Electric Chicago blues

Al compás del mundo Run List

#172, 3-20-25 - electric Chicago blues

01 James Cotton - Love Me or Leave Me

02 Sonny Boy Williamson - Wake Up Baby

03 Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers - Wild About You, Baby

04 Howlin Wolf - You'll Be Mine

05 John Lee Hooker – Louise

06 Junior Wells - Snatch It Back and Hold It

07 Koko Taylor - Wang Dang Doodle

08 Little Walter - I Don't Play

09 Jimmy Rogers - Walking by Myself

10 J.B. Lenoir - Don't Dog Your Woman

11 Otis Rush - Keep on Loving Me Baby

12 Muddy Waters - I Can't Be Satisfied

13 Sunnyland Slim - Shake It

14 Walter Horton - It's Alright

15 Buddy Guy - When My Left Eye Jumps

16 Magic Sam - She Belongs to Me

17 Johnny Young - Cross-Cut Saw

18 Eddie Boyd - Third Degree

19 Willie Dixon and Friends - I Cry for You

Got to feature the blues from time to time on Al compás del mundo as there seems to be a shortage of such on Mexican radio. Although RadioactivaTX.org, the host, is no longer radio per se. It’s streaming, baby, and I wonder what Muddy or Wolf would make of that? Music streamers have their algorithms that toss out potential faves along with the misses. For me, it’s a challenge every week to mix and match a playlist of consistency and logic...that you can dance to, bob your head, or drift away. It ain’t easy! But then with the likes of the historic figures I’ve picked out here, there’s no wrong choices. Not only are the players iconically famous, but a number of these songs inhabit the Maxwell St. hall of fame (look it up.) I honestly couldn’t believe it when I discovered that after 171 programs, more than three years’ worth of putting together shows, I had never played Koko Taylor’s “Wang Dang Doddle”, Howlin Wolf’s “You’ll Be Mine”, Muddy Waters’ “I Can’t Be Satisfied,” or Eddie Boyd’s “Third Degree.” I can no longer make that claim. Other new inclusions (I try to not repeat songs with the thought that I can hear my public’s eye-rolling – He’s playing that song again! We already heard it in April of 2023!) make up the entire remainder of the program. Check out the plaintive insistence of Sunnyland Slim urging his baby to “Shake It.” Or Junior Wells’ swerve to James Brown-style R&B with “Snatch It Back and Hold It.” J.B. Lenoir offers sage advice in “Don’t Dog Your Woman” and Johnny Young’s “Cross-Cut Saw” (without his mandolin) brandishes a threatening metaphor...that turns out to be the name for a painless dance fad. I had to look that one up. What still intrigues me is the title of Buddy Guy’s “When My Left Eye Jumps.” I looked this one up as well (banish all ignorance!) and it refers to bad luck coming to a cat near you. Apparently, if your right eye jumps it signifies good luck. It is my goal for this program to induce some positive twitching.

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