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The Unwound Third => Other Musical Interests => Topic started by: unezrider on October 23, 2007, 02:58:18 PM
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hello friend,
i imagine i'm not the only one here who absolutely loves the first generation of electric blues. assuming so, who do you find yourself listening to?
naturally, i love muddy, wolf, elmore james, sonny boy, little walter, hooker, junior parker, etc...
but i had found myself wanting to hear more, & over the last couple of years i have come across some really good stuff..
*junior wells 'blues hit big town' (has a version of 'hoodoo man' w/ elmore james on 2nd guitar, & 1/2 the tracks are w/ muddy & his band)
*robert nighthawk 'bricks in my pillow' musically on par w/ the guys from sun & chess records
*yank rachell 'chicago blues' - yeah, he's playing an electric mandolin, but it's got some real cool tunes
*memphis slim 'memphis slim usa' @ times guitar murphy's guitar playing is a bit more noodely than i like, but it really is some great stuff
*little walter 'the blues world of little walter' (pre-chess stuff!)
-(these are all delmark releases, for what it's worth)
-chris
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This is a timely post for me because I've been on the brink of bringing out my 50s-60s recordings for months . . . have a hankering for some John Lee Hooker. There's an album on Atlantic records called 'Don't Turn Me From Your Door' I believe & it's got some great tracks, some heavily distorted & sounding almost like hard rock altho' recorded mostly in the early to mid fifties I believe. Also, John does two instrumentals that are possibly the most primitive, disjointed & almost pitifully bad pieces of music I have ever heard. Seriously, at times, Hooker sounded like he was just learning to play the guitar. Love it
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The Chess version of "Dark Road" by Floyd Jones, with Little Walter on harmonica
"Fishtail" by Johnny Shines - his version of Robert Johnson's "Terraplane Blues", recorded for JOB in 1952 but, I think, unreleased at the time.
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Great post unezrider.
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I'm with you on the Robert Nighthawk stuff, he and Huston Stackhouse. I have also been listening to Sticks and Brownie McGee on JSP7763 box set. That and early Muddy Waters. It is all so close to the prewar stuff and yet so far away in some of the wild sounds that come from the distortion.
RobBob
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I'm a big Johnny Shines fan. I think he's completely under rated. He has a lot of material out there, some of which is not the greatest, but when he's hitting on all cylinders he borders on ethereal. I have a compilation called "Skull and Crossbones", which has a great version of "19 Bird Dogs 11 Flop Eared Hounds" and "Old Grandad", a song about trying to give up whiskey.
I also really like Eddie Taylor, another unsung hero of the early Chicago Blues. And how could you not love Freddie King? Here's a great clip of him using his thumb and forefinger, wiht a big old house band and some tired background dancers. Now that's a show!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_dHGIISX-0
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with a big old house band and some tired background dancers.
hey, whatever happened to "The Monkey', 'The Swim', 'The Pony', "The Hitchhiker' .. Those dances would make anyone tired. :P
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One of my favorite renditions of Catfish Blues is by John Littlejohn, who as far as I can tell only made one recording, for Arhoolie, mid-60s. Set me straight if I'm wrong. His version has him on electric lead, an electric second (playing single note lines, not strummed rhythm), and a drummer using only a snare and a high-hat. Massively cool and true to the stipped-down essence of country blues.
Lindy
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One of my favorite renditions of Catfish Blues is by John Littlejohn, who as far as I can tell only made one recording, for Arhoolie, mid-60s. Set me straight if I'm wrong. His version has him on electric lead, an electric second (playing single note lines, not strummed rhythm), and a drummer using only a snare and a high-hat. Massively cool and true to the stipped-down essence of country blues Lindy
Great LP, much underrated artist. He recorded two 45s in 1966 for the Margaret label, another two for the IDS label (1968), the Arhoolie LP in November that year, a four title Chess session in Feb 1969, a couple of tracks for Frank Scott's Advent label, a Bluesway session in 1973, a session in France for MCM (1976), one for Black & Blue in Paris 1978, one for Johnny Vincent's Ace label in Jackson (1979), and, and, and...until his last recordings for JSP Chicago 1992. He died two years later. (all info courtesy of of the late Bill Rowe's booklet Career Discographies (vol.1, No. 3, Sept. 1995). I have everything he recorded up to 1969 but nothing after that!
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I'm a big Johnny Shines fan.
If you haven't already done so better check this out PDQ. :) http://www.wirz.de/music/shinefrm.htm
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Hi all,
These just missed making it out in the '50s, but Otis Rush's "All My Love" and "So Many Roads", from January of 1960, are wonderful cuts. What a great singer and player!
All best,
Johnm
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thanks for the replies!
a couple of those names you guys have mentioned i've never checked out yet. johnny shines - who's mentioned everytime a long discussion of robert johnson takes place. & houston stackhouse (friend of tommy johnson?). any rate, names i'm familiar w/ but have never looked into. (put on my ever growing list ;)) & a few i've never heard of - john littlejohn, eddie taylor, floyd jones.
i forgot to mention last spring i finally checked out jimmy reed. i was under the impression that his guitar playing 'repetitive & simple'. you can still argue that, but this man deserves to stand up there w/ the greats. really, really cool tunes.
slim harpo, is another one...
how do people feel about robert jr. lockwood?
chris
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The Chess version of "Dark Road" by Floyd Jones, with Little Walter on harmonica
(And Sunnyland Slim on piano.)
Well I love Elmore James, Sonny Boy Williamson (II), Sunnyland Slim, Elmore James, Little Walter, Robert Lockwood, Junior's work as a sideman for Chess, Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Eddie Boyd, Etc.
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But Muddy Waters bores the heck out of me and I've never liked him.
I only enjoy his 1941-1942 field recordings and "Got My Mojo Workin"
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Muddy is an all time favorite of mine. I grew up hearing his records on the radio. He was in regular play on one of the R&B stations I listened to. Well fairly regular. Usually in the off hours when things like jazz and blues would slip into the mix.
He is appeals to a certain audience and some folks feel he is old hat. He reflects the human condition in a way that speaks to folks of a certain age. He may be an acquired tastes. When rock bands like the Stones would cover his stuff it would make my skin crawl. But that is my problem.
Check out Collector's Classic Muddy Waters and Friends, Goin' Back, Just Memory JAM 9130-2. It is acoustic and for that reason is atypical of the his work of the period. It is core Mud though and a treat to hear.
Rob
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A real must for any fans of Muddy is Robert Gordon's book "Can't Be Satisfied: The Life & Times Of Muddy Waters" (Little Brown & Co, 2002) - a well researched and written account. Not that long ago the paperback edition was being sold off cheap by UK book dealers which I guess might indicate that it's now out of print over here.
Here is a review that appeared in Blues & Rhythm:
For satisfied readers of 'It Came From Memphis', the news that Robert Gordon was going to gather his thoughts on the subject of Muddy Waters' life and times was greeted with happy expectation. In his Foreword to 'Memphis', Peter Guralnick reckoned Gordon 'is possessed by an imaginative grasp of history' and the proof is that in his writing history is part of the tale rather than being tacked on as an afterthought.
