Talkin’ Music with Jack – Abraham, Martin, John, and Moms Mabley

Abraham, Martin, John, and Moms Mabley

By Jack Coll

2-12-14

     It’s funny how the things you see and the things you do remind you, and me of music.  Sometimes you’re singing along with, or humming a particular tune, and another tune jumps into your mind.  For instance, if I hear the song, “Let The Good Times Roll,” by Bunny Zigler, I think of The Lemon Pipers, (“Green Tambourine’) and Billy Harner, (“Sally Saying Something”) because I saw all three of them together I think back in 1968 or 1969 at Upper Merion High School.  I’m not sure if all this ties in but here’s this week’s story.

Contractors recently tore down a building in West Conshohocken that at one time served as a corner store, I think it’s spelled “Wrembeck’s” Grocery store.  I heard the building was a store back in the 1960’s and early 1970’s, and I wanted a little more information on the place.  So I ventured into the website “You know you’re from West Conshohocken When,” in hopes that someone might have been talking about it and provide a little insight into the store and building.

While scrolling down the page, I came across a video posted by Jimmy McTamney, of Dion DiMucci, singing “Abraham, Martin and John.”  I suppose it was listed in memory of Martin Luther King’s birthday, and it was a live version of the song.   King is a topic I just covered, and like most people, am aware of the song, Dion, and the topic it explores.  But I hadn’t heard the song in a while, and I’m a sucker for watching live music, so I clicked it on.

Dion wasn’t singing it in the usual upbeat pop standard that we all got used to hearing, but a little slower, more bluesy, with some feeling, and something else just clicked in my head.  I remember someone else singing this song in that slow, bluesy, style with a lot of feeling, a lot of feeling, but who was it, who sang the song that I was thinking of?  It didn’t register so I played the song again, Dion sang about his good friends Abraham, Martin and John, and his brother Bobby and it hit me it was a woman, I’m thinking maybe Helen Reddy?, Aretha Franklin?  I couldn’t quite come up with a name, so I punched in “Abraham Martin and John” and a list of performers jumped on my screen and there it was, the lady and the voice I remember as a youngster listening to, Moms Mabley.

Could it be Moms Mabley, I was a kid when the song came out and I didn’t know then that she was a foul mouthed triple X rated comedian, but when I saw her name next to “Abraham Martin and John” it’s like my memory left no doubt, I remember hearing Moms Mabley singing that song on the radio, and I remember her singing it with pure emotion, with all due respect an emotion that very few white performers have.

There was a clip of her singing the song when she appeared on the Merv Griffin Show back in 1969, Merv was a young man then, Mabley was an old lady, dressed like hell, (that was part of her stage get-up) they were both puffing on their cigarettes and Merv showed an album of Moms Mabley comedian material, and said “you’re gonna sing for us today, right.?

Mabley got up off the couch, wandered over to the microphone with a band behind her, and I’m wondering maybe it’s not as good as I remembered it.  Sometimes, when you’re young you hear a pop tune and think it’s just Boss!  Then you don’t hear it for years and all of a sudden it shows up on our radio and you go, “Oh, I remember this song, it was one of my favorites!”  and the song turns out to be crap.  And of course you’re saying I can’t believe I ever liked this song.

I remember this upbeat little tune that I thought was just great, I mean it had drums, vocals, it was great!  I couldn’t understand why this song wasn’t number one for about six years, I mean it was the greatest.  I heard it years later, “Red Rubber Ball.”  I started singing along with it, barley, and thought Jesus, this song isn’t the great song I thought it was.  You might remember it,

“I should have known, you’d bid me farewell,

There’s a lesson to be learned from this

 And I learned it very well.

Now I know you’re not the only starfish in the sea,

If I never hear your name again it’s all the same to me,

I think, it’s gonna be alright, can’t the worst is over now,

The moon isn’t gonna shine anymore for Red Rubber Ball.”

