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Muddy Waters left Chess Records in 1975 and this version of ‘I Want To Be Loved’ is taken from his first album to be released by Blue Sky, Hard Again. Along with ‘Mannish Boy’ and ‘I Can’t Be Satisfied’, ‘I Want To Be Loved’ is a re-working of a previous recording done while signed to Chess and it stands in pretty sharp contrast to the original—It feels harder and more boisterous and sounds like the musicians are having a bloody fantastic time playing it. For comparison, here’s the original:

Which do you prefer?

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Johnny Winter’s production worked so well that he recorded another 2 albums with Waters. These were to be the most successful records of Waters’ career.

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KS

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If you know this song, you’ve probably heard the LaVern Baker version of it…which is also very good…

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Both Bessie and LaVern belong to a grouping of female singers that go “HRRRAARRURRHH” in a fairly powerful way when they sing. It’s great!

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Bessie Smith was an interesting character. One site describes her as: “a rough, crude, violent woman”. Another as:

“a big woman, who was known for her temper, her hard drinking, her sexual appetite—which included relationships with lovers of both sexes—and her willingness to fight for what she wanted, sometimes to the point of using physical force. But when she sang, Bessie Smith mesmerized her audience.”

- Pop Matters

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‘On Revival Day’ was written by Andy Razaf and originally recorded by Luis Russell and His Orchestra. Bessie Smith’s version was recorded for Columbia Records in 1930. She tragically died 7 years later in pretty gruesome car accident. Still, she’s a bit of a legend, and one of the key ladies in the history of blues music. Bessie started singing in a travelling show as a dancer and singer back in 1912 and made her first recording for Columbia in 1923 and a further 159 over her career. Nicknamed The Empress Of Blues, she was one of the most popular female musicians of the 1920s and 30s.

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KS

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Your grandparents have something they’d like to tell you. In fact, your great-grandparents do too. Sure, they might seem like the very pillars of grace and virtue and good moral standing now, but just listen to the lyrics of this song and then try and work out how they can possibly be offended by half the stuff that gets ‘Parental Advisory’  stickers now. Lucille Bogan was dropping F-bombs all over the place back in the 1930s!

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Lucille Bogan began her career singing vaudeville songs for Okeh Records in 1923, but by 1930 her songs had lyrics far more concerned with sex and boozing. She started recording as Bessie Jackson in 1933, recording some more straight-forward blues songs with pianist Walter Roland, but amongst her last recordings with him in 1935 was this exquisitely filthy version of ‘Shave ‘Em Dry’. I think it’s time to show you some sample lyrics, so here you go, including the bit that the Rolling Stones borrowed for ‘Start Me Up’:
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“I got nipples on my titties big as the end of my thumb,
I got somethin’ ‘tween my legs ‘ll make a dead man come,
Oooh daddy-baby, won’t you shave ‘em dry, oooh!
Won’t you grind me baby, grind me till I cry.”

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Now is that really the kind of language that you’d expect from someone who looks like they could’ve hung out with your grandma? I think not.

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Lucille Bogan: The Lil’ Kim of the 1930s. Legend. And, if you’d like to read on, then check out Cracked’s list of ‘7 Songs From Your Grandpa’s Day That Would Make Eminem Blush’

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KS

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Here’s one of those rare moments, a relatively cheerful blues song. But then, Taj Mahal’s blues songs are not your average blues songs:

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“You can listen to my music from front to back, and you don’t ever hear me moaning and crying about how bad you done treated me. I think that style of blues and that type of tone was something that happened as a result of many white people feeling very, very guilty about what went down.”

- Taj Mahal, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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Though he began by studying the more traditional blues styles, over his career he began to draw influences from other roots music too, incorporating elements of reggae, gospel, rhythm & blues and country. ‘Lovin’ In My Baby’s Eyes’ draws more from the end of that list, certainly with a very clear folk music styling too. Maybe it’s this folkiness, combined with his slightly (dare I say it) “grampa” voice that always makes me picture a happy old couple like this when I hear the song:

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Err, anyway.

The Essential Taj Mahal compilation brought together recordings from a whole bunch of different labels and finally drew together a better picture of the music and styles he’s explored throughout his four decade-long career. In 2006 it even won Historical Album of the Year at the Blues Music Awards, dontchaknow, which I think is a slightly more “worthy” way to talk about catalogue music. Regardless, they’re right. It’s excellent and it’s a brilliant place to start at with his music. To be honest, my knowledge pretty much stops after this song and the brilliantly ballsy ‘Leaving Trunk’ so I can vouch for The Essential being a great way to explore a bit more.

