Blues – Page 3 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

John Hiatt – Memphis In The Meantime

Underneath a pork pie hatUntil hell freezes overMaybe you can wait that longBut I don’t think Ronnie Milsap’s gonna everRecord this song

I somehow missed this Hiatt song. I absolutely love the guitar on this track. Come to find out there is a reason I like it. Ry Cooder is on guitar, Nick Lowe on bass, Jim Keltner on drums, and Paul Carrack on keyboards and backing vocals. Later on, B.B. King and Eric Clapton covered this song.

Hiatt had only four days to make an album and this song kicked off his 1987 album Bring The Family. The song has a cool groove and shuffle to it. Hiatt was in Nashville at the time when he took a trip with his family to Memphis which of course inspired this song.

He mentions Ronnie Milsap in this song. At the time Nashville was known to make slick country songs. They would produce the soul out of a song. Milsap was listening though. On his next album, he recorded a John Hiatt song called Old Habits Are Hard To Break and yes… he inserted some Memphis funk in the song. Probably more than Hiatt could have thought at the time. Another thing that was happening at this time was Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle were shaking Nashville out of its rut.

Hiatt found himself drawn to the city’s renowned musical history and culture. I’m not sure how it was in the 1980s as much but now on Beale Street, there is always something interesting going on.

John Hiatt: “It sounds like a car with four bald tires, it’s like a four-man groove sputtering down the road, and I really like the record for that.”

John Hiatt: “It’s a day trip, only three hours, and it’s a terrific city, I’d been there before and there is truly something in the air, although there’s nothing going on musically speaking, they say. It’s just a great town and one of the only truly integrated cities in America, it seemed to me, where black people and white people actually live together in the neighborhoods and not only that, seem to get along I was real impressed by that.”

John Hiatt and The Goners…featuring Sonny Landreth…I really like this live cut. They add another dimension to the song.

Memphis in the Meantime

I got some’n’ to say little girlYou might not like my styleBut we been hangin’ around this townJust a little too long a whileYou say you’re gonna get your act togetherGonna take it out on the roadBut if I don’t get out o’ here pretty soonMy head’s going to explodeSure I like country musicAnd I like mandolinsBut right now I need a TelecasterThrough a Vibrolux turned up to 10

Let’s go to Memphis in the meantime babyAhw, Memphis in the meantime girlLet’s go to Memphis in the meantime babyMemphis in the meantime girl

I need a little shot of that rhythm babyMixed up with these country bluesI wanna trade in these ol’ cowboy bootsFor some fine Italian shoesForget the mousse and the hairspray sugarWe don’t need none of thatJust a little dab’ll do ya girlUnderneath a pork pie hatUntil hell freezes overMaybe you can wait that longBut I don’t think Ronnie Milsap’s gonna everRecord this song

Lets go to Memphis in the meantime babyLet’s go to Memphis in the meantime girlLets go to Memphis in the meantime babyLet’s go to Memphis in the meantime girl

Maybe there’s nothin’ happenin’ thereBut maybe there’s somethin’ in the airBefore our upper lips get stiffMaybe we need us a big ol’ whiff

If we could just get off-a that beat little girlMaybe we could find the grooveAt least we can get ourselves a decent mealDown at the Rendezvous‘Cause one more heartfelt steel guitar chordGirl, it’s gonna do me inI need to hear some trumpet and saxophoneYou know sound as sweet as sinAnd after we get good and greasyBaby we can come on homePut the cow horns back on the CadillacAnd change the message on the CordaphoneBut

Lets go to Memphis in the meantime babyLet’s go to Memphis in the meantime girlLets go to Memphis in the meantime babyLet’s go to Memphis in the meantime girl

I’m a talking about MemphisI’m talkin’ ’bout MemphisMemphis

…

Powerhouse – I Want To Know

Last week I ran across the one-off “supergroup” The Buzzin’ Cousins that John Mellencamp formed with Joe Ely, Dwight Yoakam, John Prine, and James McMurtry. I thought I would look around for any more that I don’t know about.

Many of you probably know this band but I had no clue about it. It’s been called different things like Eric Clapton’s Powerhouse. This band featured Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Steve Winwood, Paul Jones (Manfred Man) Pete York (Spencer Davis Group drummer), and Ben Palmer (piano, previously played with Clapton and Jones as a member of the Roosters and the Grands) and they recorded this in 1966.

This was meant to be and was a short-term one-off band that included some heavy players back in the day and huge historically. They recorded three songs that appeared on the Elektra Records compilation What’s Shakin’ in 1966. A fourth song, “Slow Blues”, was recorded but remains unreleased to this day.

It’s been said that I Want To Know was written by Paul Jones but he used his wife’s name in the credit…Sheila McLeod. I would guess for contract reasons. Also due to contractual restrictions, Stevie Winwood is listed as Steve Angulo. The songs are I Want To Know (Shelia McLeod), Steppin Out (Memphis Slim), and Crossroad (Robert Johnson) which Cream would later cover.

Later on these songs were released on collections by Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Steve Winwood. This was around the time that Jack Bruce was in Manfred Man.

Here is a link to the complete album on youtube.

I’m going to include their released discography here…all three songs.

I Want To Know

I want to know why do you always run around
I want to know why do you always run around
Every man I know is watching you pull me down
I want to know, do you really mean to hurt me
I want to know, do you really mean to hurt me
Well, I’m tryin’ to understand the dirty way you always treat me
I want to know if I can come home every night
I want to know if I can come home every night
Well, oh woman, oh woman, why can’t you try to treat me right

I wanna know, I wanna know
Hey hey I want want, I wanna know, oo oh
All right, what do you say
Well woman, oh woman, why can’t you try to treat me right

Taj Mahal – Leaving Trunk

The harmonica intro to this song is dirty as hell. You can hear the slide cutting in like a knife while the rhythm is chugging along. The song was written by Sleepy John Estes, son of a Tennessee sharecropper and blind in one eye, in 1930. He wrote it as Milk Cow Blues. It was recorded in Memphis with piano, mandolin, and Este’s guitar.

