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Leading off with something Bri said about Mississippi John Hurt and the video he was talking about. This was before he finished up EP177, so I think he got his wish, “wow check him out…on the ’12 string’ playing ‘Casey Jones’ so plenty of viewing there for me over the holidays and get my mojo fired back up and brain sparking again.”
I really do love preparing these Blues Roots posts, so they’re among the last things I want to stop doing, but sometimes, like last week, it was necessary. I was overloaded with work.
As if on cue, just after I missed last week, I met Ed Parker online, someone who’s been doing something similar to what I do here for a long while. Over the course of 15 years, he compiled 15 CDs of blues songs and descendants. He called it Yer Blues…and he provided the list of songs to me. It’s really impressive—let’s give Ed a round of applause; I’ve invited him to check out this post and the rest of the website (it’s never too late to learn to play the guitar). One of the things Ed mentioned about the CDs he created, they were all made from recordings he owned.
Each week for roughly the next 4 months, I’m going to be making playlists from his list, following as closely to his list as is possible (not excising something because I don’t care for it or adding my own favorites), and also drawing upon the content to create some of my weekly posts (that’s where I’ll make some adds and cuts). I did add a note about a song I couldn’t locate, and a footnote. Some of what I found were songs I’d already covered, but there are some here with connections I was completely unaware of—wait till you see some of these! This week, the first volume is below.
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“I GET A THRILL” WYNONIE HARRIS
“I GET A THRILL” THE HONEYDRIPPERS“LOVE MY BABY” LITTLE JUNIOR PARKER’S BLUE FLAMES
“LOVE MY BABY” PAUL BURLISON with KIM WILSON (can’t locate on YouTube)“LITTLE GENEVA” MUDDY WATERS
“LITTLE GENEVA” BO RAMSEY“MILK COW BLUES” KOKOMO ARNOLD
“MILK COW BLUES” BOB WILLS
“MILKCOW BLUES BOOGIE” ELVIS PRESLEY
“MILK COW BLUES” RICKY NELSON
“MILK COW BLUES” AEROSMITH“CHICKEN SHACK BOOGIE” AMOS MILBURN
“CHICKEN SHACK BOOGIE” WILLIE & THE POOR BOYS“BLUES STAY AWAY FROM ME” THE DELMORE BROTHERS
“BLUES STAY AWAY FROM ME” GENE VINCENT & THE BLUE CAPS“GOOD ROCKING TONIGHT” ROY BROWN
“GOOD ROCKIN’ TONIGHT” WYNONIE HARRIS
“GOOD ROCKIN’ TONIGHT” ELVIS PRESLEY“I GOT LOVE IF YOU WANT IT” SLIM HARPO
“GOT LOVE IF YOU WANT IT” WARREN SMITH
“I GOT LOVE IF YOU WANT IT” THE KINKS
“GOT LOVE IF YOU WANT IT” THE YARDBIRDS“FUJIYAMA MAMA” ANNISTEEN ALLEN
“FUJIYAMA MAMA” WANDA JACKSON“FEELIN’ GOOD” LITTLE JUNIOR PARKER’S BLUE FLAMES*
“FEELIN’ GOOD” SONNY BURGESS“JAMES ALLEY BLUES” RICHARD “RABBIT” BROWN
“JAMES ALLEY BLUES” DAVID JOHANSEN*This song was also notably covered by Magic Sam; it’s the third song on his West Side Soul. I think it had to have been one of the inspirations for his “Lookin’ Good” on that same album.
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Thanks also to Ed for this section. This is where it started, in a way. He’d commented about this on Facebook and I asked him if I could pick up on it for Our Blues Roots; he kindly allowed me to.
Delta blues singer and guitarist Blind Joe Reynolds died on March 10, 1968 coincidentally, the same day that Cream’s hit live version of Robert Johnson’s “Cross Road Blues” was recorded. In November 1929 (according to the Wikipedia post), Blind Joe recorded “Outside Woman Blues.”
Cream covered it on their second album, Disraeli Gears, using Reynolds’ arrangement and giving him writing credit.
However, the song was first recorded in July 1927 by blues queen Ida Cox as “’Fore Day Creep” a shortening of before day creep (often spelled “’Four Day Creep”).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww4-tU4PIR0This version has Charlie Christian on guitar. The label in the video shows the other players, the cream of the jazz world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzxrK3p3tgMHumble Pie recorded “Four Day Creep” at the Fillmore East in May 1971. It was the first song on Performance: Rockin’ the Fillmore
(November 1971). They credited Ida Cox as well. But other than the title, do you hear any similarities?
While talking about this, it seems like a good time to mention that when the blues first became widely known as a popular music, it was women like Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Lucille Bogan, Ida Cox, Chippie Hill, Lil Green backed by pianos and sometimes brass and wind instruments, sometimes drums, who represented the genre, on recordings anyway. On August 10, 1920, Mamie Smith “Crazy Blues,” which is usually referred to as the first blues recording.
On October 23, 1923, Sara Martin recorded “Longing for Daddy Blues” and “I’ve Got to Go and Leave My Daddy Behind,” the first recordings to employ guitar accompaniment, in the person of Sylvester Weaver.
Ten days later, on November 2, 1923, he recorded his own “Guitar Blues” and “Guitar Rag,” the first solo blues guitar recordings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1mHGnfa6CI
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March 15, 1911 – January 30, 1982
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOI5y1ZUXVc&index=1&list=PLsY6VJc9zDqn1gv0fXsflDUHrcwcPC4MD
Don D.
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Thanks for checking this out and for your comments.
I didn’t know ARS did this. Thanks especially for mentioning that.
I’m sorry, there’s a word missing above in the paragraph referring to “Crazy Blues,” the first blues recording. It should read “Sara Martin recorded ‘Crazy Blues’…”.
There’s also an extra line break, only apparent to me on the mobile version.
Don’t mean to belabor these mistakes; just want you to know I attempt to put them together right.
Don D.
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