Exile In Blues Celebrates Little Walter's Birthday!

Born Marion Walter Jacobs May 1, 1930 in Marksville, LA

he headed out the door at the age of 12, to towns

like New Orleans, and Memphis. It was in Helena,
Arkansas that he learned to play from Sonny Boy Williamson,

aka Rice Miller. Alot of the big blues artists actually had

radio shows there on KFFA, like Robert Lockwood.
Robert Nightwalk was hosting a show for BRIGHT STAR

FLOWER, while Sonny Boy was hosting a show for

KING BISCUIT FLOUR SHOW. It's amazing to think that

these blues artists were given the liberty of having not only

radio shows, but frequently having baking products

named after them!

What an incredible schooling for the young Little Walter this

must have been. His other big influence was Louis Jordan,

a jump blues singer/sax player. Walter would eventually

join Honeyboy Edwards in moving to Chicago. It was

there that he would go on to work with the great

Muddy Waters, along with his friend Jimmy Rogers, and

help create the classic Chicago blues sound.

What made his sound unique was his use of the

microphone amplification that gave him

that distinctive full echo sound. I think his

playing was actually copying what the piano

player was doing. I can't imagine those

early classic Muddy Waters recordings

without Walter.

Much has been made of his argumentative nature
and drinking, but what a life he led! Leaving home
at a very young age. Playing for money on sidewalks
and anywhere he could set up shop. To learn more,
read DEEP BLUES by Robert Palmer.


The complete Chess Masters box set was just
released in March-

Here's a clip from Little Walter's induction into

the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Rolling Stones Reissues Coming May 4th!

This blog is just CLIMBING THE WALLS!

These are the four that are coming out in the first batch.

And what I'm really bummed about is having to wait till the fall

for Exile on Mainstreet to be resissued with something special,

and it better not be just a "Special Box" to carry all the new

reissues!

Here is the Creative Arc:

Beggars Banquet

Let It Bleed

Sticky Fingers

EXILE ON MAINSTREET

Goat's Head Soup

It's Only Rock'n'Roll

Black And Blue

What I'm sad about is that Beggars and Let it Bleed

are Abkco. I did manage to find a DSD remastered

Japanese version of Let It Bleed that is TOTALLY worth it.

Very warm and it sounds almost like vinyl!

Obviously Exile is the top of the arc, and then it goes a bit

downhill, but not much! Don't read the crap that some

sites write (Allmusic), about how alot of the tracks on Goat's

Head and Sticky Fingers and It's Only Rock'n'Roll are filler

or B-tracks.

You have to remember that these were ALBUMS.

In the days before I-tunes, people listened to these as

a cohesive unit. So with that in mind, when they come

out, pretend they're 2-sided. When you get to what would

be considered side 2, turn it off, leave the room, maybe refill

your beverage, scratch yer ass, and listen to the rest of it.

In anticipation, here's a link to a great audiofile

website that delves more deeply into the actual studio

sounds of the best Rolling Stones albums.

MusicAngle.com

April 16th, 1964 The Rolling Stones Debut Album Released in the U.K.

The Rolling Stones release
England's Newest Hitmakers in the UK
on April 16th, 1964, and later in May for the U.S. They

had released some of these songs as singles, but the full

impact of this scruffy looking bunch of lads singing-

what sounded like nothing else out there, must have been

jolting. How many white teenagers had heard

something like "I Just Want To Make Love To You?"

Of course most of these teens had Elvis, and many

other cuddly teen-idols, but what a shock it must have

been to hear Mick's nasaly vocals.

You can hear how much Jimmy Reed's sound had

affected the band. I think it provided an easy entree

creatively for Mick with his vocals- they were a similar

range to Jimmy's as well as his harmonica playing.

His songs were very polished and urban. The Muddy

Waters and Howlin' Wolf sound was harder to

replicate at such an early age. That would be a

few years down the road, after alot of living, smoking

and drinking was done.

The rest of the tracks were all pretty snappy

and straddling the line between r&b and blues

which was tougher but ultimately more

successfull.

In those days, it was about speed (literally

and figuratively). Albums would be released

every few months, with singles released

constantly. The Stones were trying out

everything to see how it fit, ultimately

making it their own. The biggest impact

creatively, would be the ouster of Brian

Jones and Andrew Loog Oldham, and

the addition of more musically

knowledgable players like Mick

Taylor, Nicky Hopkins, Ry Cooder, Al

Kooper, and many many more.

