When you hear a song and something inside of you makes you stop to listen to it; that something, however, moves into you; and that something does it once and once again everytime you hear it, you can firmly say that you like that song and you like music. It isn’t about if you understand or not the music; it’s about if you feel or not with it. There are as many ways to feel the music as people listening to it. All of them are valid.
The present work had to be an essay about any subject relationed with the anglosaxon countries. This, has been my choice. I didn't need to spend too much time thinking. It just came out! MUSIC.
I could have chosen any genre; all of them are worthy. But I thought, why don’t go through the father of the genres? What better way that going into a genre that reflects the feeling of a great part of American population in its origins? That musical genre is the Blues. The Blues is more than a musical style; it’s a language through which people express their feelings (most of the times sad ones); it’s a state of the soul where one is free to feel.
Everyone has the blues. Old and young, rich and poor, sick and healthy, man or woman. The key is to let the blues work for you. If you can sing or play an instrument, then you have a gift. Blues are for jamming and having a good time with your friends. If you know the basics you can learn the rest from the best: listening to recordings of all the great blues musicians that have come before you.
I focus this essay on the figure of Robert Johnson. Since I read for the first time about him, his history trapped me. He was a person who did what he wanted when he wanted. He had the ability to disappear every time he wanted with no responsibilities behind him. How many of us haven’t wanted that some time in our lives? He had a very short life but full of talent. As I mention in Robert’s biography below, he created a mythof himself thanks to his unique personality and talent.
I try to know more about things I enjoy. It’s good, since I enjoy it more and better.
The origins of blues is not unlike the origins of life. For many years it was recorded only by memory, and relayed only live, and in person. The Blues was born in the North Mississippi Delta following the Civil War. Influnced by African roots, field hollers, ballads, church music and rhythmic dance tunes called jump-ups evolved into a music for a singer who would engage in call-and-response with his guitar. He would sing a line, and the guitar would answer.
This passionate and uniquely American art form known as the blues was born in the steamy fields, dusty street corners and ramshackle juke joints of the Deep South in the late 1800s. An evolution of West African music brought to the United States by slaves, the blues emerged as southern blacks expressed the hardships, heartbreak, religion, passion and politics of their experiences through a blend of work songs, field hollers and spirituals.
Many early blues songs were never written down, much less recorded, but were passed from one musician to another and played on whatever instruments were available including clapped percussions, a variety of stringed instruments, harmonicas, horns and more. By the time the blues were first recorded in the early 1920s, guitars and pianos were the most frequent instruments of choice by blues artists, but the basic 12-bar style and three-chord progressions have remained essentially the same and continue to define the blues to this day.
As the blues migrated from the south, through the United States and around the world, countless varieties of styles evolved, including: the raw and passionate Delta (of Mississippi river) blues of Robert Johnson and Son House, the brassy New Orleans blues, the relaxed and upbeat Texas blues, the classic blues –a comercially popular, polished style in the1920s which was performed by women like blues greats Besssie Smith and Mamie Smith-, the jug-band and vaudeville-influenced Memphis blues, the amplified and urban Chicago blues of Muddy Waters and Hollin’ Wolf, the rock-heavy 1960s British Blues of John Mayall, Eric Clapton, and the Rolling Stones, and many more.
By the 1950s and ‘60s, the blues had crossed the Atlantic and young audiences and musicians in Great Britain launched a blues revival with their reverent admiration of American blues music. The blues blended into rock, and as rock and roll took center stage on the global popular music scene, the blues faded into the background for decades for many listeners and record buyers.
But in the early 1990s, a renewed interest in American roots music spurred a resurgence of the blues and the art form that once inspired Willie Dixon’s remark “The blues is the roots; everything else is the fruits”.
From the crossroads on Highways 61 and 49, and the platform of the Clarksdale Railway Station, the blues ended headed north to Beale Street in Memphis. The blues have strongly influenced almost all popular music including jazz, country, and rock and roll and continues to help music worldwide.
The blues is 12-bar, bent-note melody is the anthem of a race, bonding itself together with cries of shared self victimization. Bad luck and trouble are always present in the Blues, and always the result of others, pressing upon unfortunate and down trodden poor souls, yearning to be free from life’s’ troubles. Relentless rhythms repeat the chants of sorrow, and the pity of a lost soul many times over. This is the Blues.
The Blues form was first popularized about 1911-14 by the black composer W.C. Handy (1873-1958). However, the poetic and musical form of the blues first crystallized around 1910 and gained popularity through the publication of Handy’s “Memphis Blues” (1912) and “St. Louis Blues” (1914). Instrumental blues had been recorded as early as 1913. During the twenties, the blues became a national craze. Mamie Smith recorded the first vocal blues song, ‘Crazy Blues’ in 1920. The Blues influence on jazz brought it into the mainstream and made possible the records of blues singers like Bessie Smith and later, in the thirties, Billie Holiday.
The blues are the essence of the African American laborer, whose spirit is wed to these songs, reflecting his inner soul to all who will listen. Rhythm ans Blues, is the cornerstone of all forms of African American music.
Many of Memphis’ best Blues artists left the city at the time, when Mayor “Boss” Crump shut sown Beale Street to stop the prostitution, gambling, and cocaine trades, effectively eliminating the musicians, and entertainers’ jobs, as these businesses closed their doors. The Blues migrated to Chicago, where it became electrified, and Detroit.
In northern cities like Chicago and Detroit, during the later forties and early fifties, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf, and Elmore James among others, played what was basically Mississippi Delta Blues, backed by bass, drums, piano and occasionally harmonica, and began scoring national hits with blues songs. At about the same, T-Bone Walker in Houston and B.B. King in Memphis were pioneering a style of guitar playing that combined jazz tecnique with the blues tonality and repertoire.
Meanwhile, back in Memphis, B.B. King invented the concept of lead guitar, now standard in today’s Rock bands. Bukka White (cousin to B.B. King), Leadbelly, and Son House, left Country Blues to create the sounds most of us think of today as traditional unamplified Blues.
In the early nineteen-sixties, the urban bluesmen were “discovered” by young white American and European musicians. Many of these blues-based bands like the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Cream, Canned Heat, and Fleetwood Mac, brought the blues to young white audiences, something the black blues artists had been unable to do in America except through the purloined white cross-over covers of black rhythm and blues songs. Since the sixties, rock has undergone several blues revivals. Some rock guitarrists, such as Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, and Eddie van Halen have used the blues as a foundation fir offshoot styles. While the originators like John Lee Hooker, Albert Collins and B.B. King –and their heirs Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, and later Eric Clapton and the late Roy Buchanan, among many others, continued to make fantastic music in the blues tradition. The latest generation of blues players like Robert Cray and the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, among others, as well as gracing the blues tradition with their incredible technicality, have drawn a new generation listeners to the blues.
This music, which was used to ask favors to gods and to express their misfortunes ‘cause of the loss of their freedom, spread quite fast and became to an urban sound: the Blues. The shout (heartbreaking scream uttered by black singers) entails the questions and answers about the whole black people life locked in the american continent. Its first manifestation lies on evangelic chants (gospel, that means God spell). It’s the living heritage of those who lived in poverty, prosecution and hard work, experimenting as of then love and traition, santity and sin, the pleasure and pain of sex, tragedy, prison, laughter, drunkenness, desperation and plain joy.
