This is Muddy Waters's complete performance of "Got My Mojo Working" at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival, with James Cotton on harp. If you watch straight through to the end, you'll get a couple of surprises, including a bit of blues dancing in which Muddy gets wrapped up in Cotton's mic cable, and some solo dancing in which Muddy pretends he's Elvis. Or is he showing us where Elvis got the stuff? You tell me:
Them some fancy moves he had it all Happenning a bit of Jitter Buggin,James Brown going down,but a heavy Elvis Influence:)
Do you think his danceing will ever have it's own voice by carbon copying Elvises moves:) ---------- or will i just look like he Kacked his pants Cheers Big Ears:)
@jim: I know that Waltertore will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that "blues style" circa 1960 was all about gold--teeth, that is--and big Cadillacs. The s--t we see on MTV today is a direct outgrowth of that.
Please post videos of old-school blues style, folks, to convince jim that I know what I'm talking about.
And here's a really cool clip. Jerry Portnoy on harp, but he's the ONE name they don't mention when the v/o tells you who showed up.
Just great singing and playing all around. (Harp nerds will notice the flat flat seventh (flat 5 draw) that Jerry is working with, and that a lot of blues guys didn't seem particularly to mind back then.)
Last Edited by on Aug 12, 2010 5:34 AM
you are right Adam. My first experience with a black bluesman was wilbert harrison. He pulled me over in his purple caddy while I was walking down south orange ave in newark, nj. He had straightened greased hair, gold tooth, lots of women in the car, and was looking like a pimp. I saw that look over and over again through the years. Oakland blues guys were really into dressing. Lightning was too with his blue suit with silver lightning bolts on it. They were heavy into rings, and colonge too. I was heavily impressed by the way they dressed and the cadillacs. Growing up in the Soprano world, the only difference I saw between the made guys and the blues guys was the made guys didn't play music :-) They dressed pretty much the same in the late 60's - 70's.
I was heavily influenced by this and owned 2 cadillacs - a 1963 park ave (used by dwight yokum in his guitars cadillacs video) and a 1959 black limo. Both had the fat white walls and the limo had a texas flag on one side and an american flag on the other on fender mounted stands. I also got totally into clothes when performing (still do).
Those blues guys were more into their dress, jewelery and cars than the condition of thier instruments/amps (I inherited that trait to). The whole push to ultra great playing harps, boutique amps, custom guitars, etc, would befuddle most of those guys. I remember when we backed sonny rhodes in the bay area. He never had an amp. When in Oakland he would borrow johnny b goods little airline tube amp, and when we went out of town my guitarist would loan him a fender tweed. Sonny loved that the volume went to 12! He played a funky old kalamazoo electric. Clothes were his thing, and his red caddy. I will always dress for gigs. There is just a rich history of it in the blues for sure!
Here is a shot circa 1984 in austin with my bassist james rock bottom dupree and my wife judy with the 63 park ave. Walter
circa 2009
---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
I saw Sonny Rhodes last year, he wore a splendid red suit. But the best I saw was Andre Williams two months ago : that silk jacket he had was really something to see !
It was this one :
(I don't know how to post a picture on this forum, html doesn't work) - here you go. GH ---------- http://www.buddybrent.be
Last Edited by on Aug 13, 2010 4:18 AM
Continuing the Jim vs Kudzubot debate, perhaps song lyrics through the ages are evidence of some kind? The first that came to my mind were those of Minnie the Moocher. I'll leave people more knowledgeable than me to supply others more closely related to the blues. I mean, the lyrics expressed aspirations; how closely did success emulate the aspiration? ---------- Andrew, gentleman of leisure, noodler extraordinaire.
N.O.D.....Elvis got a LOT more from bluesman like Muddy Waters than they ever got from him. Did Elvis ever do much to recognize those that influenced him? Maybe he was not allowed to speak about the black bluesman or invite them on stage the way SRV and others have done.
Besides...everyone knows that Elvis got his dance moves from a young Forrest Gump!
But you raised a very good point about elvis the pelvises spasmodic rythms and the rest of the pasty white boys of the 50 60's dancing eraticly,
i would say them pasty white boys tryed to emulate there Afro American Brothers, got it all wrong Dancing around spasmodicly like they Kacked there pants not quite getting it Right:)
But Hay you know them young kids in the 60's all high on happy weed and booze they see somthing differnt HAY MAN GROOVY that looks COOL!!! ---------- So i guess it caught on:)
What Elvis did with hip shaking and all that was very commonly seen in just about every black club back then and never seen in white clubs at all, so in truth, Elvis got that stuff from seeing guys like Muddy, Wolf, and also jump blues singers like Big Joe Turner and Wynonie Harris and the whole thing like that and throwing guitars in the air were done by black bluesman going back into the 20's and 30's with guys like Charlie Patton, but until Elvis, this was NEVER seen by white crowds at all and it was very shocking to extremely conservative white crowds back then.
