Anyone hear like blues?

Here's Sam Chatmon again (remember him?--from the Mississippi Sheiks, whose name was inspired by the popular Rudolph Valentino movie of the time), doing a version, with additional lyrics from other blues tunes thrown in, of Tommy's Big Road Blues, which he calls "Brownskin Woman." Taking bits and parts of the melodies and lyrics of other blues tunes and recombining them, while adding novel lyrics and melodic variations, was quite common among blues artists of the time.

Here Sam uses Tommy's vocal interlude, "Can't you hear me talkin, Pretty Mama?" and throws in some lyrics reminscient of Son House's "death letter blues" and Leroy Carr/Scrapper Blackwell's "How Long Blues," amongst others.


No music in this next clip, but I find it very interesting. It's Sam talking about his father, who was a slave, civil war times, and other long-past events. As I mentioned before, this is just a small segment of a long interview of Sam done by Alan Lomax in 1976.

Pat Boone, who should've had a cap busted in his sorry ass for crimes against music, was one of several white artists who specialized in butchering songs by black artists such as Little Richard and Fats Domino (by whitebreading them up) that could get no airplay on mainstream radio stations, and making them into hits for white audiences back in the 50's.

But here's a switch. Little Richard covering a white boy (Johnny Cash). Some of Bob Dylan's comments about Johnny Cash:

"Johnny was an intense character. And he saw that people were putting me down playing electric music, and he posted letters to magazines scolding people, telling them to shut up and let him sing. In Johnny Cash’s world — hardcore Southern drama — that kind of thing didn’t exist. Nobody told anybody what to sing or what not to sing. They just didn’t do that kind of thing.

It’s all about rhythm. Johnny Cash said it best: “Get rhythm. Get rhythm when you get the blues.” Very few rock ‘n’ roll bands today play with rhythm. They don’t know what it is."

Wow. I don't know from music but I could see a lot more of those three dancers without getting bored.

Heh. Yeah, Rog, they ROCK, eh!?

This is the BABE (the great Ruth Brown) that Little Richard said he was trying to emulate, eh? Little Richard, emulating a woman? Like, whooda thunk, I ask ya?

Speaking of Ruth Brown, good ole LaVern Baker is kinda HOT, too, eh!?

Ya know, Etta cut some tunes with extremely raunchy lyrics. So did LaVern Baker (with Jackie Wilson), but they weren't played on the air. They had a hit called "Think Twice" in the '60's, but this version never hit the airwaves:



I don't care for the tune much, but wanted to include it for novelty's sake, ya know?

Back to the real blues, eh? Here's Homesick James, with an extended version of "Set a Date," a tune also recorded by his cousin, Elmore James, and Fleetwood Mac. Homesick claims he taught Elmore how to play, and although it isn't that apparent here, his slide work on other, earlier recordings certainly sound like a precursor to Elmore. Elmore died of a heart attack, in 1963 on Homesick's couch on the southside of Chicago, with Homesick unsuccessfully scrambling to find Elmore heart pills.

Homesick also recorded quite a few tunes with Snooky Pryor, the great Chicago harp player. Homesick was possibly 101 years old when he died in 2006 (according to at least one of his accounts, he was born in 1905).



This one is kinda for you, Farmer. Not sure if it would satisfy your craving for "good licks," but I remember you saying you preferred instrumentals (even though this has some lyrics).

Edit: That last tune, by Homesick, was "got to move," not "set a date," which I was going to post, at first. Elmore recorded them both and so did Fleetwood Mac, so that part stands, either way. But "set a date" goes back at least as far as Memphis Minnie. Homesick wrote "got to move."

I've not been checking in as often as I should, so I scanned through the posts and have some some comments,

After John Hurt, Wilson Pickett covered Stagger Lee, but my favorite version is the one provided by Lloyd Price.. No disrespect to the other artists, I have a pot load of Wilson Pickett recordings.

I have a very old album ((LP 33 and a 3rd) of Lou Rawls, and that's the first time I ever heard that song 'St James Infirmary'. I'm pretty sure my parents bought that album, I just remember playing it over and over again. I had to buy a CD to replace the outdated albums, but I'm still happy.