Until his last years, Muddy was circumspect in interviews about his life and opinions, and this reticence was interpreted as a kind of personal dignity when in reality it was a combination of justified self-belief and an awareness of his inability to adequately express himself. Like Wolf, he was acutely embarrassed by his lack of education but unlike Wolf he did little about it, retreating instead behind a facade of good-natured but distant bonhomie. His biography must therefore rely on a large amount of outside input and a degree or two of intuition.
In his 'General Reading Suggestions', Gordon summarily dismisses Sandra Tooze's previous effort for using 'an extended Muddy discography as its foundation, tracing his life through his recordings'. That's perhaps unfair, given the extensive interview work that went into it, but a penchant for idolatrous words like 'icon' and 'colossus' and a reference to Muddy's cabin as a 'sacred shrine' in its early pages sets the tone for her book. Tooze's Muddy remains a one-dimensional figure, an idealised portrait that evinces little effort to probe the blemishes that made up the whole man.
Not so Gordon, who tempers his admiration with a salutary number of unpleasant revelations about Muddy's sedulous and unbridled libido. Where Tooze makes brief acknowledgement and moves on to more praiseworthy matters, Gordon lingers long enough to illuminate his subject's peccadilloes and their consequences without undermining the achievements that stemmed from the same imperative urges. In his view, the one is inseparable from the other. Muddy Waters is revealed as a flawed man who nevertheless achieved true greatness as a musician and as the architect of a style that had a direct bearing on more than just Chicago blues.
Gordon's larger vision is evident in his introduction, in which he contrasts the fact that Muddy's Stovall cabin has been preserved and presented around America - a crass example of what he calls 'the commodification of the blues' - whereas the Chicago home where he lived while he made a series of historic records, achieved a sort of stardom and transformed the blues is now derelict. And a thought coalesces, one that could serve as a metaphor for the story he's about to tell: 'It is easy to put Muddy in that cabin, easy to relocate him and his rural beginnings around the world, a neat stitch in the American quilt - picturesque and just the right colors. But easy doesn't make it so.'
The surprises begin early. Within two pages,Muddy is described as 'a man born in a year he wasn't born in, from a town where he wasn't born, carrying a name he wasn't born with'. That follows the revelation that he was born at a bend in the road called Jug's Corner, alongside the Cottonwood Plantation in the next county over from Rolling Fork, and that the date was April 4, 1913. To corroborate this, a page of John Work's original field notes is reproduced in which the year 1913 is prominently displayed. Much to Alan Lomax's imminent confusion, Gordon has discovered Work's original manuscript pertaining to the 1941/2 field recording trips, including 158 song transcriptions (including lost recordings by Muddy) and a treatise ten chapters long. It has languished undocumented at Fisk University for almost sixty years; a copy went to the Library of Congress but perhaps someone there had no wish to find it.
The story of Muddy's early years has been well rehearsed but the author has turned up a few new witnesses to Muddy's life on Stovall. Add to that an easy writing style with a felicitous turn of phrase: when Muddy first encounters Son House, the latter is described as 'a hammer of a man', a phrase that puts mealy-mouthed vindictives like Stephen Calt in their place. Muddy was getting into other things, as well. His friend Myles Long (later the Reverend, etc.) noted, 'You got to keep your head when it comes to women and whiskey. Muddy, he wasn't so bad at whiskey, it was the women. The women messed him up.' Muddy married Mary Berry when he was nineteen but he was already running around on her. Cousin Elve Morganfield made the point: 'Muddy loved women. Just like any other man, you supposed to love a woman. But you ain't supposed to try to have all of 'em.'
From now on, Muddy's inability (or downright refusal) to put a restraining collar on his trouser snake will continue to slither through the manuscript but not at the expense of the story to be told. Within three years, Mabel left her husband, prompted no doubt by the birth of his first child, a daughter Azelene, born to Leola Spain, herself already married and with another boyfriend. Cousin Elve: 'It gets complicated.' Nevertheless, Muddy never lost touch with Leola, his daughter and his grandchildren. They became part of his extended family, most of whom benefitted from the largesse he was able to divide among them.
Chapter Three is devoted to the first LoC recordings and Gordon is punctilious in emphasising John Work's major role in the sessions. Originally mooted as a trip to Natchez to discover a year on the consequences of the death of the Walter Barnes band and patrons of the Rhythm Night Club, the eventual destination became the Clarksdale area. Despite Work's crucial importance to the project, in Mississippi he had to take a back seat to Lomax's paternalistic lead. At chapter's end, Gordon quotes from Lomax's The Land Where The Blues Began and from Work's manuscript and notes the similarities. Work's name appears only once in the former text and, as Gordon states, 'Lomax virtually erased the scholarship of John Work. Far more troubling . . . is Lomax's refusal to acknowledge the contributions of others, especially of an African American whose ideas, research and knowledge were pivotal to his own achievements.' Surely this can't be the man who so generously added himself to the composer credits for Leadbelly's 'Goodnight Irene'?
The story moves on to Chicago and Muddy's assimilation into the music scene and the gradual accrual of a group of musicians around him. Again, the turn of phrase delights: '(Little) Walter was a cat what liked a hat. Crisp suits, snappy shirts, he dressed like cash money, or the lack thereof;: one day chicken, the next day feathers.' And of course, there's the women. Initially, it's Annie Mae Anderson (commemorated at the first Aristocrat session) and probably there were others before Geneva Wade came into his life; she became a Morganfield but the bond was never solemnised. The momentum of Muddy's recordings increases as his band style moves further away from its Mississippi inspiration. As one witness reports, 'When they were going to play the blues, most of the guys said, We're going to play the Muddy Waters blues.' As Gordon simply states, Muddy 'was becoming his own genre'.
The success of 'Mad Love' and 'Hoochie Coochie Man' allowed him to move from the West to the South Side. The House on South Lake Park became not just his home but that of Otis Spann, 'Bo' Bolton, uncle Joe Grant and Geneva's two sons, Charles and Dennis. Future tenants would include St. Louis Jimmy Oden. Leola Spain and her daughter Azelene moved in nearby. With the help of new recruit Jimmy Cotton, the narrative goes on the road with the band, recounting some of the shenanigans that ensued, including a drunken night in Tuscaloosa when Muddy took a hotel maid to his room, accused her of stealing and started beating her with a bucket. The whole band went to jail.
Back in Chicago, the string of Muddy's outside women continued unwinding; there was Mildred with whom he sired another son and Dorothy, who was given an apartment. When she got two-timed she turned up at Ruby's Show Lounge and the two began to fight. Muddy paid the jail another brief visit and Dorothy broke all the windows in the band's station wagon. The Chicago Defender ran a photograph and Muddy tried to prevent Geneva from seeing it. A little old lady came to Muddy's door and gave Geneva a copy, saying 'I just want to show you what a rotten motherfucker you got'.