Happy Birthday Muddy Waters! Part 3

It's part 3 of our journey to the roots of Muddy
Waters, so let go back to the days before Chicago.
Muddy had grown up with his grandmother after
his own mother had died. He remained pretty
loyal to her, staying in Mississippi longer than
he should have. Alan Lomax had discovered
Waters in 1941 at the Stovall Plantation, and
recorded a couple of tracks for the Library
Of Congress. Although it was a big money
making opportunity, nothing could stoke the
fire that was lit.
When Muddy moved to Chicago in 1943, it
wasn't an instant success. The audience there
was looking for sophistication, not the rough
Delta sound. It would take years before those
historic sessions with the Chess brothers. In
that time, Muddy worked several jobs- driving
delivery trucks, etc. He made alot of connections
and honed his playing at bars and parties.
As the war ended, the city folk were starting to
get interested in the familiar rural sounds
of their home towns. Sunnyland Slim,
like Muddy had grown up in the Delta, so
they had a good connection. Slim had the
opportunity to record, so he called Muddy in
to join him on "Johnson Machine Gun" and
Fly Right Little Girl". Muddy would then
go on to record "Little Anna Mae" and
Gypsy Woman". His playing was more polished,
with no bottleneck, but he had that thick Delta
accent. It was more sax and piano with
a fairly restrained Waters. Chess wasn't thrilled
and held back releasing them for a while.

It wouldn't be till 1948 when he was asked
back to record for Chess. He came back with
"I Can't Be Satisfied" and "I Feel Like Going Home".

Happy Birthday Muddy Waters! Part 2

Understanding Muddy can be difficult at times.
Like most of the great blues artists, he often
felt he didn't get his due, financially or
professionally. There are 2 books that
have some first-hand interviews with the
great man, among others. "Deep Blues"
by Robert Palmer, and "Feel Like Going
Home" by Peter Guralnick, which was

written some time ago. Guralnick had
gone on a road trip, interviewing Howlin'
Wolf and Jerry Lee Lewis as well. The
portrait that emerges is of a man
that is cautious of the current music
business and at the same token
restless, feeling unfulfilled. The same
could be said of Wolf and Lewis.
They are like wild animals, that were
caught and caged, unsure of what to make
of enforced domesticity. The parts
with Jerry Lee were striking. He

was still married to the infamously

young Myra Gale, and she had

obviously placed restrictions on his

drinking.

Back to Muddy- I think it was Peter Guralnick
that had the opinion that Muddy's music
remained simpler as compared to Robert
Johnson, because unlike Waters, Johnson
had traveled more widely and was for the
most part a one-man band, often playing more
than just the blues. Show tunes, hillbilly music,
anything that would get the money
flowing. Muddy followed a simpler
trail, when he got to Chicago, when he wasn't
working as a delivery man, he was played
parties and bars. Waters also had built a
connection with alot of the artists that
were already there, like Sunnyland Slim
who would be pivotal in getting the Chess
Brothers to hear him.

The Chess Box set is a great collection
if you're not familiar with Muddy.

Happy Birthday Muddy Waters! Part 1 Rollin' Stone

In the run up to celebrating this true legend of
Rock'n'Roll, whose birthday is on April 4th,
I wanted to start off with a tidbit about how
the Rolling Stones got their name.

According to the book "Keith Richards Satisfaction"
by Christopher Sanford, Brian Jones, while registering
the band in a musican's union, decided to take
the name from the Water's song "Rollin' Stone".

You have to hand it to Brian's genius...
to come up
with such an incredible
name. Keith "had later
thought it made them sound
like a bunch of
irish acrobats".
Gotta love Keith's thinking.

Here's Muddy Waters performing at the
Newport Jazz Festival in 1960. The whole
band plays such few notes, but
what they do play is so powerful. Muddy's
own playing is amazing! You can just
feel the Delta in each of those notes.
One can only wonder what the
beatniks made of the "Hootchie-
Cootchie" man singing about his
Mojo!

"Rollin' Stone" was one of McKinley Morganfield,
aka Muddy Water's own compositions, a derivative
of "Catfish Blues" by Robert Petway.

Happy Birthday Pete Johnson! Part 2

The Robert Johnson Pete Johnson connection
is a brief but sad one. John Hammond
had wanted Robert Johnson to perform
at Carnegie Hall for his Spirituals to Swing
Concert in 1938. Unfortunately, Robert
Johnson had passed away a few months
earlier, so Big Bill Broonzy performed in
his place.

Pete Johnson and his trio had also
performed that night, helping to
create a Boogie-Woogie craze. I
just caught this funny short created
in the early 40's on TCM.
It's a little parody of
instructional dance movies
with people dancing the jitterbug
to boogie-woogie music.
As one might expect, it's
pretty square!