KingoBad
1557 posts
Nov 05, 2014
8:31 PM
|
What is - in your opinion - THE greatest blues song of all time???
And why? (If you care to share)
It is completely up to you to decide criteria, and it does not have to include harmonica.
If you give more than one answer, I will consider you insane or too dense to consider your submission...
Don't worry, I'm not starting a bunch of lists...
----------
Danny
|
Frank101
30 posts
Nov 05, 2014
8:36 PM
|
St. Louis Blues
|
nacoran
8099 posts
Nov 05, 2014
9:26 PM
|
You've never heard it. I haven't released it yet. For that matter, I might not have written it yet!
Just for the punch you in the gut feel of it, 'Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground'. Sometimes lyrics get in the way but the human voice has qualities that you still need.
----------
Nate
Facebook
Thread Organizer (A list of all sorts of useful threads)
First Post- May 8, 2009
|
indigo
15 posts
Nov 05, 2014
9:46 PM
|
Where it all started from....
|
the_happy_honker
192 posts
Nov 06, 2014
12:02 AM
|
Greatest, because it is the most popular: "St. Louis Blues"
Greatest, because it is the most recognizable: "Hootchie Coochie Man"
But for the essence of the blues, simply and elegantly distilled into one song, I choose: "Hard Time Killing Floor."
|
Rgsccr
297 posts
Nov 06, 2014
12:11 AM
|
Rollin and Tumblin by Baby Face Leroy Foster, Muddy Waters and Little Walter. Sends chills down my spine.
Last Edited by Rgsccr on Nov 06, 2014 12:12 AM
|
Goldbrick
754 posts
Nov 06, 2014
4:30 AM
|
.
The heart is the boogie
Last Edited by Goldbrick on Nov 06, 2014 4:34 AM
|
groyster1
2706 posts
Nov 06, 2014
8:38 AM
|
feeling the pain put into a blues song is how I rate the greatest blues song...cypress grove blues by skippy james and four until late by Robert Johnson....pain from unrequited love....Clapton did well with Layla but the piano solo by jim Gordon and skydog making the bottleneck cry was the best partIMHO
|
nacoran
8101 posts
Nov 06, 2014
9:57 AM
|
Happy Honker, I went back and forth between that and my choice. :)
----------
Nate
Facebook
Thread Organizer (A list of all sorts of useful threads)
First Post- May 8, 2009
|
harpdude61
2217 posts
Nov 06, 2014
10:49 AM
|
The lyrics, groove, vocals, and harp say it all.
----------
www.facebook.com/catfishfryeband
|
mr_so&so
892 posts
Nov 06, 2014
11:02 AM
|
I concur with both Nate's and Happy Honker's choices. How do you pick just one? Here is a more modern song by Junior Wells that has plenty of feeling along with a few vocalizations. I guess my criterion for "best" is: Does it raise the hair on the back of your neck?
----------
|
The Iceman
2241 posts
Nov 06, 2014
11:46 AM
|
----------
The Iceman
|
bluemoose
1024 posts
Nov 06, 2014
1:13 PM
|
Mean Old World...by the greatest harp player of all time
MBH Webbrain - a GUI guide to Adam's Youtube vids
FerretCat Webbrain - Jason Ricci's vids (by hair colour!)
|
davew
28 posts
Nov 06, 2014
6:32 PM
|
Wow, what a loaded question ! There are many answers, none wrong or right. It's like a painting, is the Mona Lisa better than Van Gogh's Starry night? It's very subjective. My choice changes often. But I'd have to have
some Wolf, He does it for me. DW
Last Edited by davew on Nov 06, 2014 6:33 PM
|
JInx
932 posts
Nov 06, 2014
7:55 PM
|
Martin Mull! kills it...thanks Iceman
----------
|
JInx
933 posts
Nov 06, 2014
7:55 PM
|
Martin Mull! kills it...thanks Iceman
----------
|
nacoran
8103 posts
Nov 06, 2014
8:11 PM
|
davew, for what it's worth, I'd take Starry Night in a heartbeat, but only because Mona Lisa's eyes follow you everywhere. :)
----------
Nate
Facebook
Thread Organizer (A list of all sorts of useful threads)
First Post- May 8, 2009
|
wolfkristiansen
336 posts
Nov 06, 2014
10:43 PM
|
Robert Johnson - Come On In My Kitchen. Yes, the hair stood up on the back of my neck when I heard it. Decades later, my wife pointed out the melody was the same as "Sitting on Top of the World".
Cheers,
wolf kristiansen
|
atty1chgo
1192 posts
Nov 07, 2014
6:02 AM
|
Hootchie Cootchie Man.