Leaving Trunk was on Taj Mahal’s self-titled debut album released in 1968. Like Ry Cooder two years after…he had a great band backing him up. On slide guitar and harmonica is Taj Mahal. The great Jesse Ed Davis is on slide guitar also on this album as well as Ry Cooder on rhythm guitar.

He covered songs written by Estes, Robert Johnson, himself, Sonny Boy Williamson II, and Blind Willie McTell. Leaving Trunk is a song that has been covered by many artists over the years, and it continues to be a favorite among blues fans. Secondhandsongs.com says it has 39 different versions to date. Everyone from Bob Willis to The Black Keys has covered this song. This album played a big part in influencing Duane Allman with Statesboro Blues.

I’ve listened to this album in the past few days I’ve been off of work. I’ve been rotating this one and the debut album of Ry Cooder. The slide guitar work on this album is blistering. I can’t state the importance of this album enough. I can see why Duane Allman was so inspired by it. I won’t go through the complete story but Duane was sick with a cold and his brother Gregg gave him a bottle of Coricidin and this album for Duane’s birthday. Below Gregg Allman tells it.

Gregg Allman: And then I looked on the table and all these little red pills, the Coricidin pills, were on the table. He had washed the label off that pill bottle, poured all the pills out. He put on that Taj Mahal record, with Jesse Ed Davis playing slide on “Statesboro Blues,” and starting playing along with it. When I’d left those pills by his door, he hadn’t known how to play slide. From the moment that Duane put that Coricidin bottle on his ring finger, he was just a natural.

Looking back on it, I think that learning to play slide was a changing moment in his life, because it was like he was back in his childhood—or maybe not his childhood, because it never seemed to me like Duane was a child, so it was more like going back to his first days of playing the guitar. He took to the slide instantly and mastered it very quickly. He practiced for hours and hours at a time, playing that thing with a passion—just like he did when he first learned to play the guitar.

Leaving Trunk

I went upstairs to pack my leavin’ trunk
I ain’t see no blues, whiskey made me sloppy drunk
I ain’t never seen no whiskey, the blues made me sloppy drunk
I’m going back to Memphis babe, where I’ll have much better luck

Look out mama you know you asked me to be your king
She said, “You kiddin’ man, if you want it, keep it hid
But please don’t let my husband, my main man catch you here
Please don’t let my main man, my husband catch you here”

The blues are mushed up into three different ways
One said, “Go the other”, two said, “Stay”
I woke up this mornin’ with the blues three different ways
You know one say, “Go baby, I want to hang up”
The other two said, “Stay”

Wake up mama, I got something to tell you
You know I’m a man who loves to sing the blues
Now you got to wake up baby, mama now
I got something, I got something to tell you
Well, you know I’m the man, I’m the man
Oh yes, and I love to sing the blues

Come on Davis
Come on, come on

I went upstairs to pack my leavin’ trunk, you know
I ain’t see no blues or whiskey made me sloppy drunk
I never seen no whiskey, the blues made me sloppy drunk
I go home baby and I lay down on the lawn

Rolling Stones – Prodigal Son

It’s nice to be back to normal… no holiday is mentioned in this song!

When I bought Beggars Banquet I knew about Sympathy for the Devil and Street Fighting Man… this song drew me into the rest of the album. I love the acoustic blues played by Keith. It sounds old…really old. This album doesn’t have a bad track on it to me.

This sounds like what influenced the Stones in the first place. This album is one of the Stones’ great ones and the first one produced by Jimmy Miller. Prodigal Son has remained one of my favorite Stones tracks.

Beggars Banquet peaked at #5 in the Billboard Album Charts, #3 in the UK, and #3 in Canada in 1969.

This song was written by Robert Wilkins, a reverend who recorded Delta Blues in the 1920s and 1930s. Keith Richards enjoyed Blues music and admired the work of Wilkins in the ’60s, which is how The Stones came across this song. Robert Wilkins’ original version was titled “That’s No Way To Get Along.” The Stones gave their version the title “Prodigal Son.”

The Prodigal Son is a story told in the Bible (Luke 15: 11-32) about a father who has two sons. The younger son asks for his inheritance early and goes off to spend the money on hedonistic pursuits. After wasting all the money, he comes home repentant, and the father welcomes him with a feast in his honor. This doesn’t go over well with the older son, who feels that he should be rewarded for good behavior, but the father stresses the value of forgiveness.

Prodigal Son

Well a poor boy took his father’s bread and started down the road
Started down the road
Took all he had and started down the road
Going out in this world, where God only knows
And that’ll be the way to get along

Well poor boy spent all he had, famine come in the land
Famine come in the land
Spent all he had and famine come in the land
Said, “I believe I’ll go and hire me to some man”
And that’ll be the way I’ll get along

Well, man said, “I’ll give you a job for to feed my swine
For to feed my swine
I’ll give you a job for to feed my swine”
Boy stood there and hung his head and cried
Cause that is no way to get along

Said, “I believe I’ll ride, believe I’ll go back home
Believe I’ll go back home
Believe I’ll ride, believe I’ll go back home
Or down the road as far as I can go”
And that’ll be the way to get along

Well, father said, “See my son coming home to me
Coming home to me”
Father ran and fell down on his knees
Said, “Sing and praise, Lord have mercy on me”
Mercy

Oh poor boy stood there, hung his head and cried
Hung his head and cried
Poor boy stood and hung his head and cried
Said, “Father will you look on me as a child?”
Yeah

Well father said, “Eldest son, kill the fatted calf,
Call the family round
Kill that calf and call the family round
My son was lost but now he is found
Cause that’s the way for us to get along”
Hey

Bessie Smith – Baby Won’t You Please Come Home

When I heard this woman sing…I was shocked. Listen to the purity of her voice…she still amazes me. We cannot forget the pioneers of any genre. Artists like Mahalia Jackson, Janis Joplin, and Norah Jones have all given Bessie Smith credit as their inspiration.