There are many different styles of blues: Country, Classic, City or Urban and Rhythm &Blues. These different styles present problems of duplication and confussion, but they’re quite useful helping to understand the basic differences of style. Despite of this, blues isn’t only a structured phrase, but a feeling and interpretation. That feeling is created by vocalist’s inflections and tecniques developed additionally, like cords transposition on guitars (bending), vibrato (sound undulation with the purpose of giving more expression to the music through a slight and continuous variation of the height), tremolo (moving quickly up and down over the cord), trills and falsettos on the voice. Many of these tecniques are used by other styles singers, like pop or jazz. Black spirituals also use them and we can find these connotations in black preachers’ sermon.
When we talk about the Blues, many people imagine virtuous guitarrists like Eric Clapton (God or Blues White Spot to fans) playing improvised solos over a sad and repetitive musical base. That’s why they get surprise when they know about the folkloric origin of this fascinating musical style, far away from the distortionated electric guitars, sometimes sad sounds, sometimes happy sounds.
Rural blues started to be recorded by 1923 and black musicians were the masters who drew this language, which later on, rock musicians would take once and once again seeking inspiration.
It’s Miles Davis said once that jazz musicians should kneel down and thank Duke Ellington for his art. Likewise, every blues lover must go to a crossroad, lift our glass and drink a long swallow in memory of Robert Johnson, wherever he is.
All we know about him are 29 songs, two photographs and little pieces of his biography that ends into a violent death at the age of 27. With this short of material is almost impossible to create a myth, but HE IS A MYTH. After 65 years of his disappearance, his 29 songs have become uncountable times versionated classics, experts continue seeking information about him and the number of books, volumes and articles talking of his peculiar life and work is huge. That’s why this extraordinaire blues singer is the choice to go deeply into in my essay. Because of that and because of the grace he was blessed to express his feelings.
He was just a rambling musician. He was rambling so fast, in fact, that he rarely gave anyone more than a glimpse at his shinning star. Indeed, he hardly received more than a casual, passing glance, and was seen at the time by only a few of his musical associates and even fewer fans to be consummate artist he was.
He had a very unfortunate life.
Robert Johnson was born May 8, 1911, in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, to Julia Dodds and Noah Johnson, the man whom she favored in Mr. Dodds’ absence. After very hard and unsettling seasons in migrant labor camps with his mother, they settled in Robinsonville, 20 miles south of Memphis; after having several stepfathers because his father abandoned them when he was a child (Robert didn’t ever know him); after this hard childhood, Robert took an interest in music in his early teens. His initial attraction to the jew’s harp was soon supplanted by the harmonica, which became his main instrument for the next few years. He and his pal, R.L. Windum, traded verses of songs and accompanied each other on harps until they were both young men.
The guitar became an interest during the late 1920s. He made a rack for his harp out of baling wire and string and was soon picking out appropriate accompaniments for his harp and voice.
His beginnings in the world of Blues, first with the harmonica and shortly after with the guitar took place near Robinsonville, where he lived, an important place for the main performers in those times. Musical godfathers as Son House and Charlie Patton helped him and he got the inspiration he could handle. Step by step, he made up his vocational training beside of the best musicians until become one of them.
Robert’s private life got serious about this time as well. A good looking boy, he had very little trouble making himself popular with the girls. In fact, he had more trouble keeping his hands off them, his arms from around them, and himself away from them. Eventually, it would be his downfall, but for the time being, most of the ladies were single. One particular one caught his eye, and he asked her to be his wife.
Even though Robert was playing music a great deal at this time –mainly the popular recorded blues of the day- and learning even more from Brown, Patton, Myles Robson, Ernest “Whiskey Red” Brown, and other locals, he was reluctant to consider himself anything but a farmer when he married Virginia Travis in Penton, Mississippi, in February, 1929. Virgina became pregnant that summer, and Robert was not only a proud expectant father, but, naturally, a protective one as well.
Robert’s pride was short-lived, however. Whatever hopes and dreams he may have had for his wife and family-to-be were all dashed in one fell swoop. Both Virginia and the baby died in childbirth in April 1930. She was 16 years old.
If anything soothed Robert’s wounds, it may have been his music.
The jook joints of the road gangs and lumber camps set the stage for Robert, and bluesman Ike Zinnerman became his coach and mentor. By then, Robert had found out that women would provide everything else for him and in Martinsville, a lumber camp a few miles south of Hazlehurst, he singled out a kind and loving woman more than ten years his senior, who had been married twice before and had three small children. Robert and Calletta “Callie” Craft were married at the Copiah County courthouse in May 1931 and kept their marriage a secret from everyone. She idolized him, she treated him like a king.
Callie loved to dance and she freuently webt with him in his playing jobs. He liked to tap dance and his agility is still recalled with a certain respect.
But respect wasn’t something Robert received in abundance. He wasn’t a rough-and-tumble guy. Robert Johnson was a small man, small boned. He had long delicate fingers, beautiful hands, enviably wavy hair, and appeared a good deal younger than he acted. Phisically, he wasn’t the type of man who commanded much respect.
Ike Zinnerman was born in Grady, Alabama, in the early years of the century and had always told his wife that he had learned to play guitar in a graveyard at midnight while sitting on tombstones. Robert used to spend all night at Zimmerman’s to learn what he could about music. He’d play the same tune over and over until he got it just like he wanted it and thought it should be. He began keeping a little book to write his songs in and he’d go off into the nearby woods and sing and pick the blues to himself.
On Saturdays, he’d practice his lessons by performing for the public on the steps of the courthouse during the day and at any number of local jook joints from Saturday evening about dark, sometimes until late Sunday night. At first he and Ike played together, but as time went by, he became more confident of his own abilities and played more by himself.
Occasionally he’d hitchhike out east to Georgetown or up to Jackson to play with Johnny Temple and his friends, but he usually stayed around home. In later years, he was content to be at home wherever he was, but at that time, home was where his wife was.
The early 1930s was a very important stage in Robert Johnson’s life. During his stay in Copiah County, he developed the personal traits that marked him as the man he was to be the rest of his life. Most important though, his musical talent flowered and bloomed in Hazlehurst, and when he thought he was ready for more exciting territory, he packed up Callie and the kids and slipped away to the Delta.
Robert deserted Callie and she died a few years later. Although Robert returned to Copiah County in later years, neither she nor her family ever saw him again.
A trip home was in order. He’d retruned to Robinsonville to see his mother and kin as well as to show himself off to Willie and Son, and he stayed around for a couple of months playing on the street corners and in the jook joints. He would continue to return and stay a few months at a time, but it would never be his home again. Robinsonville was a farming community, and he was finally no farmer.
One of the most wide-open, musically active towns in the Delta in those days was on the Arkansas riverside, and it became Robert’s home base for the rest of his short life. He tokk the little town of Helena, Arkansas, to be his own.
All the great musicians of the era came through Helena. “Sonny Boy Williamson”, “Robert Nighthawk”, Elmore James, “Honey boy” Edwards, “Howlin’ Wolf”, Calvin Frazier, Johnny Shines, and countless others performed in Helena’s and West Helena’s many night clubs and hot spots. Robert had his chance to meet and play with them all –and he did- and left his mark on most of them, too.
Robert Johnson was protective about his style of playing music and was acutely aware of overly watchful eyes. He wouldn’t show aspiring musicians how to play his songs, that was his business and his living. If he asked how to play something, he might say, “Just like you”, and be through with it. If someone was eyeing him too closely for his comfort, he might get up in the middle of a song, make some feeble excuse to leave the room, and be gone for months.
