Tag Archives: Buddy Guy

Blues, Robert Johnson, The Best Songs

The Best Songs: Come on in my kitchen by Robert Johnson

Robert Johnson Robert Crumb 2

Illustration by Robert Crumb

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.

— Bob Dylan
Chronicles: Volume One

Wikipedia:

“Come On in My Kitchen” is a blues song by Robert Johnson. Johnson recorded the song on November 23, 1936 at the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas – his first recording session. The melody is based on the song cycle by the string band the Mississippi Sheiks, “Sitting on Top of the World” (1930)/Things About Coming My Way (1931)/I’ll Be Gone, Long Gone (1932)/Hitting The Numbers (1934).

Johnson’s arrangement on slide guitar (in open tuning, commonly thought to be open G) is based on Tampa Red’s recording of the same tune with the title “Things ‘Bout Coming My Way”. Tampa Red had recorded an instrumental version in 1936, and the song had been recorded earlier by him in 1931, and by Kokomo Arnold in 1935 (Tampa Red may in fact have been the first to use the melody with his song “You Got To Reap What You Sow” (1929) based on Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell’s version).

Johnson’s recording was released on the Vocalion label (no. 03563) as a “race record” – cheap records for the black consumer market. The song was among those compiled on the King of the Delta Blues Singers LP in the 1960s. (A slower alternate take was also later found and released on CD collections; this version also has ten extra lines of lyrics.)

Come on in my kitchen by Robert Johnson:

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Blues, Classic Concert, Concert films, Muddy Waters, Rolling Stones

Muddy Waters and Rolling Stones live at The Checkerboard Lounge 1981

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checkerboard

Muddy Waters and Rolling Stones live at The Checkerboard Lounge 1981

The Stones rushed into the small club unannounced. There was no VIP area, so they sat in front of the stage as Muddy kept playing. Drummer Charlie Watts sat out the Checkerboard trip, but Jagger, Richards, Ronnie Wood and keyboardist Ian Stewart were all willing participants. One of the highlights is “Mannish Boy,” with Waters standing up from his stool for the first time to jump up and down with Jagger as they wail “I’m a rolling stone.”

Richards swigged Jack Daniel’s straight out the bottle. Mick Jagger chewed lots of gum. “The Stones drank about five bottles of Jack in two hours,” said Thurman.

– The Chicago Sun Times (Read More)

Country Boy:

muddy waters rolling stones

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Music Calendar

July 30 in music history

July 30: Bob Dylan: 4th recording session for Desire in 1975 (read more)

The result is a sound and a set of songs unlike anything Dylan or anyone else has ever done before…. The lyrics of “Sara” and “Abandoned Love” (and, for that matter, of “Isis” and “Hurricane”) could not be more perfect, but overall the triumph of Desire is musical
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, Vol 2: The Middle Years 1974-1986)

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Recorded in the summer lull before the first Rolling Thunder tour and released soon after it, the stand-out tracks are ‘Isis’, ‘Romance in Durango’ and ‘Black Diamond Bay’, but ‘Hurricane’, ‘One More Cup of Coffee’ and ‘Oh Sister’ are breathing down their necks.
~Michael Gray (The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)

  Bob_Dylan-Desire-Frontal
 Samuel Cornelius Phillips (January 5, 1923 – July 30, 2003), better known as Sam Phillips, was an American businessman, record executive, record producer and DJ who played an important role in the emergence of rock and roll as the major form of popular music in the 1950s. He was a producer, label owner, and talent scout throughout the 1940s and 1950s. He most notably founded Sun Studios and Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. Through Sun, Phillips discovered such recording talent as Howlin’ Wolf, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash.  sam phillips prestoampex
 George “Buddy” Guy (born July 30, 1936) is an American blues guitarist and singer. Critically acclaimed, he is a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation, including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. In the 1960s Guy was a member of Muddy Waters’ band and as a house guitarist at Chess Records. He can be heard on Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘Killing Floor’ and Koko Taylor’s ‘Wang Dang Doodle’ as well as on his own Chess sides and the fine series of records he made with harmonica player Junior Wells.Ranked 30th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”, Guy is known for his showmanship on stage: playing his guitar with drumsticks or strolling into the audience while playing solos. His song “Stone Crazy” was ranked 78th in list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time also of Rolling Stone.  buddy-guy

July 30: Bob Dylan: 5th recording session for Highway 61 Revisited 1965 (read more)

“I never wanted to write topical songs,…. Have you heard my last two records, Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61? It’s all there. That’s the real Dylan.”
~Bob Dylan (to Frances Taylor – Aug 1965)

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“Dylan had not only changed his sound, but his persona, trading the folk troubadour for a streetwise, cynical hipster. Throughout the album, he embraces druggy, surreal imagery, which can either have a sense of menace or beauty, and the music reflects that, jumping between soothing melodies to hard, bluesy rock. And that is the most revolutionary thing about Highway 61 Revisited — it proved that rock & roll needn’t be collegiate and tame in order to be literate, poetic, and complex.”
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)

 highway61revisited
 The Rising is the 12th studio album by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen, released in 2002 (July 30) on Columbia Records. In addition to being Springsteen’s first studio album in seven years, it was also his first with the E Street Band in 18 years. It is centered around Springsteen’s reflections on the September 11, 2001 attacks.  Bruce the rising album
 Catherine “Kate” Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic vocal style have made her one of the United Kingdom’s most successful solo female performers of the past 30 years.  kate-bush-183726

Spotify Playlist – July 30
Blues, Live, Music Calendar, Video

Today: Happy birthday Buddy Guy – Two great concerts

buddy guy smile

Happy 77th Birthday, Buddy Guy!

 

“He is the best living guitar player in the world”
– Eric Clapton

We celebrate George “Buddy” Guy’s birthday with two fantastic concerts. The first from The Montreal Jazz Festival, 6th July 1997. Check out the matching guitar and shirt! …also check out the Hammond B3 playing starting at 15 minutes in, just incredible!

Buddy Guy, Montreal 1997:

 

We want also to show you a concert from 2008, from a festival in Lugano (Switzerland). We get a happy Buddy Guy, clearly enjoying himself in a tremendous concert (and the checkered shirt is still with him).

Buddy Guy, Lugano 2008:

Enjoy!

– Hallgeir