#476 The Paul Butterfield Blues Band- The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1965)

Inspired by the Blues Brothers, I bought my first Blues Harp around the beginning of 1987.  Soon thereafter and unbeknownst to me, one of the musicians pivotal in the crossover of blues music to white audiences, someone who knew the southside streets of Chicago much better than Jake and Elwood, died at the age of 44.

Paul Butterfield, Elvin Bishop, Mike Bloomfield:  the son of a lawyer, a full ride scholarship physics major, and a Jewish northside heir to a catering business respectively. You'd sooner expect to find ketchup on a Chicago Style Hot Dog than these three in a blues bar back in 1963.  But they, as many white suburban kids would do for years to come, made the pilgrimage. Paul traded in his flute (yes flute) and the CSO for the Marine Band and Big John's nightclub.

I know most of the blues "standards" on the album, but there are one or two I'm not familiar with, and several written by Butterfield that I haven't heard before.  I could do some research and then say with confidence that the white flight to blues happened first in Chicago, or that it started first in London... but I'm thinking listening to blues music is better than doing research; Paul, Elvin, and Mike surely concurred.

Born In Chicago-  who better to write your first blues hit than Nick "the Greek' Gravenites.  The influences of Muddy Waters, Otis Rush and Howlin' Wolf are strong, as is the interplay between harmonica and guitar.

Shake Your Money-Maker-  this up tempo blues standard has been covered by everyone from Fleetwood Mac, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, The Black Crowes, and George Thorogood.  The original was recorded by Elmore James.  Suggestive lyrics for the early 60's.

Blues with a Feeling-  a cover of the Little Walter hit.  Little Walter was one of the first harmonica players to play through an amplifier with distortion and thus could "compete" with the lead guitars.  Butterfield would use this style often playing through a Fender amp and/or the house P.A. microphone.  The sound became so popular, that Shure adapted the microphone they once designed for public address systems, into a full fledged harmonica mic.

Thank You Mr. Poobah-  An instrumental original on the album and the first to credit keyboard player Mark Naftalin, another University of Chicago graduate and son of then Minneapolis mayor.  The harmonica playing is great, the guitar playing fluid, but the organ playing is sloppy at best.

Got My Mojo Workin'- The Muddy Waters standard is flawless.  Paul Butterfield's singing, it's a weird mid-point between honoring Muddy and mocking him... I'm sure it's meant as honoring, but he's imitating Muddy's grunts and groans...it's probably just me be overly critical.  Flawless, but maybe that's what is throwing me off.

Mellow Down Easy- The Willie Dixon song reminds me of Wang Dang Doodle (which he also wrote) that was made famous by Koko Taylor.  The guitar solo by Bloomfield, is fluid and wonderfully accented and weaved by the harmonica.

Screamin'-  a blues shuffle written by Bloomfield.  I've never heard this one, but I think it's my favorite on the album so far.  It showcases both Mike's guitar prowess, and the unique style of Butterfield's playing.  It's as if he incorporated his classical flute background to the blues.  Anyone remember Ralph Macchio's character in the movie Crossroads?  Coinkydink?

Our Love is Drifting-  the only original on the album with singing, it's pretty straight forward, not bad, not great.

Mystery Train-  The Junior Parker song, also made famous by Elvis' cover in 1955, is another up tempo blues standard.  It rolls in, and rolls out just as quickly; I would have liked to hear more harp/guitar soloing.

Last Night-  Another Little Walter cover.  You can't hear this and not think of Chicago.  I don't know if it's been used as movie music, but to me the sound is synonymous with the south side.  John Popper sounds like this in his wet dreams.

Look Over Yonders Wall-  was the flip side to Elmore James Shake Your Moneymaker.  The book of the song is a guy who wasn't drafted because of his bum knee, and takes advantage of lonely soldiers wives.  All's fair in love and war, and blues.

I've long since lost my adolescent fascination with the blues.  It has however matured into an appreciation for the musicianship, sound, and culture.  The early sixties, to me, seemed fertile ground for change.  The Beatles, Civil Rights, a youth movement.  Perhaps it's easy for those of us that were born afterwards, to take for granted the struggles faced by those who planted those seeds of change; those who crossed over lines: cultural, race, or artistic.

The Butterfield Blues Band would go on to perform at Monterey, and then Woodstock.  Paul Butterfield died of a heart attack at age 44 caused by drug use and heavy drinking.  Tragically, the blues does in fact cross over.

Next Up #475 Bruce Springsteen- Tunnel of Love (1987)

#498 ZZ Top - Tres Hombres (1973)

Have Mercy!  ZZ Top's Tres Hombres opens up with these words and it's fitting.  This was the album that turned them into stars; it's polished but still raw, it's thick but not over processed.  The first two songs,  Waiting for the Bus and Jesus Just Left Chicago, open the album and are fat with attitude. Sounds like they were stuck together by studio splicing, or maybe they meant it to be that way... I've never really questioned it.  You don't mess with Texas.

Billy Gibbons on guitar and Dusty Hill on bass, take turns vocally with the lines on Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers, the third song.  While I've heard this song before, I'll admit I've skipped it in prior listenings over the years, and frankly, it's better than that.