It seems like the female singers I like the most have a growl to their voices. That includes Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin, Willie Mae Thorton, and yes Bessie Smith.

Within 10 months of signing Smith, the Columbia label sold two million records. Over the next four years, her sales reached six million. But she sang a wider repertoire than most, in her traveling tent show, on theatrical tours, and, later, in jazz clubs. The blues made Smith the highest-paid black entertainer of her era, but she was just as adept at singing show tunes and more popular Tin Pan Alley songs, which became the basis of many early jazz standards. Those record sales don’t sound as high now but remember this was in the 1920s!

This song came out in 1923 and peaked at #6 on the Billboard 100… I just looked it up…Billboard first published a chart in 1894.

Whenever I hear Bessie Smith I hear pain and greatness all at once. I’ve written about her song No One Loves You When You’re Down And Out and I’ve been revisiting her lately. This song was written by Charles Warfield and Clarence Williams in 1919. It’s been covered by Louie Prima and Frank Sinatra.

I got into Bessie Smith from listening to Janis Joplin and reading about her. Bessie’s voice sends chills up my spine…that is my litmus test. This particular song grabs me because of Smith’s voice and the recording vibe. She sings it, means it, and she damn well lived it. The sound of the record and her voice is just unbeatable. Yes, we have digital now but digital could not give you this sound.

Smith took care of her own…she moved her sister and other family to live near her in Philadelphia and supported them financially when they squandered her money.

She died from injuries in a car accident in 1937, having not recorded a song in years, more than 5,000 people attended her funeral. Her grave had no headstone. There was money for a headstone apparently, but her estranged husband spent it on something or someone else.

Janis Joplin helped buy Smith’s headstone in 1971…two weeks before her own untimely death. But the real story was the other person who helped buy the stone. That was Juanita Green… a little girl whom Smith once told to give up singing and stay in school.

Louis Armstrong: “I say, ‘Look here Bessie, you got change for a hundred? And she say, ‘Sure my man.’ She raised up her dress standing and there was, like, [you know,] how a carpenter keeps his nails? Man, so much money in the apron under her skirt that killed me.”

Danny Barker a New Orleans musician: “If you have a church background, like people who came from the South as I did, you would recognize a similarity between what she was doing and what those preachers and evangelists from there did, and how they moved people … Bessie did the same thing on stage.”

Baby Won’t You Please Come Home

I’ve got the blues, I feel so lonely
I’ll give the world if I could only
Make you understand
It surely would be grand

I’m gonna telephone my baby
Ask him won’t you please come home
‘Cause when you’re gone
I’m worried all day long

Baby won’t you please come home
Baby won’t you please come home
I have tried in vain
Evermore to call your name
When you left you broke my heart
That will never make us part
Every hour in the day
You will hear me say
Baby won’t you please come home, I mean
Baby won’t you please come home

Baby won’t you please come home
‘Cause your mama’s all alone
I have tried in vain
Nevermore to call your name
When you left you broke my heart
That will never make us part
Landlord gettin’ worse
I’ve got to move May the first
Baby won’t you please come home, I need money
Baby won’t you please come home

Janis Joplin – Half Moon

I just read a Joplin book and anyone who follows me knows what that means…a few Janis Joplin posts are coming.

She wasn’t here to be conventional or a cookie-cutter person. She was here to blaze a path and leave her mark…and she did just that.

I owned the album Pearl a long time ago and loved it. Through the years I also got her greatest hits and was wrapped up in those songs. I had forgotten about this funky song…and I use funky in the best way. It reaffirmed what a singer should be about to me…giving 100 percent of yourself every time out there.

On her last album, she was produced by Paul Rothchild who wanted Janis to use less of her brash voice to give more. He also worked on her dynamics which worked perfectly with this album and song. She was working with her 3rd band in two years…and this one was the best one no doubt. I liked Big Brother but she HAD to scream to get over those loud guitars. She was taking more of an R&B/soul/funk/blues/rock approach unlike her strictly rock/blues approach with Big Brother. She had more nuances on this album and her voice never sounded better.

Half Moon was written by John Hall and his first wife, the former Johanna Schier. It was picked as the B-side to Me and Bobby McGee. At the time, John was a struggling musician and Johanna was a writer for The Village Voice. Johanna was assigned an interview with Joplin, who suggested the couple write a song for her. Joplin wanted Johanna to write a song about how she was feeling about a man she met in Rio Janeiro and was planning to marry in the future after he finished what he was doing.

It was the first song they wrote together, and a huge break for the couple, who were able to buy a house and a sailboat with the royalties. John Hall got a lot of credibility in the rock realm from co-writing it, and his career took off. A few years later, he formed the group Orleans, which had hits with two songs he wrote: “Still The One” and “Dance With Me.”

I never realized what it meant when I heard people say…”the artist always gives everything of themselves” until I saw clips of Joplin, Springsteen, and Hendrix. They go out on a limb on stage and risk a train wreck to give you that raw excitement. In today’s world of pre-packaged high-priced Las Vegas style shows…you get a slick show with dancers (I never understood that) without a bit of soul. Sure…the live acts sound exactly like their records and that can be tedious after a while. Some love that…and more power to them but I like the emotional roller coaster journey you take with an artist like Joplin…and she gives you that feeling on studio albums also.