And so the story goes. As the Sixties progress into the Seventies, Gordon draws back from an endless list of records made and gigs played to present some of the chaotic circumstances that resulted from Muddy's one-eyed view of his world. Girlfriends come and go, children proliferate. Meanwhile, his recording career falters with nonsense like 'Muddy Waters Twist'; 'There is no Mississippi in the song, there is no Chicago.' Then there's Muddy, Brass & The Blues and brass is emphatically not what Muddy is about. But that's as nothing compared to Electric Mud and After The Rain, the brainchildren of Leonard Chess's son Marshall, that each shipped gold and returned platinum.
Leonard Chess dies (as does Geneva) and Chess Records is sold but not before Muddy puts his mark to some dubious paperwork that appropriates his copyrights with a pitifully small financial carrot. Then Johnny Winter turns up and with Grammy-winning records and honest management, Muddy enjoys his declining years with the appurtenances of modest wealth. In his later tours, he brought his children onstage to sing along with 'Got My Mojo Working'. But other members of the family weren't so happy when they realised the number of their siblings. 'When I was younger, he was a god to me,' Azelene's daughter Cookie Cooper admits. 'As I have gotten older, and dealt with things, I will always be grateful for the things he did in my life, but as a person, he was not a very nice person.'
The author rounds out the story in his fifteenth chapter, charting the family's fortunes since their father's death. And he assesses Muddy's impact on his century: '. . . Muddy's achievement is the triumph of the dirt farmer. His music brought respect to a culture dismissed as offal. His music spawned the triumphant voice of angry people demanding change. This dirt has meaning.'
Robert Gordon has produced an immensely readable biography, as rowdy and dangerous as its subject. Even though much of what is documented is familiar, the imperative to keep reading never slackens and it's uncluttered by reference notes. These are contained in 74 pages at the end of the manuscript. Each chapter is prefaced by a page or more of background which teems with information before the annotation of the sources for each note. Apart from taking quotes from others' interviews with Muddy, he also questioned some 80 interviewees of his own. The detail in these notes would have impeded the narrative; it's almost like reading a second biography and it's a necessary exercise.
It's not faultless, though. He misquotes the lyrics to 'Rollin' Stone', neither take makes reference to Rolling Fork, as he does. He also reckons Bristol is a suburb of London but perhaps to a Memphian that might seem the case. He's also addicted to an American abbreviation that refers to 'a couple times', 'a couple records', 'a couple days' - except on page 266, where a paragraph begins, 'A couple of weeks later,'. At least he doesn't start any of his sentences with 'Too, . . .' Well, you have to find something to complain about. But no one will complain at the excellent job Robert Gordon's done. There'll be no need for another Muddy Waters biography, this will do handsomely. NEIL SLAVEN
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Check out Collector's Classic Muddy Waters and Friends, Goin' Back, Just Memory JAM 9130-2. It is acoustic and for that reason is atypical of the his work of the period. It is core Mud though and a treat to hear.
I own this and would concur. It was recorded in Quebec in 1967 by Michael Nerenberg and quite "informal", a telephone rings off-mike during one of the songs. Oh yes, Otis Spann accompanies himself on guitar for two songs - which he also did at a couple of London club gigs the following year. But I'm rambling...
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Woohoo, lay it on us Bunker, thanks a lot for that extended review, I'm salivating . . .
I have the Tooze bio & agree that it lacks a depth I was hoping to find.
The Gordon book sounds like a must have to me.
MJH1928 altho' I agree Muddy hit a kind of lame streak there a while in the 60s, everything else he did is essential, in my opinion.
Funny thing: I love the plantation recordings but they start out so powerful & then it sounds like Muddy was running out of ideas by the end, like he could have been an interesting footnote to the Blues & not much else. Thank god that wasn't that case at all.
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Calvin -
Don't give up on Muddy. Listen to anything from the late 40s thru all of the 1950's. Some cuts will be just Muddy and an upright, others will have
a great collection of sidemen (Little Walter and many more).
If I had tp pick one blues performer as an example of all that is powerful in the blues (Singing,Playing and writing) it would be Muddy...hands down.
I listened to The Chess Box, I listened to some live album, Breakin' It Up Breakin' it Down, Etc.
And I just don't like him.
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oh man, this posting has got me itching to pull out my Little Walter, Chess collection LP's and my old Muddy Waters LP's, especially my Chess box set (CH6-80002 set of his recordings...
Nothing beats chillin to the sound of Little Walter blowing the heck out of that harp!!!
Little Walter was unbeleivable
Dave
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I have been teaching a continuing education course on the music of Muddy Waters. The theme for this course changes each semester. Last night we listened to and discussed Muddy's sidemen. Little Walter of course got a lot of play as did Otis Spann, Jimmy Rogers, Jr. Wells, Jimmy Cotton and George Harmonica Smith. I played a couple of cuts off of Smith's tribute to Little Walter lp from 1968 on Pacific Jazz with the Muddy Waters band. Smith gets it with his take on Walter's stuff.
I also played what I consider Walter's greatest break on Jimmy Roger's "Walkin By My Self". The power and expressive dynamics of that wildly careening solo is almost out of control.
What my students don't always get is that there is a direct lineage between these 50's cuts and the acoustic band cuts of twenty years earlier. Take Jr. Wells cover of Sonny Boy one's "Early in the Morning". The bands differ but the treatment of the song is essentially the same. Or Spann singing some old blues with just his piano could have been recorded about the time he was born, 1930. Why? Probably because they learned as much from recordings as by being around the older players.
Call me old, but I love those blues that remind me of when I was a kid.
Rob
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I hope I'm forgiven, if I stray away from the 50's to the late 60's, but since Little Walter is mentioned, I thought I'd post these two videos, just in case someone hasn't noticed them:
Here's Little Walter with Hound Dog Taylor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TZ7omxqzag
Koko Taylor added to the personnel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GG2v8LBcBU
Cheers
Pan
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Take Jr. Wells cover of Sonny Boy one's "Early in the Morning". The bands differ but the treatment of the song is essentially the same.
Indeed so. Boring nerd that I am would also draw attention to the fact that the first title Junior recorded for States (8 June 1953) was the very last that John Lee Williamson cut for Victor (12 November 1947) - [You Better] Cut That Out.
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BH - Yes, the Robert Gordon Muddy bio is a must read, I'd also recommend Chicago Blues:The City and the Music by Mike Rowe (first published as Chicago Breakdown in 1973). After 30 years I still find this book filled with useful info, written with the passion of a loving fan.
Over the decades various commentators have made the point that this work seems to stood the test of time (and stayed in print) because it is essentially concerned with timeless topics such as migration, record business, labels, owners, artists, clubs encapsulated in a very specific time period. The following is from a jazz mag (Into Jazz Magazine April 1974, p. 38) and is marginally more objective than those which appeared in the blues press of the time:
Chicago Breakdown by Mike Rowe
Eddison Press, 228 pages, illustrated, ?2.50
If anyone was going to write a book specifically about the blues of Chicago, it surely had to be Mike Rowe. Most people who have followed his writings over the past ten years or so (mainly in Blues Unlimited) would have been hoping one day for some such focal point of his research. Well, it has arrived in the form of Chicago Breakdown, a concise study of the development of what was primarily a rural music in the urban environment of Chicago.