Master of Sparks, Hot Blue And Righteous: Probably the first time I've ever listened to two songs full through.  I can't say that there's anything specifically fetching about how side 1 of the album closes out.  Yep, that's right, remember album sides?  It bears to mention that songs were arranged to accommodate album sides, so slower tempo songs like HB&R might have been placed there for a reason.

Move Me on Down the Line: Really?  I had to look at my player twice, to make sure I hadn't played the wrong song.  Nope, it's ZZ Top.  It just had such an up tempo feel, almost like Bob Seger's "Rock n Roll Never Forgets".  Not a bad song, just out of character and missing some swagger.

Precious and Grace:  Ok, the badass spice was put back into this Texas chili.  Along with some slide soloing on the guitar that was tasty.  I'm realizing that albums like this one, which I thought I knew--I don't.  That's four songs now that I can't remember ever listening to.  Is there anything noteworthy about any one of those four?  I suppose not, but in the context of the time, the band, and the album... I think they provide a more complete backdrop.

La Grange:  I'll forgive all non-relevant songs on every ZZ Top album as long as I can have this one to take with me.  I challenge your pulse not to rise when the drums kick into full boil.  I wonder if they knew they had lightening in a bottle when they wrote this (it's the only single released from the album).  I've surely heard it hundreds of times before, yet I found myself repeating it twice more just now; so I imagine they did.

Shiek:  I giggled at the rhymes of Shiek/Mozambique and Scuba/Cuba.  No one ever claimed ZZ Top were poet laureates, I know; but those lines sounded campy at best.

Have you Heard?:   I could quickly cast this away as another filler song, but it bares mentioning that ZZ Top did write all their own songs on this album.  A risky endeavor for new blues artists, but one that paid off in a big way for the trio that was still almost 10 years away from their signature beards and their MTV celebrity.

-CTK

Next up #497 Public Enemy- Yo! Bum Rush the Show (1987)

#499 Albert King- Born Under a Bad Sign (1967)

Albert King doesn't waste a full measure of time before announcing the name of his title song, Born Under a Bad Sign. That's because he's got something that's going to convert the blues from a history lesson, to a blueprint to the great rock guitarists of the future.  The thick horns wide in the stereo, the backing of Stax Records' house band (Booker T & the MG's), I imagine it scared the shit out of people, blaring through their speakers all ballsy and bad-ass.  Scared em, or made em come alive, or probably both.

I went through a period in my late teens where I thought it was cool to be into the blues.  A feeble attempt to escape my youth, my whiteness, to borrow the wisdom and life experience these men had, if only musically.  I appreciated the music, the playing, but it would be many years later before I could appreciate where in the soul music like this came from.

Guitar players generations older than I, they got it.  They carried the torch until our generation was ready to receive.  Musicians I know inside out--like Stevie Ray Vaughn--I hear so much of Albert King's influence in his playing, his singing, his sound.  Clapton, Jimmy Page, even Hendrix all walked across the bridge that King built. The bridge that connected blues-past and rock-future.

Crosscut Saw: at 2 minutes 36 seconds... it just fades to quickly leaving you wanting more... like having to leave a party at midnight that you know is going roar until 4am.
Kansas City: a Leiber-Stoller staple that's been covered by everyone and their brother, but this version is just lush with smooth blowing horns.
Oh, Pretty Woman:  No, not the Roy Orbison kind.  Blues pretty straight forward.
Down Don't Bother Me:  I'm embarrassed to say the first version of this song I heard, was Sting.  Albert's version teaches you a lesson in 2 minutes, and quickly moves on to the next subject.  There's too much to learn here, and no time to dwell.
The Hunter:  There's an abruptness in his singing, reminds me alot of Jimi Hendrix.  He's bending guitar strings and squeezing phrases, full sentences, out of notes that some players barely get a syllable out of.  It's the difference between saying "shit", and "sheeeeeeeeeyyyiiiiiit".
I Almost Lost my Mind: Ok, so they aren't all winners.  This is a slow snoozer. Except for this way out of place flute solo in my left ear.  Who let Ron Burgundy in on this track?
Personal Manager: Great interplay between solo riffs, and horn stabs.
Laundromat Blues:  Yeah, there are blues songs written about "All Temperature Cheer"... well not really.  I hear links to (rather from) Jimmy Page's playing on Led Zeppelin's first album.  Just another reminder of who lit the flame of my torch carriers.
As the Years go Passing By:  Just about when I checked out of this album, I get sucked back in.  I know this song's melancholy, this nostalgia, I've been this guy.  And the interplay of piano, horns, guitar, singing... mmm.
The Very Thought of You:  Yes, that one.  See, why couldn't more of the album be like this.  This is just a great in-the-pocket version of this song, this way overplayed song. It's like meeting someone for the first time, but having the feeling you've been friends your whole life.  Dig the hush-talking at 2:32 that reminds me of every Boys To Men song ever recorded.  The big man shows his tenderness... and I can't wait to use this version for a slow dance somewhere.

Albert King, you came in hard, scared the crap out of the neighbors, changed the landscaping, taught the kids some tough lessons, but then finished the day by delivering flowers all around.

-CTK

Next up #498 ZZ Top- Tres Hombres (1973)