Murphey’s ‘Honeysuckle Rose’ … now with TAB

[Guy Cundell]

Murphey’s wonderful recordings of ‘Honeysuckle Rose’ with the Plainsmen are legendary and have been discussed here on the forum a number of times. The two Coast recordings, one unissued, have been the subject of wonder as Murphey peels off Django Reinhardt’s version of the head recorded in 1938. The unissued version has a glitch in Murphey’s second bar, which is why it may have been rejected.


The following sound file has Django’s 1938 intro followed by Murphey’s head of the version released by Coast.

https://soundcloud.com/guy-cundell/hone ... tes-django

A YouTube video of the unreleased take released by ‘TOPS’ at 2.50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoKpO7uFCSk&t=169s


But here is the revelation. Chris Clem has just posted a previously unknown version of Honeysuckle Rose from a McGregor transcription disc that seems to have come from the same session. The band and arrangement are same but in this version, Murphey doesn’t run the Reinhart intro but offers his own. It is glorious!
I think that this is either a first take that was pepped up by Murphey with his Reinhardt ideas on later takes or that it is a ‘safety take’ in case the record company rejected the Reinhardt stuff. Either way, it is another wonderful instrumental track showing Murphey’s mastery.

Major thanks to Chris Clem! Here is his Youtube video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKvlYbIyhps

Post script: Chris Clem is pretty sure that this version is not from the same session as he believes that McGregors were consistent about doing their own recordings and offer a matrix number of MM 0830 for this track. The similarities suggest that if it was not a product of the Coast session, it was recorded about the same time. However, the fact that Coast would sell an outtake to TOPS leaves the door slightly ajar to my theory.

Below is a set of transcriptions by which the three recordings of Django's head can be compared.

[Mitch Drumm]

Here it is if the above link doesn't go to the right spot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKvlYbIyhps

First song is the newly discovered Honeysuckle Rose; second song is Dark Eyes from a Hollywood Barn Dance radio show of the same era.

[Jean-Sebastien Gauthier]

Wow this version is amazing!!!
I prefer this version!

Thanks a lot for posting that.

[Guy Cundell]

Thanks for the correction, Mitch. I think it's right, now.

[Guy Cundell]

Reading about McGregor, 'the De Mille of the discs', I now understand Chris's confidence that this cut is not an outtake from the Coast session. That being true, how many more gems might be hidden in this catalogue? I see that the McGregor collection rests in the Library of Congress, which sounds like a great excuse for another visit sometime.

Links on McGregor
https://www.oldradioshows.org/2015/03/c ... nscribers/
http://tenwatts.blogspot.com/2008/09/ma ... ollie.html

A very informative piece on the history of transcription discs.
http://www.jimramsburg.com/by-transcription-audio.html

[Lucky Oceans]

Awesome! Thanks, Guy for the find and for the transcription. What a thrill to hear some mostly unheard Joaquin!

[Guy Cundell]

Cheers, Lucky. It's a pretty exciting find! Kevin Coffey suggests that 'lost' is too strong a word and I guess it was not lost in the sense of the lost Tiffany transcriptions but if it is on a 16" disc that requires special playback equipment and it's in an archive or a private collection then it may as well be at the bottom of a mineshaft. So major thanks to Chris Clem for digging this and so many other great tracks up.

[Andy Volk]

Thrilling stuff, Guy!

I'm always amazed at how Murph maintained that singing tone regardless of tempo. Each note or chord always rings out for its duration and never sounds cut-off.

[Andy Volk]

Thrilling stuff, Guy!

I'm always amazed at how Murph maintained that singing tone regardless of tempo. Each note or chord always rings out for its duration and never sounds cut-off.

[Guy Cundell]

He never disappoints, Andy!

Here is a transcription of the final chorus. He is using his usual chordal tuning of the era, F#9. The recording is running slow, I would think and it must be in F rather than E. I am never sure what Murphey does with the other two lower strings. There is an issue at the back of bar 11 that probably involved one of them but I haven't worked it out. It is fleeting.

[Andy Volk]

You have a golden ear to transcribe this stuff, Guy! It was played 72 years ago but still sounds astounding. Murph had some excellent teachers but he more or less achieved this on his own. Back then, folks weren't bombarded with media constantly perhaps had the time and space to dig in and focus more. I know that all these screens have diminished my own attention span a bit.

[Mark Roeder]

Great find, cool to hear the back to back comparison too

[Andy Costigan]

thanks Guy for the transcription
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pCtvXUGs5k