Tag Archives: Blues

Blues, Howlin' Wolf, Soul

Today: The late Howlin Wolf was born in 1910 – 102 years ago

 From Wikipedia:

Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910 – January 10, 1976), known as Howlin’ Wolf, was an influential American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player.

With a booming voice and looming physical presence, Burnett is commonly ranked among the leading performers in electric blues; musician and critic Cub Koda declared, “no one could match Howlin’ Wolf for the singular ability to rock the house down to the foundation while simultaneously scaring its patrons out of its wits.” A number of songs written or popularized by Burnett—such as “Smokestack Lightnin’“, “Back Door Man“, “Killing Floor” and “Spoonful“—have become blues and blues rock standards.

At 6 feet, 6 inches (198 cm) and close to 300 pounds (136 kg), he was an imposing presence with one of the loudest and most memorable voices of all the “classic” 1950s Chicago blues singers. This rough-edged, slightly fearsome musical style is often contrasted with the less crude but still powerful presentation of his contemporary and professional rival, Muddy Waters. Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller), Little Walter Jacobs, and Muddy Waters are usually regarded in retrospect as the greatest blues artists who recorded for Chess in Chicago. Sam Phillips once remarked, “When I heard Howlin’ Wolf, I said, ‘This is for me. This is where the soul of man never dies.‘” In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him #51 on their list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”.

How Many More Years with a GREAT intro:

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame listed three songs by Howlin’ Wolf of the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll.

Year Recorded Title
1956 Smokestack Lightning
1960 Spoonful
1962 The Red Rooster

Please also check out: The Best Songs – Smokestack Lightning

Album of the day @ JV:

Other June-10:

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Blues, Bob Dylan, Country

Today: Sleepy John Estes passed away in 1977 – 35 years ago

Photo by Willa Davis

From Wikipedia:

John Adam Estes (January 25, 1899 – June 5, 1977), best known as Sleepy John Estes or Sleepy John, was a American blues guitarist, songwriter and vocalist, born in Ripley, Lauderdale County, Tennessee.

From allmusic.com:

Despite the fact that he performed for mixed black and white audiences in string band, jug band, and medicine show formats, his music retains a distinct ethnicity and has a particularly plaintive sound. Astonishingly, he recorded during six decades for Victor, Decca, Bluebird, Ora Nelle, Sun, Delmark, and others. Over the course of his career, his music remained simple yet powerful, and despite his sojourns to Memphis and Chicago he retained a traditional down-home sound. Some of his songs are deeply personal statements about his community and life, such as “Lawyer Clark” and “Floating Bridge.” Other compositions have universal appeal (“Drop Down Mama” and “Someday Baby”) and went on to become mainstays in the repertoires of countless musicians. One of the true masters of his idiom, he lived in poverty, yet was somehow capable of turning his experiences and the conditions of his life into compelling art.
—  Barry Lee Pearson

Mailman blues:

Album of the day @ JV:

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Blues, Music Calendar, Soul

Today: The late Curtis Mayfield was born in 1942 – 70 years ago

From Wikipedia:

Curtis Lee Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an African-American soul, R&B, and funk singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and for composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Super Fly, Mayfield is highly regarded as a pioneer of funk and of politically conscious African-American music. He was also a multi-instrumentalist who played the guitar, bass, piano, saxophone, and drums. Curtis Mayfield is a winner of both the Grammy Legend Award (in 1994) and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (in 1995), and was a double inductee into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted as a member of The Impressions into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, and again in 1999 as a solo artist. He is also a two-time Grammy Hall of Fame inductee.

Awards and legacy

Mayfield has left a remarkable legacy for his introduction of social consciousness into R&B and for pioneering the funk style. Many of his recordings with the Impressions became anthems of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, and his most famous album, Super Fly, is regarded as an all-time great that influenced many and truly invented a new style of modern black music.

  • Mayfield’s solo Super Fly is ranked #69 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
  • The Impressions’ album/CD The Anthology 1961–1977 is ranked at #179 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of all time.
  • Along with his group The Impressions, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.
  • In 1999, he was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist making him one of the few artists to become double inductees.
  • Posthumously, in 2000, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
  • He was a winner of the prestigious Grammy Legend Award in 1994.
  • He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995.
  • The Impressions’ 1965 hit song, “People Get Ready”, composed by Mayfield, has been chosen as one of the Top 10 Best Songs Of All Time by a panel of 20 top industry songwriters and producers, including Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson, Hal David, and others, as reported to Britain’s Mojo music magazine.
  • The Impressions hits, People Get Ready and For Your Precious Love are both ranked on Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, as #24 and #327 respectively.

