BUNKER HILL - GREAT GOSPEL SINGER ...
OR JUST HELLUVA ROCK'N'ROLL SINNER !
God's sake, what a fella! If you've ever heard "The Girl Can't Dance"
by Bunker Hill, you've got an idea what kind of incredible capacities a human voice can have.
The song altogether, with Bunker's mind-blowin' caveman-alike hollering is so way beyond belief,
that there ain't just enough superlative words to describe its invincibility.
Bring it together with Bunker's other early sixties novelty masterpieces,
and you've got there a load of the most powerful black rock'n'roll ever made!
"Bunker Hill" was born David "Dave" Walker on May 5, 1941 in
Washington, D.C. Between (and before) his music career David earned
distinction as a professional boxer or rather a prize-fighter. Was
he good or not - let his statistical score tell its own language:
"He was a contender in 25 fights as a heavyweight, and his record
was 18 wins, five losses and two draws, with 19 of these fights
viewed on network TV. He also spent some time as Archie Moore's
sparring partner..." (as mentioned in Billboard Magazine).
In the late 1950's Mr. Walker joined to a Los Angeles-based vocal-gospel group
The Sensational Wonders. In 1959, he became a member of the Mighty Clouds Of Joy -
the same band, that captured Billboard's pop and r'n'b-charts through the 1970's and the 1980's.
The Mighty Clouds Of Joy was founded by a 14-year old lead singer from Alabama named Willie Joe Ligon. Willie's
biggest inspiration was Rev. Julius Cheeks of the Sensational
Nightingales, and his rural gospel voice gave a nice contrast to
Clouds' another lead singer, Californian cityboy Johnny Martin. The group started performing at small church events around the L.A. ghetto area. By 1957 the group consisted of Joe Ligon, Johnny Martin, Freddie Johnson, Johnny Wesley and Johnny Gibson. During the same year they
also signed with the local Proverb label owned by Brother Henderson.
The Mighty Clouds' first recording session took place in a church at Will
Rogers Park in Los Angeles. Proverb issued one poor quality single from
the group ("Christian Plea" / "Lord, You Woke Me Up This Morning", #100)
c. 1958-59, and in 1968, rest of the recording material was released
by Hob Records on LP "Sing 'Zion' Songs", however overdubbed with
organ, piano and drums. The line-up on this record included Ligon, Martin,
Hollis Johnson, Johnny Gibson and Freddie Johnson.
In 1959, the group united with another Los Angeles gospel group The Sensational
Wonders. Mighty CLouds had made a reel-to-reel demo which was sent to Don Robey
of Duke-Peacock Records in Houston, Texas. Robey was interested in collaboration
but most of the Mighty Clouds didn't want to move to Texas. Ligon along with
Johnny Martin then went to the Sensational Wonders (with whom Ligon had already
recorded a single called "Somebody Touched Me" for Fable Records
in 1958) who accepted the deal. From now on, the new Mighty Clouds
Of Joy consisted of Ligon and Martin completed with Elmeo Franklin (baritone), Elmeo's
brother Ermont "Junior" Franklin, Leon Polk, and our man - David Walker. The regular bass singer Richard Wallace joined the line-up around 1960.
After a couple of months' training period the guys traveled to Goldstar studios in Houston, Texas. Walker, Franklin brothers and Polk thought they were going to record as The Sensational Wonders, but Joe Ligon had already signed them as The Mighty Clouds Of Joy - the name they were going to use also in the future.
The company owner Don Robey had recorded succesfully several gospel acts like The Five
Blind Boys of Mississippi, The Nightingales and The Dixie Hummingbirds, but now he was
in need for something fresh. In September 28th, 1960, Robey's studio was captured by
the Mighty Clouds of Joy, who definitely had that new sound. The recorded tracks "Jesus Lead Us Safely" and "Ain't Got Long Here" were to be the Clouds' debut single on Peacock label, appearing also on their first
album "Family Circle" a couple of years later. That LP contained also one song written by David Walker, "You'll Never Know", which featured him also as a lead vocalist - probably only time in the Mighty Clouds' whole recording history. "You'll Never Know" was also issued on a Peacock single (#1896) in 1963. This was confirmed by Joe Ligon who mentions Walker in a recent interview by Heikki Suosalo (published in Soul Express Magazine 3/2005): "On 'Jesus Lead Us Safely' the lead singer is David Walker. He was an ex-boxer. When I would go on those trips with the Sansational Wonders, David Walker was one of the lead singers. He was an original Sensational Wonder."