There was one special young fellow to whom Robert took a liking, undoubtedly as a result of his living with the boy’s mother. Estella Coleman was good to Robert. She loved him and cared for him. Robert wanted to repaid her kindness and became a mentor to her son. He was named Robert, too, and wasn’t much younger than him. Although named Robert Lockwood Jr. after his real father, he was soon known as “Robert Jr.” after his “stepdaddy”, Robert Johnson.
The practice of protection and disappearance all seemed very weird until research undertaken in the early 1990s has revealed that Johnson may have been guarding a method of tuning his guitar that he wanted no others to discover, not even his own student.
In any event, and for whatever reason, Robert Johnson became a stone traveler. He developed a penchant for it. Awake or asleep, anytime of the day or night, he was ready to go anywhere, even back the way he’d just come. Travelling was, in and of itself, the main thing, like a way of feeding himself.
Moving around the way he did and playing into many different places to so many different people all the time, he had to, out of necessity, be able to play almost anything which was requested of him. In addition to the blues for which he was known, he developed a very well-rounded repertoire that included all the pop tunes of the day and yesterday, hillbilly tunes, polkas, square dances, sentimental songs, and ballads. Among the more common pieces he played were, “Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby”, “My Blue Heaven” and “Tumbling Tumbleweeds”.
In having to learn the many kinds of music which he had to play, Robert developed a very unusual talent. He could hear a piece just once over the radio or phonograph or from someone in person and be able to play it. He could be deep in conversation with a group of people and hear something –never stop talking- and later be able to play it and sing it perfectly.
Robert came in contact with a great many people in his travels and they helped to spread his fame. Naturally, at least half of them were women, and most of them were crazy about him. The other half, the men, would go crazy if their women liked him too much. Robert was pretty hard on “working girls” –they were too tough for him, too- but if he was going to be in any one place for a while, he developed a technique of female selection that generally kept him out of trouble and well fed and cared for, to boot.
As soon as he hit town, he’d find the homeliest woman he could. A few kind words and he knew he’d have a place to stay anytime. His reasons were threefold; a.- she probably wouldn’t have a man. b.- no one was likely to be after her or upset if he was with her. c.- just a little attention would bring him nearly anything he wanted. Accordingly, Robert could be the nicest guy in the world to the ugliest witch in town.
He had developed a taste for booze, gambling, and an occasional smoke, too, and although he never became habitual with any of them, he did drink to excess more than a few times. Sober, Robert Johnson frequently became a pensive man. Often he could be found sitting alone in a deep study. Over the years, his behaviour became progressively moody and erratic, but a drink or two, especially if he had purchased them for himself and a few friends, transformed him into the life of the party.
By the middle 1930s Robert Johnson had been a professional musician for quite a few years. He was very well known all through the Delta areas and had followings in southern Mississippi and eastern Tennesse, too. He had wanted to make records for some years, as his mentors Willie Brown, Son House, and Cahrlie Patton had done. He wanted to join the ranks of the musicians to whom he had listenes and from whom he learned off phonograph records, Kokomo Arnold, Leroy Carr, Skip James, Lonnie Johnson and others. And so he made contact with the one fellow in Mississippi that he knew would know how he should go about it.
H.C. Speir ran a music store in Jackson, Mississippi, and had an informal studio for making records for personal use on the premises. He was also employed from time to time as a talent scout by various record companies. Paramount recorded a great many people upon his rsommendation and he was known in the industry as the possesssor of an acute ability to be able to determine on what black people would spend their money. During the time when hardly anybody knew what anyone would buy, this was a great and useful talent, and Speir was constantly in demand for his advece and serveces.
By the time Robert was ready to record, Speir had just concluded a deal with the American Record Company that left him rather embittered. Speir was so discouraged about a trouble with this company and when Robert contacted him, all he was willing to do was take is name and pass it along to someone who might do him some good.
Ernie Oertle was the ARC salesman and informal talent scout for the mid-South in the late 1930s, and surprisingly, it was to him tha Speir gave Johnson’s name and address. After an audition, Oertle decided to take Johnson to San Antonio to record.
Robert’s first session in November 1936 yielded the song for which he’s most widely remembered, “Terraplane Blues”. It was his best seller and a fair-sized hit for Vocalion Records. Although six of Johnson’s eleven records were still in the Vocalion catalog by December 1938, he wasn’t recalled that spring nor even the following summer. Vocalion did release one final 78 in February 1939, but that was probably due to a great deal of interest in hin by John Hammond.
Robert left Helena with Johnny Shines and Calvin Frazier, who really had to leave –he had killed a couple of men in Arkensas- and they struck out on a trip that lasted about four months. They took Highway 51 north to Chicago through St. Louis, where they met many of the city’s famous bluesmen –Pettie Wheatstraw, Henry Townsend, Roosevelt Sykes, and others-. In Detroit, their next stop, they hooked up with a broadcasting preacher and appeared with him on radio as well as in his personal appearances, both there and in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Calvin stayed in Detroit and Johnson visited the East coast briefly, playing in New York and New Jersey.
During this excursion with Shines, Robert displayed a certain uneasiness with his traveling companion. Frequently he would slip away from him, and Shines would have to guess which way he went and try to catch up with him. It was an uncomfortable feeling for Shines, but he knew of no one better to follow and learn from, so he stuck with it to Memphis.
Robert’s musical approach was altered a bit; he began playing with a small combo. He used a pianist and a drummer in a Belzoni jook joint –the drummer had “Robert Johnson” painted in black letters across his bass drum- before a large crowd of people, a good many of them musicians. And he was able to play anything people wanted, he began to concentrate less and less on the blues. He may have gotten away from it almost entirely had it not been for some divine intervention.
It seems so ironic that for all of Johnson’s efforts to make himself known to the world through his music, better himself, and upgrade the status quo, at least for himself, he should be heard so distinctly by tho one person that had his ear open, pocketbook ready and the power and ability at his beck and call to assist him. And it’s even more ironic –indeed, tragic- that it was never to be.
Sometime in June or July of 1938, Robert left Helena and swung through Robinsonville to see his people before taking up a playing offer he had further down in the Delta. There was a jook joint out from Greenwood at the intersection of Highways 82 and 49E, a little place the locals referred to as “Three Forks”, “Three Corners” or “Three Points”. It was here that Robert played his last job.
It was a dangerous occupation being a musician in those days: musicians hated you if you played better than them. Women hated you if you cast your eye on anyone else. And the men hated you if the women loved you. A great musician had to be careful, especially if he didin’t care to whose woman was talking. And, by then, Robert was notorious for that.
Robert Johnson had been in the Greenwood locale for at least a couple of weeks, sharing Saturday night plays with “Honeyboy” Edwards, who lived in Greenwood. Robert had made friends with a local woman, who happened to be the wife of the man who ran the jookhouse at “Three Forks”. She would come into Greenwood on Mondays, ostensibly to see her sister, but, in fact, to spen tiem with him.
On one Saturday night of in July, 1938, there was the added attraction of “Sonny Boy Williamson”. He wore a belt of harps around hes waist in those days, and he was a familiar and popular rambling songster. “Honeyboy” wasn’t to arrive until after 10.30 p.m. By that time, Robert and Sonny were through for the evening. Sonny Boy had left, and never again would Robert perform his great blues.
