The Blues List

I agree. I like Tina Turner's but Humble Pie did so much better.

Rosetta Tharpe was great. Without her, rock & roll may have never come to be.

 

I have that version on a CD, and also a CD of the Cheap Thrills album. My favorite version is the Cheap Thrills version with Big Brother and the Holding Company, because I think the intro is one of the best intro's of Acid Rock era. I used to have that intro as my ring tone on my cell phone! The first couple of notes and then that pregnant pause! But I do like her rap at the end of the song in the other version.





I haven't done a post on either Janis Joplin or Rosetta Tharpe on the_bues_list yet, but I have certainly thought about doing it on Ball & Chain. I did talk about Ball & Chain in a piece I wrote about how the Hippies represented Nietzsche's Ubermensch or Superman. I posted that here on HF.

I also happened to mention this song in a post on Hubert Sumlin, which is the post after the next one I will post-----coincidentally referring to that pregnant pause!

 

CANNED HEAT

Fried Hockey Boogie


After John Lee Hooker, it's a good time for another Canned Heat post. Fried Hockey Boogie is one of their boogie songs with that beat I referred to. This came out in 1968, and in the song the Bear introduces each of the members, and they each jam for you to that boogie beat.

In the last post I mentioned that John Lee Hooker wrote Boom, Boom as a response to Canned Heats boogie music. But Canned Heat also adopted this beat from John Lee Hooker's Boogie Chillin. Hooker played with Canned Heat, and they even recorded an album together. But as I write this, I just realized that Canned Heat was formed in 1965, AFTER JOHN LEE HOOKER WROTE BOOM, BOOM, so that piece of trivia I shared in the last post was wrong! I believe it came from a book, but I read it on the internet a while back (and it's still there cause I looked it up to check it this morning!). Its likely that he played it with Canned Heat in response to a boogie song, but it was written before that.

Fried Hockey Boogie is the last song on the CD/album in the picture above. I have an old LP sonewhere that had it as the last song, and this CD is basically a version of that record from 1968, except that the LP had a great parody of the Los Angeles Police Department on it----complete with pig snorts.

Now here's something special for you---see that hat in the second picture? It has history! For a $10 entrance fee you can see the actual hat at my house. Now you might think that was the hat that the Bear wore. You're so close! Because it is the hat I wore to a Canned Heat concert in the mountains above Denver in the late 70's. And the Bear probably even saw it with his eyes as I was in the audience. I mean, if you put your hand over the display case you might even feel the vibrations of their music imprinted on the hat all those decades ago.

And that's not all, I have a blue tie-dye bandana that a chick, who looked just like Bridgette Bardot, bought me at a music festival in about '78 or so. Some big rock bands played there, and her and I even fooled around in the forest above the concert. I don't remember all the bands, but I do remember that forest very well...

You might be thinking, 'That's worth far more than $10!' But wait---there's still more! I have a booth where you can actually buy land at a posh real estate development in South Florida known as, The Everglades. It's exclusive, and the very wealthy are buying it up like crazy! They love the abundance of water, and the rich wildlife there! Send the $10 in advance because I still need to buy the display case. Or $5.95 for a picture of the hat, or the bandana, or a print out of Bridgette Bardot..........And don't forget to boogie...





Here is the picture of the hat that was in the second picture (The first picture was the picture of the same album on the YouTube video with the title of Canned Heat and Fried Chicken Boogie placed on it.)

 

HUBERT SUMLIN

Iodine In My Coffee


'You used to put iodine in my coffee,

And rat poison in my bread,

When I feel a little sleepy
Sprinkle lye all in my bed...'

And that is,why I don't anger my wife. (She's a Filipina, and as a meme I recently found says, 'You don't scare me--my wife's a Filipina.') This song was written by Muddy Waters in 1984, and Hubert Sumlin does a great version of it.

Sumlin is one of the fathers of Chicago Blues. Rolling Stones ranked him number 43 in the greatest guitarists of all time. Most of his career was spent as the guitarist of Howlin' Wolf.

Wikipedia, quoting an article in Guitar World says, "...best known for his 'wrenched, shattering bursts of notes, sudden cliff-hanger silences and daring rhythmic suspensions' as a member of Howlin'Wolf's band."

I think that is part of the emotional experience of the blues that attracts me to it---shattering bursts of notes, sudden cliff hanger silences, daring rhythmic suspensions. This was also a feature of acid rock, and I think a great example of this is the intro to, Ball and Chain, as recorded on the Cheap Thrills album of Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin.

 

VICTORIA SPIVEY

Blood Thirsty Blues


When people talk about the original female blues singers, they almost always mention Billie Holiday. I don't know---for some reason Holiday's music never did it for me as much as Victoria Spivey. For one thing, Holliday's music has always been more jazzy than blues-like. But the first time I heard Spivey's voice, I was hooked.

"Blood, blood, look at all that blood...

Yes, I killed my man.
I told him blood was in my eyes,
And still he wouldn't listen to me..."

