Happy Birthday *The "Mac Daddy" Of Modern Blues- Robert Johnson

Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of early Robert Johnson work.

CD REVIEW

Martin Scorsese Presents; The Blues, Robert Johnson, Sony Records, 2003

I have heard the name Robert Johnson associated with country blues as long as I have been listening to the blues, and believe me that is a long time. I would venture to guess that if an average blues (or just music) fan was asked to name one blues artist the name that would, more probably than not, come up is Robert Johnson. Partially that is because his influence on later artists has been nothing short of fantastic, particularly the English blues aficionados like Eric Clapton. That said, Brother Johnson’s work leaves me cold. While I can appreciate some of his lyrics his guitar playing is ordinary, his singing can be tedious and his sense of momentum over the course of an album is very mundane.

His contemporaries, or near contemporaries like Charlie Patton, Howlin’ Wolf or Son House, to name just a few, are better in one or all these categories . Needless to say there is an element of subjectivity here but when the occasion arises I am more than willing to gush over a talent that makes me jump. Brother Johnson just does not do so. The source of his fame as an innovator is centered on his role of breaking the pattern of country blues established by Son House and other and giving the first hints of a city blues idiom, particularly as a forerunner to the Chicago blues. Okay, we will give the ‘devil’ his do on that score. Still, on any given day wouldn’t you give your right arm to see and hear Howlin’ Wolf croon "The Red Rooster" (and practically eat the microphone) or any of his other midnight creeps rather than Johnson on "Sweet Home, Chicago"? Here I will rest my case.

So what do you have to hear here? Obviously, “Sweet Home, Chicago". Beyond that “32-20 Blues” is a must listen as is his version of “Dust My Broom” (but isn’t Elmore James’ slide guitar souped-up version much better?) and “Hellhound On My Trail”. Keb’ Mo' (who I will review separately at a later time) does a nice cover here of “Last Fair Deal Gone Down”.


Lyrics to "Dust My Broom"

I'm gonna get up in the mornin',
I believe I'll dust my broom (2x)
Girlfriend, the black man you been lovin',
girlfriend, can get my room

I'm gon' write a letter,
Telephone every town I know (2x)
If I can't find her in West Helena,
She must be in East Monroe, I know

I don't want no woman,
Wants every downtown man she meet (2x)
She's a no good doney,
They shouldn't 'low her on the street

I believe, I believe I'll go back home (2x)
You can mistreat me here, babe,
But you can't when I go home

And I'm gettin' up in the morning,
I believe I'll dust my broom (2x)
Girlfriend, the black man that you been lovin',
Girlfriend, can get my room

I'm gon' call up Chiney,
She is my good girl over there (2x)
If I can't find her on Philippine's Island,
She must be in Ethiopia somewhere

Robert Johnson

On Memphis Minnie's Birthday ***A Blues Potpourri-The Blues Is Dues, Part II-The Sky May Be Crying But You Won’t Be

Click on the headline to link to a "YouTube" film clip of "Big Mama" Thornton performing "Hound Dog." Elvis step back, way back, on this one.

CD REVIEW

February Is Black History Month

As those familiar with this space know I have spent a good amount of ink touting various old time blues legends that I ‘discovered’ in my youth. My intention, in part, is to introduce a new generation to this roots music but also to demonstrate a connection between this black-centered music and the struggle for black liberation that both blacks and whites can appreciate. Like virtually all forms of music that lasts more than five minutes the blues has had its ups and downs. After becoming electric and urbanized in the immediate post-World War II period it was eclipsed by the advent of rock&roll then made a comeback in the mid- 1960's with the surge of English bands that grew up on this music, and so on. Most recently there was mini-resurgence with the justifiably well-received Martin Scorsese PBS six-part blues series in 2003. A little earlier, in the mid-1990’s, there had also been a short-lived reemergence spearheaded by the ‘discovery’ of urban blues pioneer Robert Johnson’s music.