Misician Houston Stackhouse was not there, but having been close to Robert at one time, he was curious about Robert’s death. He was also close to Sonny Boy and so, over a period of time, he was able to obtain a more complete picture of the events of that fateful evening. The tale Stackhouse received from Sonny was verified to the best of knowledge by “Honeyboy”, and so it is that we know how Robert Johnson met his fate.
From all reports, Robert began displaying his attraction to the lady he had been seeing during his time in the locale. He amy not have known, nor probably would it have mattered to him, that she was the houseman’s wife.
Sonny Boy had been keepinfg an eye on the evenong’s proceedings. He had noticed both the attraction Robert displayed for the lady, as well as the marked tension on the countenances of gertain persons in the house. He knew that it was a potentially explosive situation. He was ready.
And so, during a break in the music, Robert and Sonny Boy were staniding together when someone brought Robert an open half-pint of whiskey. As Robert was about to drink from it, Sonny Boy knocked it out of his hand and it broke against the ground. Sonny admonished him, “Man, don’t never take a drink from a open bottle. You don’t know what could be in it”. Robert retorted, “Man, don’t never knock a bottle of whiskey outta my hand”. And so it was. When a second open bottle was brought to Johnson. Sonny could only stand by, watch, and hope.
It wasn’t too long after Robert returned to his guitar that he soon could no longer sing. Sonny took up the slack for him with his voice and harmonica, but after a bit, Robert stopped short in the middle of a number and got up and went outside. He was sick and before the night was over, he was displaing definite signs of poisoning; he was out of his mind. It seems the housman’s jealousy finally got the best of him and someone laced Robert’s whiskey with strychnine.
He was young enough to withsatnd the poisoning, though, and he made it through the next couple of weekd. Eventually, he was removed from his room in the “Baptist Town” section of Greenwood to a private home on the “Star of theWest” plantation, where he received attention,... but it was already too late. He lay deathly ill and in his weakened condition, he apparently contracted pneumonia (for which there was no cure prior to 1946), and succumbed on Tuesday, August 16, 1938.
In late 1938, John Hammond began recruiting talent for his first From Spirituals to Swing Concert. He called Don Law in Dallas and asked him if he could round up Robert Johnson and get him to New York for his presentation at Carnegie Hall. Hammond thought Johnson the greatest of all the country blus guys and wanted him to fill one of the openinf slots in his show. Law could hardly believe his ears. He told Hammond he was making a big mistake, Johnson was so shy that he woukl freeze up in front of an audience. But Hammond replied that if Law wold just get in touch with him, he would take care of the rest. Law got the word to Oertle, who set out to locate Johnson.
It had been more than a year since Oertle had been in contact with him, and it took some digging before he learned the bitter truth and got it back to Law; Johnson had died recently under uncertain circumstances. In truth, Robert Johnson had been poisoned for gtting too close to somebody else’s woman one time too many.
Robert Johnson was buried in a wooden coffin that was furnished by the county. His mother, brother-in-law, and later his half-sister Carrie all visited his grave in, as recent research indicates, the graveyard of the Little Zion Church just north of Greenwood, Mississippi. That particular stretch of county road, which eventually delivers the travaler to the hamlet of Money, Mississippi, is commonly referred to as, “the Money road”.
Hammond, by the way, got Big Bill Broonzy.
When you got a good friend by Robert Johnson (1936)
When you got a good friend, that will stay right by your side.
When you got a good friend, that will stay right by your side
Give her all of your spare time, love and treat her right
I mistreated my baby, and I can't see no reason why
I mistreated my baby, but I can't see no reason why
Everytime I think about it, I just wring my hands and cry
Wonder could I bear apologize, or would she sympathize with me
Mmmmmm mmmm mmmm, would she sympathize with me
She's a brown skin woman, just as sweet as a girl friend can be
Mmmm mmmm, babe, I may be right ay wrong
Baby it's yo'y opinion, oh, I may be right ay wrong
Watch your close friend, baby, then your ene'ies can't do no harm
When you got a good friend, that will stay right by your side
When you got a good friend, that will stay right by your side
Give her all of your spare time, love and treat her right
Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in April 15. Nobody knows exactly the year. It was probably in 1894. She had no education, cause she was born into poverty. Little is known of Bessie’s early life.
Known as the "Empress of the Blues," Bessie Smith revolutionized the vocal end of blues music in the 1920s with her rich voice and has influenced generations of musicians.
After singing with "Ma" Rainey's Rabbit Foot Minstrels traveling show for several years, Bessie Smith went solo and signed with Columbia Records. Her songs, the best known of which included "Down Hearted Blues," "Gulf Coast Blues," "Jealous Hearted Blues," and "Cold in Hand Blues," were about poverty, oppression, and unrequited love and touched the hearts of thousands. Her records sold excellently and she became a major attraction in vaudeville.
Changing tastes in music as well as alcoholism caused Bessie Smith's career to fade out by the end of the 1920s. Nevertheless, her singing talent did not diminish. From 1933 she was gradually making a comeback with a recording session and an appearance at the Apollo Theater. This was all cut short by her tragic death in an automobile accident.
My heart's sad and I am all forlorn, my man's treating me mean I regret the day that I was born and that man of mine I've ever seen Happiness, it never lasts a day, my heart is almost breaking while I say A good man is hard to find, you always get the other kind Just when you think that he is your pal, you look for him and find him fooling 'round some other gal Then you rave, you even crave to see him laying in his grave So, if your man is nice, take my advice and hug him in the morning, kiss him ev'ry night, give him plenty lovin', treat him right For a good man nowadays is hard to find, a good man nowadays is hard to find
STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN
Stevie Ray was born in Dallas, Texas, on october, 1954. He followed his older brother Jimmie as a guitar player. Jimmie became a popular Texas player and went on to form the Fabolous Thunderbirds, but Stevie wasn’t far behind. The Austin, Texas music scene attracted the young stringer and for years he honed his chops in some of the most legendary bars and clubs in the country.
Stevie Ray Vaughan fused Blues and Rock and turned on a whole generation to the Blues. His feary guitar playing and aching voice showed a wide audience the depths of Blues passion. To Blues purists, he’s a rock player. To most other fans, he’s a Blues player. But everyone agreed that they dug it.
Stevie’s manager got a word to Mick Jagger about his guitar phenomena and the good word soon spread. When David Bowie hired Stevie as his guitar player, the worldd discovered him. He recorded his first major album in less than one week at Jackson Browne’s studio in Los Angeles with a very impressed Browne picking up the tab.
Stevie Ray, as with most blues artists, was best live. His scorching band, “Double Trouble” with Tommy Shannon on bass, Chris Layton on drums, and Reese Wynans on piano and B3 organ, set the tone for Blues bands for the next decade.
As a major recording star SRV still had the Blues. He was reported to be in tears one night in Colorado in fear following Albet Collins, Albet King and B.B. King on the same bill. And who wouldn’t?
To hear where Stevie Ray was coming from, listen to Albert King’s guitar playing.
Vaughan was killed in a helicopter crash in 1990.