Back then, by comparison, white clubs were pretty sedate and the showmanship angle wasn't as necessary as it would have to be if you were playing in front of black audiences and I've seen this personally.
Muddy had a pretty big processed hair in the 50's until around the late 60's before he got into a bad car accident.
Walter is telling the truth about the old guys when it comes to being dressed up on the bandstand and if you looked like a slobby ass plumber or something that just got fished out of a polluted ocean, BAD NEWS!!!! Besides, who wants to see someone on the bandstand looking like a complete slob anyway???
I've done plenty of showmanship stuff like walking right into the crowd either acoustically, a long cable, or wireless, and also have played lying on my back, something SBW II, William Clarke, and George Harmonica Smith have done on occasion. You just can't stand there like a complete stiff.
That JW clip I remember seeing broadcast when it was brand new on a PBS program called Soundstage and I recorded the audio of it on cassette.
That real flat 7th is classic 7LJI, which most diatonics were tuned to back then.
Heck, Mick Jagger began getting stage moves after he had to follow James Brown, and back then, that was a pretty tough act to follow.
Junior Wells also had some of the baddest threads of any bluesman I've ever seen or met. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Last Edited by on Aug 12, 2010 10:15 AM
Junior was the best dressed guys around. He not only wore great clothing. He wore a lot of gold sporting chains and rings. Most of the guys dressed nicely. Lefty Dizz, Robert Covington and Johnny Dollar always dressed nicely. When James Cotton played with the big band, he always wore suits and often changed between sets. Most of the guys from the South dress well.
With the way that those old guys used to dress was a complete opposite of what the so called "country boy" bluesmen used to be stereotyped even among blacks, which way back then was associated with being very unkempt, dirty overalls, whiskey flask hanging out their back pocket and that was an image those older black musicians did NOT want to project at all.
The idea of dressing up to the nines showed that you had tons of pride and self respect.
For a time, Cotton wore mainly jeans and T-shirts, which was largely what the white rock audiences weere wearing and a number of white rockers also wore that on the bandstand as well, and for him, it ws clearly aiming at the white market because many of those gigs were paying quite a lot more money than the Chitlin' Circuit (the black music clubs and bars) were at the time.
I always say Muddy dressed in some pretty sharp suits, ditto with Howlin' Wolf, and obviously a big ditto with BB King and Bobby Blue Bland. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Barbeque Bob: I have a funny story about the grungy t shirt rocker look. I was sitting with Lightning Hopkins in Tramps (NYC) and the opening band were all decked out in funky t shirts, jeans, messed up hair, in need of a shave, and looking like they were in need of a good bath. Lightning asked me if they were bad off. I laughed and told him they were members of well known rock bands and made more playing one song than he made playing all night for a year. He shook his head and said nothing. That just didn't make sense to those guys. Like you said, it was a pride thing. You had to look like a star, someone who made it. You might be living in poverty, but your car was shined and your clothes pressed and looking good. Cool papa taught me to put vaseline on old shoes to make them shine onstage like new. The stage lighting covered up a lot of wear and tear. Lightning also told me that people need to know you are the man whether you are on the stage or the can :-) I still don't get the dress funky approach most guys in blues do today. ----------
Curtis (my mind went blank on his last name) was a vocalist who had a complete line of dresses that matched his suits. He would get a knockout looking woman that fit the dress to accompany him to gigs or whenever he club hopped. She got to hang with the musicians, get high, and sit at the front table. It worked for both of them.
I had all my suits made in Austin by the wife of baptist preacher. I was driving in town one hot summer day and saw this black guy walking with a lame suit on. I did a u turn and asked him if he needed a ride. We got to talking about his suit and he gave me his sisters number. He was a soul singer and said that she would make anything for $100 in labor as long as I kept the conversation to God. She made me a 1/2 dozen custom suits over the years that would rival anything coming out of los angeles that people like porter wagner wore. If you could get one of those people to make you one, it would run you a couple grand. Mine were under $300 with materials and labor. I have one left. Here it is.
