blues
Jimmy Rogers – Sloppy Drunk
Ruleville, MS‘ Jimmy Rogers with a funny if handsomely-played tune of a sort that’s rooted in the authentic ‘real folk blues’ of early America.
And I love that moonshine whiskey
and I’ll tell you what I do
And I love that moonshine whiskey
and I’ll tell you what I do
The reason is why I drink,
I’m just trying to get along with you
Elmore James – Elmore’s Contribution to Jazz
First appearing as a b-side to his 1957 7″ release of ‘It Hurts Me Too,’ I’m not sure this track is so much a contribution to jazz as two and a quarter minutes of chaos.
Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee – On The Road Again
So damn funny! Stories from Sonny & Brownie about their lives in music, on the road, in the life.
“We drove up to this gas station. Ron toots his horn. Man comes out and Ron says “Fill her up!” He go “I don’t fill no black gas, man!” I say “Good God a’mighty, man.” Indeed he didn’t even have no black water. The only thing dark he had was Coke and he wouldn’t even sell them to us. We said “We gotta’ get out of this town.” Ron started up the car and we were on the road again.”
“Remember the time you cooked a chicken with the tag on it?”
“Yeah, well you couldn’t see and I couldn’t run. What we gonna’ take?”
Listening to ‘mud’
I went searching for a song by the Mud City Manglers and ended up spending the rest of the afternoon listening only to songs which contain the word ‘mud’ in them somewhere. Here are some highlights from the afternoon:
Muddy Waters – I Got My Mojo Working, from Fathers & Sons (1972). The harp playing on this track is exemplary:
Nirvana – Negative Creep, from From The Muddy Banks of the Wishkah (1996). This track was recorded by Andy Wallace at the Paramount Theatre here in Seattle on October 31, 1991.
Muddy Waters – Forty Days & Forty Nights, originally released on his seminal 1965 recording on the Chess label The Real Folk Blues.
Howlin’ Wolf – Down In The Bottom
The fearsome Chester Arthur Burnett –the Howlin’ Wolf, aka ‘Tail Dragger’– with one of those blues numbers only the originator could reproduce. The blues is full of fine vocalists, but none can match The Wolf’s bellow, like putting on a scratchy record of coon dogs hunting and turning it all the way up. This recording was released in 1961.
Well now meet me in the bottom, bring me my running shoes
Well now meet me in the bottom, bring me my running shoes
When I come out the window I, won’t have time to lose.
Chess Records 1793
Sticks McGhee – Whiskey, Women & Loaded Dice / Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee
My daughter asked me to dance around the kitchen with her. Quickly needing a beat I kicked open my mental barn door, determined to throw a rope around the first rug-cutter that ran out. Somehow…some damn how…the first toe-tappable, finger-snappable number to appear was this, a song I first owned on vinyl in college. Sticks McGhee is of course the brother of Brownie McGhee, partner of Sonny Terry in the legendary blues duo. Sticks died young in the Bronx, NY; leaving his old guitar to Brownie’s son.
Below this first song is another Sticks McGhee number called ‘Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee.’ Habitues of this blog and real fans of the blues will recognize this as the basis of the Electric Flag song ‘Wine.’
More:
Muddy Waters & Mike Bloomfield – Long Distance Call
Jug’s Corner, Mississippi’s McKinley Morganfield —Muddy Waters— teams up with a late-career Mike Bloomfield on a tune that is perhaps Muddy’s most-recognized tune.
The party said…another mu-uuule…
Paul Butterfield Blues Band – Thank You Mr. Poobah
A harp clinic from blues great & noted switchblade-carrier Paul Butterfield.:
Sonny Boy Williamson – Help Me
When I walk, walk with me / When I talk, you talk to me
Oh baby… I can’t do it all by myself
You know if you don’t help me darling
I’ll have to find myself somebody else
Howlin’ Wolf – Sitting On Top Of The World
Chester Arthur Burnett had many names. Big Foot Chester. Bull Cow. Later he became better known as the Tail Dragger, the one and only Howlin’ Wolf. The Wolf rose up in White Station, MS (between Columbus and Tupelo) and went to Chicago in 1953 where he came to typify the electrified, Delta-bred Chicago blues style. He learned guitar from Charley Patton and harmonica from Sonny Boy Williamson, but blew the South Side away once professionally aligned with world-class blues virtuosi like Hubert Sumlin, Matt ‘Guitar’ Murphy, Sam Lay (later of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band) and Junior Parker.
I could link to a dozen Howlin’ Wolf tunes that’d knock your socks off –the ‘real folk blues’ in the time-honored tradition– but this is the one I was just singing in my head so I thought I’d share.
Going down to the freight yard,
catching me a freight train.
I’m gonna’ leave this town.
Work done got hard.
But now she gone, and I don’t worry
Sitting on top of the world.
A Biscuit In The Sun 