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In 1968, Wells returned from a State Department-sponsored tour of Africa and told a Newsweek correspondent, "We got to one place and they had banners saying 'Welcome Home, Junior'. I told 'em, man I said, this ain't my home, I live one block north of the Loop. Then they asked me what I thought of black power. I said black power is me making it with Aretha Franklin." - from Larry Cohn's Nothing But The Blues

Author Topic: Tunes You're Listening To  (Read 28136 times)

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Offline GhostRider

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Re: Tunes You're Listening To
« Reply #75 on: February 21, 2008, 03:45:34 PM »
BJ:

I have heard your theory, and after listening, I think your right. Just didn't want to confuse the list.

Alex

Offline frankie

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Re: Tunes You're Listening To
« Reply #76 on: February 21, 2008, 06:43:09 PM »
Alex, I still think the front guitar on Joliet Bound is Kansas Joe.-G-

I dunno - the touch on the lead guitar sounds more like Memphis Minnie to me.  The backup guitar sounds very similar in execution (if not exactly in conception) as Joe McCoy's "Look Who's Coming Down The Road."  There, he's playing with a fiddler, so there's not much of a question as to who's doing what.

Offline waxwing

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Re: Tunes You're Listening To
« Reply #77 on: February 21, 2008, 07:13:29 PM »
I don't know, Frank, the front guitar plays pretty much a set piece throughout, every verse pretty much exactly the same, except for the intro which is truncated in the initial I chord section. The second guitar seems to be improvising various bass pics and hitting specific licks at certain points. On about the 4th verse, the second guitar gets off on the wrong beat, so instead of hitting the bend on the fifth in unison with the front guitar's bend on the 3rd, they end up alternating bends. Sounds awful and the second guitar seems to move away from the mic in this stretch. It almost starts to happen again on the 5th verse but the second guitarist pedals on the open 5th for a measure and then gets into sync with the front guitar. Now, it seems to me Joe it pretty strongly into the singing while this is going on, but I guess you could make the argument that that is why he is screwing up the guitar part. I just think it is more likely that this is Joe's song, which he confidently plays while singing and that Minnie is adding an impromptu, backing, perhaps  halfheartedly taking a back seat. If he were screwing up the guitar and trying to get back on the beat I think it would have had an effect on his singing. I can understand if you feel Joe was not capable of sounding like Minnie, tho. Of course it wouldn't be much problem for Minnie to do a KJ like backing, I guess. Really, I don't have the experience, nor am I familiar enough with their work, to make the call stylistically.

Well, I'm sure we'll never know.

All for now.
John C.
"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it."
George Bernard Shaw

“Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.”
Joseph Heller, Catch-22

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Offline uncle bud

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Re: Tunes You're Listening To
« Reply #78 on: February 21, 2008, 07:25:52 PM »
Never say never...

It is a hard call. My first instinct would be the the lead part is too distinctively picked and phrased for Joe to be singing over it. It's quite intricate, but that's not stopped some CB artists and Joe was no slouch. But still. Frankie's point about Look Who's Coming Down the Road took me a few listens to hear. But I can see his point. The fact the Joe would have been more naturally playing a backup part while singing also makes sense. I'm indeed with Wax in that I'm not so sure lead parts ascribed to Minnie are always her but this one seems like it would be her to me after some repeated listening. Could be wrong. I have to say, listening to guitar duets, and particularly duets like Minnie and Joe's where they play right over top of each other, is a bitch on the ears, as far as who's doing what. This pair in particular are hard for me, and I love them and listen to them a lot.

Offline frankie

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Re: Tunes You're Listening To
« Reply #79 on: February 21, 2008, 07:40:03 PM »
I can understand if you feel Joe was not capable of sounding like Minnie, tho.

Please note that *I* didn't say that Joe "was not capable" (it looks to me like you were putting words in my mouth, but maybe it just looks thataway) - I said that the backup in Joliet Bound sounds like more like the backup Joe did for other songs.  I'm not sure why singing should figure into the whole division of labor thing.  Certainly, both Minnie and Joe were experienced enough and comfortable enough to improvise backup under their singing - I don't think that's much of an issue either way.  Why would Minnie play a Joe-like backup when Joe could just as well do it his own self?!?

Offline Johnm

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Re: Tunes You're Listening To
« Reply #80 on: February 21, 2008, 07:46:44 PM »
Hi all,
I've been listening to Jimmy Lee Williams, especially "Hoot Your Belly" and "Did You Ever See Peaches".
All best,
Johnm

Offline rjtwangs

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Re: Tunes You're Listening To
« Reply #81 on: February 21, 2008, 09:16:52 PM »
 I have ordered 'Hoot Your Belly', by Jimmie Lee Williams, and I can't stop listening to the Sleepy John Estes box on JSP...