What an apt title! It is not only the name of a blues number, but it also signifies a breakdown of available information into a unified whole. It also implies the eventual deterioration of the Chicago blues as a strong regional style, its general assimilation into other musical styles, and its gradual envelopment by them ? the Decline and Fall as Chapter Nine in the book is headed.
Any criticism of such a work would be carping and subjective. Mike Rowe has tried to be as objective in his viewpoint as possible, although when dealing with such a personal music as the blues, it is not always easy to escape subjectivity.
What really sells the book at first are the excellent photographs. You can rarely turn over a page without seeing an illustration of some kind ? a label, a poster, a death certificate, or more usually a relevant picture of the artist and/or period under discussion. A good percentage of these are surely appearing in print for the first time.
As appendices, there is a map showing Chicago Clubs in the Fifties (find out just where Smitty's Corner, the Copa Cobana and Pepper's were), a list of Chicago R&B Hits 1945-59 and a list of important records.
The R&B Hit listings tell the story of Chicago blues very basically. From Big Boy Crudup's three hits in 1945-6 through Muddy's first in 1951 Lousiana Blues, the Chess/Checker dominated years of the early fifties, to the first Jimmy Reed hit (1955). Then 1956 ? a bumper year, but one that saw the ever increasing presence of names such as the Flamingoes, Chuck Berry, and the Moonglows. In the end the blues had virtually disappeared from the charts, with only the surprisingly consistent commercial success of Jimmy Reed representing the down-home sound (Baby What You Want Me To Do in 1960 and Bright Lights Big City in 1961). The last actual blues hit was Koko Taylor's version of Wang Dang Doodle (1966).
The text of the book follows the same pattern, on the whole. But there are 15 pages on The Pre-War Blues with relevant emphasis on Sonny Boy (John Lee) Williamson and the musicians mainly involved on Bluebird sessions. This is followed by 14 pages of sociology - 'From Farm to Factory'. This is important to a complete understanding of the nature of Chicago blues, and the coldness of the statistics is again relieved by photographs.
From then on it's a straight forward account of the post-war scene, centred mainly of course around the operations of the Chess brothers, but dealing also with the many smaller labels that were so prevalent.
A criticism has already been levelled elsewhere that there are too many facts in too little space. One does indeed miss that certain descriptive enthusiasm of, say, a Samuel Charters. But these are hard times, and Mike would no doubt have liked to have written twice as much as he did. In any case, there are more than enough verbal illustrations from the men who made the music to add living colour to the names and labels.
My own subjective criticisms concern my own attitudes to the music. For instance, unlike Mike Rowe, I enjoy some of the songs that St. Louis Jimmy wrote for Muddy. Despite an admitted sameness, records like Woman Wanted and I Am Your Doctor were still exciting and vital sounds of the times. Mike Rowe also has little time for the 'thunderous amplification of Muddy's earlier Little Geneva and Canary Bird. I happen to think these two tracks extremely exciting (and possibly influential). However, we are all bound to find chances to pick holes in the book ?as I said before, the blues is a personal music, perhaps even more so than Jazz.
But if you have ever been moved by Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Little Walter, Elmore James, Rice Miller, Otis Rush, Otis Spann, Jimmy Reed, Howlin Wolf, or Junior Wells (to name the best known) you'll find plenty to interest you in this book. Dave Illingworth
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hello friends,
bunker that is some great info! i had the book in my hand several years ago, but never bought it. sometimes bios can come off as uninteresting to me. but i'll have to see if i can't find it here, in the near future.
and not to harp on calvin, but i agree w/ everything spikedriver said about muddy. i have found in my own experience, anyway, sometimes you have to go to the music when you're ready for it. it may not come to you. when i first started listening to muddy, for example, i was drawn to his earliest stuff on chess. i didn't care as much for the full band recordings from '54 onward. but i kept them around, & within the next couple of years, a song or two at a time, '54-'60(or so) became my favorite muddy material - & still is.
don't try to force it if it's not there, but give it a few years, as has already been said by others.
chris
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These just missed making it out in the '50s, but Otis Rush's "All My Love" and "So Many Roads", from January of 1960, are wonderful cuts. What a great singer and player!
Amen!
I'm a big fan of the big 3 West Side gunslingers -- Otis Rush, Magic Sam & Buddy Guy -- love the Cobra recordings from those cats:
(https://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fecx.images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F21n%252BYyuZxOL._AA130_.jpg&hash=d3d2c93a2eea6b4255ebc9e7e100a251a493c203) (https://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fecx.images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F41F102Q1S6L._AA240_.jpg&hash=fd18b36d8e55b920617ff9b2cc4665c2f116a91c) (https://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi43.tower.com%2Fmm%2F1061%2F106164961.jpg&hash=50d0a84b7ff89e2769a1887e86b73df65023b610)
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This is reminding me . . . when I was first getting into the blues & was listening to Rob Johnson, Leadbelly, MS John Hurt & etc. my cousin & friend were constantly listening to the famous Chess 'Best of Muddy Waters', black cover album & I didn't think much of it at the time. Man, hard to believe! I think I was slow to warm up to the Chicago electrified sound. I agree, you have to be ready for Muddy, not that he's for everybody, but . . . well, yes he is
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Great vids guys!
I'd just like to say I finally understood Muddy's place in music when, through reading rather than listening, I realized Muddy actually started the whole Chicago electric blues era. When you try to imagine what was going down in the hiatus before Muddy's first electric bands you get some idea of how he lit the fire. When you understand that you listen with whole new ears.
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Thanks for posting those videos, Pan!
According to Blues With A Feeling: The Little Walter Story by Tony Glover, Scott Dirks, and Ward Gaines, the videos must have been recorded during an October 1967 American Folk-Blues Festival tour of Europe - not sure exactly when, as they were taped for TV several times during the tour. That's Dillard Crume on bass and Odie Payne on drums.
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I've just caught up with this thread.
At risk of pedantry, Robob, it was Walter Horton on Jimmy Rogers' "Walkin".
This solo is only surpassed by Big Walter's work on JOB with Johnny Shines where they are both at the top of their game - just listen to "Evening Sun" for how to build tension and excitment..
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I also just recently got turned onto a Texes Blues man who started out in the late 1930's and played well into the 1950s...
Smokey Hoggs.....
great R & B stuff with an influence from Big Bill and Wheatstraw..
the limited infor that I found on the internet seems to indicate he had trouble keeping a beat and was helped by a great background band.... But I like his stuff!!
Dave
Dave
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At risk of pedantry, Robob, it was Walter Horton on Jimmy Rogers' "Walkin".
