LOOK WHAT THEY DONE TO MY SONG MA

I'm not sure exactly when it happened, probably around the late sixties. Prior to that, early rock 'n' roll bands covered older songs, but it was basically just different ways of interpreting them. But as soon as big amps started showing up, rather than interpreting songs in a different way, it seems it was all about destroying the songs. Not necessarily with bad intent, just a louder, more amplified way. And a lot of people first heard old blues or jazz songs through whoever the guitar hero of the day was, which could be said to be a good thing. There were some musicians that kind of straddled the line, that really thought they were being reverent (Johnny Winter, a blues guy at heart, comes to mind). But somewhere in there, it got loud, really loud, the covers often unrecognizable, which may have been the whole point. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

It hit me recently when someone posted the Who's version of Mose Allison's "Young Man Blues", which is just about the most stark example of obliterating the original that there is. Given that Allison was so laid back in his delivery, it wouldn't take much, a standard rock 'n' roll band could have done it, but the Who completely destroyed it. Yeah, Clapton, suck on that.

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Listen:
Willie Dixon - Spoonful mp3 at Le Melletron
Cream - Spoonful (streaming) at YouTube
Willie Dixon - I Just Want To Make Love to You (streaming) at YouTube
Foghat - I Just Want To Make Love to You mp3 at Internet Archive
Mississippi Fred McDowell - Good Morning Little Schoolgirl mp3 at Keep the Coffee Coming
Ten Years After - Good Morning Little Schoolgirl (live) (streaming) at YouTube
Mose Allison - Young Man Blues mp3 at Blog Noblat (?)
The Who - Young Man Blues (live) mp3 at ATumblr (?)

HOPE IT WAS WORTH IT

Cleaning out the old links, I ran into this page with radio spots and jingles for all sorts of things, some with celebrities, and a few with musicians. I gravitated toward the beer spots, nostalgic for the days when beer was beer, not some eight dollar a bottle scam. I don't drink beer anymore, so who am I to whine? Because it's the whole concept, fancy anything is a scam.

After listening to a few of the old school beer spots, I went against my better judgement and revisited some by rock bands. The Troggs for Miller, not all that surprising. But Cream? For Falstaff?  The Ramones for Miller Steel Reserve? X, for Budweiser? Yeesh! I needed a chaser. Neil Young's "This Note's for You" did the trick.

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Listen:
Budweiser mp3 at Motor City Radio Flashbacks
Schlitz mp3 at Motor City Radio Flashbacks
Ballantine Premium mp3 at Motor City Radio Flashbacks
Lowenbrau mp3 at Motor City Radio Flashbacks
The Troggs - Miller Beer mp3 at Motor City Radio Flashbacks
Cream - Falstaff mp3 at Rock Town Hall
The Ramones - Gimmie My Steel Reserve mp3 at Beware of the Blog
X - Bud Thing mp3 at Billy Zoom
Video:
Neil Young - This Note's For You at YouTube Counterpoint
Visit:
More commercials at Motor City Radio Flashbacks
More commercials by rock artists Os Mutantes for Shell Oil. Lou Reed for Honda. Believe it.

THE LOST ART

Years ago I was at a bar around the corner from where I worked, sharing a pitcher of beer with my brother and a guitar buddy of his. It was in downtown San Diego, and the area was just starting to get cleaned up. Across the street was a relatively new mall, and we were facing the back of it, a parking structure with a bench out by the sidewalk. While we drank and were people watching, we noticed a large overweight man seated on the bench. Unkempt by some standards, really just a guy with greasy hair, a mustache, big sideburns with unfashionable clothes (the real deal, pre-dating ironic hipster style by a couple decades). He looked as though he might live in one of the cheap SRO hotels in the area. One thing we soon realized was that this guy was one of the smoothest girl watchers we'd ever seen. No comments, no interaction, no gaping, no mouthing "oh my god", none of that. This dude showed some class. It was all glances, just glances. So stealth that it felt like a gift to be seeing it, that we were witnessing a master, and it was something that probably nobody else was seeing. He wasn't even aware we were watching. We were voyeurs, checking out a voyeur. We were just on the cusp of questioning our own behavior when my brother started singing the Four Lads' "Standing On a Corner" and we just lost it. The juxtaposition of the song, the guy's appearance, and his studied approach was just too much. We howled on and on.