Pride and joy by Stevie Ray Vaughan (1982)
Well you've heard about love givin' sight to the blind
My baby's lovin' cause the sun to shine
She's my sweet little thing, she's my pride and joy
She's my sweet little baby, I'm her little lover boy
Yeah I love my baby, heart and soul
Love like ours won't never grow old
She's my sweet little thing, she's my pride and joy
She's my sweet little baby, I'm her little lover boy
Yeah, I love my lady, she's long and lean
You mess with her, you'll see a man get mean
She's my sweet little thing, she's my pride and joy
She's my sweet little baby, I'm her little lover boy
Well I love my baby, like the finest wine
Stick with her until the end of time
She's my sweet little thing, she's my pride and joy
She's my sweet little baby, I'm her little lover boy
Yeah I love my baby, heart and soul
Love like ours won't never grow old
She's my sweet little thing, she's my pride and joy
She's my sweet little baby, I'm her little lover boy
JOHN LEE HOOKER
Born near Clarksdale, Mississippi on August 22, 1917 to a sharecropping family.
Birmingham Sam, Texas Slim, Johnny Lee, Boogie Man, and John Lee Booker all had one thing in common, they were the same man.
He started recording en 1948 under these numerous names, outwitting contractual obligationes in the unbridled recording operations of the era. He moved to Detroit and found work in auto factories, and, at night, like many others trasplants from the rural Delta, he entertained friends and neighbours by playing at “house parties”.
John Lee is probably the most recorded man alive. Hooker recorded for more than two dozen labels.
During the late 1970s and much of the 1980s, Hooker toured the U.S. and Europe steadily but grew disenchanted with recording, through his appearance in the Blues Brothers movie resulted in a heightened profile. Then, in 1989, The Healer was released to critical acclaim and sales in excess of a million copies. Today “The King Of The Boggie” is enjoying the most successful period of his extensive career. In the past ten years Hooker’s influence has contributed to a booming interest in the blues and, notably, its acceptance by the music industry as a commercially viable entity.
Hooker style is easy to recognize. Usually one chord with a pulsing rhythmic groove chugging alone and open-tuned guitar with a choppy percussive sound.
John Lee Hooker died in his sleep in San Francisco in June of 2001.
I'm bad like Jessee James
I'm bad Like Jesse James, uh-huh
I had a friend one time Least I thought I did He come to me Said, 'Johnny?' Said, 'What man?' 'I'm outdoor' I say, 'Yeah?'
I taken the cat in Get him a place to stay And I found out
He goin' 'round town Tellin' ev'rybody that he He got my wife
Then I gets mad I goes to the cat Like a good guy should I said, 'Look man 'I'm gonna warn, you just one time' Next time I warn you' 'I'm gonna use my gun'
'Cause I'm mad, I'm bad, like Jesse James
I'm so mad, I'm so mad. I'm gonna ruin you this mornin'. I've got three boys Do my dirty work Now, you don't see me I'm the big boss I do the payin' off After they take care of you
In their on way They may shoot you They may cut you. They may drown you I just don't know I don't care Long as they take care of you In their on way
I'm so mad, I'm bad this mornin', like Jesse James.
They gon' take you right down By the riverside Now four is goin' down Ain't but three comin' back You read between the line We're gonna have a deal
'Cause I'm mad, I'm bad, like Jesse James.
They gonna tie yo' hands They gonna tie yo' feet They gonna gag your throat Where you can't holler none
An cryin' won't help you none Set you in the water Yeah, the bubbles comin' up. Whoa Rrrrrrr Rrrrrrr
Oh yeah, I'm so mad!
B.B. KING
Riley “Blues Boy” King came out from behind the wheel of a tractor on a Mississipi cotton plantation, headed off to a Memphis, and found work as a disc jockey. “Blues Boy” was shortened to “B.B.”, and the rest is Blues history.
He was born in Indianola, Mississippi, on september 16, 1925. Sun Records recorded him in 1951. His first national hit was “Three o’clock blues”. He has gone on to record more than 70 records. But his relentless touring schedule has been what has really brought his music to the people.
Among his hits: The thrill is gone, Let the good time roll, How blue can you get, It costs to be the boss, Sweet little angel, and When loves come town.
A little sample of his prizes; 4 Honorary Doctorates, 7 W.C. Handy Blues Awards, 4 NAACP Image Awards, 9 Grammy Awards, and 27 Downbeat Awards.
One of B.B.’s biggest paths to success was juke boxes in bars and clubs around the country. It was rare to find a jukebox where his music wasn’t the most popular.
B.B.’s guitar is named Lucille. Named after a woman who enraged a man so much he set fire to the club B.B. was playing. He saved the guitar from the fire and he still has it today. You probably won’t hear the original Lucille at a concert –he uses encarnations of it-, but B.B. usually brings it with him.
To most of the world, B.B. King is the Blues greatest ambassador. His music has cut across cultural, political and social situations, relentless schedule of touring and recording.
Three o’clock blues by B.B.King (1956)
Well now its three oclock in the morning
And I cant even close my eyes
Three oclock in the morning baby
And I cant even close my eyes
Cant find my baby
And I cant be satisfied
Ive looked around me
And my baby she cant be found
Ive looked all around me, people
And my baby she cant be found
You know if I dont find my baby
Im going down to the golden ground
Thats where the men hang out
Goodbye, everybody
I believe this is the end
Oh goodbye everybody
I believe this is the end
I want you to tell my baby
Tell her please please forgive me
Forgive me for my sins
ROBERT CRAY
Born in August 1st in 1953 in Columbus, Georgia, belongs to the younger generation of Blues players –it could be argued that Cray more than any other individual was responsible for the revival of guitar based blues that began in the 1980s. Another of the artists who deviates from the pure Blues form –in his case by incorporating soul and rock influences- his vocals in particular are smoother than many of his contemporaries.
He hit big in 1983 with the album Bad Influence, although he had recorded an earlier debut record, Who’s Been Talking, which was reissued on the back of the success of the Bad Influence set.
Tineared critics have frequently damned him as a yuppie blues wannabe whose slickly soulful offerings bear scant resemblance to the real downhome item. In reality, Robert Cray is one of a precious few active blues artists with the talent and vision to successfully usher the idiom into the future without resorting either to slavish imitation or simply playing rock while passing it off as blues.
Just as importantly, his immensely popular records helped immeasurably to jumpstart the contemporary blues boom that still holds sway to this day. Blessed with a soulful voice that sometimes recalls '60s great O.V. Wright and a concise lead guitar approach that never wastes notes, Cray's ascendancy was amazingly swift in 1986 his breakthrough album, Strong Persuader, for Mercury (containing "Smoking Gun") won him a Grammy and shot his asking price for a night's work skyward.
Unlike too many of his peers, Cray continues to experiment within his two presiding genres, blues and soul. Sets such as Midnight Stroll, I Was Warned, and Shame + a Sin for Mercury show that the "bluenatics" (as he amusedly labels his purist detractors) have nothing to fear and plenty to anticipate from this innovative, laudably accessible guitarist. Sweet Potato Pie concluded Cray's stint at Mercury, and he moved to Rykodisc for two albums,
Take Your Shoes Off and Shoulda Been Home, both of which more fully embraced his soul leanings. Sanctuary Records was his next stop, where he further broadened his sound by including a couple antiwar protest songs and playing electric sitar on Time Will Tell (2003). Twenty, titled after another antiwar song, followed in 2005. Live from Across the Pond, which features material culled from seven nights at London's Royal Albert Hall, arrived in 2006.
I guess I showed her by Robert Cray band
(Intro)
I payed the clerk and moved right in
A single room with one big twin
There's a chest and mirror
Shower's down the hall
Room 16 ain't got no view
But the hot plate's brand new
I guess I showed her
I guess I showed her
Once again I've been burned
My suspicion's been confirmed
I saw her having lunch
With some new guy
I walked up and said, "Goodbye"
She said, "Wait, can we talk tonight?"
