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Chords and Notes
Hound Dog: A Tribute, Various Artistes
Alligator CD, Rs. 550
THEODORE ROOSEVELT "Hound Dog" Taylor, who got his nickname because of his reputation as a ladies' man, was born in Natchez, Mississippi in 1917. Though he started performing regularly in the Mississippi delta area since the age of 20, (moving to Chicago in 1942) he remained virtually unknown to the outside world, till his first album was released by Alligator in 1973. Hound Dog's raucous slide guitar style was heavily influenced by Elmore James, with whom he had toured and performed around the delta in the thirties. But whereas Elmore's dictum was intensity and pathos, Hound Dog's is hard-rocking boisterous fun. His band The Houserockers, with Brewer Phillips on second guitar and Ted Harvey on drums, and featuring occasional visiting luminaries as guest artistes, has played at virtually every blues venue in Chicago, and a string of blues festivals all over the world. At the time of Hound Dog's death from cancer in 1975, they were the house band at two of Chicago's leading South Side blues clubs — the Expressway Lounge (on Fridays and Saturdays), and Florence's (on Sundays).
Hound Dog was not a great guitar virtuoso, but he could really rock an audience off its feet. That is why none of his available recordings contain any overdubbing or special effects, for they are raw, pure, and have to be drunk neat. His tracks, such as "Hideaway" (covered by Freddy King, also Eric Clapton) , "Taylor's Rock", " Give Me Back My Wig", "Sadie", "Walking The Ceiling", "Shake Your Moneymaker", and "Hawaiian Boogie" possess a propulsive groove that has launched legions of South Side blues lounge lizards off their seats to boogie into the wee hours, night after night, for nearly three and a half decades. As he himself once put it: "I play shit, but I make it sound good!" So good in fact, that the infectious boogie he patented has now bitten people as far apart as guitarist Hjalmar Kings (who preaches the Gospel According to Hound Dog in his native Sweden) to the Japanese bluesman Boogie Boy Ikuto (who has cast the Hound Dog repertoire in Japanese!)
On this album, some artistes try to copy Hound Dog's distinctive rough-hewn guitar and vocal quality faithfully, while others attempt a new interpretation. Some of it works, and some doesn't. Magic Slim, for example, was a direct protégé of Hound Dog's, and often filled in for him at club gigs during tour-related absences. His meditative, ringing version of "Freddie's Blues" doesn't sound much like Hound Dog, but is still the high point of this album. Luther Allison's take on "Give Me Back My Wig" is passable, but inferior to Magic Slim's super-syncopated version (which, by a sad omission, is not on this compilation. It features on Magic Slim's album Grand Slam). Son Seals takes on "Sadie", and somebody called Dave Hole covers "Hawaiian Boogie". The two surviving Houserockers (Harvey and Phillips) join Cub Koda in essaying "Take Five" (not to be confused with the eponymous Dave Brubeck jazz tune). Not surprisingly then, this track comes closest to Hound Dog's original sound. The acoustic version of "It's Alright" (by Vernon Reid and Alvin Hart) is an interesting counterpoint to the electric version (by Li'l Ed and the Blues Imperials). And "I Just Can't Make It", covered by George Thorogood, is a fairly accurate description of his attempt.
A mixed bag, all in all, serving to whet the listener's appetite for the originals, and also an illustration of how Hound Dog's very distinctive style can open so many different doors.
Many of the artistes appearing on this compilation are not big names yet, and a tribute such as this helps showcase them to blues afficionados who wouldn't hear them otherwise.
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Elektra /Asylum CD, Rs. 550
PAUL BUTTERFIELD (born 1942, Chicago) taught himself the harmonica and, from the ripe old age of sixteen, started sitting in with Muddy Waters's band on local club gigs. Meanwhile, by day, he studied classical flute at the University of Chicago. After jamming onstage with the cream of Chicago's blues cosmos (Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Little Walter, and Magic Sam), Butterfield launched his own band in 1963. With his university classmate Elvin Bishop on guitar, the prodigy Mike Bloomfield on second guitar, Jerome Arnold (ex-Howlin' Wolf) on bass, Sam Lay (also ex-Howlin' Wolf) on drums, and the talented Mark Naftalin on organ, the band built a strong local reputation in the next couple of years. This album, released by Elektra in 1965, is the band's recording debut.
It was a smash hit, and has gone on to become a modern classic. It is inevitable that tracks which are covers will be compared with the originals, and here the vocals sometimes come up short (for instance, in Little Walter's "Blues With a Feeling" and "Last Night", or Muddy Waters's "Got My Mojo Working"). But this is amply compensated by their high degree of instrumental virtuosity and tasteful playing. Two of the band's original tracks "Thank You, Mr. Poobah" and "Screamin" are instrumentals, and a very fitting tribute to their superlative blues abilities.
Moving on from this impressive debut album, the Butterfield Blues Band played Newport in 1965 where, after finishing their own set, they went on to back Bob Dylan. Poor Bob was booed and jeered by his folkie fans for "selling out and going electric", but this potent collaboration with the Butterfield Blues Band resulted in his classic Highway 61 Revisited album later in the same year. It is now considered a landmark of Dylan's career.
VISHWAMBHAR PATI
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