  RJ

Offline uncle bud

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Re: Tunes You're Listening To
« Reply #82 on: September 14, 2008, 09:23:05 AM »
Been listening to Tampa Red and the Chicago Five bounce their way through "My Za Zu Girl". Tampa recorded a bunch of pop tunes during his Bluebird years, but I happen to like a lot of them.  :P Black Bob's piano playing makes this song, although Tampa's kazoo sounds good (really) especially playing in counterpoint to an actual instrument, in this case, a clarinet played by Arnett Nelson.

Offline Bunker Hill

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Re: Tunes You're Listening To
« Reply #83 on: September 14, 2008, 10:03:00 AM »
Been listening to Tampa Red and the Chicago Five bounce their way through "My Za Zu Girl". Tampa recorded a bunch of pop tunes during his Bluebird years, but I happen to like a lot of them.  :P
I grew to like them through the circumstance of having to listen to them in their entirity and then find something enthusiastic to say about them in print.:o

From your few words here UB you would have been more suited to the task than the meaningless waffle I came up with...
« Last Edit: September 14, 2008, 10:05:02 AM by Bunker Hill »

Offline dj

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Re: Tunes You're Listening To
« Reply #84 on: September 15, 2008, 02:56:59 AM »
Those Chicago Five songs are fun.  To the extent that I'd given them any deep thought, I'd always assumed that they were recorded as Bluebird's answer to Decca's Harlem Hamfats.  But upon closer examination, I see that the first Chicago Five session took place 18 days before the first Harlem Hamfats session.  It must have been something in the water in Chicago that year...   ;D   

Offline dj

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Re: Tunes You're Listening To
« Reply #85 on: September 15, 2008, 05:06:07 AM »
Hey, Uncle Bud, thanks for mentioning Tampa Red's Chicago Five recordings.  I've been listening to them and enjoying them immensely this morning.  I'd recommend checking out "She Said It", just for Tampa's wonderful swinging chorded solo at the start of the song.  The guy had more tricks in his bag than just playing slide!

Offline uncle bud

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Re: Tunes You're Listening To
« Reply #86 on: September 15, 2008, 05:32:39 AM »
I see that the first Chicago Five session took place 18 days before the first Harlem Hamfats session.  It must have been something in the water in Chicago that year...   ;D   

Or maybe everyone was just over at Tampa's house, as the stories go...

Offline uncle bud

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Re: Tunes You're Listening To
« Reply #87 on: September 26, 2008, 09:59:21 PM »
Not so much a song I'm listening to over and over again, but one that sure jumped out at me while on shuffle mode: Uncle Dave Macon's "Wreck of the Tennessee Gravy Train".

WRECK OF THE TENNESSEE GRAVY TRAIN

The people of Tennessee want to know who wrecked our gravy train
The one we thought was run so well and now who can we blame
They want to know who greased the track and started it down the road
This same ol' train contained our money to build our highway roads

Chorus:
But now we're up against it and no use to raise a row
But of all the times I've ever seen, we're sure up against it now
The only thing that we can do is to do the best we can
Follow me, good people, I'm bound for the promised land

Now, I could be a banker without the least excuse
But look at the treasurer of Tennessee and tell me what's the use
We lately bonded Tennessee for just five million bucks
The bonds were issued and the money tied up and now we're in tough luck

Chorus

Some lay it all on parties, some lay it on others you see
But now that you can plainly see what happened to Tennessee
For the engineer pulled the throttle, conductor rang the bell
The brakeman hollered 'all aboard' and the banks all went to hell



Offline uncle bud

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Re: Tunes You're Listening To
« Reply #88 on: October 07, 2008, 08:28:28 AM »
Hey, Uncle Bud, thanks for mentioning Tampa Red's Chicago Five recordings.  I've been listening to them and enjoying them immensely this morning.  I'd recommend checking out "She Said It", just for Tampa's wonderful swinging chorded solo at the start of the song.  The guy had more tricks in his bag than just playing slide!

Yes, "She Said It" just popped up on shuffle. Very nice chord solo! Another thing I notice about many of these Bluebird recordings is that Tampa, perhaps because he's in more of a pop mode, is usually singing really well.

Offline blueshome

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Re: Tunes You're Listening To
« Reply #89 on: October 08, 2008, 04:04:10 PM »
Currently listening to lots of things in Spanish - favorite at the moment is Buddy Boy Hawkins' "Snatch it back". Just sounds so far away from the East Coast stuff I was previously listening to - still can't get used to the massive variety in this music even after nearly 50 years.

 


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