Welcome to the RPM Seven Day Soundtrack, week ending Friday 17th February 2023....hope you didn't get blown away by the high winds...hope you do get blown away by the music choices this week; over to....

Jackie -

Philip -

"Ooh-er! Last week I had a bit of a Dylan fest, still being inspired by the current issue of "Mojo," (including the cover-mount CD drawn from the "Bootleg" series) and had decided what to send to RPM. Then I got distracted and forgot to send anything. When I finally got around to checking what others had sent on Sunday morning, it became apparent someone else had exactly the same idea as me- the original version of "Make You Feel My Love" followed by a cover version thereof. OK, the cover I would have chosen was the Adele one (a favourite of my wife, Jacquie with a "cqu" as opposed to a "ck"), but still... spooky, n'est pas? (Yep, that well known phenomenon of RPM coincidence, Tim)

So I'll start this week with that Adele version."

"Best wishes everyone."

Alan -

"Decorating, so time to play some treasures that don't always hit the 'wheels of steel' as I think a turntable is called by the hip young cognoscenti!! There was also some psychedelia (possibly yet another groan-athon in preparation.... you have been warned!) and US punk but mainly it was blues of different hues (goddamit, I'm a poet etc!) . Here's three of 'em (and all strangely sort of linked)."

The Blues Project- 'Two Trains Running' (from 'Projections' LP. released November 1966. Verve/Folkways label)

"First up one of the best, and unfortunately short lived US 'bloos' bands. The title of this song was used for a documentary about the search for two 'lost' early blues singers, Son House and Skip James, in the early sixties by two groups of white blues enthusiasts, each group unaware that the others were traversing  almost the same region of the southern states of America. The documentary also took in the dangers of such a trek at the height of the civil rights marches and the murders which were committed by the KKK and others.  A great watch.... 'Projections' was the Blues Projects' second album and, it has to be said, better than the debut 'Live at the Cafe Au Go Go' in my opinion (an album I bought and traded a few years later) and, as yet, I've still to hear the much criticised 'live' third outing, 'Live at the Town Hall' which, apparently, it isn't! Here though, the band  are on great form on this Muddy Waters standard, stretching out and giving each member a chance to shine (much like the following track actually... more in a mo') and it's just a pity that  Al Kooper decided to leave following its release. Kooper had recently played keyboards on Dylans groundbreaking 'Highway 61 Revisited' album and that may have had an unsettling effect on him, although he never seemed to stay with any outfit very long (witness his next line up, the jazz rock pioneers Blood, Sweat and Tears, jeez... another bluddy rhyme, which he left after just one album). Blues Project had initially been the title of an early Elektra Records 'folk and blues' sampler which featured two tracks by Danny Kalb and, following the Beatles 'invasion', Kalb formed the Danny Kalb Quartet (catchy huh?) in early 1965 before renaming the group later that year  after the Elektra album. After several line up changes, producer Tom Wilson persuaded the group to incorporate Kooper as a session player, Kooper having  played with some of BP members on the follow up Elektra album 'What's Shakin', and he was incorporated into the line up during the sessions. The debut LP gained good reviews and the group began to play larger venues before recording the 'Projections' album in late '66. Following its release, and Koopers departure, the group played the Monterey Festival but by this time even Kalb had left the outfit and it was a depleted, and less talented line up which recorded the 'Planned Obsolescence' LP. Kooper and Kalb then formed BS&T before Kooper left and became an in-house producer for Columbia and gained critical approval following his involvement in the Bloomfield, Stills Kooper 'Super Session' LP. Blues Project have reformed on several occasions, and released further albums and a version still does the occasional tour of the US. 

One thing to note for the 'muso's' out there in RPM-land is that one of Kalbs strings apparently goes out of tune around the 8 minute mark and, without missing a note, Kalb re-tunes and carries on with the solo!!!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fcuHssaRgQ

Canned Heat- 'Fried Hockey Boogie' (initially from 'Boogie with ... 'LP released January 1968. Liberty label. This from 'Canned Heat Cookbook' released November 1969. Liberty label)

"Initiators of (or copiers of John Lee Hookers) 'boogie rhythm', the band guaranteed a 'jolly good time' when captured live, something I can attest to having seen the band at Sheffield's City Hall on September 24th 1970. The band included blues 'historian'  Al 'Blind Owl' Wilson, a member of one of the two teams of enthusiasts referred to above who journeyed 'down South' attempting (successfully) to find Son House and Skip James. House was eventually located in Rochester NY, having left the Delta in 1942 in order to seek employment and despite having several singles released in the thirties, tutoring a young Robert Johnson (presumably down at the Crossroads?) and being recorded by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress and Fisk University. When Wilson started talking to House it soon became apparent that House had not only forgotten his songs, he had also forgotten how to play the guitar and it was Wilson who, thanks to his encyclopedic knowledge of the blues, retaught Hurt how to play the guitar and reacquainted him with his songs too.  Wilson and Bob Hite (AKA 'The Bear')  formed Canned Heat in LA shortly after Wilsons escapades to find House and the line up proved very fluid in its early days and it was shortly after their debut album release in December 1967 that the familiar, settled line up emerged. On board were ex Monkee session bassist Larry Taylor, ex Mother of Invention Henry Vestine (sacked from the Mothers for smoking pot!) and former member of Blueberry Jam (soon to re-emerge as Pacific Gas and Electric) and it was this line up who recorded the sophomore album featuring this first foray into the extended song format. Based on John Lee Hookers 'Boogie Chillen' the song was often used at a concert's finale to introduce the band, in much the same way that 'Two Trains Running' served The Blues Project. In 1968 the band performed at the first Newport Pop Festival, opened a nightclub in Hollywood (the Kaleidoscope), toured the UK (appearing on TOTP to play 'On the road again') and Europe where they appeared on German TV's Beat Club. The band returned to the studio, and their Hollywood nightclub, to record the double album 'Living the Blues' which featured several lengthy tracks (including the 40+ minute 'Refried Boogie') and followed that outing with 'Hallelujah' (plus an unreleased for years further 'live' album) with both albums attracting good reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. To top all that, the band appeared on day two of the Woodstock Festival and, although they were not shown in the movie, their performance of 'Goin' up the country' became the introductory song shown over the opening sequences. Henry Vestine left shortly before Woodstock after an on stage bust up at the Fillmore West and he was replaced by Harvey Mandel who had stood in for Vestine following the argument. It was this line up who recorded the 'Future Blues' album which proved too much for Taylor and Mandel and saw the return of Vestine and new bassist Antonio de la Barreda. The new unit, with a successful single from the album ('Goin' up the country', the only chart single to feature Hite's lead vocals), toured the UK in 1970 where I caught them at the City Hall on a double bill with the Groundhogs who were promoting their excellent 'Split' LP. On their return to the US the group accidentally met up with their major influence, John Lee Hooker, at Portland Airport and following a mutual backslapping session, agreed to record together and this sessions became the 'Hooker 'n Heat' double album. Before that album's release, however,  Al Wilson passed away, but not before he had recorded a series of duets with Hooker. The Heat backed Hooker on several tracks (minus Hite, who produced the album)  and the record became the first ever US chart entry for Hooker." 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY6pBUk-Ppc