The long and short of this phenomenon is that commercial record production of this music waxed and waned reflecting that checkered history. I have, in the interest of variety for the novice, selected these CDs as a decent cross-section of blues (and its antecedents in earlier forms of roots music) as to gender, time and type. The following reviewed CDs represent first of all an attempt by record companies to meet the 1990’s surge. They also represent a hard fact of musical life. Like rock&roll the blues will never die. Praise be. Feast on these compilations.

The Sky May Be Crying But You Won’t Be

Living The Blues: Blues Masters, MCA Records, 1995

Many of the artists on this compilation have received individual attention by this reviewer elsewhere in this space. Thus I will highlight some of the lesser known artists who were either one hit johnnies (or janies) and for some reason did not make the blues pantheon. First, however, I must note that any compilation that starts off with “I’m Your Hoochie Goochie Man” by Muddy Waters, an incredible version of “Hound Dog” by “Big Mama” Thornton and “Back Door Man” by Howlin’ Wolf is has already paid its way. Add in a laid back Jimmy Reed on “Baby What Do You Want Me To Do”, a ripping slide guitar by Elmore James on “The Sky Is Crying”, a young and hungry John Lee Hooker flailing away on “Boogie Chillun” and “So Many Roads, So Many Trains” by the smooth Otis Rush and you have not been cheated.

Now for the lesser lights that make this a virtually complete compilation of masters. How about a young but soon to be immortal Etta James on her classic “I’d Rather Go Blind”. Or the harmonica player extraordinaire, Little Walter, on “You’re So Fine”. And “The Things That I Used To Do” by the virtuoso guitarist Guitar Slim. And Lowell Fulsom rocking away on “Reconsider Baby. And…. Well, you get the picture. With the possible exception of Slim Harpo (who had a small body of work due to an early untimely death) all of these masters will be getting fuller treatment in this space later. For now this will give you an idea of what it was like when men and women played electric blues for real.

BIG MAMA THORNTON HOUND DOG LYRICS

You ain't nothing but a hound dog
Been snoopin' round my door
You ain't nothing but a hound dog
Been snoopin' round my door
You can wag your tail
But I ain't gonna feed you no more
You told me you was high class
I could see through that
You told me you was high class
I could see through that
And baby I know
You ain't no real cool cat
You ain't nothing but a hound dog
Been snoopin' round my door
You ain't nothing but a hound dog
Been snoopin' round my door
You can wag your tail
But I ain't gonna feed you no more
You made me feel so blue
You made me weep and moan
You made me feel so blue
You made me weep and moan
'Cause I'm looking for a woman
All your lookin' for is a home
You ain't nothing but a hound dog
Been snoopin' round my door
You ain't nothing but a hound dog
Been snoopin' round my door
You can wag your tail
But I ain't gonna feed you no more

From The Pen Of Joshua Lawrence Breslin- When Eric Von Schmidt Snuck The Blues Into Harvard Square

Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of Bukka White performing Aberdeen Mississippi Blues. Everybody else step back, step way back.

CD Review

New City Blues: The Prestige/Folklore Years: Volume Two, various artists including Eric Von Schmidt of the headline, Fantasy Records, 1994

Everything I know about the Cambridge (Ma) /Village (NYC)/North Beach (SF) (locations provided for the younger set, just in case) folk scene in the early 1960s I know from my old time friend, Peter Paul Markin. I met Markin out in the “great awakening” search for the great American West night, yellow brick road “on the bus” summer of love, circa 1967 night when we connected on Russian Hill in San Francisco. And that date is important because that is the year that I graduated from high school up in Olde Saco (Me). So I was far too late, far too disinterested, and far too committed to some version of psychedelic rock to appreciate what went on in those locales in the early 1960s. But I learned, and learned good.

Even Markin confessed to me one time that he was, being just three years older than me, kind of late onto the scene himself having first become aware of such things as folk music and coffeehouses in 1962 high school days when he, by accident, heard some early Dylan stuff on some late night Sunday radio show, Bill Bixby’s Folk Hour.