The amazing thing about Pearl is that all of the vocals were called “scratch” takes…meant to be redone later on. She was planning to replace all of her vocals…she went all out anyway so I don’t see how she could have improved on them. Funny thing about the album…the original producer was no other than Todd Rundgren…Janis got rid of him right off the bat because she could not relate to him. Paul Rothchild (Door’s producer) took over and just fell for Janis’s voice and Janis.

I included a live version she did a few months before her death on the Dick Cavett show. When she grabs that mic…there is no doubt who is in charge. There is no screaming in this…just pure soul/blues singing…I love the high notes and dynamics…and she just plain kicked ass on this song.

Pearl peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Charts, #1 in Canada, and #20 in the UK in 1971.

John Hall: “It was numerological and astrological in nature. And it also had an alliterative repetition that was kind of captivating. It wasn’t rhyming, exactly, but it was an internal rhyme, perhaps you could say. It’s a device that poets use and that songwriters use to not just have the end of lines rhyme or the end of verses rhyme, but to have sort of a foreshadowing of that and words inside each line.”

Half Moon

Half moon, night time sky
Seven stars, heaven’s eyes
Seven songs on seven seas
Just to bring all your sweet love home to me

Hey, you fill me like the mountains
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
You fill me like the sea, Lord
Not coming past but still at last
Your love brings life to me
Your love brings life to me, hey

Rings of cloud and arms aflame
Wings rise up to call your name
Sun rolls high, Lord, it burns the ground
Just to tell about the first good man I found

Yeah, you fill me like the mountains
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
You fill me like the sea, Lord
Not coming past but still at last
Your love brings life to me
Your love brings life to me
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh yeah

Half moon on night time sky
Seven stars, heaven’s eyes
Seven songs on seven seas
Just to bring all your sweet love home to me

Hey baby, you fill me like the mountains
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
You fill me like the sea, Lord
Not coming past honey still at last
Lord, you fill me like the mountains
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
You fill me like the sea, Lord
Not coming past but still at last

Hey, you fill me like the mountains
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
You fill me like the sea, oh Lord
You’re not coming past, honey, still at last
Your love brings life to me
Your love brings life to me
Your love, la la la la la, la

Won’t you bring life to me
I said you’re gonna ride around
When I’m on a little home babe
Bring it on home, you bring it on home
Bring it on home, bring it on home
I said your love brings life to me, yeah

…

AC/DC – Night Prowler

This song has always reminded me of Midnight Rambler by the Stones. What caught my attention and I listened to it twice to make sure I heard it right. At the end Bon Scott says something and I could have sworn it was what Mork from Mork and Mindy used…Shazbot Nanu Nanu…and it was! Scott was a big fan of the show.

California serial killer Richard Ramirez (The Night Stalker, The Valley Intruder or The Walk-In Killer)talked about how he loved the band and Highway To Hell was his favorite album. One of Ramirez’s AC/DC hats was discovered at a crime scene and put on the news as evidence. That started an uncomfortable link with the band. His killing spree started in 1984, and in 1989 Ramirez was convicted of 13 murders. Around the Los Angeles area, Ramirez would typically sneak into houses at night and rape or murder the occupants…hence the nicknames.

Of course, the band wanted nothing to do with this psychopath. It was rumored that the song “Night Prowler” compelled him to kill. The song describes a man sneaking into a woman’s house. It started the rumors again that the band’s name stood for “Anti-Christ Devil’s Children,” but it was actually something seen on the back of a sewing machine that they thought would make an interesting name. . Years earlier The Beatles were linked to a crazy Charles Manson because of a song also.

It was one of the last songs Scott recorded with the band. It was recorded in the spring of 1979 right before the album was released. After the tour, Scott would die on February 19, 1980, of acute alcohol poisoning.

Highway To Hell peaked at #17 on the Billboard Album Charts, #40 in Canada, #46 in New Zealand, #13 in Australia, and #8 in the UK in 1979.

Angus Young has said the song has nothing to do with stalkers or evil people. The song was credited to the Young brothers and Bon Scott.

Angus Young: “The idea came from when I was young, growing up in suburban Australia; we didn’t have air conditioning, and it was very hot. So if it was a very hot night, I’d open up the window. There was an alleyway next to our house and I used to get all of these animal night visitors. Sometimes they’d jump on the window ledge or attempt to come in. I’d see their shadows on the wall. These animals were always having a party late at night. For me, they were the ‘Night Prowlers’.”

Night Prowler

Somewhere a clock strikes midnight
And there’s a full moon in the sky
You hear a dog bark in the distance
You hear someone’s baby cry
A rat runs down the alley
And a chill runs down your spine
And someone walks across your grave
And you wish the sun would shine
‘Cause no one’s gonna warn you
And no one’s gonna yell attack
And you don’t feel the steel
‘Til it’s hangin’ out your back
I’m your night prowler, asleep in the day
Night prowler, get outta my way
Yeah I’m the prowler, watch out tonight
Yes I’m the night prowler, when you turn out the light

Too scared to turn your light out
‘Cause there’s somethin’ on your mind
Was that a noise outside the window
What’s that shadow on the blind
As you lie there naked
Like a body in a tomb
Suspended animation as I slip into your room
I’m your night prowler, asleep in the day
Yeah I’m the night prowler, get outta my way
Look out for the night prowler, watch out tonight
Yes I’m the night prowler, when you turn out the light

I’m your night prowler, asleep in the day
Yes I’m the night prowler, get outta my way
Look out for the night prowler, watch out tonight
Yes I’m the night prowler, when you turn out the light
I’m your night prowler, break down your door
I’m your night prowler, crawling across your floor
I’m the night prowler, make a mess of you, yes I will
Night prowler
And I’m telling this to you
There ain’t nothing
There ain’t nothing
Nothing you can do

Shazbot
Nanu nanu

…

Robert Johnson – Come On In My Kitchen

This is an old Robert Johnson song that I’ve always liked. I learned about this song from a bootleg of Leon Russell, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and Eric Clapton many years ago. Eric wasn’t in the best of shape when this was recorded during the Bangladesh rehearsals. George takes the solo in this blues song and makes it fit really well. I added this version along with Johnson at the bottom of the post.

