Off The Wall, Little Walter & His Jukes (1953)
Little Walter Jacobs was the first and only blues harp player (to date) to be inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Following his January 1953 recording on Checker Records, Big Walter Horton claimed to be the composer and recorded the same harmonica-led tune for Sun Records in May of the same year.
I went downstairs, made a cup of coffee, had a chat with the neighbor, took the clothes in, came back up to my laptop, and he was still holding the first “Well”.
Dale Watson, keeper of the true country music flame and the Memphis sound (despite hailing from Austin) is right up there with Johnny, Willie & Waylon – and a lot of others.
Polly Put Your Kettle On, Sonny Boy Williamson (1947)Williamson’s final recording session took place in Chicago in December 1947, in which he accompanied Big Joe Williams. On June 1, 1948, Williamson was killed in a robbery on Chicago’s South Side as he walked home from a performance at the Plantation Club. After his death, Alex “Rice” Miller stole the name for his own performances and recordings.
“…and packs an impressive top speed of 100mph.” Good God.
[Found here.]
Billy Gibbons covers R. L. Burnside. From the YouTube comments: “Just hit play on this one and my 6 year old son immediately yelled from across the room ‘is that was ZZ TOP?!'”
R. L. Burnside was born in Lafayette County, Mississippi, learned from Mississippi Fred McDowell who lived in the next county over. Burnside and his family, tired of the life of sharecroppers, moved to Chicago in the early 50s. Subsequently his father, two uncles and two brother were murdered there. In 1959 he returned to Mississippi, was convicted for murder himself, and served time at the Parchman Penitentiary.
“I didn’t mean to kill nobody. I just meant to shoot the sonofabitch in the head and two times in the chest. Him dying was between him and the Lord.”
The Obscuritones self describe as “Close harmony and rockin rhythm. Like the Andrews Sisters singin with the Stray Cats after a night out with the Cramps.” Okay, almost, but not bad for this sextet from the UK, and their album got a decent review.
Have a great weekend and we’ll do something tomorrow for sure.
“True fun, not fake fun.” June Foray and Bill Scott were my heroes, two of the most recognizable and ubiquitous voices of my childhood. They also did the morning traffic reports as Rocky and Bullwinkle in Boston. At 02:01, Rocky and Bullwinkle introduced a Kiss song on WBCN.
Cliff Richard & The Shadows had some stiff competition – check out the Billboard Hits for 1960. Sir Richard holds the record as the only act to make the UK singles charts in all of its active decades (1950s–2000s). The Shadows were Richard’s backup band (1958-1968), and they reunited in 2020 to play their 1960 hit Apache.
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp is a Led Zeppelin cover, named after Bron-Yr-Aur, a house in Gwynedd, Wales, and based on Waggoner’s Lad, a song by Bert Jansch that appeared on his album Nobody’s Fault But Mine. Go figure. I almost forgot – Devil In A Woodpile is awesome.
Possibly the greatest Ramones cover that’s not a Ramones cover. Green Day had some great stage moves, too. Yeah, I know, it doesn’t fit in with the other vids, but it clicks with me somehow.
Good God. It’s 2:30am. I’m outta here, see you in a few.
“We had so much fun backstage during our last jam video that Darius Rucker decided he didn’t want to be left out…so we made another!” Whole buncha peeps in that one: The Brothers Osborne, Darius Rucker and A Thousand Horses. BTW, that’s a Doc Watson song.
Chicken Stuff, Hop Wilson & His Chickens (1958)Harding Wilson (1921-1975) got his nickname from playing harmonica a lot as a kid – harp is pronounced hop in Texan. (Chicken stuff goes by another name there, too.) Pop Hop’s steel slide style influenced many other bluesmen.
They say that Russia is a technically backward country, there are no roads, robotics do not develop, rockets do not fly, and mail goes too long. It’s bullshit.
Marcus King started learning guitar at age three or four, played professionally since he was 11. He’s a fourth-generation musician; his grandfather was a country guitarist, and his father, Marvin King, continues to perform live.