Here is my bodyguard and BBQ partner. Michael Francis is from Louisiana. He was given a scholarship for football at sonoma state university (6'5 350 pounds). His town in louisiana chipped in to get him a bus ticket and filled a bag with fried chicken. He ate that all the way to california. He was raised poor. His parents worked in the sugar cane fields and that would have been his life if it wasn't for football. He played at sonoma state (where I got my masters degree) with Larry Allen the great cowboy lineman and later with the Cardninals until he broke his leg and had to retire. Michael partied hard all week but always went to church on sunday. After 9-11 a crazy guy attacked the reverend coffey at michaels church. He ran up and threw the guy out a window. From then on he was the Rev Coffey's bodyguard as well. Michaels brother is a well know gospel player down in louisiana and would come up to Ca a few times a year to perform with the church choir. Anyway, Michael I did a lot of BBQ cater jobs and he was a dresser to the 10th degree, including getting a haircut every Saturday. That is style IMO. Walter
Here is Willie Pooch (RIP) at a festival we both played
walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
I can just picture Lightnin' going out of his mind on that one!!!! The vaseline trick is sort of a slightly more upscale version of the old school military thin using the spit shine to get your shoes to gloss as high as a patent leather shoe does. Anyway, I wouldn't be caught dead looking like those guys on stage, so I guess that comes from the influence of being around those old blues guys who nearly always dressed to the nines. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Barbeque Bob: You and me both on dressing like a slob!
AV8R: Thanks! The caddy's got sold so I could pay for a college education. I hated to part with them, but the parts were starting to no longer be available at the parts stores and the vintage guys wanted a fortune for anything you needed. I was known for not driving through puddles with them and keeping them waxed and shined big time. I even waxed the engine compartments. My good friend in Ca is best friends with ed iskendarian- isky cam fame- and they redesigned the 390 cubic inch engine in the park ave to be a hot rod but not loud. Musicians in austin use to have me open the hood to see that engine. I still have the 63 jazzmaster that came to me via Lonnie mack who gave it to stevie vaughn, who let it go to me when I hit austin with a funky guitar. It was my main guitar until a few years ago when I got a tokai copy of a 335.
Andrew: Sonny like to play loud.
chickenthief: Thanks! ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Yeah I know what you're getting at - today's black glamour boys from Mtv are a direct outgrowth from those days (though remember early 80's rap culture? It was nothing like that - maybe because those rappers had less money?)
I mean that today most of that stuff is just show-off with no "ideology" so to say...
Thanks joe! It's a beautiful piece of music :) Managed to pick out a few of the riffs there yesterday, am having a little bit of trouble as I'm stubbornly trying to learn pianio completely by ear! No lessons, no teachers! Just me and my ears, tryin to figure out how some of these licks are played - frustating! But satisfying :)
Dirty Deck: I have taught myself the piano, and all instruments by ear. It may take longer, but as you said it is satifying. I never have tried to learn things. I discover a simple little riff and work it to death. At some point, I make a "mistake" and that leads me to another little riff that I play to death. Then that links to first, and so on... Eventually you got your own sound instead of a conglomarte of others. I drove my wife near insane many times in our 30 years together with my autistic like, repetitive over and over and over and over and over again licks. I have the rest of my life to learn more and am in no rush to hurry the learning curve. To go to a book and have it all laid out is like buying a prostitute for intimate love vs. a woman you truly love and who loves you. That is my take on learning music. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Dirty Deck, the one VERY important thing to start learning besides just licks and solos when it comes to blues piano is the left hand technique and that's something I see far too often lacking with a lot of piano players today.
I seldom ever used piano because either the gig didn't pay enough, the stage was too small, but more often than not, most of them had a lousy left hand technique. Otis Spann, along with Big Maceo Merriweather, Little Johnny Jones, Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, Jimmy Yancy, Lloyd Glenn for starters in blues piano is required listening. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Off topic comments coming, I guess, but might be interesting. Debbie Piazza told me it was an easy transition into the "Spann" blues style piano since she had been so thoroughly trained in classical as a little girl. She knew that theory and the backbone of music, so it was a simple matter of learning the moves. Paul Linden, (a great harp player also)was playing piano around here for years and I always thought his piano work was better than his harp...and he was a top action hitter on that harp too, an excellent player. I've often thought there is just no substitute for real music education in the early years of life. It all comes back later. In Steve Martin's autobiography he tells of doing some schtick from his childhood days and killing the crowd on Carson's show when starting out. Carson, laughing, leaned over to him and said..."you'll use everything you ever learned as the years go by".
Thanks fellas :) One of the reasons I'm playing so much piano at the moment is because I strained my left hand playing too much guitar! Strung my new acoustic up with heavy 13s, tuned er down to C standard and played just like I would on electric, lots of heavy-duty string-bending - sore on the hands but so worth it for tone. So unfortunately, Bob, I'm having to go very easy on my left hand atm ;) Haven't really got to the stage of looking into certain players yet, but I'm sure that will come soon. Am currently just trying to play along with some BB King, Muddy, Wolf and Ray Charles compilations. I find there is a backwards-compatablity effect when learning more than one instrument, my knowledge of music theory and the blues through guitar playing has helped me no end with harmonica and now piano :)
Walter - I too tend to drive everyone crazy with my repetitiveness and constant playing, but hate to be told to stop, especially when in the middle of playing something - now, anyone that knows me knows to approach me very carefully when asking me to turn it down or, god forbid, stop ;)