Yes, it was Big Walter. I stand corrected. Still a great break and one of my favorites.
RobBob
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the limited info that I found on the internet seems to indicate he had trouble keeping a beat
I wouldn't say Smokey Hogg had trouble keeping a beat. Rather, like a lot of musicians from Charley Patton to Lightnin' Hopkins, he changed chords when he felt the change rather than adhering to a strict 12 bar format. His backing band didn't always agree with this approach. :) I haven't heard it in a while, but if I recall correctly there's a song he recorded for Aladdin or Imperial where he berates one band member for not listening for the chord change.
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I also just recently got turned onto a Texes Blues man who started out in the late 1930's and played well into the 1950s...
Smokey Hoggs.....
great R & B stuff with an influence from Big Bill and Wheatstraw..
the limited infor that I found on the internet seems to indicate he had trouble keeping a beat and was helped by a great background band.... But I like his stuff!!
Poor old Andrew "Smokey" Hogg, in the 60s he was the 'boring postwar bluesman" that every UK fan loved to hate. The late Mike Leadbitter did his best to change that opinion via the pages of Blues Unlimited pointing out that he was a big star with black purchasers of his 78s - but that didn't cut any ice. Had Mike lived he'd have been amazed to see that Ace over the years have released three CDs of Hogg material, a good percentage of which previously unreleased. I'm a great fan of Smokey to the tune of six LPs of him...as well as the CDs.
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Thanks blueshome - what's the best CD release of the Shines/Big Walter JOB sides?
Go to http://www.wirz.de/music/shinefrm.htm and scroll down to the CD era (circa 1983ish) and after that you'll come across various JOB CDs. I'm sure somebody can advise on the worth, or otherwise. I'm still stuck in the Flyright JOB LP reissuetimewarp. ;D
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I recommend the Westside release "Evening Shuffle" for the JOB's. Just about any CD on Big Walter is good, but his States sides issued on Delmark are great and the Alligator is fine too.
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I recommend the Westside release "Evening Shuffle" for the JOB's.
Do you know if the Westside disk has improved at all on the sound of the old Flyright and Paula CDs? They seem to have been taken from the same source, and both have fairly listless sound.
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The Westside is claimed to be dubbed from the original master tapes, the sound is OK, but then I'm so used to listening to the pre-war stuff.
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I've heard that the "original master tapes" from the JOB label are mostly in pretty bad shape due to Joe Brown's habit of taking them home and playing them over and over. Thus the tape dropouts in Johnny Shines's "Fshtail".
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FWIW, I have a double cd set called 'Rough Treatment, The J.O.B. Records Story' on Westside. It has 54 tracks, and a nice 11 page booklet with notes by Neil Slaven. I think it sounds pretty good.
RJ
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From the 'Great Sessions' thread, and unezrider and Johnm mentioned Otis Rush's totally excellent Cobra sessions here already.
I picked up Slim Harpo - The Excello Singles Anthology recently, double CD recommended by the same Detroit blues hound that turned me on to Otis Rush.
Not all '50s, Slim recorded for Excello from '57 to '71. All musicians would find these recordings compelling. Slim has this incredibly light touch on everything he does. Great, gentle voice, understated harp, his approach to music is a breath of fresh air. The arrangements totally kick butt, lot of space, melodic as hell, great musical ideas. Get it!
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From the 'Great Sessions' thread, and unezrider and Johnm mentioned Otis Rush's totally excellent Cobra sessions here already.
I picked up Slim Harpo - The Excello Singles Anthology recently, double CD recommended by the same Detroit blues hound that turned me on to Otis Rush.
Not all '50s, Slim recorded for Excello from '57 to '71. All musicians would find these recordings compelling. Slim has this incredibly light touch on everything he does. Great, gentle voice, understated harp, his approach to music is a breath of fresh air. The arrangements totally kick butt, lot of space, melodic as hell, great musical ideas. Get it!
Mike Leadbitter was a big champion of the Slim Harpo cause. Here's an early piece of flag waving from R&B Scene, February 1965 (p 6, 14 & 16) which turned me on to the music of Slim Harpo.
BUZZING WITH THE KING BEE
The Slim Harpo Story
BY MIKE LEADBITTER AND JOHN BROVEN
Much has been said about the Excello label, and its artists, but, as in so many instances, a lot of fiction has crept in with the facts. Before saying anything about Slim Harpo, I think that it is necessary to say something about the man who was, and still is, responsible for recording him. This man is Jay Miller?record shop owner, talent scout, and song writer, who comes from the small Louisiana town of Crowley.
Miller's shop has now grown into a recording studio and office for his several record labels. Although he records anything, and professes a preference for C & W music, it is through his blues recordings that he has become famous in England. Through his contract to record blues for Excello, plus the recordings that appear on his own labels like Feature, Rocko, Zynn, a steady stream of Louisiana artistes have become nationally known. These artists not only record solely for Miller, but are also managed by him, and their songs copyrighted through his Jamil Music Co., Lightnin' Slim, Lazy Lester, Lonesome Sundown, Whispering Smith, Leroy Washington, and scores of others owe their all to him. Slim Harpo comes from this same recording environment, though he has something the others haven't yet. This is the credit for having a million seller in the "pop" field called "Rainin' In My Heart."
Slim was born in the parish of West Baton Rouge on February 1Ith, 1924, and christened James Moore. The art of the harmonica came naturally to him, and by the time he was in his 'teens he was proficient enough to entertain his school mates. Then, whilst in his 10th grade, tragedy struck. He lost both his mother and father, and became the sole supporter of a brother and three young sisters. He had no alternative but to leave school, and started work as a stevedore in New Orleans.
Later he returned to Baton Rouge to work as a labourer and in the evenings would play harp in the local clubs, building up his repertoire, and gaining much valuable experience. It was in one of these clubs that Jay Miller, out on a talent hunting trip, found him in 1957. Miller, excited by his discovery took him to Crowley and recorded him for the Excello label. His first record?the very distinctive "I'm A King Bee" became an immediate hit. This driving song with its lyrics devoted to sexual prowess is still in my opinion his greatest record.
His second release was entitled "Strange Love" and was issued in 1958, but was mediocre compared with its predecessor, and the same can be said for his next, "You'll Be Sorry One Day." Then came another two classics?"Buzz Me Babe," and "Blues Hang over." Slim's strange, almost nasal vocal style coupled with some really beautiful harp work turned these into two superb blues. Slim is at his best on slow, dragging numbers featuring heavy bass guitar, and these two, coupled with "King Bee," made him a name to be reckoned with on the R & B scene.
It is a pity that Slim's first excursion into the pop field in 1961 produced the million selling "Rainin' In My Heart." Although this was a great record as far as pop records go, it turned Slim away from the blues to the new, and more lucrative market, that appeared before him. Although no one could blame him for this, its effect was saddening to the lovers of the "down-home" Slim Harpo. The other effect of this success was that Slim left Baton Rouge on a long series of engagements and could not be induced back to the studio to cut a follow-up. Although Excello quickly issued an L.P. entitled "Rainin' In My Heart" plus a single to cover up, it was not until the end of last year that the money trail ended and Slim was recorded again. The result of this was an attempt to cash in on his two big hits, and we now have "Little Queen Bee," and "Still Rainin' In My Heart." Both of these are well done, but are nothing compared to the originals.
