Has this recording been shared and discussed here? Junior starts "Juke" at the 8:05 point. I found myself wondering whether he was echoing Little Walter or Little Walter's recording was echoing him.
There used to be a story that when Walter stole Junior's backing band he also stole their theme song, which became Juke.
But the existence of a Juke alternate take that sounds very little like the issued take suggests to me that what we think of Juke pretty much issued from Walter's imagination in the recording studio, and that later performances like this one are emulations of that iconic moment. Sure, that opening riff had been heard before, not only from Snooky Pryor but from legions of swing sax players. But past that it's all Walter.
Does that story even line up with the chronology of events? I thought Walter hooked up with the aces/jukes after he had hit with juke. It was muddy waters’ band on that record was it not?
You are correct Bee-it was Muddys band-Elgin Evans on drums and Jimmy Rogers on guitar-Wells never did record his version,but said he was playing it live before Walter recorded it-
Last Edited by tmf714 on Mar 08, 2018 6:37 AM
According to JW interview for Kim Field's book (Harmonicas, Harps, and Heavy Breathers: The Evolution of the People's Instrument), "Juke was the Aces' theme song". I think Little Walter must adapted the theme to his own, but I think that most of his ideas of Juke came from piano players: Louis Jordan recorded "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" in 1941, and to my ears there's a lot of Juke elements there. Sunnyland Slim recorded with Robert Lockwood "Glad I Don't Worry No More (Fat Man)" in 1951 where we can hear the closing riff of Juke. Maybe is due American Music is not my native culture (I'm brasilian by the way), but I didn't find any sax players playing that opening riff except Buster Bennett playing "Leap Frog". I'd love to get a list of sax players that played similar theme of opening riff. Regards
Louis Jordan's intro to "Buzz Me" (late 1940s by the look of it; the 78 dates from 1946) uses the riff embedded casually in other lines at least twice:
Roy Brown's "Good Rockin' Tonight" (1947) starts with the Juke riff, minus the first note but otherwise the same:
Ray Charles' 1953 "It Should Have Been Me," using the riff as a stop-time riff on the I chord:
Here's another Louis Jordan example, this time from 1956. He uses a very similar lick to start his solo on this version of "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens," starting at 1:22. The first note is different but the rest is the same.
From these examples from both before and after Juke, this lick or riff seems to simply have been part of the vocabulary. Little Walter put his own stamp on it, to be sure.
Here's Tex Beneke and the Glenn Miller Orchestra in 1948 with "Hey, Ba-Ba-, Re-Bop!" The riff comes in around 1:07. Different rhythm, but recognizably that same common lick. And it's tempting to hear foreshadowing of other parts of Juke in what follows.
And here's Louis Jordan once again, using the lick in the out chorus at the end of "Reet, Petite, and Gone" in 1947.
I find this interesting for another reason. A purist might think only a note for note reproduction of LW's version is worthy, when in fact anything close fits the bill.