Robert Johnson recorded it on November 23, 1936, at the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas and it was produced by Don Law. Johnson only recorded 29 songs in total with 13 surviving outtakes. In one hotel room, Johnson performed and in a second adjoining room, the recording equipment was housed.

In 1990 the compilation album The Complete Recordings was released and peaked at #80 in the Billboard Album Charts. It also won a Grammy Award in 1991 for “Best Historical Album. This song has had over 100 known cover versions by other artists.

Robert Johnson was a huge influence on guitarists such as Eric Clapton, Jimi Page, Peter Green, Brian Jones, and many more. He sounded different than his peers at the time which could have contributed to him not being better known in the 1930s. His style was ahead of his time and it took til the 1960s for him to catch on. In 1961, King of the Delta Blues Singers was released with 16 of his songs on the album…a generation of musicians was influenced.

Johnson died in 1938 at the age of 27. Some say Johnson had been flirting with a married woman at a dance, and she gave him a bottle of whiskey poisoned by her husband…he died two days after drinking it. That is not known for sure but we will probably never know.

Eric Clapton – His music is like my oldest friend, always in the back of my head and on the horizon. It’s the finest music I’ve ever heard. I’ve always trusted its purity. And I always will.’ I don’t know what more you could say….”

Bob Dylan: If I hadn’t heard the Robert Johnson record when I did, there probably would have been hundreds of lines of mine that would have been shut down—that I wouldn’t have felt free enough or upraised enough to write.

Come On In My Kitchen

You better come on in my kitchenWell, it’s goin’ to be rainin’ outdoorsAh, the woman I love, took from my best friendSome joker got lucky, stole her back againYou better come on in my kitchenIt’s goin’ to be rainin’ outdoors

Oh, she’s gone, I know she won’t come backI’ve taken the last nickel out of her nation sackYou better come on in my kitchenIt’s goin’ to be rainin’ outdoorsOh, can’t you hear that wind howl?Oh, can’t you hear that wind would howl?You better come on in my kitchenWell, it’s goin’ to be rainin’ outdoors

When a woman gets in trouble, everybody throws her down

Lookin’ for her good friend, none can be foundYou better come on in my kitchen

Babe, it’s goin’ to be rainin’ outdoorsWintertime’s comin’, it’s gon’ be slowYou can’t make the winter, babe, that’s dry, long, soYou better come on in my kitchen, ’cause it’s goin’ to be rainin’ outdoors

Maggie Bell – Wishing Well

When I heard Maggie Bell a few years ago…the Scottish-born singer blew me away with her voice. A very big Janis vibe to her. I’ve read that she was called the UK’s Janis Joplin but she had her own style.

This song was on the album Suicide Sal released in 1975 on Led Zeppelin’s new record label Swan Song. The song was composed by John “Rabbit” Bundrick, Simon Kirke, Paul Kossoff, Paul Rodgers, and Tetsu Yamauchi. Wishing Well was a song by the band Free and it was originally released in 1972. Maggie puts her spin on it and I love it.

Jimmy Page played on this album and I love the funky bass groove that opens the song. The song didn’t chart but she would later have a top 40 song in the UK with the song Hazell.

Maggie Bell was the former lead singer of Stone The Crows. Peter Grant signed the band and had big plans for them. He was the most powerful manager in rock at that time because of Led Zeppelin. The band would come to a tragic end though. Guitarist Leslie Harvey was electrocuted and died on stage at the Top Rank in Swansea on May 3, 1972. He was the only one in position on the stage. Bell has said: “It was a fluke, we were standing at the side of the stage; we hadn’t even started yet. Leslie said to the audience: ‘There’s a technical hitch,’ and he touched the microphone and the guitar. And that was it.” The road crew overlooked one loose ground wire.

Steve Howe of Yes helped fill in for some shows for the band after that. Jimmy McCulloch then joined them and they released an album with some songs by Harvey and a couple by McCulloch who would later join Paul McCartney and Wings. The band was over in 1973 but Peter Grant continued to manage Maggie til the early eighties.

Bell was in shock for years afterward but she said: “I thought to myself: ‘Am I going to give all this up and go back up to Scotland and have two kids?’ I mean, this was a dream we’d planned. Peter said there would be no legal problems if I didn’t want to carry on. I said no, there was a plan. I was going to make sure that I finished the journey. I’m seventy-six years old, I’m still doing it. I mean, the body’s falling apart, but the voice is still fabulous!”

You can hear Maggie Bell sing on Every Picture Tells Story by Rod Stewart. She was credited as having “vocal abrasives.” I don’t think I ever heard Maggie Bell on American radio which is a shame.

Wishing Well

Take off your hat, kick off your shoes
I know you ain’t goin’ anywhere
Run ’round the town singin’ your blues
I know you ain’t goin’ anywhere.

You’ve always been a good, good friend of mine,
But you’re always sayin’ “Farewell”
And the only time that you’re satisfied
Is when you dream from the wishing well.

Throw down your gun you might shoot yourself.
Or is that what you’re tryin’ to do?
Put up a fight you believe to be right
Someday the sun will shine through.

You’ve always been a good, good friend of mine,
But you’re always sayin’ “Farewell”
And the only time you’re satisfied
Is when you dream, dream from the wishing well.