Until the day when someone brings out Slim's L.P. in England, I urge anyone who hasn't got it to have a good try. Except for a couple of below average items, the rest, including his best issued items, and some great unissued ones such as "My Home Is A Prison," (a brilliant remake of the Lonesome Sundown success), make this a buy I would recommend to anyone. It is hoped that Jay Miller will allow Slim to record as he did in his early days once more, and thus provide us with another memorable blues. It makes me sorry to see an artist of such tremendous potential going to waste through no fault of his own. Now that Stateside have issued three of his songs on the L.P. "Authentic R & B," perhaps we can persuade them to give us more. We certainly hope so!
Discography
All Slim sides were recorded in Crowley between 1957 and 1964. Usually his backing consists of lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, and occasionally sax and piano added. The people who back him include the following; Al Foreman (lead guitar), Bobby McBride (bass guitar), Warren Storm (drums), Katy Webster (piano), and Lionel Torrence (tenor sax). Slim has played harp on all his records up until now except on "My Home Is A Prison," on which Lazy Lester is heard.
Excello 2113?I'm A King Bee/I Got Love If You Want It.
Excello 2138?Wonderin' And Worryin'/Strange Love.
Excello 2162?You'll Be Sorry One Day/One More Day.
Excello 2171?Buzz Me Babe /Late Last Night.
Excello 2184?Blues Hangover /What A Dream.
Excello 2194?Rainin' In My Heart/Don't Start Cryin' Now.
Excello 2239?Buzzin'/I Love The Life I'm Livin'
Excello 2246?I Need Money (Keep Your Alibis)/Little Queen Bee.
Excello 2253?We're Two Of A Kind/Still Rainin' In My Heart.
Excello L.P. 8003?"Rainin' In My Heart."
Rainin' In My Heart/Blues Hangover/Bobby-Sox Baby/I Got Love If You Want It/Snoopin' Around/Buzz Me Babe/I'm A King Bee/What A Dream/Don't Start Cryin'Now /Moody Blues/My Home Is A Prison/Dream Girl.
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The downside of singles collections is the songs are too short... both the Rush and Harpo collections leave you wanting to hear them stretch out. Although I guess they packed their best ideas into around 3 minutes you get the impression there was so much more to hear in a live format.
Harp players should listen to Slim, he knew when not to play. I end up imagining the harp lines in my head. Slim's seemingly dogged resistance of the temptation to play cliched phrases gets the listener more involved. He's unusual all round, looks like an accountant, that matter-of-fact voice and smooth harp.
The other thing I love about both the Rush and Harpo recordings are the mixes. Often the lead guitar sounds far away in the room, letting the natural echo and other ambiance create the atmosphere. Recording techniques of the time I guess. Another group of musicians from that ere I love to listen to that had that live ambiance happening were the Nashville rockabilly A team, Grady Martin and Bob Moore backing Johnny Burnette for example.
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hello friend,
"Harp players should listen to Slim, he knew when not to play. I end up imagining the harp lines in my head. Slim's seemingly dogged resistance of the temptation to play cliched phrases gets the listener more involved." - that's a great way to look at it, rivers. any player that isn't playing what, or when you expect them to, is in turn more interesting & exciting to listen to. i pulled out my excello records the best of slim harpo, after reading the last few posts. truly some grade-a stuff!
chris
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Now if I could just follow my own advice...
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I've always been partial to Wolf's first band, the one with Willie Johnson on guitar, and Destruction on piano.
That's the wildest most alive sounding band I can think of.
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I've always been partial to Wolf's first band, the one with Willie Johnson on guitar, and Destruction on piano.
That's the wildest most alive sounding band I can think of.
Yeah, the 1951 recordings cut in West Memphis by Joe Bihari following a tip from his teenage talent scout Ike Turner. On one song, can't recall which, Wolf introduces his accompanists and exalts his guitarist to a solo with "smoke that guitar Mr Johnson, smoke that guitar". Or words to that effect.
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Hubert's playing with H. Wolf esquire would be hard to beat but I believe you guys.
I haven't heard that early stuff, is it out on a worthwhile CD somewhere? Let us know.
"Destruction", love it.
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I haven't heard that early stuff, is it out on a worthwhile CD somewhere?
Like most artists who recorded for Chess, Wolf has been ill-treated in the reissue market, with no comprehensive chronological reissues available. What the heck, go for the Chess Box, that's still available. Then if you can find a used copy of "Ain't Gonna Be Your Dog", you'll have most of his pre-1960 Chess recordings. If you haven't heard "Moanin' At Midnight" and "Mr. Highway Man" in the versions that came out on Chess, you need to do so as soon as possible!
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Wolf's early Chess stuff - up through the end of 1953 -was recorded at Sun studios in Memphis. Some of the Sun masters went to Chess, and some went to the Biharis to come out on RPM/King. Wolf didn't start recording in Chicago until he moved to chicago and became an exclusive Chess artist in 1954.
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I believe most of Howlin' Wolf's RPM sides were recorded in West Memphis, Arkansas, by the Bihari brothers, outside of Sam Phillips' purview. Ike Turner, in his role as talent scout for Modern Records, led the Biharis to Wolf just as he did with Elmore James. Here's a pretty accurate discography of those sessions, me thinks:
Early 1951. Memphis. Audition acetate. Two takes recorded by Sam Phillips and sent to the Bihari Brothers in L.A.
Howlin' Wolf, v, hca; Ike Turner, p; Willie Johnson, g; Willie Steele, d.
-Riding In The Moonlight
-Riding In The Moonlight
September, 1951. West Memphis, Arkansas. First session for RPM recorded at KWEM by Joe Bihari.
Howlin' Wolf, v, hca; Ike Turner, p; Willie Johnson, g; Willie Steele, d.
-(MM-1674) Riding In The Moonlight, RPM 333
-Dog Me Around
-(MM-1677) Moanin' At Midnight (Morning At Midnight), RPM 333
-Keep What You Got
October 2, 1951. West Memphis, Arkansas. Recorded at YMCA Building.
Howlin' Wolf, v, hca; Ike Turner, p; Willie Johnson, g; Willie Steele, d.
-(MM-1684) Passing By Blues RPM 340
-(MM-1685) Crying At Daybreak RPM 340
-(MM-1748) My Baby Stole Off RPM 347
-(MM-1749) I Want Your Picture RPM 347
February 12, 1952. West Memphis, Arkansas. Last session for RPM.
Howlin' Wolf, v, hca; Ike Turner, p; Willie Johnson, g; Willie Steele, d.
