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Don D..
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November 22, 2017 at 2:48 pm #85290
Since the last Blues Roots, I got a copy of Magic Sam’s Blues Band! The Late, Great Magic Sam, which puts me close to having heard all of his recordings (2 songs below from this album). One thing about him is that his rhythm playing is accessible and easier to come close to than a lot of other people’s. That doesn’t mean it’s any easier to reproduce the effect of his music; not only is his singing full of emotion but his singing voice is very nearly perfectly matched to his guitar tone. He’s a monster of that very individualized technique, a melding of instrument and voice.
Since I usually do these in chronological order, I’ll mention this Blues Roots isn’t—it just turned out this way. Magic Sam sings and plays guitar on everything in his section (except instrumentals), so I won’t mention that each time. So many great songs, here’s a selection that I hope will move you to continue listening.
Thanks for checking this out. I’ll be out with my family tomorrow so I’m posting today. Those of you celebrating Thanksgiving, enjoy! The next Blues Roots will appear on Thursday, December 7.
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Magic Sam is one of my favorite musicians, and I have a feeling he is already pretty popular here (Samuel Gene Maghett, born in Grenada County Mississippi on February 14, 1937; he died in Chicago on December 1, 1969).Many of Magic Sam’s songs were an amalgam of blues and soul, like his “That’s All I Need,” which is based on a riff very similar to the one in Brian’s ML020 . The version below is from Live at the Avant Garde, June 22, 1968, featuring a trio with Big Mojo Elem (bass) and Bob Richey (drums). Of all the live albums (released in the last 25 years or so), this one has the best sound overall, highly recommended.
All of the concert recordings are worth hearing, each one has a few songs not on the others (as well as some recurring favorites). Since he released only two brilliant albums, that leaves people like me wanting more. One great one is the one he made with Shakey Jake (his uncle by marriage, and another early mentor) at Sylvio’s in 1966, Magic Touch—Magic Sam & Shakey Jake: Live At Sylvio’s (the original issue was mislabeled 1968, some of the subsequent reissues continue that mistake). “Just Like a Fish” is one that gets stuck in my ears. Does the emcee’s voice sound familiar? It’s Howlin’ Wolf at one of his hangouts during that period.
His best-known song in the present, especially in our circle, is probably “Looking Good” (aka “Sam’s Boogie”), best-known from the great live rendition on YouTube (filmed at an American Folk Blues Festival concert in Germany in 1969 along with “All Your Love”). The live videos are the first ones in the playlist below; the numbers I give throughout below refer to where songs are within this list.
“Looking Good” probably developed at least in part as a result of playing Little Junior Parker’s “Feeling Good” in concert dozens if not hundreds of times (directly below). Sam’s own version of “Feeling Good,” titled “I Feel So Good (I Wanna Boogie),” appears on West Side Soul , ☆☆☆☆☆ along with “Looking Good,” “All Your Love” and 8 others (West Side Soul [below] can also be found at number 6 on the playlist, and as individual songs between approx. 91 and 101, followed by his other studio album, Black Magic , ☆☆☆☆☆ from approx. 102 to 111).
Little Junior Parker “Feeling Good” 1953. The guitar part in Junior Parker’s “Feeling Good” boogie sounds like the A chord on the second fret and bouncing between the the E note in the chord on the 2nd fret of the 4th string to the 5th fret on the 4th string (the note is G); from what I can hear, there isn’t any significant fretting on the 5th string in Junior Parker’s song.
“I Feel So Good (I Wanna Boogie)” 1967
West Side Soul, 1967
Brian did a lesson in the style of “Looking Good,” EP152.
Magic Sam’s first official release, “Love Me With a Feeling,” a bouncing, bounding first-person take with either Mac Thompson or Willie Dixon on bass (sounds like they don’t know), Bill Stepney on drums (Bill Stepney often played with Memphis Slim and Matt Guitar Murphy), Chicago, May 1957 (contrast this song with the third-person narrative on the song Freddie King did in 1960 as “Love Her With a Feeling”).
