*In The Time Of The Chicago Blues Explosion- The Blues Of Earl Hooker

Click on title to link to Earl Hooker's lyrics and rendition of "You Shook Me Baby"

CD Review

Blue Guitar, Earl Hooker, Blues Interactions, 2001

I have spent a fair amount of time in this space running through the legends of the Chicago blues explosion that hit its high point in the period just after World War II and continued to the advent of serious rock ‘n’ roll in the mid-1950s, a period that saw the mass migration from the southern farms and plantations of blacks (and poor whites) to the north in search of better paying, and mainly, unionized industrial jobs. Thus, such names as Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and so on have gotten plenty of ink here. But those names hardly exhaust the sheer mass of blues artists who fled the South (with a stopover down river in Memphis in many cases) to make their names on Chicago's Maxwell Street. The name Earl Hooker, under review here figures prominently, if not famously, as part of that plethora of talent.

Naturally, in my attempts in this space to link up the names of the blues artists who I fell in love with in my youth I have used many sources, or have been led to them in various ways. The case of Earl Hooker is illustrative. I, some time ago, did a review of a documentary on the late Clifford Antone’s Club Antone down in Austin, Texas where many of the great then still standing blues artists, who came of age in the 1950s, found a second home, and an extended career. As part of that documentary coverage the name Earl Hooker, naturally enough, came up. And hence I went scurrying back to my archives to check his work out again. This, unfortunately, is the only album of his that I still possess after all these year but it is rather indicative of his style and is a good primer.

Outstanding here are the smoking “Will My Man Be Home Tonight”, the classic “Calling All Blues”, his signature and title track “Blue Guitar”, and another smoking “Off The Hook”. For a close look at one of the guys who jammed with the likes of Muddy and Howlin’ Wolf, after hours when they got down and serious and played the music for keeps, here is a your first look.

Song Lyrics: Sweet Home Chicago
Written and recorded by: Robert Johnson (1936)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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

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

Cryin baby
honey don't you want to go
back to the land of California
to my sweet home Chicago

Now two and two is four
four and two is six
You gonna keep monkeyin round here friend-boy
you gonna get your business all in a trick

But I'm cryin baby
honey don't you wanna 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 I'm cryin hey hey
baby don't you want to go
back to the land of California
to my sweet home Chicago

I'm goin to california
from there to Des Moines Iowa
Somebody will tell me that you
need my help someday

cryin hey hey
baby don't you want to go
back to the land of California
to my sweet home Chicago

© (1978) 1990, 1991 Lehsem II, LLC/Claud L. Johnson
Administered by Music & Media International, Inc.

Robert Johnson
(Robert Leroy Johnson)
May 8, 1911 - August 16, 1938



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Also recorded by:
Johnny Shines, Foghat, Lonnie Pitchford,
Peter Green with Nigel Watson Splinter Group,
The King, Status Quo, Rocky Lawrence, Pyeng Threadgil,
Eric Clapton, Jim Belushi and The Sacred Hearts

*A Buddy Guy Encore- From The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection Series

Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Buddy Guy performing Robert Johnson's classic "Sweet Home Chicago"

CD Review

Buddy’s Blues: Buddy Guy: The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection, Buddy Guy and various musicians, MCA Records, 1997

I have spent a fair amount of time in this space running through the legends of the Chicago blues explosion that hit its high point in the period just after World War II and continued to the advent of serious rock ‘n’ roll in the mid-1950s, a period that saw the mass migration off the southern farms and plantations of blacks (and poor whites) to the north in search of better paying, and mainly, unionized industrial jobs. Thus, such names as Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and so on have gotten plenty of ink here. Strangely although the name Buddy Guy has been mentioned here many times this is the first CD by him that is being reviewed in this space. Strange, indeed.

That said, the name Buddy Guy also is usually uttered, reverently, around the same time that one speaks the name of master harmonica player, Junior Wells (Buddy's long time Chicago playing companion). And, of course when you say Junior Wells you, of necessity, have to speak about Muddy Waters, the 'Father' of all the post World War II Chicago blues. Here, however, Buddy stands alone in this 50th Anniversary of Chess Records series. I have reviewed other parts of this series elsewhere and find the material that is presented in each tends, very much so, to be "greatest hits"-type material. That is the case here as well, and I would add that the quality of the sound tends to a a bit better here than on some of the other efforts in this series. Still anyway you can hear that old 1950s blues sound when it was fresh and down grab the opportunity, with both hands.

Buddy Guy almost never has had a bad track so one has to go the other way and try to cull out the best. Here the classic "Pretty Baby is smokin', “My Love Is Real”, and “Stone Crazy” round out my picks as the top numbers.