The next ten years the Mighty Clouds of Joy continued recording and doing over
200 gigs a year, getting a reputation of the hardest-workin', best-dressin' and
most earth-shakin' male gospel group on the road - sharing stages with pop stars
like Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Paul Simon, the Rolling Stones or Earth, Wind
and Fire. Over the years, Clouds have also performed on almost every important
television show in America (including "The Grammy Awards", "The Stellar Awards",
"CBS Special", "Prime Time Country", "PBS Special", "The Johnny Cash Show", "Michael
Douglas Show", "Merve Griffin Show", "Lou Rawls Parade of Stars", and the "Arsenio
Hall Show"). Afterall, they still had - or at least David Walker had - enough time for some side-projects ...
David Walker was and without doubt still is a religious man, but at some point
something made him to get involved in totally exceptional, odd and concealed musical
affair - and dare I say, with whole different type of "forces".
It's a known fact, that many gospel-oriented bands sounded extremely
rough and furious compared to European church-culture, but Dave's way
to sing seemed to come from much more deeper ...
When another D.C. cat, almost a national star Link Wray heard Dave
first time, he found him a true soulmate. Link and the Raymen (Doug
Wray, Vernon Wray and Bobby Howard) set up two recording sessions for
David immediately, and they taped a bunch of very unique songs in
Vern's D.C. home studio on Vermont Avenue (where were also cut
Ronnie Dove, the British Walkers and other local stars). Dave -
as a successful Mighty Clouds-member - was afraid to sing these -
ungospel songs, so at first he wanted Link to do them. The
problem was solved, when the Wray brothers gave him another name,
and Mighty Clouds wouldn't know anything about the whole thing.
The original idea was to call him "Four H Stamp" (as a joke after 4-H Clubs,
that were American youth bridges whose initials stood for Head,
Heart, Hands and Health), but they settled for Bunker Hill (As
anyone who's studied American history knows, the pseudonym was
taken from that spectacular battle between the American and the
British Army in the war of independence, on June 16, 1775 near
Boston). Anyway, Vernon Wray (alias Ray Vernon) became Dave's
promoter and the Raymen started tourin' around the Washington
area with him.
In 1962 Vernon took the master tapes to Arthur Yale and Jack Fine,
who ran the Amy-Mala Records - the company that released all
Bunker's three singles within next two years. The first platter
was intended to contain Dave's self-written songs "Hide And Go Seek"
and "Red Riding Hood And The Wolf". However "Hide And Go Seek",
recorded in the first session (as all the other songs were cut at
the later date), was too long to put on one side, so it was
finally separated to parts 1 and 2.
"Hide And Go Seek Part 1/2" (Mala 451) did quite a miracle in
August 25, 1962, when it climbed to Billboard's Hot 100! The record
scored the position 33 and stayed on the charts as much as thirteen
weeks! In September 1962 it also visited one week on the r&b-side,
reaching #27 at its highest. This insane dialogue between
a shoutin' preacher and his devil-may-care chorus was very strange
bird in the pop music field at that year, while the charts were usually
filled with dozens of different Bobbys, Frankies and other pretty faces!
So - "Hide" had tough lyrics and it was regarded as "too much
sexually insinuated" by some petty people and - naturally couple
of radio-stations banned it (Nowadays this would be a certain mark
of success, and I guess it really didn't bother the selling in
Bunker's case either!). Also some cover-versions were made, for instance
by a 1960s garage rock group called The Sheep (released in 1966 on 45rpm single
Boom BM-60.000), in the 1980s by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts,
and in 1995 by Blacktop. Luckily, those later versions didn't sell a thing compared to their prototype.
"Hide And Go Seek" was released in Canada on Barry label, and
also Europe paid attention to Bunker Hill's talent. The Stateside
label issued "Hide And Go Seek" in England and even in Sweden
(latter with a cool picture sleeve)! At some point, Intermission Records
re-released it as a flip-single with "Ten Commandments Of Love" by
Harvey & The Moonglows ... what a combination! Speaking of weird coincidences,
much later the American trash-film director John Waters used "Hide And Go Seek" on his motion picture "Hairspray" (1988) starring
Sonny Bono, Ruth Brown, Debbie "Blondie" Harry, Michael "Elvis" St. Gerard and young, fat Ricki Lake!