As I understand, a lot of female singers studied Victoria Spivey, including Janis Joplin and Madonna.

In 1961, she launched her own record label, Spivey Records, with her 4th husband. (What about the other 3 husband's? "Blood, blood, look at all that blood... (I'm joking!)) She recorded a lot of big artists, including Otis Spann (I posted a few posts back), Big Joe Turner, Otis Rush, and Luther Johnson, who I will post in the near future.

Blood Thirsty Blues is a good example of her music. There are a lot of songs of hers that I like.

 

JESSE ROPER

Hurricane's Eye

Jesse Roper is a blues musician from Victoria, Canada. I happened to find this video of Hurricane's Eye a few years ago wandering around YouTube, and I'm really impressed with Roper who is barely into his 30's.

The official video for Hurricane's Eye is as interesting as the song is good. I have provided screen shots from it to give you a taste. (Here on HipForums, I'll just provide the video.) There's a story, but we don't know what it truly is---we know there is a woman, a murder, a black powder gun fight, some kind of mystical guy or spirit, possibly a hallucinogen... is it a tale of possession, revenge, witchcraft, a hallucination?! Maybe a brush with insanity back in the pioneer days...?

This song is some great blues that could easily pass as rock, southern rock, roots (which, by the way, is a new genre of rock that tries to rediscover the roots of rock), cowboy blues, one could say there is even a hint of bluegrass in it. However you classify it, it's a hell of a song!

Roper's got some other great songs too, and based on the comments on YouTube, he performs one hell of a concert. Apparently he has even used his music for a commercial for a brewery here in Colorado.

 

Thanks for all the info and the posting of some obscure (mostly) blues singers!! Great stuff!!

 

Thank you!

Jimmy Reed is another one I haven't gotten to, but is planned for the future.

 

THE REVEREND SHAWN AMOS

Moved



Throughout the 2010's I watched video after heart wrenching video of primarily black men and women--innocent--getting shot and killed by our policemen. I was saddened, angered, disgusted... Obviously our system was seriously broken, and I wondered, as Shawn Amos sings it, 'how long before we are moved?' Because, this was not a black problem, it was a 'human' problem. Because if all lives truly mattered, no one should have to say, black lives matter. I think we have a long bitter uphill battle before these problems are fixed.

The, Breaks It Down album, on which this song appears, came out in 2018. This haunting, moving song is the first track, and it touched me immediately the first time I heard it.

When the BLM protests began, I played this and several other songs many times. They were, in my opinion, the theme songs of the protests. One of the other songs, I will post next--is also by The Reverand Shawn Amos. My plan was when I do multiple posts on the same musician or band on this page, and I will, that I would split them between other posts. But for these 2 songs I will post them together. The 3rd song was, No Mercy in this Land, by Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite. We could add a 4th song, My Soul's in Louisiana by Otis Taylor, both of which I will post in the future. Maybe some of you have some songs too that define this current point in history.

 

REVEREND SHAWN AMOS

Joliet Bound


As near as I can tell, The Reverend Shawn Amos is not a reverend, but he is the youngest son of Wally Amos, founder of Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies. He is also a great multi-instrumental musician, author, actor, producer and company owner.

One person on YouTube commented on the song, Moved, "Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf would have a drink together listening to this man."

He's got great talent. His singing career was inspired by the discovery of his mother's early singing career. She committed suicide in 2003, which, of course, was very traumatic for him.

 

Some great stuff going here.
I’ve always dug this collaboration of Carlos and Johnny Lee Hooker.



There’s a great radio show on every weekend broadcast from UC Long Beach called “Nothin But the Blues”. Gary Wagner the “Wagman” host.
You can also access at KJazz 88.1 | KJazz Archived Programs and Interviews.
They archive a few of the most recent shows.

 

That is pretty cool! I'll have to do a future post on that.

My wife is telling me that, "Hook or by crook we have to go see Santana play in Las Vegas this November!"

On the Radio Garden app, I listen to Houston Blues Radio, and Buddy Guy has a radio station as well. There is another radio station from the East Coast that plays mostly older blues on the app as well---I forget the name of that one.

 

ROBERT JOHNSON

Come On In My Kitchen


Straight from the Mississippi Delta comes this song of a woman in trouble and a man who's woman just left him. One might take this song to be misogynistic: the idea that a pregnant woman with no husband needs a man to take care of her. But it also speaks of a man saddened by a woman who was free to leave him and make her own way. I would argue that it is a song simply about men and women free to do as they please, in a world that was very much a man's world.

Robert Johnson was only 28 when he died, possibly from a whiskey given to him by a married women he was seducing during a show, poisoned by her husband. He played only in the very small Delta music circuit. He had done only two recording sessions, but it has been said that if there was no Robert Johnson, there would be no Rock and Roll.

Eric Clapton called him, "the most important blues singer that ever lived." Robert Plant, Bob Dylan, Keith Richard's, Johnny Winter, and others have claimed he had a strong influence on them.

