawtell. Bebe was asked to play a house dance in Ville Platte but didn't want to go. He said Ville Platte was too rough. He went anyway and it went alright. He said he'd played a party once in that area when someone was shot and he had been in the line of fire.
12:03 Bebe played his first club with his brother at Richard's in 1940. He played when Eddie Richard ran the club. He played other clubs around Louisiana around Welsh and Iowa. Bebe talks about one night he played in Iowa at a time it was forbidden to have whiskey. The club owner picked Bebe up from his dad's house in Welsh where he'd been working in the rice fields. They went to get a load of whiskey and were stopped by Lake Charles law enforcement and got arrested and had to stay in jail for 4-5 days. He says it was the first time he'd ever been to Lake Charles.
17:28 White Mule was the bootleg apple punch Bebe had on him when he was arrested. He talks about making white mule in the 1920s in Lawtell.
22:25 They talk about the old house dances. Bebe said that the young girls would ask the older people if they could use their house and they'd take all the belongings out of the house and put them back after the dance. Sometimes Bebe would play solo for the dances.
25:30 Bebe talks about drinking lemon juice and taking his medicine. He says he was diabetic but a doctor in Beaumont took him off the meds and he doesn't have it anymore. He mostly just has pain now.
27:20 They talk about dancers back then that danced swing and waltz dances. The men would extend a white handkerchief to ask a woman to dance. Bebe talks about playing with Douglas Bellard. They didn't call the music Zydeco back then. They called it Lala. He first heard music called Zydeco a few years ago with Clifton Chenier. Bebe played the Beverly Hillbillies theme song. Kentucky Waltz. Bill Monroe. Jimmy Rogers. Bob Thibodeaux wanted him to play dancing songs in church.
34:18 Bebe wrote the song Blue Runner. It was Bebe's biggest song. It's a fast snake that whips you with its tail. Bebe likes hillbilly music. Jimmy Rogers. Bill Monroe died about a month ago. When clubs like Richard's opened, the house dances discontinued. The clubs drew people from all over whereas the house dances were just people from the neighborhoods.
38:50 Bebe started playing the blues on the violin and would listen and learn from records.
41:19 Bebe says he was brought up on a farm planting cotton, corn, sweet potato, etc. Then his first wife left him when he didn't want to go to Lake Charles. He was raised in Lawtell. Bebe's dad played the accordion. He says he learned violin playing one made from a cigar box. His dad bought him a real violin in Church Point when he was about 12. Bebe talks about tuning his violin in different ways for different music.
46:38 Blues of Bebe. Baby Please Don't Go Back to New Orleans.
48:20 They talk about alcohol and musicians drinking. He says even the doctors would recommend alcohol.
50:38 Beb didn't make his first record until about 1978. Amede was the first to record in the area after he was discovered at an accordion contest in Opelousas. Bebe and his brother started playing together around 1965 and played clubs. Madame Faielle was written about a woman who lived outside Lawtell.
56:03 John Delafose passed away at Richard's. Geno is taking over the band. Willis Prudhomme. Leo Thomas.
59:09 Nathan Abshire.