-Worried About My Baby
-House Rockin' Boogie
-Brown Skin Woman
-Chocolate Drop
-Chocolate Drop (alt)
-Driving This Highway
-The Sun Is Rising
-My Friends
-I'm The Wolf
-Jeff
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I stand corrected. I KNEW I should have checked the books!
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The Penguin Guide to Blues has the following to say about picking up Wolf's early recordings ('51-52):
"The enthusiastic and tidy-minded reader can round up all this material by buying just three CDs, Bear Family's Memphis Days - the Definitive Edition Vol 1 and Vol 2 for the Phillips/Chess sides and Howling Wolf Sings the Blues (Ace) for Modern's."
The Guide also gives props to the Fuel 2000 collection SpikeDriver mentions (pointing out that it doesn't include everything and mixes Sun/Chess and Modern).
Now, is Rivers tidy-minded? - aye, there's the rub.
The cover of the Ace makes it impossible to resist:
(https://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fecx.images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F51G08FANT5L._SS400_.jpg&hash=e794a4b5597dd26034f32eed9f394a17f1e5f5e5)
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Excellent UB, thanks!
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High Fidelity is a concept I understand somewhat in recorded music :P (recently had the pleasure of revisiting Elvis Costello's brilliant song of the same name during the end credits of an episode of the Sopranos), but the "Full Color" claim on the Ace cover is a new concept to me.
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That Howlin' Wolf cover is a repro of the original cover for the LP on Crown - this was a Bihari label for LPs for record racks selling at $1.98 each. I bought many an album in odd places that had a rack of cheap LPs in their store - those WERE the days. The cover of the Elmore James LP was even foxier!! Ace have re-issued this one as well as the Wolf.
Peter B.
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The cover of the Elmore James LP was even foxier!!
The Lightnin' Hopkins one is worth salivating over too... I'll attempt a scan at some point. ::)
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Whoa....
Good Morning Little School Girl!
Mike
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The cover of the Elmore James LP was even foxier!!
The Lightnin' Hopkins one is worth salivating over too... I'll attempt a scan at some point. ::)[/quote]
Lord knows how this will reproduce (attempted reduction with faded colour correction not too successfully). It's perhaps understandable how a neophyte LH fan would buy such an LP. Clicking the image seems to enlarge it!
[attachment deleted by admin]
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Re the Howlin' Wolf early Sam Phillips recordings with Willie Johnson on guitar mentioned earlier I got lucky at the 2nd hand bin the other day and picked up the Rounder release Cadillac Daddy.
I have to agree, Willie Johnson is a very creative guitarist, endlessly inventive and effortless player. Sounds like a more down-home T-Bone Walker with great vintage tone.
Interesting also to hear Wolf in his early days, I mean comparing the phrasing and emphasis. Often he sounds just so-so on the first half of a vocal line, like it's his natural voice, and then he punches out the line full power with a menacing roar, sounding more like the way he sang on the Chess sessions.
Got to be a candidate for the strangest country blues album cover artwork of all time (apart from the previous two of course), what were they thinking:
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Hey Bunker. Cool alblum cover for Lightnin. Looks nothing like the photos and videos I have seen of him. No wonder he doesn't like short haired women. It appears he was one at one time.
Mark
;D
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Rivers -
I THINK that that is an Ernest Withers photo!
Peter B.
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Rivers -
I THINK that that is an Ernest Withers photo!
Peter B.
It sure is!
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The photo is extremely cool. The albino leopard skin upholstery w/pink and turquoise accents is, how can I put this, in the same league as purple shag pile carpets. Date on the CD is 1989, a catastrophic taste crisis struck that year I seem to remember.
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Yeah, but what really makes it subtly ..special.. is the jagged purple frame around the pic. Of a totally different era again from the pink. As pomo as it gets. Hee, hee.
All for now.
John C.
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Right, I missed that purple jaggy thing, excellent.
The photo by the way is captioned "(l-r) James Cotton, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf in the cotton fields, identities of the men on far left and right unknown", credit Ernest C. Withers, courtesy of Showtime (Toronto)/Escott. Design by Kathleen Joffrion. The more I look at it the more I think it's a classic. Not only that, it's a seriously good record.
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The photo is extremely cool. The albino leopard skin upholstery w/pink and turquoise accents is, how can I put this, in the same league as purple shag pile carpets. Date on the CD is 1989, a catastrophic taste crisis struck that year I seem to remember.
How many tracks does the CD contain? I've only got the LP version and when that was reviewed questions were asked about why only 12 tracks (at a measly 35 minutes or so) when in 1977 Charly's Sun compilation managed those 12 plus a further 4. Mind you the cover of that only featured a David Oxtoby painting based on a Wolf photo.
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Speaking of the Ernest Withers photo of James Cotton, Walter, and Wolf in the cotton field, I could swear that somewhere I've read an account of the circumstances surrounding the taking of the picture. I thought it was in Blues With A Feeling, the Little Walter biography, but I can't find it in there. Does anyone with a better memory than mine recall this?
The booklet to the Chess Howlin' Wolf Box contains another photo from the same session, and says it was taken near Brinkley, Arkansas in the early 1960s.
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Tracklist for Rounder CD-55-28, 12 tracks, 35.2 minutes:
1. Cadillac Daddy (Mr. Highway Man)
2. Bluebird Blues
3. My Last Affair - (take 1)
4. Oh Red! (Take 2)
5. Come Back Home
6. Dorothy Mae
7. Decoration Day Blues
8. Color and Kind
9. Drinkin' C. V. Wine
10. I Got a Woman (Sweet Woman)
11. Everybody's in the Mood
12. My Baby Walked Off
The AMG has a pretty accurate short review and winds up recommending the Bear Family 2 volume set: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:dnfwxqu5ldde
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My intro to post-war stuff that wasn't jazz oriented came about from reviews in Nat Hentoff's old jazz magazine - "The Best of Muddy Waters", "The Best of Little Walter", Wolf's "Howling at Midnight"... later SBW II's "Down & Out Blues". Not a bad beginning, even from this vantage point.
Peter b.
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hello friends,
came across some cool pics. (aside from the company name plastered over them) but worth checking out.
chris
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.reelinintheyears.com/afbf/images/63-4-32.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.reelinintheyears.com/afbf/pages/63-4-32.html&usg=__T131kbzAc1aDFcEm8WyfHtlBeLc=&h=553&w=576&sz=73&hl=en&start=326&tbnid=hpSw8T2Q_KX2UM:&tbnh=129&tbnw=134&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmuddy%2Bwaters%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D320 (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.reelinintheyears.com/afbf/images/63-4-32.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.reelinintheyears.com/afbf/pages/63-4-32.html&usg=__T131kbzAc1aDFcEm8WyfHtlBeLc=&h=553&w=576&sz=73&hl=en&start=326&tbnid=hpSw8T2Q_KX2UM:&tbnh=129&tbnw=134&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmuddy%2Bwaters%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D320)
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Random Thoughts:
A lot of '50s electric Blues is quite excellent, though even Willie Dixon wrote a dud or two.