The accident part was that he had tuned in assuming that he was going to listen to the Irish National Hour that his grandfather had trained him to tune into religiously. The station had changed the hour (put it an hour later) due to the increasing popularity of, if you can believe this, folk music, roots music, hillbilly stuff. Or so Markin thought then. But he was hooked, and listened to that show religiously every week. Previously, other than music from the “old sod” he had, like every other denizen of what would later be called the generation of ’68, suffered through that rock and roll drought when Bobby Vee, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis and cast of thousands of other one- hit wonders mucked up the airways after “they” killed Elvis, threw Chuck Berry in jail, sneered at Jerry Lee’s sex life, and we lost Buddy Holly.

Now what does all of this have to do with reviewing an early folk blues CD, or with Eric Von Schmidt? Plenty. See Eric was back in the late 1950s one of the first to create the Cambridge folk scene making it safe for young impressionable teens to curse the day Neil Sedaka and Freddy (Boom Boom) Cannon were born. He made (along with others although he gets kudos here because three of his songs, including the famous Light Rain, are part
of this compilation) the search for roots music that we half-knew we were looking for possible to surface, and survive. This was the day of the great urban homage to the country blues, mainly black, who were being “discovered” (really re-discovered”) down in the Mississippi Delta, the back woods of Alabama, and along the Texas panhandle.

And the performers on this album were among those others who tried to put a new spin on some old country blues classics, and had enough sense of history to do the covers up right. Special attention here should go to the late folk historian Dave Von Ronk who was a fountain of knowledge about the old- timers. And shared that information and respect. Attention should also go to Geoff Muldaur who continues to perform many of the classics of the folk portion of the American songbook. I should note that today through networks like YouTube we can see some of the country blues old-timers perform their songs and compare. Take Muldaur’s cover of Aberdeen Mississippi Blues. Very good. Then take Bukka White’s version. Step back on that one Geoff. But listen to this CD-this is the new old-timers (ouch) blues.

*For Those In Search Of A Blues Primer- The Best Of The Mississippi Blues- A CD Review

Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of Muddy Waters performing I've Got My Mojo Working.

CD Review

The Best Of Mississippi Blues, various artists, Fuel, 2000
Okay, blues aficionados that you are you have heard it all, right? From the old Delta country blues artists who first gave form to the genre, the likes of Charly Patton, Son House, and Mississippi Fred McDowell, through to the heyday of the women touch blues singers like Bessie Smith and Ida Mack, through to the transformative figure like Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters who turned the blues from acoustic (of necessity for lack of electricity) Saturday night juke joint stuff to the electric jiving and arriving hot Midwest urban Saturday night stuff.

And then after you had the basics down you went to the second tier; those who make the blues more sophisticated like Billie Holiday, and other later interpreters, some black, some white, some rock-influenced, some by jazz, and other by various revivalist trends. And in order to get you “doctorate” in blues-ology you delved into the back streets, the singers for nickels and dimes; the chittlin’ circuit where many performers got their start (and too many their finish) with their endless bowling alley, small bar, small restaurant clienteles; the world music blues scene of Tex-Mex, Cajun, and Western swing stuff. And then for post-doctoral work, a look at those who currently keep that now slender tradition alive out on those mean streets and small clubs.

Okay, Mister or Ms. Aficionado, you have some “cred” but how about those of us who are clueless, or just searching for the sound that keeps beating in the back of our heads. Give us a primer. Well, this is a roundabout way of telling you that this little CD under review will give you a sampler of some of the trends that I have mentioned above, especially of the first generation country and electric urban blues milieu. There are others out there but you are on your own to dig the stuff out so that you too can be a “doctor”.

Stick outs here include: Mississippi John Hurt on Casey Jones; Tommy Johnson on Canned Heat Blues; the legendary rocker, Ike Turner on Matchbox, and the also legendary Muddy Waters on I’ve Got My Mojo Working. But, really this whole compilation, as befits an all-star lineup, could have been included.

