“Take Me Back to Tulsa” (1960) – Bob Wills/Tommy Duncan and the Texas Playboys * Written by Bob Wills and Tommy Duncan * Produced by Joe Allison * LP: Together Again * Label: Liberty
Tommy Duncan was the lead vocalist on just about all of the Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys recordings between 1932 and 1948. A less eager stage presence than the lively Wills, Duncan nonetheless filled a crucial role in the classic Bob Wills sound that still epitomizes the “jazz for rural folks” Western Swing genre. Duncan left the band due to Wills’s drinking, reportedly, but joined up again in 1960 for a few more years of shows and studio dates. Together Again is a respectable reunion album, collecting a lot of the classics but sounding more hopped-up for the band’s fourth decade. Oklahoma native Glenn “Blub” Rhees gives the tune a post-bebop tenor sax upgrade at 1:04. The line “the darkie raises cotton, the white man gets the money,” from the 1940 original, has been changed to “the little man raises cotton, the big man makes the money.”