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I’m just going to leave you with this quote about why Taj loves playing festivals so much. Blues dancing is one of my favourite things in the world so I hereby award him major awesomeness points for this:

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“The music was designed for people to move, and it’s a bit difficult after a while to have people sitting like they’re watching television. That’s why I like to play outdoor festivals-because people will just dance”

Hurrah! I agree.

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KS

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‘You Gotta Move’ is an awesomely bluesy slice taken from Sam Cooke’s 1963 album, Night Beat.  Now I love me a bit of Sam Cooke as much as anyone else, but sometimes it feels like all those strings typical of his biggest hits overpower songs which would be just as good, if not better, in a simpler form. Night Beat is a great album simply because it uses a much smaller band of incredibly talented musicians: Billy Preston, the organ player, was just 16 at the time this track was recorded (and he later featured on the Rolling Stones’ live version of the song). Barney Kessel, on guitar, had featured earlier as the only white musician (with his fingers stained darker with berry juice!) in the 1944 short film, Jammin’ The Blues (a must-watch, if you’ve not seen it before. It’s effortlessly cool and the shots are just delicious). Drummer, Hal Blaine, in his lifetime, “played on 50 number one hits, over 150 top ten hits and has recorded, by his own admission, on over 35,000 pieces of music over four decades of work.” It’s little wonder that with a dream team of musicians like this, the album only took 3 nights to record. Legends.

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KS

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I couldn’t find any videos of Nina Simone actually performing the song so I thought I’d use a little bit of creative license and use the above video of Mike Roberts and Laura Glaess dancing to the song at Midwest Lindy Fest 2010 instead. Seeing this routine on YouTube was actually the first time I heard this song. My only regret is I didn’t hear it sooner (…it’s been on repeat ever since)

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‘Since I Fell For You’ is another one of those blues / jazz standards I’ve been spoon-feeding you lately. It was written by Buddy Johnson in 1945 and first performed my him and his sister.

Take a listen and you’ll see why I picked Nina’s version over theirs. It may be the original but it certainly ain’t the best.

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The song’s been very popular with female vocalists over the years — Eartha Kitt, Etta James and Gladys Knight all had a go. But it’s Dinah Washington’s version most singers refer back to. It’s bluesier than the original but still clean, precise and almost matter of fact in the delivery. Listen to the way she sings the “you” in the line “since I fell for you”…

…See what I mean?

And now picture her singing it. While Nina’s rattling around an empty house, singing the words into the dark as she runs a finger along the lapel of the jacket her lover’s left behind (you know, probably), Dinah’s up on a spot-lit stage crooning the words into one of those old-style mics as the diners in the jazz club glance up from their pâté for a second to watch her shimmy, then mumble something about the “mellow notes” in the wine they’re drinking. And that, right there, is why I wanted to use the video of the dancers — they hear the sadness and also the conflict in Nina’s voice and become its physical embodiment — being drawn together but pushing each other away. It’s really quite beautiful.

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KS

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‘Stormy Weather’ was written by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler for the 1933 Cotton Club Revue. Here’s a nice little history biscuit from the BBC Radio 2 website:

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“[Koehler’s] phrases mirrored the roots of jazz and blues, so lines such as ‘all I do is pray/that the Lord will let me/ walk in the sun once more’ hark back to the language of the black slave spiritual.

The song had been intended for Cab Calloway and his band but he had left the Cotton Club to be replaced by Duke Elllington who gave the song to Ethel Waters.

In the meantime Harold Arlen himself had been singing the song with the Leo Reisman Band and Reisman was so impressed with the version he released a recording of the song a few months before the revue opened, giving the composer a rare hit both as a writer and performer.”

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The song has since been covered by a multitude of artists and has become somewhat of a jazz staple — you might’ve heard versions by Lena Horne, Frank Sinatra, Glenn Miller and Ella Fitzgerald, to name but a few. Billie Holiday’s version isn’t necessarily the most well known one, but to me, it’s the version that brings out the disappointment in the lyrics the most - “stormy weather since my man and I ain’t together, keeps raining all the time.”

Billie’s vocal is just heart-breaking. When she sings “just can’t get my poor old self together. I’m weary all the time” you have absolutely no doubt that she means every word she says. Sublime.

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KS