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PL: Well some of it is my own, and like I told you this (Hungarian) kid that I built the band up around, I had to develop the calypso and the Spanish beat because he played a lot of off-beat Spanish beats, calypso, downbeats. LB: So he would use a lot of calypso instruments, those woodblocks that you click together. PL: Yeah, yeah, he used all of those. I enjoyed all of those things, and I wanted to learn sound at that time. I was seekin' for sound rather than just what I liked personally. That's why I took up to tryin' to learnin' a variety of music other than just one individually styled. Like I say I like my own style, but my own style is completely different than rhythm & blues, or calypso or any of that. It's just deep down funk. • LB: Did you hear any calypso records? PL: Back in them days? No, not really cause... LB: Mac Rebennack told me about a man named Jamaica Johnnie. PL: Now, he had a chance to get around more than I did because Mac began travelin' around 'S0, 'S2. LB: No, but he said specifically back then he would hear them. He said Jamaica Johnnie and Cabana Joe had some popular calypso records (in New Orleans). Do you remember any calypso records on the radio, or a calypso band in a club? That's the way I look at your music, the blues but with that calypso or rhumba beat. PL: You know, I didn't really start gettin' out to hear the other people's point of view of music until I went into the C.C.C. Camp. That's when I began developin' different beats and different sounds. In the beginnin' when it all started off, well, I had to accept what my mother had to offer. That was the plain regular everyday sheet music that they got today. But there wasn't no inspiration in that for me. But I had to learn time. I had to learn the keyboard and all, which she taught me. It didn't take much when I got outside. All I wanted to do was hear a fellow do something. If I heard it and he let me see it, well that was all that was necessary. And this is what I enjoyed because I have run across a lot of fellows that played music by sheet music, like Dave and them once. We was playin' on a job and... LB: You and Dave Bartholomew? PL: Yeah. And somethin' happened to the auditorium lights or somethin' or the power, everything went out. The whole place was in darkness as well. And I never quit playin', I just kept the people inspired. People were scratchin' matches and lightin' cigarettes. LB: After the C.C.C. Camp thing the war came along. What did you do during the war? PL: I went into the Army. I volunteered to go in '40 and at that time there wasn't no war, they didn't need me. So in '42- they decided to draft me. I got a bad deal in that, you know. I shouldn't have been a draftee. I should have been a volunteer. I volunteered in '40, they knowed it. And they waited until the war broke out, then they sent for me. LB: So what did you do in the Army? Do you have any good Army stories? PL: No, not really. LB: You just made it up to private? PL: That's all I wanted; that's all I could ever be. Well, we was mostly a chemical outfit. Yeah, we was go in lookin' for bombs; we wasn't really where the fightin' was. We was where they had done passed up. We had to be careful of the areas we was in. We had to decontaminate the area that we was in for gases that was in that territory. Gases that had exploded in that area. LB: So you were behind the lines? PL: Yeah, and we had to make signs and things when all of this happened so the next group wouldn't get contagious. There was so much to go through. LB: Where were you stationed? You went to Hawaii or Guam or... PL: No. we was right here in camp Claiborne in Alexandria, I think it was, or Shreveport. LB: What did you do after the war? PL: I got out of the service the last of '43, the first of '44. They decided it was best 'cause I started complainin' too much, you know. I had burst appendix in there and I got a hernia... They gave me a medical discharge, which was disabled when I got out of the service. but I never applied for it. Right then I knew I wasn't in good shape. LB: You stayed in the hospital for a while? PL: Yeah, I stayed in the hospital here about seven or eight, nine' months. After I had got out of the service there was another operation. I got an operation in the service and two out of the service. I developed a hernia in the Army. LB: It must have really cramped your style. LB: So now after your illness you went back to playing music? PL: Well, no. I got out in '44 and I went to work ... I didn't go right back to playing music; I went back to, as I said, gamblin'. I made more money in cards in them days than you do in gamblin'. I didn't really go back to playin' music till I started back professional around '49. I just did whatever there was with the most money in it. If I was gamblin', well I didn't do nothin' else. If I was drivin' jitneys or somethin', cabs. At that time they had jitney service, you could make a few bucks carryin' people where you wanted. There weren't too many taxi cabs. LB: When did they first start calling you "Little Lovin' Henry"? PL: That's when I recorded the number "Doctor Professor Longhair" ("Professor Longhair Blues," Atlantic 906). I don't remember when I started a-doin' that number. But I say, "All the boys call me Doctor Professor Longhair, but all the girls call me a little ole lovin' man." LB: So then you got the name Little Lovin' Henry? PL: I got the Little Lovin' Henry before I was dancin'. They used to call me Little Lovin' Henry when I was dancin'. They used to call me Whirlwind when I was boxin', tryin' to box. LB: Dupree used to box. When did you try boxing? PL: I tried everything. I was boxin' way back in my early days. You could consider me bein' a flyweight. I soon forgot about it though; I didn't have over four or five fights. The last fight was the worst one of all. LB: Did you win any? PL: I won them all except the last one and that was the end of the career. LB: You got paid well for those fights? PL: You got whatever was on the ground. Guys would throw whatever they had on the ground to see you box a guy. LB: So you didn't play too much up until you recorded. PL: Well. I didn't fool with it no more until around '49. LB: That's when you did your first record? PL: Yeah, professionally. The first record I did was "Mardi Gras New Orleans." for Star Talent. They did the "Hadacol Bounce" and somethin' on the other side. I don't remember now ...and "She Ain't Got No Hair," we did on Star Talent. ["Mardi Gras in New Orleans" was never issued on Star Talent: "Hadacol Bounce" was recorded in 1949 for Mercury.] LB: Do you remember the man who recorded you? PL: Ericks. (Erickson). LB: Jesse Erickson? Do you remember where he was from? PL: Texas, he claimed. LB: I don't know too much about his label. Was it a-popular one? PL: It couldn't have been; the government disqualified it. QD: He was an outlaw. PL: It really did. LB: Where would you box? LB: How did he find you? LB: That would have been at least a year that you weren't playing piano? PL: What I used to do was fool around at the Vets (Veterans Hospital) when I was in the hospital. Around there they had a piano in there. I did a lot of practicin' in there. Most every place where I got hung up I'd have a place to practice. PL: Anywhere, in the alleys. LB: It wasn't like a professional job? PL: Well, they opened up one: that's where I got my teeth knocked out. That's when my career was over. The street was fine, but when that guy got me in the ring I didn't have no place to run. PL: That's a long story. I don't know how he found me but he did. , LB: Well you must have had a good reputation if he came in from out of town to record you. You must have been popular for him to have recorded you? PL: Everybody liked me. I don't know if it was popular or not. LB: I know those sides were banned. I think he released them and then they were recalled from the market. He got in trouble with the union. PL: I think he had trouble with the government. LB: Where did he record those? PL: That was cut on Villere and St. Peter. QD: Back over behind the Auditorium in Treme, wasn't it? PL: Yeah, Joe Prop's bar. He bought a piano. I used to go around there a lot of times and fool around. LB: Why'd you write the "Mardi Gras New Orleans"? PL: Well, the people was askin' for carnival numbers. At that time they wanted a good carnival number. They had numbers about Christmas, they had New Year's, most of all the holidays. LB: Erickson asked you to do a carnival number? PL: No, he didn't ask me. I was doin' that before I met him. PL: Well, we was drawin' from 3 to 400 a night in that place. It was on Seventh and Wire... It's still there but it's been remodeled and all. It don't look the same, all the beauty's gone. LB: After Star Talent you then recorded for Mercury. Do you remember who supervised those sessions? PL: A guy named Mr. William B. Allen was handlin' that whole situation at that time. See, I never did handle the business part of it. LB: Did you do these at Cosimo's (J & M Studio) on Rampart Street? PL: No, I don't think so. These was did at some building on Canal Street. I don't know if it was Maison Blanche or the Godchaux (Building)... Now, it was my idea to carry as much business to Cosimo, because I figured he would look out for my interests if I helped him with his. So all the talent I was scoutin' I would bring it to the J & M Studio. [The studio in the Godchaux Building was listed in the 1949 South Central Bell Telephone Directory (Yellow Pages) as National Radio Recording Co. Dick Dixon and Bill Erbacker were co-owners of the facility.] LB: You did "Bald Head" for Mercury. You told me once "Bald Head" was written about someone you knew? PL: A little girlfriend I used to have. She come to see me one night, and all the fellows looked up and saw her comin' in the door and they all yelled: "Ooo looka there." I know what they was talkin' about, they hollered, "She ain't got no hair." That's when she threw the pop bottle at me. It took her a long time to understand that the song was goin' to be popular. When it started gettin' popular she got along with it very well. LB: Now what band were you working with at this time? Didn't you have a band called the Mid-Drifs? PL: That wasn't my band. I was workin' with the Mid-Drifs: that was George Miller, he just recently died three or four months ago. He played a upright bass and he sung. And Boots Alexis, he plays drums. They had Alex Burrell playin' piano. He is now Duke Burrell; he's in L. A. He changed his name. professional group, they were all professional musicians. Robert Parker and them, I was teachin' them myself. But you got to get off and learn other people's strategy too if you want to be a musician. You goin' to run into more than one set. You goin' to have a variety of things in music to do... beats to learn... LB: Do you remember a drummer named John Woodrow? Did he play with you? PL: Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. I worked with so many fellows that sometimes I don't take time to learn their name because they' attitude didn't add up. So I don't remember their names; it didn't make sense 'cause I knew I wasn't goin' to use it. LB: For Mercury you also did "Hadacol Bounce." What was it about? PL: It was about a medicine. When you start to doin' the "Hadacol Bounce", "it'll curl your hair, clean your teeth." That's what it was based upon, what it would do for you. "Check your fever, drive away your cold, stop a young man from ever gettin' old." LB: The "Bald Head" record was your first to make the charts. Did you go out of town on any tours? PL: No, I didn't. The first time I thought about leavin' was in '68. LB: You didn't get any requests to go out of town? PL: Yeah, yeah. They wanted me to travel but I shifted it off on the other musicians that got away from it. I didn't like aeroplanes and I didn't like ships, so that hurted me a lot. Lately I had time to think about it, I mean why put out advertisement money and all of these things and the guy don't want to go along with the procedures. That's really the reasons my records never got no further than they did, because I didn't follow them up. I didn't cooperate with them. LB: You didn't cooperate with the companies? PL: No, I didn't cooperate. Fats Domino did, so he got the privileges and the breaks. LB: Robert Parker told me that you got it together at the Pepper Pot in Gretna. He remembers playing it for the first time there. PL: Yeah, at different places that we played. Robert Parker was with me at that time. LB: How popular a club was the Pepper Pot?
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