I guess I showed her
Mmmm, I guess I showed her
I guess I showed her
I guess I showed her
I guess I showed her that a man, yeah
Has his limits
Another man is where I draw the line
She can have the house
And everything that's in it
I guess I showed her, yeah
I guess I showed her
(Cool guitar solo)
She will be surprised
When she comes in tonight
Flips on the light
And finds an empty home
Yeah, every time she's lied
Will flash before her eyes
I guess I showed her, yeah, yeah
I guess I showed her
I guess I showed her, yeah, yeah
I guess I showed her
Now she can have the house
And she can keep the car
I'm just satisfied
Staying in this funky, little old motel
I'm so mad
Well I can't stand it
I can't stand it
Nooooooo!
JIMI HENDRIX
Hendrix was born in Seattle, Washington on November, 27, 1942 and he died in London, on September, 18, 1970.
His mother died when Jimi was 15 about the same time as Jimi began to take a serious interest in music and playing the guitar. When he was 12 he got his first electric guitar - the instrument which shaped the next 16 years of his life.
At the age of 16, Jimi was thrown out of school -apparently for holding the hand of a white girl in class - and he played rock'n'roll in teenage bands before voluntarily joining the army at 17.
The following four years were hard work touring the States playing back-up guitar for various R&B bands including Little Richard, Ike and Tina Turner, Wilson Pickett, the Isley Brothers and the late King Curtis among others. The conditions were not suited to his radical temperament and eventually he was drawn to New York 's Greenwich Village where he recorded with the Isley Brothers, Curtis Knight and various other artists.
England at this stage - late 1966 - was musically ruled by bands such as The Who, The Beatles and Cream with Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck standing alone as the three leading exponents of the electric guitar.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience was formed with Noel Redding on bass and Mitch Mitchell behind the drums and suddenly there was this black guy on the scene doing things with his guitar that were just not possible. Respect from his peers and adoration from the crowds was instantaneous. They toured Europe, breaking attendance records at one club after another, and then signed a recording contract.
A series of singles that all gained top 10 rank, followed. 'Hey Joe', 'Purple Haze' and 'The Wind Cries Mary ' made Jimi a star in England, setting the stage for his Monterey appearance.
Hey Joe by Jimi Hendrix
[1st verse [Oo-backing vocals on each line]]
Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun in your hand?
Hey Joe, I said where you goin' with that gun in your hand?
Alright. I'm goin down to shoot my old lady,
you know I caught her messin' 'round with another man.
Yeah,! I'm goin' down to shoot my old lady,
you know I caught her messin' 'round with another man.
Huh! And that ain't too cool.
[2nd verse [Ah. -backing vocal on each line]]
Uh, hey Joe, I heard you shot your woman down,
you shot her down.
Uh, hey Joe, I heard you shot you old lady down,
you shot her down to the ground. Yeah!
Yes, I did, I shot her,
you know I caught her messin' 'round,
messin' 'round town.
Uh, yes I did, I shot her
you know I caught my old lady messin' 'round town.
And I gave her the gun and I shot her!
Alright
(Ah! Hey Joe)
Shoot her one more time again, baby!
(Oo)
Yeah.
(Hey Joe!)
Ah, dig it!
(Hey)
Ah! Ah!
(Joe where you gonna go?)
Oh, alright.
[3rd verse]
Hey Joe, said now,
(Hey)
uh, where you gonna run to now, where you gonna run to?
Yeah.
(where you gonna go?)
Hey Joe, I said,
(Hey)
where you goin' to run
to now, where you, where you gonna go?
(Joe!)
Well, dig it!
I'm goin' way down south, way down south,
(Hey)
way down south to Mexico way! Alright!
(Joe)
I'm goin' way down south,
(Hey, Joe)
way down where I can be free!
(where you gonna...)
Ain't no one gonna find me babe!
(...go?)
Ain't no hangman gonna,
(Hey, Joe)
he ain't gonna put a rope around me!
(Joe where you gonna..)
You better belive it right now!
(...go?)
I gotta go now!
Hey, hey, hey Joe,
(Hey Joe)
you better run on down!
(where you gonna...)
Goodbye everybody. Ow!
(...go?)
Hey, hey Joe, what'd I say,
(Hey.......................Joe)
run on down.
(where you gonna go?)
RAY CHARLES
Born in Albany, Georgia on September, 23, 1930 and died on June, 10, 2004.
Brought up with a rough childhood, Ray Charles was blinded at the age of seven because of an accident while trying to save his brother from drowning. While this may have not been the cause of his blindness, the unfortunate event plagued Ray for the rest of his life. However, being a most gifted musician and singer, even while attending the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, Ray was able to practice music all the time and even composed music for his classmates.
In the mid-1950s, Ray Charles saw boundless success while recording singles. Here, he recorded such hits as I Got a Woman and Lonely Avenue. His fame grew even more when he began to perform live, offering the audience new takes on old favorites and even singing songs prior to their actual release date. He soon topped the charts with The Night Time is the Right Time.
Wanting artistic control over his music, Ray Charles moved to ABC records and performed an enchanting America the Beautiful. In his latter career, Charles saw the advantages of hopping onto the pop music arena and from thereon became internationally known for his appearances in both TV and film. A biography of Ray Charles referred to as a biopic was released in 2004. Actor Jamie Foxx depicts Ray Charles’ remarkable life and career. His portrayal won him an Academy Award for his role.
Ray Charles was taken into Police custody in 1965 after investigators found heroin in his possession. While that was a repeated offense, he made a deal that he would join a rehabilitation clinic. Upon his release, he had kicked the habit. Following, his career was both up and down, but he remained in the public’s eye by performing concerts all over the U.S. In The Blues Brothers, Ray Charles makes a cameo and sings on film. With the film’s popularity, people began searching for more types of soul music. Although he had a personal life that was up and down, along with a musical career that spanned decades, Ray Charles became an iconic representative of American mainstream music.
I got a woman by Ray Charles
well
I got a woman way over town that's good to me oh yeah
Say I got a woman way over town good to me oh yeah
She give me money when Im in need
Yeah she's a kind of friend indeed
I got a woman way over town that's good to me oh yeah
She saves her lovin early in the morning just for me oh yeah
She saves her lovin early in the morning just for me oh yeah
She saves her lovin just for me oh she love me so tenderly
I got a woman way over town that's good to me oh yeah
Sax Solo
She's there to love me both day and night
Never grumbles or fusses always treats me right
Never runnin in the streets and leavin me alone
She knows a womans place is right there now in her home
I got a woman way over town that's good to me oh yeah
Say I got a woman way over town that's good to me oh yeah
Oh she's my baby now don't you understand
Yeah and I'm her lover man
I got a woman way over town that's good to me oh yeah
A Don't ya know she's alright
A Don't ya know she's alright
she's alright she's alright
Whoa yeah oh yeah oh
MA RAINEY
Gertrude Pridgett was born on April 26, 1886 in Columbus, Georgia. Her stage career got its start with a song and dance troupe when she was only 14. In 1902, she heard her first blues song at a theater in St. Louis. She adopted the blues style for her shows, and quickly made it her own.
Pridgett married travelling entertainer Will “Pa” Rainey in 1904. Together they toured throughout the southern United States as “Ma & Pa Rainey and Assassinators of the Blues”. Ma would later become a solo act with several names, such as “Paramount Wildcat” (because of her relationship with Paramount Records) and “Gold Necklace Woman of the Blues”.
