Mixtapes Of Today
In this podcast I will talk about all types of music, different genres, different decades, themes, and soundtracks of our lives. Discussing personal experiences and cultural nostalgia. We will build a playlist every week and share it with the listeners.
Mixtapes Of Today
Episode 8: Blues Therapy
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Blues Therapy Spotify Playlist
This week is a little Blues Therapy.
Listening to 10 tracks of influential Blues songs.
Welcome to Mixtapes of Today, Episode 8. I am your host, Suze Jones. This week we are going to have a little blues therapy. Blues is a music genre, a musical form that originated among African Americans in the deep south of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spirituals, quirk songs, chants, and simple narrative ballads from the African American culture. Early traditional blues verses often consisted of a single line repeated several times. However, the most common structure of the blues lyrics today was established in the first few decades of the 20th century, known as the AAB pattern, that consists of a line sung over the first four bars, its repetition over the next four, and a longer concluding line over the last bars. The blues form is common in many music styles, and it's characterized by the call and response pattern, the blues scale, and specific chord progressions of which the 12-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes, or worried notes, usually thirds, fifths, or sevenths flattened in pitch, are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove. Blues was always considered a music of feelings, expressing hardships or heartbreak that all people of any culture could relate to. This style of music transitioned from country blues to urban blues beginning in the 1920s and post-World War II. It made lots of changes by the 1950s. In the 1960s and 70s, blues influenced rock and roll and popular music, and the resurgence of southern country blues began in the 1980s and 90s, and still is used as a standard for emotional music today. This week we will check out just 10 tracks of highly influential songs in the genre, and what I consider my favorite blues songs. Check out my Spotify link in the description. Track one. The song's polished production and use of strings marked a departure from both the original song and King's previous material. BB King's recording earned him a Grammy Award for Best Male RB Vocal Performance in 1970 and a Grammy Hall of Fame award in 1998.
SPEAKER_07But so lonely on me.
SPEAKER_02Called A Timeless Staple of the Blues, the song also has strong crossover appeal to the rock audience. The lyrics to Born Under a Bad Sign were written by Stack Records Rhythm and Blues singer William Bell, with music by Stack's bandleader, Booker T. Jones. Born Under a Bad Sign reached number 49 on Billboards magazine's top-selling RB singles chart, and Albert King recorded an updated version of Born Under a Bad Sign with producer Alan Toussaint for his 1978 New Orleans Heat album. First recorded in nineteen fifty-five by Waters, it serves as an answer song to Bo Diddley's I'm a Man, which was in turn inspired by Waters and Willie Dixon Hoochie Coochie Man. Waters recorded several versions of Manish Boy during his career. In 1968, he recorded it for the Electric Mud album in Marshall Chess's attempt to attract the rock market. The song reached number five during a stay of six weeks in the Billboard RB chart. The song is one of Hooker's most identifiable and enduring songs, and among the tunes that every band in the early 1960s RB circuit simply had to play. Boom Boom was both an American RB and pop chart success in 1962. It has become a blue standard and recorded by other artists like The Animals. In 1995, John Lee Hooker's version of Boom Boom was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of the songs that shaped rock and roll. Numerous artists have interpreted the song in a variety of styles and mentioned different locations. Johnson's transformed the song into one of aspirational migration by inserting Chicago into the song. The most popular version was performed by Chicago blues musician Magic Sam in 1967 for his influential album West Side Soul. His version of the song became the definitive version that all other performers that have covered have tried to emulate. One example would be the performance from the 1980 movie The Blues Brothers, where the band dedicates the song to the great Magic Sam. The Blues Brothers version is also a personal favorite of mine. Hound Dog is a twelve-bar blues song written by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, recorded originally by Big Mama Thornton in August of 1952 in Los Angeles and released by Peacock Records in late February of 53. Hound Dog was Thornton's only hit record, selling over 500,000 copies and spending 14 weeks in the RB charts, including seven weeks at number one. Thornton's recording of Hound Dog is listed as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 500 songs that shaped rock and roll and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in February of 2013. Houndog has been recorded more than 250 times. The most well-known version is the July 1956 recording by Elvis Presley with different wording and tempo to fit the rock and pop audience. But in my opinion, as much as I love Elvis, it does not compare to the heart and soul from Big Mama Thornton's original version of the song.
SPEAKER_05That's what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_06You made me weep and moan.
SPEAKER_02It is a slow twelve-bar blues performed in the West Coast blues style that features Walker's smooth, plaintiff, vocal, and distinctive guitar work. Stormy Monday is one of the most popular blues standards with numerous renditions. As well as being necessary for blues musicians, it is also found in the repertoire of many jazz, soul, pop, and rock performers. This song is included in the Grammy, Rock and Roll, and Blues Foundation Halls of Fame, as well as the U.S. Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.
SPEAKER_08When's his worst?
SPEAKER_02by American blues artist Robert Johnson in 1936. Johnson's solo performance in the Delta Blues style with his vocal accompanied by his guitar was original. But in 1951, Elmore James recorded the song as Dust My Broom and made it the classic as we know it. James's slide guitar adaptation of Johnson's triplet figure has been identified as one of the most famous blues guitar riffs and has inspired many rock performers. The song has become a blues standard with numerous renditions by a variety of musicians. It also has been selected by the Blues Foundation, Blues Hall of Fame, the Grammy Hall of Fame, and also the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.
SPEAKER_01If I don't find a Mississippi, she knows nothing as I know. And I don't want to no more mind on every downtown mansion.
SPEAKER_02Track 9, I'd Rather Go Blind by Edda James. This blues song was written by Ellington Jordan with co-writing credits to Billy Foster and Edda James. It was first recorded by Edda James in 1967, released the same year, and it has become regarded as a blues and soul classic. Edda James recorded the song at the Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. It was included on the album Tell Mama, and as the B-side of the singles of the same name, which made number 10 on the Billboard RB charts, and number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100. Some critics have regarded I'd rather go blind as of such emotional and poetic quality as to make that release one of the great double-sided singles of the period. So you see, I love you so much that I don't wanna watch a TV. Most of all, I just don't, I just don't wanna be free. And an all-time favorite of mine, Pride and Joy by Stevie Ray Vaughan. Pride and Joy is a song performed by American singer, guitarist, and songwriter Stevie Ray Vaughn and the backing band Double Trouble, released in late 1983 by Epic Records. It lists Vaughn as the writer, but actually it is rewritten from a 1962 record called I Go Into Orbit by Johnny Acey. This song was released on Stevie's debut studio album, Texas Flood, in 1983. Pride and Joy was released as Vaughn's debut single and has become one of his most popular songs. Called a classic Texas Shuffle, it has a 12-bar blues arrangement. And the song was released as a single and reached number 20 on mainstream rock.
SPEAKER_03You mess with her, you'll see a magnet fan. She my pride and joy.
SPEAKER_02Hope you enjoyed the list this week. Ten tracks that represent that classic blues sound. A little blues therapy with rhythm and soul. Please check out the Spotify playlist link in the description. Thanks for listening to Mixtapes of Today. We will be back next week. Talk to you soon.