His singing involved microtonality--subtle pitch changes, which is what gave it such strong emotional power. He also treated his guitar as a second vocalist, which calls back to an African tradition of a singing instrument.

One expert said his greatest contribution was the boogie bass beat or boogie shuffle on the guitar, giving a driving bass pattern of a 5th - 6th oscillation above the root chord. Chuck Berry was one of the first rock and rollers to use this in his, Roll Over Beethoven, and Johnny Be Good songs. ----after hearing a kid who had come from the future play Johnny Be Good, while trying to save his parents marriage at a High School dance (ok, that last part may be Hollywood misinformation...)

Before you can claim to know anything about the blues, you have to know Johnson's cross roads story---a future post...

 

THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND

Come On In My Kitchen


"You better come on
Into my kitchen
'Cause its sure to be raining outdoors.

When a woman's in trouble
Everybody puts her down
She looks for her good man
Lord he can't be found.

You better come on
Into my kitchen
Cause its gonna be raining outdoors."

The Allman Brothers band did a great version of this Robert Johnson song. They did a lot of great blues songs. I forget who told the story, but someone used to play slide guitar with a medicine bottle as the slide. He treasured it and claimed that Gregg Allman gave it to him to use.

Duane Allman started the band with his younger brother, Gregg in 1969. Sadly, Duane died in a motorcycle accident in 1971, Gregg passed on in 2017.

In their early days the band lived in a communal style in a friend's apartment in Macon Georgia. They nicknamed it their Hippie Crashpad. One can only imagine the drugs, girls, and music that happened there. You older cats may remember how it was in those crashpads. They said they were lucky no one ever called the cops because they were always raising hell at 3 or 4 in the morning.

 

The pain of living--just--being in a nasty racist society was always there in the blues. IMO, once you can hear that--the words matter--but not the same.

 

B B KING

Three o' Clock Blues


This is a real clean iconic blues song. By clean, I dont mean that it lacks any sort of sexual connotations, I simply mean it's a real clean B B King sound. Obviously, if your significant other is not home at 3:00 a.m., chances are, if they are not at some danky smoke filled juke joint dancing, they are somewhere in bed with someone.

This song was BB Kings first number 1 hit on the Billboard Rythm & Blues charts in 1952 and was the start of his big fame.

Wikipedia tells us, "He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shimmering vibrato, and staccato picking that influenced many later blues electric guitar players. AllMusic recognized King as 'the single most important electric guitarist of the last half of the 20th century'".

As someone said of this song on YouTube, "Even the spaces between the notes speak to you."

The name B.B. comes from one of his early stage names, Blues Boy. Just about everyone knows his name, and the fact that he played 200 or more concerts a year certainly helped. Through out his career, he played both concert halls and dingy rough venues. Undoubtedly he was the King of the blues.

 

STEPPENWOLF

Screaming Night Hog

Steppenwolf was formed in 1967 in Los Angeles, basically from a Canadian band, The Sparrows. Two new members were added by posting ads in guitar stores. Their hit, Born to be Wild, was the iconic song that represented both hippies and bikers of the 60's, it was even played in a Japanese comedy show in the 80's when Ken Shimura of Ken-chan and Kato-chan came riding up on a chopper with long hair and a hippie outfit in one of their sketches.

Everyone knows a screaming night hog--a large and very loud Harley Davidson that wakes you up in the middle of the night.

Steppenwolf, like Canned Heat, Blue Cheer, and a number of others were sometimes referred to as biker bands because bikers loved them back in the day. The fact that Steppenwolf did biker songs, particularly this one and Born to Be Wild, certainly helped, not to mention that latter song and the Pusher were both used in the movie, Easy Rider.

Some people say Born to Be Wild was the first heavy metal song, but Blue Cheer began in 1966, and clearly had that genre nailed before Steppenwolf. Though it is the first song to use the words, heavy metal, though referring to motorcycles as, "Heavy metal thunder."

Catch the video of Screaming Night Hog that shows these guys playing----damn they played hard!

"I'm nobody's slave, and nobody's master..." Iconic!

 

BRANDON SANTINI

Evil Woman


Now, you might be saying, 'Wait a minute, man, these songs are all fine and good, and they're filled with emotion, but what about that moment where, in the middle of the fight, you reach a point where you feel hopeless and defeated, and you have to take a break, and all you want to do is go to a bar, spend your money on whiskey, and hear something real, real heavy, just to release all them emotions and sit, and hopefully recharge to continue the fight the next day. What do you have for that?

Well, I'll answer, 'Hold my beer, here's Brandon Santini singing Evil Woman.

This guy is young enough to be my son, but he is one hell of a blues man.

This is a great song to sit and drink whiskey to (or in my case, drambuie (hey, I got a sweet tooth and it is bourbon based)) it's also great to blare from your car speakers as you make your way down the street.

And if a woman done you real wrong, this is the song to put on the juke box, over and over, and glare at anyone that dares try to change it. And if the glare doesn't stop them, grab your whiskey bottle by the neck and act like your going to break it...

However you want to listen to it, this here is some good blues!