I've heard Little Wille Johnson's version of Fever and it's great, but Peggy Lee expanded the lyrics and owned that song for quite some time. Although I do not own or plan to ever buy music made by Elvis or Madonna, their treatment of the song was respectful and enjoyable.

Thanks for the comments, Glitter. I agree about Peggy Lee, and love the St. James tune, but I don't really place it with any particular artist offhand (I really don't even know who Lou Rawls is, truth be told, but I've certainly heard his name--I think of him as jazz, but really don't know).

The Isley brother's did a cover of Stagger Lee which pretty much mirrored Lloyd Price's version, but with more energy (as they always brought). Ike and Tina did a version which I thought was pretty good.

A guy I really like is Wilbert Harrison (Kansas City, Let's Work Together--covered by Canned Heat, and many people think they wrote it). He was a little laid back, but that was part of his charm. Here's his version of the tune:




Of course, many others have also covered the tune, including, of all people, the actor Samuel L. Jackson, with a rather unique version (from the movie "Black Snake Moan"):

Speaking of Lloyd Price, he was a Nawlins boy who wrote and first recorded this tune (with Fats Domino on piano) back in 1952--also later covered by many, including the ubiquitous Elvis. At the time, "lawdy miss clawdy" was a common exclamatory expression in New Orleans, and Lloyd had the good sense to make a tune out of it.

These guys ROCK! A lot of people think the Beatles wrote this tune, and even moreso another Isley Brothers tune they covered, "Twist and Shout." The Beatles imitated a lot a things they saw in the Isley Brothers when they started.

Jimi Hendrix played with (and stayed at the house of) the Isley brothers for about a year back in the early 60's. They were all there watching the Ed Sullivan Show when the Beatles first appeared there. After watching the Beatles' act, one of them said: "Well, they have three guitars, but we have Jimi."

I'm posting on an iPad and don't know how to pull images or songs from the internet, but you really should look up Lou Rawls and his version of Tobacco Road. Everybody should know Lou Rawls, distinctive voice and (I don't know if you can be smooth and raw at the same time) I love his music.

I just listened to it, and I agree, it's very good. Always liked that song, to begin with, and he does indeed have a voice that is both raw and smooth. I have never been much of a fan of the strong brass accompaniment he uses here (although it is used somewhat sparingly here, at least) and maybe that's why I never listened to him much (if at all---I may have heard him on the radio, or something, without knowing it was him).

Also listened to his version of St. James--also good.

I'm glad you enjoyed him. I need to recheck the history, he was still able to draw an audience but record companies (as the are wont to do) focused on younger performers that would appeal to a younger audience, ergo, more money.

Yeah, here's a tune Muddy Waters recorded with some limey boys in the early 70's. No doubt he sold a lot more records because they were on it. At least they were excellent musicians who loved Muddy's music, and didn't try to "overplay."

This tune, "Walkin Blues," is often called the "Delta Anthem." It was first recorded by Son House (who was Muddy's mentor) and later covered by Robert Johnson.



Here's another one, from the same session:



The whole album (it may even have been a double album, I've forgotten now) was quite good from beginning to end, as I recall, and included a nice rendition of Big Bill Broonzy's "Key to the Highway."

Another example of that same "marketing" approach. John Lee Hooker teamed up with Bonnie Raitt on this tune (one of John Lee's early tunes). Bonnie Raitt plays a mean-ass slide and is a very expressive vocalist. To me, she is the modern-day equivalent of Memphis Minnie.

But, even with this output, they included something more to appeal to the young, and, well, every one else too, I'm sure. There's a really HOT young BABE featured as part of the video accompaniment.

A private conversation I was having reminded me of this tune, by Brownie and Sonny:

I'm a stanger here...
just blowed into your town....
Just because I'm a stranger...
Everybody wanna dog ma ass round...
Well, I wonder why....
some people treats a stranger so....
He might be your best friend....
but that you aint never gunna know.

I really love Bonnie Raitt, she teamed up with Lyle Lovett on tour about 8 years ago. They played at the Rams head in Annapolis, and I didn't know they were coming until after they left. Crap!