Don’t bother to write me to tell me I screwed the lyrics up, I’m doing it from memory, having heard it twice in thirty years.

The name of the band was The Cyrkle, members of the band attended college in Easton Pennsylvania, and get this, John Lennon named the band, that’s right, Brian Epstein managed the group and they opened for the Beatles on a six month tour.  The song, “Red Rubber Ball” was co-written by Paul Simon and Bruce Woodley of the Seekers.  The Cyrkle’s other big hit was “Turn Down Day.”

Sorry for the detour, back to Moms Mabley.  Mabley  takes the microphone on the Merv Griffin Show, and man she brings tears to your eyes with her version of “Abraham Martin and John.”  The song was so popular back in the summer of 1969 that Mabley became the oldest person ever at the age of 75, to chart a record on the Top 40, Billboard Hot Hits.

Moms Mabley was a very interesting person, born in 1894 as Loretta Mary Aiken, in Brevard North Carolina.  Loretta was one of 16 children, her father worked several businesses and was a volunteer fireman.  Her father died when a fire truck exploded when Loretta was eleven years old.  Loretta’s mother took in boarders, and by age 14 Loretta had been raped twice giving birth to two children who she gave up for adoption.  It was also at that time Loretta ran away to Cleveland, Ohio, and joined a traveling vaudeville show, where she sang and entertained.

Moms Mabley took her stage name from a childhood boyfriend Jackie Mabley noting that “he’d taken so much from me it was the least I could do to take his name.”  She later took the name “Moms” because she was a mom to many of the comedians on the circuit in the early 1940’s and 1950’s.  An interesting little fact about Moms Mabley  was that at the age of 27 years old in 1921, she openly admitted to being a lesbian and would perform dozens of stand-up lesbian routines.

Mabley went on to become one of the most successful entertainers of the Chitlin’ Circuit earning up to $10,000 a week at Harlem’s Apollo Theatre.  The Chitlin’ Circuit was a string of nightclubs and theatres that featured African American performers who catered especially to African American audiences.  The Chitlin’ Circuit was the only option for touring Black entertainers back in the day like Billie Holiday, B.B. King, Etta James, Duke Ellington, Sammy Davis and many others of the day.

Moms Mabley went from the Chitlin’ Circuit to Carnegie Hall in 1962 and after appearing on a number of TV shows with the Smothers Brothers Mabley became known as “The Funniest Woman In The World.”  Mabley addressed topics like racism, lesbianism, and other topics of the day too hot for anyone else to handle.  Mabley had more than 20 comedy albums hit the charts. She died from heart failure in New York in 1975 at the age of 81.

But she left us with this song “Abraham, Martin and John” sung with emotion that very few performers of our time could ever match.  As a matter of fact one of the few songs that come to mind that was filled with emotion was “Mr. Bojangles” sung by Sammy Davis Jr.  Sammy used the song “Mr. Bojangles” as his closer in his later years, he would come from the dimly lit back part of the stage with his short Top Hat on, and he had a way of softly dancing, sliding his legs across the stage, sliding his hand across the brim of his hat Las Vegas style just at the right times to tug at your heart strings.

Moms Mabley singing Abraham, Martin and John is very much worth checking out, punch in “Moms Mabley on Merv Griffin Show,” you’ll see her and Merv chatting and smoking, Mabley drops the butt in the ashtray and heads to center stage, what she does when she get there will make you understand how I never really forgot the song she sings, and once you watch her sing it, you’ll never forget it either.

When you’re done watching Moms Mabley, check out Sammy Davis Jr. sing a live version of “Mr. Bojangles,” ah, just the best.

Hey Jimmy, (McTamney) thanks’ for the memories bro, without your post, Moms singing might have been locked up in my mind, and perhaps never thought of again.  That’s the beauty and the power of music.

If you love music feel free to go to the music library on this site and look up Jack’s past 25 segments of “Talkin’ Music,” let the music take you away on these cold snowy winter days. Enjoy!!!