Tag: Willie Mabon

Johnny Rivers – Seventh Son

In the 1980s I worked at a printing place and I was a stock guy basically. I was in a locked cage full of printer and copier parts and my job was to put the place in order. They never had a stock boy before and I organized everything. When I was there I would listen to an oldies channel that played 50s – 70s songs and I learned about Johnny Rivers that way with Poor Side of Town, Slow Dancing, Summer Rain, Secret Agent Man, and many more including Seventh Son. 

This is a song written by the blues legend Willie Dixon. Willie Mabon did the first version of this song back in 1955. The song is based on the folklore that a seventh son of a seventh son has mystical powers, such as prophecy and healing. The blues version never really hit big but this pop/rock version by Rivers did. 

Rivers recorded live at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, like many of his early hits. River’s version of it brought it to a mainstream audience. Rivers was different than many of his peers, he successfully mixed blues, rock, and pop for a teen audience. Rivers never wrote much but when he did…it was fantastic. He wrote his biggest hit Poor Side Of Town but only wrote a few more songs in his career to date. 

The song was released in 1965 and peaked at #1 in Canada and #7 on the Billboard 100.  It came from the album  Meanwhile Back at the Whisky à Go Go and it peaked at #21 on the Billboard Album Charts. 

Willie Dixon: The Seventh Son is kind of a historical idea. In New Orleans and Algiers, Louisiana, they have these people calling themselves born for good luck because they’re the seventh sister or seventh brother or the seventh child. The world has made a pattern out of this seven as a lucky number. Most people think the seventh child has the extra wisdom and knowledge to influence other people.

Seventh Son

Everybody talkin’ ’bout the seventh son
In the whole wide world there is only one

And I’m the one, I’m the one
I’m the one, I’m the one
The one they call the seventh son

I can tell your future, it will come to pass
I can do things to you make your heart feel glad
Look in the sky, predict the rain
Tell when a woman’s got another man

I’m the one, oh, I’m the one
I’m the one, I’m the one
The one they call the seventh son

I can talk these words that will sound so sweet
They will even make your little heart skip a beat
Heal the sick, raise the dead
Make the little girls talk outta their heads

I’m the one, oh, I’m the one
I’m the one, I’m the one
The one they call the seventh son

I can talk these words that will sound so sweet
They will even make your little heart skip a beat
Heal the sick, raise the dead
And make the little girls talk outta their heads

I’m the one, oh, I’m the one
I’m the one, I’m the one
The one they call the seventh son

I’m the one, hey, hey
I’m the one
Oh, I’m the one, babe
Ooh, I’m the one
I’m the one, I’m the one
The one they call the seventh son
I’m the one, I’m the one
The one they call the seventh son

…

Billy (The Kid) Emerson – Move Baby Move

Happy Sunday to everyone out there reading this!

How I love these early Sun Record artists. There were more there besides Elvis, Jerry Lee, Orbison, Perkins, and Cash. The key to this song to me is that the guitar plays a hell of a rhythm through the song. The saxophone break cuts through the recording with a great solo.

In January 1954, Ike Turner brought the young Billy Emerson to Sam Philips’ attention. He would cut some great songs at Sun but not any hits. He wrote songs covered by Elvis,  Junior Wells, Willie Mabon, Wynonie Harris, and Buddy Guy.

Move Baby Move was cut in Memphis, Tennessee in October 1954 by Billy Emerson (piano and vocal), Luther Taylor (trumpet), Charles Smith (alto saxophone), Bennie Moore (tenor saxophone), Elven Parr (guitar), and Robert Prindell (drums); the song was written by Billy Emerson.

This song uses the melody of “Shake, Rattle, and Roll”, using an uptempo rocking arrangement. Emerson’s voice drives it home.

Billy Emerson: “At Sun, Sam Phillips was always wanting to hear something different, and back then I could just go away and think of something different to record overnight.” 

Sam Phillips:  “Billy Emerson wrote such great songs. He was one of the very best.”

Move Baby Move

Stop banging on the door and come on in this house
Stop banging on the door and come on in this house
Kick off your slippers and tip here quiet as a mouse

You passed by the house and I was laying here wide awake
You passed by the house and I was laying here wide awake
You’d better stop that cattin’ and give this dog a break

You gotta move, baby, move
You gotta move, baby, move
You gotta move, baby, move
You gotta move, baby, move
Well, you won’t do right and you know I ain’t no fool

You gotta go that line and watch the way you do
You gotta go that line and watch the way you do
If you don’t stop rappin’ then you and me are through

You’d better pack your rags and move on down the line
You’d better pack your rags and move on down the line
I’m tired of this jive and I won’t stop by crying

You gotta move, baby, move
move, baby, move
move, baby, move
move, baby, move
Well you won’t do right and you know I aint no fool