And I know what you’re wishing for
Love in a peaceful world
Love in a peaceful world
Love in a peaceful world

You’ve always been a good, good, good friend of mine,
But you’re always sayin’ “Farewell”
And the only time that you’re satisfied
Is with your feet in the wishing well.

Led Zeppelin – Out On The Tiles

This one is a great deep cut by Led Zeppelin. It was on Led Zeppelin III and is looked over but it has a great riff by Jimmy Page. It’s nice to find a Zeppelin song that hasn’t been played to death…the guitar riff is killer on this song.

In Japan, this was mistakenly placed on the B-side of “Immigrant Song” rather than “Hey, Hey What Can I Do.” Those copies are rare collector’s items.

Bron-Yr-Aur 1970

Bron-Yr-Aur Now

Robert Plant remembered an 18th-century cottage called Bron-Yr-Aur he had visited in his youth and felt it would be a great place to temporarily escape life in the fast lane and commune with nature. Plant invited his co-writer, guitarist Jimmy Page, and in the spring, the two men took their instruments and supplies to the retreat to recharge their batteries. The place had no running water or electricity at the time.

Robert Plant: “It was time to take stock, and not get lost in it all, and what better way to keep it real than at a place with no electricity, candles for light, water from a stream, and an outside toilet?”

Many fans didn’t embrace Led Zeppelin III like their first two albums. The band would routinely bludgeon their audiences with hard rock. This album had a lot of acoustic mixed in with rock guitar. I think it’s the most underrated album in their catalog. The next two albums would combine these two elements perfectly. Led Zeppelin III was the turning point of Led Zeppelin…after that album. To my ears…this is when Led Zeppelin grew up musically.

Led Zeppelin III peaked at #1 in the US, Canada, and UK in 1970-71.

Drummer John Bonham would talk about going “out on the tiles,” meaning to bars – the title is a British term for going out on the town. Jimmy Page wrote this song around the phrase. Bonham, along with Page and Robert Plant, got a writing credit on the track.

Jimmy Page: “That’s ambient sound. Getting the distance of the time lag from one end of the room to the other and putting that in as well. The whole idea, the way I see recording, is to try and capture the sound of the room live and the emotion of the whole moment and try to convey that. That’s the very essence of it. And so, consequently, you’ve got to capture as much of the room sound as possible.”

Jimmy Page: “When Robert and I went to Bron-Yr-Aur we weren’t thinking: ‘Let’s go to Wales and write.. The original plan was to just go there, hang out and appreciate the countryside. The only song we really finished while we were there was That’s The Way, but being in the country established a standard of traveling for inspiration and set a tone for Led Zeppelin III.”

Below Jason Bonham tells the story of Out On The Tiles

Out On The Tiles

As I walk down the highway all I do is sing this song
And a train that’s passin’ my way helps the rhythm move along
There is no doubt about the words are clear
The voice is strong, is oh so strong

I’m just a simple guy, I live from day to day
A ray of sunshine melts my frown and blows my blues away
There’s nothing more that I can say but on a day like today
I pass the time away and walk a quiet mile with you

All I need from you is all your love
All you got to give to me is all your love
All I need from you is all your love
All you got to give to me is all your love
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Oh yeah, oh yeah

I’m so glad I’m living and gonna tell the world I am
I got me a fine woman and she says that I’m her man
One thing that I know for sure gonna give her all the loving
Like nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody can

Standing in the noonday sun trying to flag a ride
People go and people come, see my rider right by my side
It’s a total disgrace, they set the pace, it must be a race
And the best thing I can do is run

All I need from you is all your love
All you got to give to me is all your love
All I need from you is all your love
All you got to give to me is all your love
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah

Robert Johnson – Sweet Home Chicago

Was Robert Johnson the most influential guitarist in the history of blues and rock? That very possibly could be true. It wasn’t until the 80s that I started to read and hear more about him. Reading interviews with Clapton, Jimmy Page, and others…they all owed a huge debt to Johnson.

My introduction to Robert Johnson came from Eric Clapton while playing with Cream. Johnson was a great blues guitarist that supposedly sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads to be able to play the blues. Some of the songs he wrote played into this myth. He only cut 29 songs that he recorded in a two-year period between 1936 and 1937.

Movies such as the 1980s film Crossroads brought Johnson many more fans. Many people have searched for Johnson after listening to artists that were influenced by him. His voice will haunt you after you listen to his recordings. His songs are pure and timeless.

With this song…I heard it before I heard Robert Johnson’s version… I knew the Blues Brothers version of it the best. Robert Johnson is listed as the writer but the origins are before that. Scrapper Blackwell’s “Kokomo Blues” and Kokomo Arnold’s “Old Original Kokomo Blues,” both similar to Johnson’s original right down to their “baby don’t you want to go” choruses, were recorded years before Johnson first entered a studio but Johnson owns it.

Now when it’s played in movies or sold on CDs… Stephen LaVere’s family gets half the royalties and Johnson’s the other half. LaVere entered the picture in 1973, persuading Johnson’s elderly half-sister Carrie Thompson to sign a contract ceding him 50 percent of the profits from Johnson’s music. He went out and marketed Johnson’s music and it paid off in millions for both parties.

Sweet Home Chicago

Oh, baby, don’t you want to go?
Oh, baby, don’t you want to go?
Back to the land of California
To my sweet home Chicago

Now one and one is two
Two and two is four
I’m heavy loaded, baby
I’m booked, I gotta go

Crying baby
Honey, don’t you want to go?
Back to the land of California
To my sweet home Chicago

And two and two is four
Four and two is six
You gonna keep monkeyin’ ’round here friend, boy
You’re gonna get you business all in a trick

Crying baby
Honey, don’t you want to go?
Back to the land of California
To my sweet home, Chicago

Now six and two is eight
Eight and two is ten
Friend-boy she trick you one time
She sure gonna do it again

But don’t cry, hey hey!
Baby, don’t you want to go?
Back to the land of California
To my sweet home Chicago

I’m going to California
From there to Des Moines Iowa
Somebody will tell me that you
Need my help someday

Crying, baby
Baby, don’t you want to go?
Back to the land of California
To my sweet home Chicago

Allman Brothers – Trouble No More

Gregg Allman sounded like an old man in his early twenties and when he WAS an older man. He could sing like he lived every bit of the blues he was singing about. This was the first song the Allman Brothers ever played in front of an audience.