Last Edited by atty1chgo on Nov 07, 2014 6:03 AM
|
pharpo
748 posts
Nov 07, 2014
7:20 AM
|
HarpDude.....One Of my all time favorites !!! Nobody mentioned "Mustang Sally" or "Red Rooster" LOL
----------
Procrastinator Emeritus
|
kudzurunner
5120 posts
Nov 07, 2014
7:20 AM
|
I'm not sure why, but only one song came immediately to mind: "Catfish Blues." It's not a 12-bar. It's a Mississippi classic; everybody has done it, and they still do it. It's got the strangeness, the weirdness, the rightness, and the obsessiveness. Honeyboy Edwards learned it from Robert Petway--and Honeyboy's version of the lyrics is the one I've always loved. A catfish is a fresh-water fish, so the image of one swimming in the deep blue sea is a powerful image of heading out into the great beyond, the blues-road where all the women are waiting for you, at least in theory. Here's the original, then a bunch of remakes:
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Nov 07, 2014 7:24 AM
|
TetonJohn
223 posts
Nov 07, 2014
7:31 AM
|
Regarding Catfish: Cephas and Wiggins do a great spooky version -- it altered the way I play it (less Muddy).
While I'm here, I'll nominate Muddy's ain't gonna worry my life...ANYMORE!
|
GamblersHand
542 posts
Nov 07, 2014
7:48 AM
|
a few which come to mind
Still a Fool - Muddy Waters
Done Somebody Wrong - Elmore James
Smokestack Lightning/ Moanin at Midnight/ Asked for Water/ lots more - Wolf
My Love will Never Die/ Checking on My Baby - Otis Rush
Preachin the Blues - Son House
Cool Drink of Water Blues - Tommy Johnson
Devil Got My Woman - Skip James
A few more modern
Taj Mahal - Crossing
John Mooney - Late on in the Evening
Last Edited by GamblersHand on Nov 07, 2014 7:49 AM
|
isaacullah
2874 posts
Nov 07, 2014
8:35 AM
|
Yikes! This is almost too hard of a request to follow through on. Lot's of good answers already, and that just makes it harder to choose. On any given day I might choose any one of the songs mentioned above. Today, I'm gonna pick Mississippi Fred McDowell's "You Got to Move", because it's just a classic early example of that twangy, yet thumping droney guitar styling that's really the soul of what the Blues means to me:
But ask me tomorrow, and I'll probably tell you a different tune! :)
----------
YouTube! Soundcloud!
|
Rgsccr
298 posts
Nov 07, 2014
8:46 AM
|
What Isaacullah said! So many choices. Here is another great version of "Catfish Blues" - love the harp, loves me some Billy Boy Arnold!
|
Goldbrick
756 posts
Nov 07, 2014
9:03 AM
|
Since we go to Catfish
This is a damn nice version
|
JustFuya
634 posts
Nov 07, 2014
9:11 AM
|
"Dirty Mother For You" written by Roosevelt Sykes:
Billy Boy's more GRAPHIC version, "Dirty Motherfuyer", was an eye-opener for me. Hearing it 15 years ago marked the beginning of my interest in the historical aspect of blues. It may not be my 'favorite' song but it got me taking names & numbers and collecting blues CDs.
Billy Boy ... http://youtu.be/NI6mPDyofjI
Jerry McCain is my most recent course of study so he's 'The Greatest' today.
|
ted burke
12 posts
Nov 07, 2014
10:18 AM
|
I am of the mind that THE greatest blues song of all time has not been written; since blues is a music that conveys deep, profound and subtle emotional states as they correspond to real life experience, a "favorite" or "greatest" blues song will change with the prevailing spirit of the moment. I will assert,though, that among the greatest blues harmonica tunes is "Help Me". It is a great, grinding riff, simple yet prfound in its implied combination of desperation and strength. And it is a tune where the harpist can really dig in and show what they can do with building a solo, using space, octaves, chords.
----------
Ted Burke
__________________
ted-burke.com
tburke4@san.rr.com
|
KingoBad
1558 posts
Nov 07, 2014
6:37 PM
|
Nice choices so far...
I would like to add that songs that do not exist yet - do not count.
This is for songs that actually exist, and THE song that you feel is the best blues song ever. No argument or judgement, simply - what tops your list...
----------
Danny
|
indigo
16 posts
Nov 07, 2014
9:17 PM
|
after some thought i think that i agree with Ted in that if i was stranded on a desert island with one song and a harp..i'd have to say i'd like it to be Help Me..
(must be a pun there)
Yep, it is my favourite Blues song as well.That classic riff really does it for me.
Last Edited by indigo on Nov 07, 2014 9:20 PM
|
sonny3
224 posts
Nov 08, 2014
5:20 AM
|
I could go with these...
|
GamblersHand
543 posts
Nov 08, 2014
5:57 AM
|
Today's pick
|
R2D2
12 posts
Nov 08, 2014
7:39 AM
|
Bobby Bland I wouldn't treat a dog.
|