Buddy Guy
Mustang Sally lyrics

Mustang Sally, guess you better slow your mustang down
Mustang Sally , baby, I guess you better slow your mustang down
You been a runnin' all over town, I guess I'll better put your big feet on the ground, oh yes, I will

All you wanna do is ride around, Sally
Ride Sally ride
All you wanna do is ride around, Sally
Ride Sally ride
All you wanna do is ride around, Sally
Ride Sally ride
All you wanna do is ride around, Sally
Ride Sally ride

One of these early mornings,
You gonna be wipin' your weepin' eyes, yes you will
I bought you a vintage mustang,
Of nineteen sixty-five
Now you comin' right signifyin' woman, no,
You don't wanna let me ride

Mustang Sally, baby, yeah,
I guess you better slow your mustang down, yes you will darling, I hope you will
Going around running' all over town,
I'm gonna put your big fat feet on the ground, oh yes Sally, well, look at here

All you wanna do is ride around, Sally
Ride Sally ride
All you wanna do is just ride around, Sally
Ride Sally ride
All you wanna do is just ride around, Sally
Ride Sally ride
All you wanna do is ride around, Sally
Ride Sally ride
One of these early mornings
You gonna put your bad bad feet on the ground, oh yes I will, Sally

Sally ride Sally ride
Sally ride Sally ride
Ride Sally ride
Ride Sally ride
Ride Sally ride
Ride Sally ride

My Love Is Real lyrics :

My love for you is like, is like a sweet refrain
Real, real true love, is like a burning, burning flame
My love for you will live through storm and rain
My love, my love for you is real.
My love for you, words can never express

My love, my love for you is real.
God, God only knows, that I'll love you, love you best

With only you my love could ever rest
My love for you will live forever
If you love me, love me my darling
My love for you makes me want you near
Forever and a day
Won't you show me in your own sweet way?
Within, within my heart, I really need, need you dear

Sometimes true love can make a, make a man she'd tears
My love for you is real.

Oh, my love, oh my love for you is real.

*The Lines Are Drawn-Neck Deep In The 'Big Poppy'- Down With The Obama Afghan War Policy-Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S. Troops!

Click on title to link to a "The Washington Post" article on the movement toward escalation in Afghanistan, spear-headed by U.S Afghan commander McChrystal and the good ol' boys lining up Congress for Obama.

Markin comment:

Things are looking grim, very grim. Apparently the inside story all along was not whether to increase troop levels but rather by how much and from what sources. In any case this is now, without question and in plain view for all to see, Nobel 'Peace' Prize winner Barack Obama's war


This is a repost of an entry I have placed on this site many, too many times. Today, unfortunately, it bears repeating:

Every once in a while (more frequently than I would like) old Pete Seeger's song about his World War II adventures that served as a parable for President Lyndon Johnson and his constant Vietnam escalations, "Waist Deep In The Big Muddy” just seems appropriate. This is one of those occasions. Just switch "Big Poppy" for "Big Muddy" and you will have it just about right.

"Waist Deep In The Big Muddy"-Pete Seeger

It was back in nineteen forty-two,
I was a member of a good platoon.
We were on maneuvers in-a Loozianna,
One night by the light of the moon.
The captain told us to ford a river,
That's how it all begun.
We were -- knee deep in the Big Muddy,
But the big fool said to push on.

The Sergeant said, "Sir, are you sure,
This is the best way back to the base?"
"Sergeant, go on! I forded this river
'Bout a mile above this place.
It'll be a little soggy but just keep slogging.
We'll soon be on dry ground."
We were -- waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool said to push on.

The Sergeant said, "Sir, with all this equipment
No man will be able to swim."
"Sergeant, don't be a Nervous Nellie,"
The Captain said to him.
"All we need is a little determination;
Men, follow me, I'll lead on."
We were -- neck deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool said to push on.

All at once, the moon clouded over,
We heard a gurgling cry.
A few seconds later, the captain's helmet
Was all that floated by.
The Sergeant said, "Turn around men!
I'm in charge from now on."
And we just made it out of the Big Muddy
With the captain dead and gone.

We stripped and dived and found his body
Stuck in the old quicksand.
I guess he didn't know that the water was deeper
Than the place he'd once before been.
Another stream had joined the Big Muddy
'Bout a half mile from where we'd gone.
We were lucky to escape from the Big Muddy
When the big fool said to push on.

Well, I'm not going to point any moral;
I'll leave that for yourself
Maybe you're still walking, you're still talking
You'd like to keep your health.
But every time I read the papers
That old feeling comes on;
We're -- waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.

Waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.
Waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.
Waist deep! Neck deep! Soon even a
Tall man'll be over his head, we're
Waist deep in the Big Muddy!
And the big fool says to push on!