We knew the song because it was in heavy rotation on a short lived AM radio station, the late great KPOP, that specialized in the music of our parents and grandparents. Swing, vocal groups and an occasional swinging instrumental by someone like Perez Prado. The sort of stuff that sounds better if your parents aren't pushing it on you as some sort of cool of yore.

As long as we're on the girl watching theme, here's another, the O'Kaysions "Girl Watcher". Tepid as it sounds, it was a hit in 1968. Serious. You could hear it back to back with "Sunshine of Your Love" or "Piece of My Heart", both of which were hits the same year. That's how inclusive the top 40 charts were back then. Keep patting yourself on the back for your eclectic tastes. The general public, when given the chance, proved long ago that having varied tastes and being a music snob are not inextricably entwined.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
The Four Lads - Standing On a Corner mp3 at Stan's Area 1956
The O'Kaysions - Girl Watcher mp3 at LZ Center 1968
Cream - Sunshine of Your Love mp3 at LZ Center 1968
Big Brother and the Holding Company - Piece of My Heart mp3 at LZ Center 1968

POWER TRIO

Here's a couple of Cream oddballs. Take a look at this video, supposedly the earliest known footage, from 1966. Watch the first minute or so, and let yourself be lulled into "this just blows" ambivalence, try to figure out what the fuss was in the early years, then skip to about 3:45 to see the fuss. I know what you're thinking. Not that unusual. Okay, how about Cream doing a Falstaff beer jingle, and actually still sounding like Cream? Sing it! "Faaalllllstaff!..."

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Listen:
Cream - Falstaff commercial mp3 at Rock Town Hall
Cream - Sunshine of Your Love mp3 at Jalane40
Cream - Outside Woman Blues mp3 at Centurytel

WE MEET AGAIN

This actually started out as a quick post just to shove Foghat's version of "I Just Want to Make Love to You" in front of you, because I love the sound of it. It was produced by Dave Edmunds in the early 70s. It's nothing close to the original, just a nice slice of 70's guitar thud. So, after straying off the path, I ended up going on a two day Willie Dixon binge. It was overdue. I've seen his name in album cover notes since...well, a long fucking time. One of my earliest fetishized LPs (Johnny Winter) had a Dixon song on it. Later, I finally heard his music, and revisited versions by his contemporaries. (If you want a mind fuck, check out this list at Wikipedia.) He was a singer, guitarist, bassist, songwriter, producer, arranger, and talent scout; one of the architects of the Chicago blues sound, as well as the sound of Chess Records. He is the man.

Here's a variety of Dixon written stuff. Starting with a few rock bands. Love Sculpture is an early Dave Edmunds band. And check the video at the bottom. Strap yourself in. it's the pay off. Dixon's in it, with some heavy friends. It is awesome. Turn it up and go full screen on the mother.

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The UK rock bands:
Love Sculpture - Wang Dang Doodle mp3 at From Russia With Art
Foghat - I Just Want to Make Love to You mp3 at The Giant Panther
Cream - Spoonful mp3 at South Bay Amp Works
Led Zeppelin - You Shook Me mp3 at Great Gonzo
The old school:
Howlin' Wolf - Wang Dang Doodle mp3 at Burning Hand
Koko Taylor - Wang Dang Doodle mp3 at Clumsy & Shy
Etta James - I Just Want to Make Love to You mp3 at 8106
Muddy Waters - You Shook Me mp3 at Harmony Talk
The Man:
Willie Dixon - Spoonfull mp3 at Le Mellotron
Willie Dixon - You Shook Me mp3 at Great Gonzo
Willie Dixon - Twenty Nine Ways to My Baby's Door mp3 at Merry Swankster
Willie Dixon - I'd Give My Life For You mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Willie Dixon & Koko Taylor - Insane Asylum mp3 at Clumsy & Shy
Watch:
Willie Dixon - Bassology video at YouTube
Several videos at Willie-Dixon.com
Visit:
Willie Dixon at the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame
List of Dixon songs, and who has covered them (incomplete list) at Wikipedia
Willie Dixon's Blues Heaven Foundation

WATCH THIS: