Artist	Song
John Lee Hooker	House Rent Boogie
Mercy Dee	Mercy's Party
The Grey Ghost	Oke-She-Moke-She-Pop
Dr. Hepcat	Haddie Green
Dave Alexander	Old House Party
Piano Red	Rockin' with Red
Koko Taylor	Wang Dang Doodle
Son Seals	Gentleman from the Windy City
Howlin' Wolf	All Night Boogie
Champion Jack Dupree	The Shim Sham Shimmy
Big Joe Turner	Jumping Tonight
Wynonie Harris	Good Rockin' Tonight
Hank Ballard & the Midnighters	Finger Poppin' Time
J.B. Hutto	The Combination Boogie
Slim Harpo	Tip on In
Professor Longhair	Ball the Wall
Marcia Ball	That's Enough of that Stuff
Howlin' Wolf	Howlin' Wolf Boogie
Jimmy Rogers	Rock this House
B.B. King	House Rocker
Lou Ann Barton	Let's Have a Party
Johnny Winter	Shake Your Money Maker
Stevie Ray Vaughan	The House is Rockin'
Champion Jack Dupree	Drunk Again
Leroy Washington	Wild Cherry
Koko Taylor	Sure Had a Wonderful Time Last Night

Comment:

Another mix in my continuing crusade to put more blues on AOTM. The theme this time is rent parties Rent parties apparently had their origin in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance after the first World War. Southern migration and a flowering of the arts combined to make Harlem the center of black urban and intellectual life for the whole country. Local landlords saw a good thing, and they charged inflated rents as housing demand soared. At the same time, African-Americans were, as usual, paid lower wages than white workers. Rent parties began to proliferate as a means of making ends meet. The hosts would advertise the party to try to attract a large crowd, charge admission, and use the proceeds to pay the week's rent. The hosts would also provide food (mostly Southern-style cooking) to sell to guests, along with a little bathtub gin, corn, or home brew. You night even find some cards or craps in one of the rooms. A band might consist of anything from a lone piano player to a large pick-up band. All in all, the parties retained the feel of the Southern jook-joint parties that many of the attendees experienced before their move north.
The mix starts with John Lee's sad tale of no job and no money for rent. His solution, however, is a timeless one that has nothing to do with parties. The next five tracks are some nice, informal barrelhouse-type piano tunes. This is the way I imagine a lot of rent parties took shape -- the musical entertainment would begin when someone arrived who could play the piano. Then if somebody showed up with a guitar, he would sit in. Then maybe someone else would arrive with a horn, a harmonica, or whatever. Pretty soon you had a band. From here the party starts to get more raucous as more revelers arrive and the apartment begins to fill up. Koko starts and ends this part of the mix, first describing the party to take place, and finally, on the morning after, trying to remember the fun she must have had. In between, plenty of boogieing, shaking, shimmying, rocking, jumping, drinking, and landlord annoying.

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