Hound Dog Taylor, Earl Hooker, Freddie King, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy and Magic Sam crossed paths, traded tips and seemed to be friends. I’m not sure that they were all friends with each other, but there are stories that link some of them with the others, so all are loosely linked. Eddie Taylor was older and more experienced; he had been the rhythm guitarist with both John Lee Hooker and Jimmy Reed on their Vee-Jay recordings (Eddie Taylor is the guy who taught Jimmy Reed to play the guitar in the first place, and who developed the shuffle rhythm they used; while his solid backup was vital to John Lee Hooker’s sound, he WAS Jimmy Reed for all intents and purposes). Eddie Taylor also taught both Magic Sam and Freddie King something on the guitar (oh man, wouldn’t you love to know what that was?).
Magic Sam’s cover of “Hideaway” comes in at 1:16:20 on this live recording (the story in the “Origins” section of the article at the link will give you an idea of some of their connections).
Magic Sam’s “Do the Camel Walk” (1961)
He reused a lot of the same riffs, with variations, on a number of his songs; the most notable instance is on “All Your Love” (1957) and “Easy Baby” (1958) use similar B minor riffs (something odd about the music being so similar; Willie Dixon got 100% writing credit on “Easy Baby” while Sam had the writing credit on the earlier “All Your Love”).
“My Love Will Never Die” (composed by Willie Dixon, first recorded by Otis Rush in 1957) and “I Found a New Love,” both from West Side Soul (1967). “I Found a New Love” is another one that sounds like “All Your Love” and “Easy Baby”; my point about these having similar structures isn’t that he was “cheating” or a substandard songwriter, but showing how far a little change here and there can go.
“Bad Luck Blues” with Eddie Shaw on tenor from 1966 uses the same riff.
“My Love Is Your Love” with the Ammons Sisters uses it.
There’s a string of informal-sounding home recordings between about 74 and 87 on the playlist. You can hear household noises, including children’s voices, in the background in a few of them.
One thing you won’t find here are the demo recordings made by jazz/blues guitarist Ron Thompson. Through no fault of his own, those recordings were taken by an unscrupulous producer and packaged as Magic Sam’s. Anyone with half an ear can tell they aren’t Sam, and that they were recorded at after he had passed. Some are titled “E.J.’s Things,” “Chi-Town Blues,” “West Side Shuffle,” “Sly ’n Sleazy,” “Rush Street,” “Blues Before Dawn,” “Black Magic Blues” (they’re sold with album titles like Genius, The Final Sessions and Chi-Town Blues; if you want to hear for yourself, they’re at the YouTube Magic Sam topic page). Another giveaway is they’re all instrumentals, Sam liked to sing.
“Everything Gonna Be Alright” (1958)
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Mighty Joe Young played rhythm guitar on West Side Soul. Here are some of his other musical contributions.
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I found this article by Jas Obrecht, “‘Dust My Broom’ The Story of a Song,” the other day. It’s a lot like what I try to do here; thought you would like it.This excerpt covers what I’m sure a lot of us would like to know:
“What exactly does ‘dust my broom’ mean? In the 1800s, the expression ‘get up and dust’ meant to leave in a hurry. Long before that, ‘dust’ was commonly used as a synonym for ‘depart.’ Perhaps it’s biblical in origin. In the Gospel of Matthew, 10:14, Jesus Christ says: ‘And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.’ In other words, complete dissociation. One thing is certain: In the Depression-era South, where the song probably originated, ‘dust my broom’ meant to get out of town in a hurry. Big Joe Williams, who grew up in the Mississippi Delta, explained it as ‘leaving for good,’ as in ‘I’m putting you down. I won’t be back no more’.”Even though it makes perfect sense, I can’t help but wonder if there’s more to it.
Don D.
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