It’s hard to believe that their first two albums didn’t go anywhere in the charts. The first two were made up of many of their classic songs. Their first album The Allman Brothers Band contained Whipping Post, Trouble No More, It’s Not My Cross To Bear, and one of their signature songs Dreams.

Their second album Idlewild South contained In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, Midnight Rider, and Hoochie Koochie Man. It took their third album At Fillmore East to kickstart their career to the top. Many of those songs on the first two albums would be classic now thanks to the live treatment they were given on the double live album.

After Duane was killed on a motorcycle on October 29, 1971 the band finished up the album that was started a few months before. Eat A Peach was released in 1972 with studio cuts and some live cuts that were left over from the At Fillmore East album including Trouble No More. The album was a massive hit and a perfect followup to At Fillmore East. The album had radio-friendly songs plus great live versions of songs they had been playing in their set.

This was a popular Muddy Waters song. It’s based on a 1935 song called “Someday Baby Blues” by a country-blues singer named Sleepy John Estes. Waters transformed the song with his Chicago blues style, adding a much more prominent guitar. On the Muddy recording….Little Walter played the harmonica and Jimmy Rogers played the guitar.

The Allman Brothers did their own interpretation of blues songs and usually with an extra charge. The first time they played the song was on May 11, 1969, when they played at Piedmont Park in Atlanta at a free festival sponsored by an underground newspaper… the paper gave them a glowing review and put them on the map outside of Macon.

On October 28, 2014, the band played their final show, the farewell concert at the Beacon Theater in New York City. Their final song was Trouble No More.

Trouble No More

Don’t care how long you gone
I don’t care how long you staying
But, good kind treatment
Gonna bring you home someday
But someday baby
You ain’t gonna trouble poor me anymore

You just keep on betting
That the dice won’t pass
Well you know, darling
You are living too fast
But someday, baby
You ain’t gonna trouble poor me anymore

I’m gonna tell everybody
In your neighborhood
That you’s a sweet little girl
But, you don’t mean me no good
But someday baby
You ain’t gonna trouble poor me anymore

Well, I know you’re leavin
Well, you call that gone
Well, without love
You can’t stay long
But someday baby
You ain’t gonna trouble poor me anymore

Well, goodbye baby
Come on, shake my hand
I don’t want no woman
You can have a man
But someday baby
You ain’t gonna trouble poor me anymore

Boz Scaggs – Loan Me A Dime

An awesome blues song that shows what Boz Scaggs was all about before the hits came. He had been playing with Steve Miller and in 1969 he made this self-titled album Boz Scaggs. He spent some time down south getting this together. He also made a self-titled album (Boz) in 1967 and released it in Europe for the record.

Jann Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone magazine, was producing Boz’s first U.S. solo album, and he took him to Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records, who suggested recording in the South. They had a choice of studios…Stax in Memphis, Phil Walden’s studio in Macon, or Muscle Shoals Sound, a new studio founded by the rhythm section from FAME Studios. Boz and Jann listened to everything that was coming out of those studios and they soon knew they wanted the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, and they wanted Duane Allman.

Boz didn’t know a lot about Duane, but he got a good sense of his stature by spending that week with him at Muscle Shoals Sound. Duane’s work with Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin had preceded him, but Boz was most struck by who Duane was to the players at the studio. They lit up when Duane walked in the room…their respect for him was clear.

Boz Scaggs: “Duane had a profound effect on that album. One of the real revelations to me was Duane’s character, seeing him in the South hanging out with those guys. In his appearance, he looked like he was from New York or L.A., with long hair. It was a brave statement in itself in redneck America. You could get in trouble just driving around in his car. It was an occasion and a homecoming. They held him in very high esteem. He was the dude. He was the natural leader, and he made everyone laugh. It was a side I didn’t see in Macon, where he was much more serious and focused.”

Duane set up his amp in the bathroom at the studio on this recording. He liked to do that so his guitar wouldn’t bleed through on the other instruments. This song has some of Allman’s best playing.

Scaggs and his girlfriend Carmella settled into Macon Georgia and were part of the Allman Brothers Band extended family for a time, enjoying the musical energy and experience in Macon. By this time Macon was host to a lot of different musicians. Boz went fishing and played poker with the Allmans late into the night, drinking beer, and telling stories.

This song is usually listed in the top 5 of Boz Scaggs’s songs. It is not as well known but a great blues track. The track was written by Fenton Robinson.

Boz Scaggs: “The first time we did it, it lasted twenty-five minutes and everyone thought it was such a gas, they trouped back in and did it again and we ended up with about forty minutes of ‘Loan Me a Dime’ and we wanted to use at least twenty minutes of it, but we had to use the shorter version, but that music is in the can somewhere in Muscle Shoals, and Duane was really rockin’ out.”

