Skip to main content

Al compas del mundo - programa #88 - The Rolling Stones and their blues mentors


Good ol’ scarface Walter. Was there ever a prettier mug to grace the cover of an album? Or a better, slicker and more tasteful harp player? And consider Howlin’ Wolf – gravel for a voice, distinguished song writing and harmonica talent, a sense of humor, and a gentle man in every sense in spite of his intimidating presence. Unmatched. I’m naming blues legends here as this week’s Al Compas del Mundo presents The Rolling Stones playing the blues, a heavy inspiration for the band at their outset in the early 60’s. And then you get to hear the same songs as they were originally performed in Chicago, Louisiana, Mississippi and elsewhere outside of London by a bunch of “heavy heads”. Blue and Lonesome was released in 2016 by The Stones and was their first album ever consisting completely of covers – of blues, by the originators in this case.  My hat is off to them for choosing lesser-known tunes, even from better-known musicians. I couldn’t fit them all in during a one-hour show, but Jimmy Reed and Willie Dixon were also called to the party alongside Magic Sam, Eddie Taylor, Lightnin’ Slim, and Little Johnny Taylor. I, personally, find The Stones’ versions a bit sluggish and overwrought, though I suppose that is like comparing Salieri to Mozart (look it up). Still, I’m sure a good time was had by all. - J. H.

Run list for The Rolling Stones and their blues mentors - First broadcast 8-3-2023

01 Rolling Stones - Commit a Crime

02 Howlin' Wolf - Commit a Crime

03 Rolling Stones - Blue and Lonesome

04 Little Walter - Blue and Lonesome

05 Rolling Stones - Everybody Knows About My Good Thing

06 Little Johnny Taylor - Everybody Knows About My Good Thing

07 Rolling Stones - All of Your Love

08 Magic Sam - All of Your Love

09 Rolling Stones - Just Like I Treat You

10 Howlin' Wolf - Just Like I Treat You

11 Rolling Stones - Hoodoo Blues

12 Lightnin' Slim - Hoodoo Blues

13 Rolling Stones - Ride 'Em on Down

14 Eddie Taylor - Ride 'Em On Down

15 Rolling Stones - I Gotta Go

16 Little Walter - I Gotta Go

17 Rolling Stones - Little Rain (acknowledgements to Jimmy Reed – ran out of time for his original killer version!)

Note 1: the highest Blue and Lonesome ever reached on the Mexican charts was #18 (#73 in South Korea). Y que? I think they made up for it in the U.K. and other civilized outposts. Sniff sniff. J.H.

Note 2: What a great list! But in the interest of  Blues Buffin' and in the My Humble Opinion Dept., I am going to put forward Jr Wells as the definitve Hoodoo Man Blues man, as he did it on States, re-released on Delmark, and re-recorded on important samely titled Delmark LP with Buddy Guy in late 60s or early 70s. Now, he got this, like a lot of people got a lot of stuff, from Sonny Boy Williamson I.  But it became a Jr signature. - Webmaster Jack



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

British Invasion - 1960s

I wanted to declare “Kick out the jams, mo’fos!” as a signpost towards the message in this week’s Al compás del mundo radio show, but that actually came about a little later. As humanity descended ever deeper into the Cro-Magnon state, Iggy Pop and the punks claimed that honor. What we have here instead, is a post-WWII let’s shake up the political order a bit, and no, not everyone has signed up to be an unconscious consumer attitude. There’s something afoot with these lads. Not exactly revolutionary fervor, but most certainly promoting a change in the general way of things. Recalling Che Guevara’s famous quote “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”, the Animals, Yardbirds, Rolling Stones et. al. pouted and preened – some more than others – in a way that hadn’t quite been done before. Youthful vigor ensued. These groups pushed the evolutionary chain of popular music a step further and we’re all better off for it.  Set list Al compás del mundo programa #183, 6-5-25 - The British Invasion, 1960s 01 Yar...
Post a Comment
Read more

India y Nepal y Tibet

W here a human voice is heard in today’s program it’s often starkly different from what most Westerners might find pleasing and melodic.  But I must remind my listeners that the West probably did not invent the concept of vocalizing as accompaniment to plucked/blown/percussed musical instruments. Why do we sing in the style that we do? I imagine there are knowledgeable tomes wrestling with that idea. I ’ve read that vocals were meant to imitate the sounds made by instruments...or vice versa? The chicken or the egg? I’m not here to answer that question, in spite of the college course I had taken of “Music Cultures of the World” decades ago. What I offer is the opportunity to pay attention to and digest musical expressions performed by people steeped in the traditional ways of their culture.  T here is a geographic component to lumping together India, Nepal and Tibet as the Himalayas served to isolate and circumscribe the peoples of those northern regions. But here’s where I fud...
Post a Comment
Read more

Guitarras del mundo

  Choosing music and writing about “the guitar” opens many doors. I could have gone off in any number of directions and with a singular narrow focus - but I didn’t. Instead, I threw a whole bunch of varied tunes against a wall to see which ones stuck. Sometimes there’s a continuity and other times none: just two aesthetically pleasing pieces that worked well in tandem and, hopefully, were preceded and followed with similar morsels. Usually, that is how these programs come together. I receive a divinely inspired revelation for a certain theme, region, or style of music and build it from there. Baden Powell, Brazilian beatnik poet and guitar master, seemed to me an obvious choice to begin the program. From there (as you can well see) we stick around Latin America a bit; segue into Spain, notorious as a guitar hotbed; head South to North Africa for the venerable Bombino (yes, again!) and more of that desert blues ilk; logically morph into a short blues set and settle at the bottom sid...
Post a Comment
Read more