He was a drummer who sang, and also an occasional band leader. Little Bob, Li’l Bob, or, since the early ’70s, Camille Bob, died Monday from cancer; he was 77. Little Bob was born in Arnaudville, Louisiana and began his music career in the mid-1950s as the drummer for a band led by a fella named Good Rockin’ Bob—the “Bob” thing is evidently a coincidence. A couple years later, he’d formed his own dance band, the Lollipops. By 1957, he started making records for the Goldband label and by the early ’60s, the Lollipops were one of the top local dance/cover bands with a catalog of 45s stretching as long as my right arm.
But they never managed a break out hit. Gosh, beside soulies and record nerds, I reckon most folks outside Louisiana wouldn’t recognize Bob’s name. The closest thing he had to a hit was his popular R&B jukebox/AM radio side, “I Got Loaded.”
From 1971 onward, he recorded as Camille Bob and was still performing locally in Louisiana well into the mid-00s. Of his many sides, one of my favorite Little Bob jams is the mid-tempo flip of “I Got Loaded”—”Nobody But You.”
And, although he was not exactly a musician, a well-regarded DJ from Chicago named Moses “Lucky” Cordell died Tuesday from injures sustained in a house fire; he was 86. Cordell, also known as The Baron of Bounce, was a well-loved personality kinda radio DJ, back when DJs could have personalities. It’s been said he, and his on air partners, the Good Guys, held Black Chicago captive for more than 10 years with their on-air chatter and the most killer beat R&B, gospel, and blues.
“Acid-House Innovator” Charanjit Singh also passed this week. Read Dave Segal’s obit here.