Loan Me A Dime

Somebody loan me a dime
I need to call my old time used to be
Somebody loan me a dime mmm
I need to call my old time that used to be

Little girl’s been gone so long
You know it’s worrying me
Hey it’s worrying worrying me

I know she’s a good girl
But at that time I just didn’t understand
I know she’s a good girl
But at that time I just didn’t understand
Oh no I didn’t

Somebody loan me a dime
You know I need.. I need a helping hand

Oh… she’s a good girl
But at that time I just didn’t understand
Ooooh I know she’s a good girl
But at that time I just could not understand
Oh no

Somebody better loan me that dime
To ease my worried worried mind.. oh
Now I cry.. I just cry
Just like a baby all night long.. oooh
You know I cry I just cry
Just like a baby all night long.. oooh
Somebody better loan me that dime
I need my baby
I need my baby here at home.. oooh YES

John Hammond – Shake For Me

Some rocking blues from John Hammond, Duane Allman, and the Muscle Shoals rhythm section. This one is not a well-known song but it is worth hearing. This was made for vinyl and a turntable. The percussion makes the song jump at you.

The song was written by Willie Dixon. It was recorded in 1969 at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios. Hammond is the son of famous record producer John H. Hammond, who signed some of the most famous musicians ever. A partial list includes Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Benny Goodman, Harry James, Charlie Christian, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Teddy Wilson, Big Joe Turner, Pete Seeger, Babatunde Olatunji, Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Freddie Green, Leonard Cohen, Arthur Russell, Jim Copp, Asha Puthli, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Mike Bloomfield. He is also largely responsible for the revival of delta blues artist Robert Johnson’s music.

When Duane heard John Paul Hammond was scheduled to record an album at Muscle Shoals Sound in November of 1969, he headed down to meet him.

Hammond come down from New York City to cut a record with Marlin Green, a producer who had worked with Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett. He didn’t know what to expect walking into the studio, but he felt an immediate chill from the musicians he had come to play with. He had expected the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section to be black, and they expected the same of him.

Duane showed up in the middle of this awkward realization that they were a bunch of white dudes. Eddie Hinton, the guitar player, and songwriter was the one guy who was nice to Hammond and understood what he wanted to do. He wanted to record Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters tunes.

“I was getting very frustrated,” Hammond recalled. “On the third day, Duane arrived with Berry Oakley. Duane said, ‘I want to meet this John Hammond guy! I have one of his records!’ Everybody loved him, and when they heard Duane wanted to meet me, they looked at me completely different. The whole mood of the session changed; everything changed. Eddie Hinton turned to me and said, ‘This is Duane Allman. He’s a phenomenal player, and you’re really going to like him.’

“Duane started to play and my mouth dropped open, he was so good. There was a break at the end of the day, and I had an old National steel guitar with me. Duane had never seen one, so I gave it to him to play, and it was in open tuning. He said, ‘Gee what is this?’ And I told him it was an open tuning, an A. He played slide in a straight tuning.

They recorded four songs the next day, and everyone was a winner. In fact, Duane inspired the whole studio band to get it together. The songs were included on the album Southern Fried.

“All of a sudden they understood exactly what I was talking about the day before,” Hammond said. “Duane was born with that magnetism.” It was the beginning of another important friendship for Duane.”

John Hammond: I asked Duane how he got so good and he said, “I took speed every day for three years and played every night all night.” I think this was partly true and partly apocryphal but he really couldn’t get enough. He was just phenomenal.

Shake For Me

Sure you look good
But it don’t mean a thing to me
Oh, you sure look good
But you don’t mean a thing to me
I’ve got a hip shakin’ woman, boy
She shake like a willow tree

You went away baby
You got back just a little too late
You went away baby
You got back just a little too late
I’ve got a hip shakin’ woman, boy
Shake like Jello on a plate

When my baby walks you know
Lord, she’s fighting melow
When my baby walks, you know
Lord, she’s fighting melow
I’ve got a hip shakin’ woman, boy
Her flesh tastes just like Jello

Shake it baby, shake it for me
Shake it baby, shake it for me
I’ve got a hip shakin’ woman, boy
Shake like a willow tree

Rolling Stones – The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man

What if I told you this was one of The Rolling Stone’s largest selling singles in America? It was… but it was a package deal…the song on the other side of the single was Satisfaction.

Not the most well-known song by the Stones but a lot of Americans owned it. I bought the single Satisfaction in 1979 and flipped it over and found this oddly named likable song. This was the American B side to Satisfaction. Not exactly Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out but a likable single all the same. The song was released in 1965.

The song is about George Sherlock who was the London Records promotions man who accompanied the Stones to California. This was their response to having a chaperone who was a music executive in the early 60s. The Stones did not hide their disdain for him, giving him the nickname Surfer Baby, and they crystallized their feelings in the song.

The Stones recorded this in Chess studios in Chicago. This song was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards who were becoming a great songwriting team. They likely borrowed the lick from Buster Brown’s song Fannie Mae.

Fannie Mae peaked at #1 in the R&B Charts and #38 in the Billboard 100 in 1960. He received more attention in 1973 when his song “Fannie Mae” was included in the film American Graffiti Soundtrack.

Buster Brown – Fannie Mae

Well, I’m waiting at the bus stop in downtown L.A.
Well, I’m waiting at the bus stop in downtown L.A.
But I’d much rather be on a boardwalk on Broadway

Well, I’m sitting here thinkin’ just how sharp I am
Well, I’m sitting here thinkin’ just how sharp I am
I’m an under assistant west coast promo man

Well, I promo groups when they come into town
Well, I promo groups when they come into town
Well they laugh at my toupee, they’re sure to put me down

Well, I’m sitting here thinking just how sharp I am
Yeah, I’m sitting here thinking just how sharp I am
I’m a necessary talent behind every rock and roll band

Yeah, I’m sharp
I’m really, really sharp
I sure do earn my pay
Sitting on the beach every day, yeah
I’m real real sharp, yes I am
I got a Corvette and a seersucker suit
Yes, I have

Here comes the bus, uh oh
I thought I had a dime
Where’s my dime
I know I have a dime somewhere
I’m pretty sure