People Get Ready / Move on up:

Album of the day:

Other June-03

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Beatles, Music Calendar

Today: The Beatles released “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” in 1967 – 45 years ago

From Wikipedia:

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (often shortened to Sgt. Pepper) is the eighth studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, released on 1 June 1967 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin. The album is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all time, and has since been recognised as one of the most important albums in the history of popular music, including songs such as “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “A Day in the Life“. Recorded over a 129-day period beginning in December 1966, Sgt. Pepper saw the band developing the production techniques of their previous album, Revolver. Martin’s innovative and lavish production included the orchestra usage and hired musicians ordered by the band. Genres such as music hall, rock and roll, pop rock, and traditional Indian music are covered. The album cover art, by English pop artist Peter Blake, depicts the band posing in front of a collage of their favourite celebrities, and has been widely acclaimed and imitated.

Legacy

Sgt. Pepper has been on many lists of the best rock albums, including Rolling Stone, Bill Shapiro, Alternative Melbourne, Rod Underhill and VH1.

  • In 1987 Rolling Stone named Sgt. Pepper the best album of the last twenty years (1967–1987).
  • In 1997 Sgt. Pepper was named the number one greatest album of all time in a “Music of the Millennium” poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM.
  • In 1998 Q magazine readers placed it at number seven
  • in 2003 the TV network VH1 placed it at number 10.
  •  In 2003, the album was ranked number 1 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
  •  In 2006, the album was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best albums of all time.
  • In 2002, Q magazine placed it at number 13 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.
  •  The album was named as one of Classic Rock magazine’s “50 Albums That Built Prog Rock”.
  •  In 2003, it was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.

The best song from the album: “A Day In Life”:

….and the opening track:

……Lucy in the sky..:

 Other June-01:

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Blues, Bob Dylan

Today: Bob Dylan played his legendary Manchester concert in 1966 – 46 years ago

2 Comments

Yesterday the greatest studio album ever released celebrated it’s 46th birthday… and today the greatest rock concert ever performed celebrates it’s 46th birthday… should be easy for Dylan people to remember 🙂

This was the first bootleg concert I ever heard.. and it’s still my fav one.

Here is my top 5 concerts:

  1. Bob Dylan & The Hawks – Manchester – 17.05.1966
  2. Bruce Springsteen – Passaic, New Jersey – 19.09.1978
  3. Bob Dylan – Fort Collins, Colorado – 23.05.1976
  4. The Rolling Stones – Brussels – 17.10.1973
  5. Bruce Springsteen – Brixton Academy, London – 24.04.1996
Top 2 is “locked” forever… the others are movable.
Maybe we should make a list of Dylan’s 10 greatest concerts… nice idea….indeed
Setlist:

1. She Belongs To Me
2. Fourth Time Around
3. Visions Of Johanna
4. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
5. Desolation Row
6. Just Like A Woman
7. Mr. Tambourine Man

8. Tell Me, Momma
9. I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
10. Baby Let Me Follow You Down (Eric von Schmidt)
11. Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
12. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
13. One Too Many Mornings
14. Ballad Of A Thin Man
15. Like A Rolling Stone

The facts from Wikipedia:

Released October 13, 1998
Recorded May 17, 1966
Genre Rock, folk rock, blues rock
Length 95:18
Label Columbia
Producer Jeff Rosen

Live 1966: The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert is a two-disc live album by Bob Dylan, released in 1998. Recorded at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall. It is from Dylan’s famous world tour in 1966, having been extensively bootlegged for decades, and is an important document in the development of popular music during the 1960s.

The setlist consisted of two parts, with the first half of the concert being Dylan alone on stage performing an entirely acoustic set of songs, while the second half of the concert has Dylan playing an “electric” set of songs alongside his band The Hawks. The first half of the concert was greeted warmly by the audience, while the second half was highly criticized, with heckling going on before and after each song.

“I don’t believe you”:

Today’s mandatory playlist:

Other May-17:

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