The period of history in which Ma Rainey lived didn’t provide many opportunities for success for an African American woman living in the Southern United States. Rainey didn’t sign a recording contract until 1923, after 25 years of performing for her loyal fans. She released over 100 songs during a six year recording career including: “C.C. Rider” (or “See See Rider”), “Jelly Bean Blues”, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”, and “Bo Weevil Blues”. In a few short years, Rainey led the transformation of Paramount Records from a subsidiary of a furniture company into a major record label.
Ma Rainey continued performaing for another seen years after her last recording in 1928. Quite often her audiences were racially segregated, or een exclusive. Her performance attire was extravagantly accesorized with sequins, diamonds and her trademark necklace made of gold coins. She performed with Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith and Thomas Dorsey. Despite all of the trappings of fame, Rainey remained loyal to her southern, rural roots and to her audience.
Ma Rainey liked her women.
“Went out last night with a crowd of my friends,
They must have been women, ‘cause I don’t like no men.
Wear my clothes just like a fan, talk to gals just like any old man
‘cause they say I do it, ain’t nobody caught me, sure got to prove it on me”.
“Prove It On Me” – Recorded by Ma Rainey in 1928
The newsaper ad that promoted the release of “Prove It On Me” featured Ma Rainey dressed in a man’s suit flirting with two other woman. Rainey was also outspoken on women’s issues and was seen as a role model for future women entertainers who took control of their own careers.
Ma Rainey was arrested in Chicago in 1925 when police responded to a noise complaint and found a room full of naked women in “intimate” situations. Rainey spent the night in jail for hosting an “indecent party” and was bailed out the following morning by her friend and fellow blues isnger Bassie Smith. Some accounts link Smith and Rainey romantically, but no one is sure. But it is clear that Ma made no secret of her bisexuality.
The popularity of the classics women blues singer declined in the 1930’s. Rainey retired to her home town of Columbus after her mother and sister died in 1935. There she managed two theaters that she had purchased with her earnings. She became active in the “Congregation of Friendship” Baptist Church where her brother was a deacon.
When Ma Rainey died on December 22, 1939 from heart disease, the obituary in the local paper listed her as a housekeeper by profession. However, her contribution to American culture and music has been honored by time.
Today, Ma Rainey is known as the “Mother of the Blues”.
Blues and booze by Ma Rainey
Went to bed last night, and boy I was in my sleep, sleep
I went to bed last night, and I was in my sleep
Woke up this mornin', the police was shakin' me
I went to the jailhouse, drunk and blues as I could be (2x)
But that cruel old judge sent my man away from me
They carried me to the courthouse, Lordy, how I was cryin' (2x)
They jailed me sixty days in jail, and money couldn't pay my fine
Sixty days ain't long if you can spend them as you choose (2x)
But this seems like jail than a cell where there ain't no booze
My life is all a misery when I cannot get my booze (2x)
I spend every dime on liquor, got to have the booze to go with these blues
BUDDY GUY
Born in Louisiana and discovered in Chicago, Buddy Guy has gone on to define the modern electric Blues sound. Though never a huge commercial success, his artistry has always received critical acclaim from Blues fans and musical peers around the world. A true Blues Guitar Master.
Eric Clapton has called him the world's greatest guitar player. Buddy does so much more that just play the guitar, he plays with the guitar. Plucking the strings with his teeth had to inspire younger guitarists who were soon to be on the scene, like Jimi Hendrix
Buddy was a session player for Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, and Koko Taylor to name a few.
Buddy started his music career in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and relocated to Chicago in 1957. It didn't take long before he was sharing the same stage with Magic Sam, Luther Allison, and Otis Rush, helping create the "Westside Sound" of Chicago Blues.
Taking advantage of every possible sound a guitar and amplifier can make, without special effects, Buddy can make his instrument talk as coherently as normal conversation. He plays words, not notes.
Buddy has won more W.C. Handy Awards than any other Blues artist.
Buddy teamed up with harmonica master Junior Wells in the late 1960s. They were known as the Blues Brothers long before Jake and Elwood.
Buddy owns Chicago's premier Blues club, "Buddy Guy's Legends".
Buddy continues to tour and make appearances at his Chicago club. He has even been known to stir up a pot of gumbo in the kitchen and serve his guests after the show. Now that's some Blues hospitality!
You damn right, I've got the blues by Buddy Guy
From my head down to my shoes
You damn right, I've got the blues,
From my head down to my shoes
I can't win, cause I don't have a thing to lose
I stopped by my daughters house
You know I just want to use the pone
I stopped by my daughters house
You know I just want to use the pone
You know my new grand baby came to the door
And said, granddaddy you know ain't no one at home
I said now look out
You damn right, I've got the blues,
From my head down to my shoes
You damn right, I've got the blues,
From my head down to my shoes
You know I can't win, now people, cause I don't have a thing to lose
Alright
You damn right, I've got the blues,
You damn right, I've got the blues,
You damn right, I've got the blues,
You damn right, I've got the blues,
Yeah
ERIC CLAPTON
EricClapton was born in Ripley, England, on March, 30, 1945.
Eric Clapton is probably most famous for his mastery of the Stratocaster guitar. Clapton was a guitarist in quite a few bands, before he first found chart success with the Yardbirds in the mid-sixties. Their single, 'For Your Love', reached number two in the UK chart in 1964. From this point on his skill as a distinctive guitarist was revered.
He joined John Mayall's Bluebreakers briefly, and then formed Cream in 1966. The unwanted fame that Clapton found in this trio led him to produce work under different names. He and George Harrison worked together under the names Delaney and Bonnie. It was whilst he was part of Derek and the Dominos that he wrote one of his most famous tracks, 'Layla'.
He was a popular guest guitarist and worked with artists such as The Beatles, Aretha Franklin and Frank Zappa. He released his first solo album, entitled 'Eric Clapton', in 1970. This showed the strong influence of JJ Cale on his work.
Throughout the early seventies he was battling with heroin addiction, which he overcame through acupuncture and a short retirement.
His next solo album of 1974 was entitled '461 Ocean Boulevard' and again showed off his mellow guitar playing. His version of Bob Marley's 'I Shot the Sheriff' was on this album, and reached number one as a single.
He continued his solo recordings in the seventies and eighties with albums such as 'No Reason To Cry', 'Backless' and 'Behind The Sun'. Phil Collins produced his 1986 album, 'August',which was said to be his best work in years.
In the early nineties Clapton was struck by tragedy; three members of his crew were killed in a helicopter crash, and his young son died in another tragic accident within a year.
He has continued to play and record, and his 1997 album, 'Pilgrim', was critically acclaimed.
Blues Before Sunrise lyrics
I have the blues before sunrise, tears standing in my eyes.
I have the blues before
sunrise, tears standing in my eyes.
It was a miserable feeling, now babe, a feeling I do despise.
I have to leave, leave you baby, because you know you done me wrong.
I have to leave you baby, because you know you done me wrong.
I'm gonna pack up and leave you darling and break up my happy home.
I have to leave, leave you baby, I'm gonna leave you all alone.
I'm gonna leave you baby, I'm gonna leave you all alone.
I'm gonna pack up and leave you darling because you know you done me wrong.
Well now goodbye, goodbye baby, I'll see you on some rainy day.
Well now goodbye baby, I'll see you on some rainy day.