The next Mala-single (#457) contained the songs "Red Riding Hood
And The Wolf"/"Nobody Knows", both written by Bunker himself. It wasn't
any kind of a hit, but man, how great it was! The same animal beat that was
the main thing on his first single, leads the way also on this one. The rumblin'
a-side is one of the most popular choices on today's bootleg-mondo/trash-rock'n'roll
compilations - and I can really see why. I think I don't exaggerate at all, when I
say this track really rolls down and walks over! The reverse then is a stylish pop-ballad
with choir arrangements, adapted from the traditional "Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen".
The year 1963 started with the obscurest of Bunker Hill-releases: "There's
A Hole In The Middle Of The Moon"/"Dancing Party" (Mala 458). This
platter is surely rare and actually I'm not sure, is it ever officially
released. Probably it was issued as by Link Wray & his Raymen, 'cause it's Linkster
who's actually singing the lead voice. However, Bunker's doing the introduction and
background vocals on b-side. In the 1990s, Norton Records released two alternate
versions of "Dancing Party".
Mala Records had still some unheard Bunker Hill-material in their
archives (including nowadays totally-lost track "Jungle Dan"), and they were
plannin' to produce a whole album from him. Unfortunately it never
happened. The last Mala-produced single came out in 1963 and it was
from the same '62 session as the previous recordings. The a-side "The Girl Can't Dance"
is THAT SONG I've always wanted to make. But I didn't...'cuz Bunkie did - and he did it better than
well! If any vocal performance should be described as "he screamed his heart out",
it's definitely this and objections overruled! To balance the frantic parade-side, the flip
"You Can't Make Me Doubt My Baby" begins as almost basic medium-tempo gospel tune,
featuring only the basic one-chord accompaniment of acoustic bass and drums. However, Bunker
eventually turns the whole thing into something else, by praising the word even louder
and louder towards the end.
Recently, "The Girl Can't Dance" has been covered twice. In 1996, Belgium hc-rockabilly-trash band Sin Alley featuring female singer Martine van Hoof issued it as "The Guy Can't Dance" on their mini-EP/CD "Detroit 442" (Demolition Derby DD 035CD), and in 2003, another version by Evan Foster appeared on Link Wray Tribute compilation titled "Guitar Ace" (MuSick CD 20). Both re-interpretations are definitely worth hearing.
Contrary to Walker's belifs, The Mighty Clouds of Joy were fully aware of Bunker Hill's identity. Joe Ligon reminisces about this in Soul Express Magazine 3/2005: "Yes, we were. He left us. We begged him not to go. He did come back, when his career started going downhill. He had one big record, but it just didn't fit his lifestyle. David Walker was a dynamic lead singer, When he and I sang together, I never had to sing an uptempo songs. He sang all the fast songs. David and I were the lead singers. When the Clouds really began to come to our own as a group, David was leaving again at that time. I would say he left before the 1960's ended.".
Not much is known about Bunker's activities during the late 1960s. To the best of knowledge afterhe returned into church music, and continued singing with the Mighty Clouds until every now and then. Around 1964, a new member Jimmy Jones joined the group. Although he didn't actually replace David Walker, these two never were in the group at the same time. In 1967,
the Mighty Clouds' regular line-up seemed to be: Joe Ligon, Richard Wallace (who joined around 1960), Jimmy Jones, Elmeo Franklin, Johnny Martin, and Ermant Franklin. Leon Polk left the group for good in the late 1960's and so did Jones in
the early 1970's. The rest of the members gradually developed their tradtional gospel style to softer soul/disco r'n'b, and changed the old contract with Don Robey's Peacock records to the major company ABC. That meant naturally stepping into bigger and more money-making circumstances. Within the decade they managed
to get a great bundle of single/LP-hits, their live-album "Live And Direct" earned a gold album, and they have also won three Grammy awards. Obviously, new band members were coming and going during the 1980's and the 1990's. Today, Joe Ligon, Elmo Franklin and Richard Wallace are still present from the original cast while the newer boys in the line-up are: Johnny L. Valentine, Michael Cook, and Ron Staples.
But whatever happened to Bunker Hill then? Unfortunately it seems very probable that he passed away in Houston, Texas around the late 1980's, but no one has been able to confirm this yet. Until someone does, I'm going to keep my hopes alive that he's still out there somewhere - just keeping his mouth shut and trying desperately to hide his sinful rock'n'roll past. Amen for that!
Text by Pete Hoppula
(Acknowledgments: Viv Broughton, Marko Tapio, Alan Young, Jay Warner, Jarmo
Hoppula, Heikki Suosalo, Joe Ligon, Hannu Nyberg, Greg Laxton and Billy Miller.)
Bunker Hill discography |
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