Unfortunately, either Leonard or Phil Chess decided that Johnny Shines was a second-rate Muddy Waters, and Johnny was under-recorded back then.
I've always felt that Wolf's "Hidden Charms" is one of the best recordings of the last half-century, or certainly one of the most fun ones. Then again, that record may have been cut in '61 or '62.
The John Lee Hooker Vee-Jay stuff is great, as is a lot of Jimmy Reed stuff. John Brim is a guy I just discovered.
Am I alone in not finding Lowell Fulson to be fascinating?
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Fulson _was_ fascinating! Reconsider Baby, Three O'clock Blues, Tramp (covered popularly by Wilson Pickett). Fulson rode the rocking fence between early electric blues and R 'n' B, living his final years under the care of Tina (Mrs. Percy) Mayfield in the Los Angeles area. And he had that great Gretsch Falcon guitar! John Brim is featured with Elmore James on great Chess Masters compilation Whose Muddy Shoes (Rattlesnake, Tough Times, Ice Cream Man (dig Little Walter's harp solo sounding like Big Walter). Another compilation highlighting the link between CB and Chicago blues is an old two-fer by, I think, Chess Masters. It may be called The Best of the Chicago Blues - or it may be called something equally confusing - but it's got Dark Road, I'm Goin' Away - scary cuts that are right in the pocket between solo CB and Chicago band sounds. I just can't remember the title, but Stefan Wirz has the discography and liner notes here (http://www.wirz.de/music/antholog/grafik/chiblac4.pdf).
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I've been working recently to get all my post war blues/r&b onto my iPod, and put Lowell Fulson on this past weekend. Since then, I've been listening to him in the car. The guy had a great voice, and he used it with intelligence and musicality. Listening to the guitar he played in the first half of the 1950s, I've always wondered how familiar Chuck Berry was with Fulson's work, as Fulson's guitar playing seems to me to occupy a position about halfway between T-Bone Walker and Chuck Berry. "The rocking fence between early electric blues and R 'n' B" is a great way to put it, Jed.
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You're referring to the immense cross-pollination of the early 50s. The Chess writing and playing staff mixed a lot in the studio, and it shows in their sounds. I'm sure Berry's pre-hit recording history is on wikipedia or similar. For real 50s scaredom, listen to Pat Hare's murderous guitar tone on Junior Parker songs and elsewhere. His desperate electric attack reminds me of Patton's.
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Tramp (covered popularly by Wilson Pickett).
Apropos of absolutely nothing, I've got a 1965/6 Stax 45 of Otis Redding & Carla Thomas performing this and interestingly the composer credit on the label gives "Fulson-McCracklin". I wonder what McCracklin's involvement was on this particular rendition?
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Widely credited as co-writer w/Fulson. As a west coast guy, he was likely not on the Stax session itself - but I dunno.
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Widely credited as co-writer w/Fulson.
I've only got it on the 1970 Fulson Chess LP Hung Down Head where none of the songs have song composer credits.
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Hung Down Head is a great record - my first real exposure to Lowell Fulson. Nowadays, credits are so easy to find - then, not so much...
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Hung Down Head is a great record - my first real exposure to Lowell Fulson. Nowadays, credits are so easy to find - then, not so much...
What really amazed me about that LP was the uncut version of Tollin' Bells which was about 6 minutes longer than the 45! A really dramatic outing which was completely lost on the 45.
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Dramatic is right! I played Tollin' Bells quite a bit on my little college radio show. Chess's decision to release that version was a good one.
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just to add some of my electric favorites -
Pat Hare and Willie Johnson. Two of the early Memphis guys, Johnson backed Howlin' Wolf and Hare played with junior Parker, James Cotton, and later Muddy's band (he's in the 1960 Newport group). Both of these guys were among the first to really push the volume.
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Pat Hare was a staple on a lot of the early Sun blues records. The Sun boxed set has a lot of info on Pat Hare and I presume his complete recordings while at Sun. No doubt, he was a huge influence on the Sun sound.
Regards, Phil
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Pat Hare was a staple on a lot of the early Sun blues records. The Sun boxed set has a lot of info on Pat Hare and I presume his complete recordings while at Sun. No doubt, he was a huge influence on the Sun sound.
Regards, Phil
Hare's TAG leads to a discussion of unnatural deaths and eventually the story of Pat's!
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hello friend,
heres some cool videos i came across
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjPezeHN9Hc&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjPezeHN9Hc&feature=related)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws2sO9a7jG8&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws2sO9a7jG8&feature=related)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F-6gv_BlKs&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F-6gv_BlKs&feature=related)
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As noted elsewhere Frankie Lee Sims has a classic 50s electric blues sound and deserves a mention in this thread. Discussions can be found courtesy of the tag: https://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?option=com_smf&action=tags;tagid=1550
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hello friend,
came across this cool video i thought some may be interested in seeing. sonny & brownie, memphis slim, t?bone walker, willie dixon & a couple of others. i just loved willie dixon's bass in this one. & t?bone just looks so laid back? 8)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irXywhqP1ho&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irXywhqP1ho&feature=related)
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Ah the jazz\blues devide, Helen Humes was singing some very smooth stuff with Basie's prewar band, great singer.
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hello friend,
i just came across these guys on youtube yesterday. the recording quality on their videos isn't the best, but these guys really nail it. their name is the rhythm four. anyone heard of them before?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJvw7Uy4xHI (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJvw7Uy4xHI)
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Here's a cool song that knocked my socks off yesterday:
http://www.youtube.com/v/8aCOOHXnXSo&hl=en_US&fs=1&
It's on the JSP box set "New Orleans Guitar."
That intro sure sounds familiar....
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Revolutionary!
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hello friend,
"revolutionary" is right.
working at a large coffee place, they had a cd a couple of years ago with songs selected by bob dylan. this was one of them. i always thought it was the beatles every time i heard that intro!
pee wee has some cool tunes.
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I recommend this Otis Rush Delmark CD live recording. I scored it for $8 in Frys (of all places) the other day. Revelation to say the least.
This is not from the 50's but the continuity is obvious if you like the Cobra recordings. Absolutely great live sound dive bar recording, for the era, on this record. Even the mistakes, clearly caused by the fact that the rest of the band are naturally scared shitless to take solos when Rush calls out to them, are interesting. This is my current favorite record so I just thought I'd pass it on.
http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/6976896/a/All+Your+Love+I+Miss+Loving%3A+Live+At+The+Wise+Fools+Pub+Chicago.htm
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hello friend,
i recently got vol. 2 of ace records "the modern downhome blues sessions", & it has been getting steady play time since. very good cd. fans of the more countryfied electric sound of the early 50's will really dig this disc. i also have vol. 1, which is also highly recommended. but i'd give this one a slight edge for overall track selection. (not as many alt. takes on this one)
plus ace does a great job with remastering.
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Get the rest of the series, they are great.
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hey phil,
i will add them to the (never shrinking) list :P