You can go ahead now little darling, 'cause I want you to have your way.
KOKO TAYLOR
“Blues is my life. It’s a true feeling that comes from the heart, not just something that comes out of my mouth. Blues is what I love, and singing the blues is what I always do”.
Born Cora Walton in Memphis, Koko Taylor grew up on a sharecropper farm and sang at the local Baptist church. Even though her father encouraged her to sing only gospel music, Koko and her brothers would sneak out back with their homemade instruments and play the blues.As a youngster, Koko listened to as many blues artists as she could. Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie were particular influences, as were Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson.
She married in 1953 and moved to Chicago where she would thrive in the urban Blues scene of the 1950's and 60's. Discovered by Blues genius Willie Dixon, who told her, “My God, I never heard a woman sing the blues like you sing the blues. There are lots of men singing the blues today, but not enough women. That’s what the world needs today, a woman with a voice like yours to sing the blues”. Dixon first recorded Koko for USA Records and then secured a Chess recording contract for her. He produced several singles and two albums for her –including her huge 1966 hit single Wang Dang Doodle- firmly establishing Koko as the world’s number one female blues talent.
With her arrival to national prominence, Taylor's timing was perfect to cross-over to white audiences, just when the black audiences were leaving the Blues. Her formidable performances endeared her to new white music fans who had just discovered Chicago's urban Blues through artists like Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf.
Koko won a Grammy in 1984 and has won more W.C. Handy Awards that any other female Blues artist.
An accident in 1988, and the subsequent death of her husband, took her from the scene for a couple years, but she returned and has been able to keep her special Blues alive. Koko still makes appearances at festivals around the world (in the Jazz Festival of Vitoria-Gasteiz, but more often than not she is playing in the mid-west region of the United states. She has earned the title Queen of the Blues.
You can have my husband by Koko Taylor
YOU CAN HAVE MY HUSBAND
BUT PLEASE DON'T MESS WITH MY MAN (R)
I'M TELLIN ALL YOU GIRLS
I WANT YOU ALL TO UNDERSTAND
WELL THE MONEY MY HUSBAND MADE
WAS FOR RED BEANS & RICE
MY MAN COOKS ME STEAKS
NOW AIN'T THAT NICE
CHORUS
SOLO
WELL WHEN I WAS WITH MY HUSBAND
HE WAS REALLY MEAN
BUT NOW WITH MY MAN
HE TREATS ME LIKE A QUEEN
CHORUS
WELL, MY MAN HE'S LITTLE
AND HE LOOKS LIKE A FROG
BUT WHEN HE STARTS TO LOVE ME
I HOLLER, OOH, HOT DOG
CHORUS
DON'T MESS WITH HIM, guitar
HE'S MINE
BETTER DON'T WAIT GIRL, guitar
AND I AIN'T LYIN
YOU CAN HAVE MY HUSBAND
BUT PLEASE DON'T MESS WITH MY MAN.
ALBERT KING
His real name was Albert Nelson and was born in April 25th in 1923 in Indianola, Mississippi. He was one of the premier electric guitar stylists of the post-World Was II period. By playing left-handed and holding hid guitar upside-down (with tha strings set for a right-handed player), and by concentrating on tone and intensity more than flash, King fashined over his long career, a sound that was both distinctive and highly influential. He was a master of the songle-string solo and could bend strings to produce a particularly tormented blues sound that set his style apart from his contemporaries. A number of prominent artists, from Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix to Mike Bloomfield and Stevie Ray Vaughan, borrowed heavily from King’s guitar style.
King was born in Mississippi and taught himself how to play on a homemade guitar.
He worked with several record labels in the fifties, but he didn’t become a major blues figure until after he signed with Stax Records in 1966. Working with Booker T and the MGs, King created a blues sound that was laced with Memphis soul trains. They recorded the album Born Under a Bad Sign (1967), for example. Many songs of this album, like “Crosscut Saw”, became classics and King got popularity into the blues circuits, especially with rock guitarrists, who imitated his guita solos. His following album with Stax Records was recorded in live in the famous Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. It contains the hit “Watermelon man”. Not only was the first blues artist to play the legendary San Francisco rock venue the Fillmore West, but he was also on the debut bill, sharing the stage opening night in 1968 with Jimi Hendrix and John Mayall. He was also one of the first bluesman to record with a symphony orchestra: in 1969 he performed with the St. Louis Symphony, triumphantly bringing together the blues and classical music, if only for a fleeting moment.
During the 1970s, trumpets and saxos introduction, added a basic aelement in his music, even after finishing his contract with Stax. King toured extensively, often playing to rock and soul crowds. He left Stax in 1974 to record for independent labels like Tomato and Fantasy. He continued touring throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, playing festivals and concerts, often with B.B. King.
He died of a heart attack in 1992, just prior to starting a major European tour.
WATERMELON MAN by Albert King
Hey - Watermelon Man
Hey - Watermelon Man
Bring me one that rattles when you lug it
One that's erd and juicy when you plug it
Do you understand - Watermelon Man
Hey - Watermelon Man
Hey - Watermelon Man
Hot and bothered need a little cooling
When I hear your call I start to drooling
Do you understand - Watermelon Man
FREDDIE KING
Freddie was born in Gilmer, Texas, on September 3, in 1934 with the given name of Freddie King to Ella May King and J.T. Christian. His father’s mother told him that her grandfather (who was a full-blooded Choctaw Indian) prophesied to her that she would have a child that will stir the souls of millions and inspire and influence generations. His grandmother and her brother Leon played the guitar. Freddie’s mother recognized early her first born interest in music. She and her brother Leon began teaching him to play rural country blues at the age of six. His early music heroes were Sam Lightnin Hopkins (who he credits his proficiency of the sown home thumb-finger picken style) and Louis Jordan (the jump blues saxophonist).
He had to pick up cotton till earn enough money to buy his first guitar, a silverstone acoustic.
Freddie King traveled a common Blues journey. Born in Texas, his family moved to Chicago when he was a teenager. Though he is no relation to B.B. or Albert King, his influence, especially among Blues guitarists, has been legendary.
Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and Stevie Ray Vaughan have all have given him loving recognition and tall props.
Gotta love a man who gave us The Bossa Nova Watusi Twist.
Freddie King was a double threat on vocals and guitar. His hits Country Boy, Have You Ever Loved a Woman, and the Blues anthem You've Got to Love Her with a Feeling became standards for future Blues singers. Hits like Hide Away and Stumble have become Blues guitar classics. I'm Tore Down hit the charts twice. Freddie's original, and Eric Clapton's cover on his 1994 release From the Cradle.
Hide Away was named after a popular bar in Chicago.
King's voice was light and airy. His intensity would come out in his guitar. The contrast of these talents was Freddie King's signature style. At the start of the 60's, King recorded instrumental records. In 1965 he cut Freddy King Gives You a Bonanza of Instrumentals. His later hits were vocal performances.
Freddie King recorded for numerous labels including Chess, Federal, Atlantic, and Leon Russell's Shelter Records. His last record, Burglar, was produced by Clapton for RSO Records in 1974.
Freddie's great backup bands were some of the first racially integrated Blues outfits. They toured with bigger rock acts in the early seventies, bringing the Blues to a new audience. Many a rock fan walked away from those shows remembering Freddie instead of the big act they came to see.
Freddie King died of a heart attack in Dallas, Texas in 1976 at the age of 42.
You’ve got to love her with a feeling by Freddy King (1967)