***Out In Those Mean Urban Neon Wilderness Streets- “Midnight Cowboy”- A Film Review

Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of the movie trailer for Midnight Cowboy.
DVD Review

Midnight Cowboy, starring Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, 1969

Recently in a review of Bonnie and Clyde, a film that also deals tragic-comically with lumpen life, in that case the mock heroics of bank robbery in the popular imaginations of an earlier generation, that of the Great Depression, I noted that I was familiar, too familiar with that place where the lumpenproletariat, the dregs of society, intersects and intermingles with the working poor. And also of the dreams, sometimes the plain, old ordinary get-rich-quick dreams to get out from under that inflame those who have nothing and have no way of getting more than nothing.

In Midnight Cowboy we get a very solid sense of the convergence of those two sets of social interactions. Jon Voight’s Joe Buck, small town Texas twisted, second-hand dreams of making it in big time, big apple, New York as a hustler out in the neon wilderness of Times Square. And, Dustin Hoffman’s Ratzo Rizzo, home-grown boy, already on those mean streets scratching for nickels and dimes to keep body and soul together. And to get out the hell out of killer New York, as long as he does not have work to do so. Work, in real life, is the curse of this segment of society. I have known more than my fair share, and have had more than my fill of real Ratzos, including in my own extended family, complete with that bizarre logic that says black is white, as matter of course, and visa versa that drives their skimpy lives.

That said, this is a buddy story, in this case a male buddy film, that was a cinematic trend back in the late 1960s and early 1970s and at that level the movie works as old Joe Buck is ready to go to the mat, in the end, to get old Ratzo out of cold-hearted New York. But here is the “skinny” from personal experience, it is usually too little too late. And so it proved here. This film, moreover, despite my “high sociology” screed above is worth seeing for the outstanding performances of these two actors early on in their careers.

*The Circle Game- The Songs of Tom Rush

Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of Tom Rush performing Joni Mitchell's The Circle Game.

CD REVIEW

The Circle Game, Tom Rush, 1968

If I were to ask someone, in the year 2008, to name a male folk singer from the 1960’s I would assume that if I were to get an answer to that question that the name would be Bob Dylan. And that would be a good and appropriate choice. One can endlessly dispute whether or not Dylan was (or wanted to be) the voice of the Generation of ’68 but in terms of longevity and productivity he fits the bill as a known quality. However, there were a slew of other male folk singers who tried to find their niche in the folk milieu and who, like Dylan, today continue to produce work and to perform. The artist under review Tom Rush is one such singer/songwriter.

The following is a question that I have been posing in reviewing the work of a number of male folk singers from the 1960’s and it is certainly an appropriate question to ask of Tom Rush as well. I do not know if Tom Rush, like his contemporary Bob Dylan, started out wanting to be the king of the hill among male folk singers but he certainly had some things going for him. A decent acoustic guitar but a very interesting (and strong baritone) voice to fit the lyrics of love, hope, and longing that he was singing about at the time. This was period when he was covering other artists, particularly Joni Mitchell, so it is not clear to me that he had that same Dylan drive by then (1968).

As for the songs themselves I mentioned that he covered Joni Mitchell in this period. That is represented here by a very nice version of Urge For Going that captures the wintry imaginary that Joni was trying to evoke about things back in her Canadian home. And the timelessness of Circle Game, as the Generation of ’68 sees another generational cycle starting, is apparent now if it was not then. The Rockport Sunday (instrumental) combined with the sadly haunting No Regrets used to get much play by this writer after some ‘relationship’ problems didn’t get thrashed out satisfactorily in the old days. This is classic Tom Rush. Get It.


Joni Mitchell Circle Game Lyrics

Yesterday a child came out to wonder
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
And tearful at the falling of a star
Then the child moved ten times round the seasons
Skated over ten clear frozen streams
Words like, when you’re older, must appease him
And promises of someday make his dreams

And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and dawn
We’re captive on the carousel of time
We can’t return we con only look behind
From where we cameAnd go round and round and round
In the circle game.

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now
Cartwheels turn to car wheels thru the town
And they tell him,
Take your time, it won’t be long now
Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down

And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and dawn
We’re captive on the carousel of time
We can’t return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and roundIn the circle game

So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty
Though his dreams have lost some grandeurComing true
There’ll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through.

And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We’re captive on the carousel of time
We can’t return, we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game