*When Time Fails You - The Music Of Chris Smither- “Time Stands Still”

Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Chris Smither performing a cover of Bob Dylan's classic "Desolation Row".

CD Review

Time Stands Still, Chris Smither, Signature Sounds, 2009

The name Chris Smither, or rather the musical artist formerly known as Chris Smithers as I now stand corrected from previous reviews (the details of which do not need to be delved into here), is a familiar one to readers of my reviews in this space. I have, usually, heartily thrown many kudos Brother Smither’s way starting from his first ‘wild boy’ days of “Love You Like A Man” as the new sheriff on the block in folkdom and on through his various incarnations and mood swings. Throughout I have always admired his sense of time and his way with a lyric. But something is out of joint with the times here. With the exception of his cover of Bob Dylan’s “It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry” I think he mailed this one in. More than that my companion who LOVES everything that Chris has previously done is of the same opinion. That is not good for she knows the Chris catalogue backward and forward.

Reasons? Well, for starters with the exception of his ode to his late father, “Old Man Down”, the lyrics seem like more of the same melancholy, morose, although poignant words that we have gotten used to over the past several albums. Even his novelty song “Surprise, Surprise” seemed trite on a second hearing. Nothing jumps out like that old ode to “Lola” from a couple of albums back. Or the indignity, in verse, of his auto getting stolen from that same album. Time has stood still. Moreover his singing and playing is off. The punch of a song like Blind Willie McTell’s “Statesboro Blues “ or “Killin’ The Blues” that is kind of a benchmark for that foot-driven beat that is Chris's trademark (along with the old blue guitar) is just not there. Has Chris turned into that old geezer that he, and I, have dreaded all our lives?

To end on a positive note though. Chris, over the last few albums, has done covers of Bob Dylan songs (stemming, I think, from, a workshop that he presented several years ago at the Boston Folk Festival). He has previously covered “Desolation Row (short version)” and “Visions Of Johanna” to great effect. Here he does even better on the above-mentioned “It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes At Train To Cry” because his raspy voice fits the slower, and, I think, more appropriate tempo that the song deserves. Dylan played it too fast to catch the pathos of the imaginary. For those who have heard the Dylan Bootleg Volume Three version which is even faster that point is really driven home here. Kudos on that one, Chris.


It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry

Well, I ride on a mailtrain, baby,
Can't buy a thrill.
Well, I've been up all night, baby,
Leanin' on the window sill.Well, if I dieOn top of the hillAnd if I don't make it,
You know my baby will.
Don't the moon look good, mama,
Shinin' through the trees?
Don't the brakeman look good, mama,
Flagging down the "Double E"?
Don't the sun look good
Goin' down over the sea?Don't my gal look fine
When she's comin' after me?
Now the wintertime is coming,
The windows are filled with frost.
I went to tell everybody,But I could not get across.
Well, I wanna be your lover, baby,
I don't wanna be your boss.
Don't say I never warned you
When your train gets lost.

Copyright ©1965; renewed 1993 Special Rider Music

*Poet's Corner- William Butler Yeats' "Song Of The Wandering Aengus"

Click on title to link to William Butler Yeats' poem "Song Of The Wandering Aengus" that was set to music by Caroline Herring in her latest CD "Golden Apples Of The Sun" reviewed in this space today.

*Photographer's Corner- The Great Depression Photographs Of Dorothea Lange

Click on title to link to "Wikipedia's" entry for the great photographer Dorothea Lange.

Photographer's Corner- The Great Depression Era Photographs of Dorothea Lange- A Book Review

Click on title to link to Jonathan Raban's "The New York Review Of Books" article reviewing Linda Gordon's "Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits".

* From The HistoMat Blog- On Marxist Theorist Walter Benjamin

Click on title to link to a HistoMat Blog entry for the great Marxist cultural theorist Walter Benjamin.

Markin comment:

I have noticed over the past several years that the name Walter Benjamin has been more prominently mentioned in the academic Marxist journals and, of all places, positively mentioned in "The New York Review Of Books" articles. I first became aware of the work of Walter Benjamin many years ago in the the leftist cultural journal, "The New Left Review" when there was also something of a previous emerging interest in his work.

It is always necessary to have first-rate cultural theorists on our side. I just wish we could get more Trotskys to lead the struggles, as well. Of course the bourgeoisie is happy to let us have our academic Marxist icons, or at least will tolerate them. Our fighting revolutionary leaders are a different story. They still, for the most part, utter Trotsky's name with anguish and trepidation. I note that hatchet man Robert Service has a new 'biography' of Trotsky out (touted as the definitive bio). I will review that 'thing' after I have read it.