Interview with Bobby Charles

Accession No.: 
BE2-044

Bobby Charles:

-02:00 - First record in 1955 - meeting with Phil Chess, thought Bobby would be black
-05:00 - How Bobby hooked up with Chess Records - Charles Rutledge, Dego's Record Shop
-06:00 - First band - Harry Simoneaux
-07:15 - Recording "See You Later, Alligator" with Paul Gayten in New Orleans
-10:40 - Left Chess in the late 50's, went to Imperial Records
-11:30 - Clarence "Frogman" Henry recording Bobby Charles songs
-14:00 - Owned only a third of many of the songs that became hits for Fats Domino and others
-14:55 - Structure of his songs - comes naturally, doesn't focus on making a song sound a certain way
-15:50 - Stan Lewis
-21:00 - Tennessee Blues
-22:00 - Didn't trust record execs that he was working with. Talks about being taken advantage of
-26:30 - Discussing the rumor that Bobby is a hermit
-29:45 - Discussing Clifton Chenier
-34:00 - Discussing Rockin' Dopsie and how he proclaimed himself "The King of Zydeco" after Clifton passed away
-35:35 - Chuck Berry - Said Bobby Charles was booed off of the stage at the Apollo, when that never happened. Bobby said he had him confused with somebody else

Media Type: 
Audio
Collection: 
Benicewicz, Larry
Subject: 
South Louisiana, Music, Record Labels, Swamp Pop, New Orleans
Creator: 
Larry Benicewicz
Informants: 
Bobby Charles
Coverage Spatial: 
Abbeville, LA
Publisher: 
Center for Louisiana Studies
Rights Usage: 
All rights reserved
Language: 
English
Meta Information
Duration: 
39:23
Cataloged Date: 
Friday, September 6, 2019
Digitized Date: 
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Original Format: 
Audio--Cassette--90
Digital Format: 
Audio
Bit Depth: 
16 bit
Sampling Rate: 
44.1k
Storage Location: 
Center for Louisiana Studies