John Lee Hooker- Crawlin' King Snake' (from 'I'm John Lee Hooker' US album released August 1959. Veejay label)

"To my mind, one of the most essential compilation albums, featuring seven singles from between 1955 and 1958 and five 'new' recordings laid down on the 2nd of January 1959. Hooker had first recorded '......Snake' in February 1949, and, despite WIKI saying this album version is from 1959, it sure sounds like the '49 version to me as it seems to feature only a drummer and none of the  other 'additional' musicians who crop up on the later tracks. There are recordings from the 1920's of 'Black Snake Blues' and 'Black Snake Moan' by Victoria Spivey and Blind Lemon Jefferson, which certainly form the template for this sexually unambiguous piece of 'braggadocio', but it was Big Joe Williams who initially  recorded a 'country' style version of the track under the more familiar title in 1941. Later that year Tony Hollins recorded his version which has since become the accepted format for all that followed, including Hooker of course. Hooker's recording went to number six on the Billboard R&B Charts in early 1949 and he not only re-recorded it himself several times, he also recorded it with Keef Richards for the 'Mr Lucky' album in 1991. Twenty years earlier the Doors put down a lascivious version on the 'L A Woman' LP and, fifty years after that recording, the Black Keys unleashed their version too on the 'Delta Kream' album. The full list of cover versions (under all three titles) is pretty long but amongst the artists are Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters, John Hammond, Roy Head, Buddy Guy, Etta James and P J Harvey.

Hooker was born in 1912.... or 1917.... or almost any year up to 1923, in Tutwiler ..... or Clarksdale (!!), the youngest of eleven children to sharecropper William Hooker and Minnie Ramsey and were, ahem, 'homeschooled'. The couple divorced and Minnie married respected blues singer William Moore who taught Hooker to play the guitar in his own one chord/drone style, which Hooker honed over the following decades. Hooker then befriended Tony Hollins, who also influenced his guitar playing and it was Hollins perhaps who made Hooker realise there was a big world out there which saw him run away from home aged just fourteen. Initially he moved to Memphis before leaving there to follow the trail of many southern blues singers to  the industrialised  northern cities. He eventually gained employment at Ford Motors in Detroit in 1943 and began to play that city's blues clubs. In an effort to overcome the rowdy audiences he purchased his first electric guitar and signed to Modern Records in 1948. He hit immediately with his debut single, 'Boogie Chillen', which became the highest selling single on the 'race records' charts for that year. He then recorded for a slew of different labels under an equal amount of 'nom de plumes' before signing to Vee Jay where his popularity amongst the growing blues loving white youngsters began to blossom. He toured Europe in 1962 as part of the American Folk Blues Festival and, following this, toured the UK in 1964 backed by the Animals and, more regularly, the Groundhogs, who were named after Hookers 'Groundhog Blues'.  He hit the UK charts that year with 'Dimples' and 'Boom Boom' (both covered by the Animals on their debut LP) and scored several other minor hits in the mid nineties. In addition to appearing in the Blues Brothers movie, Hooker continued to record, both solo and, more often, with other collaborators, and many of these LP's achieved success. Hooker died in his sleep in 2001 aged ............... ???? "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN1IPBK5mro

"Thanks for the additional info on Crosby t'other week John, glad you enjoyed the piece! 'If I could......' has been a touchstone record for many years and one I have always recommended to new friends............ any RPM-ers without a copy please note!!!!

Bought Mojo for the first time in ages this month and was sad to see the (under publicised) demise of Kingsize Taylor (see week 31 2021 for bio) and Angelo Badalamenti. Turns out David Lynch couldn't afford to licence Tim Buckleys haunting classic 'Song to the siren' (wonder which version he would have used?) for the  dance hall scene in Blue Velvet so he enlisted Isabella Rossellini's vocal coach to compose an atmospheric song and Badalamenti came up with 'Mysteries of love' sung by Julee Cruise. Prior to this Badalamenti had worked with Nina Simone, Nancy Wilson and Shirley Bassey and, importantly, with pioneering electronic music pioneers Jean-Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley who were responsible for 1966's ' The in sound from way out' LP.

Enjoying the toons..."

Jean -

"Best wishes to all the gang. Keep well."

Tony -

"This week I'd like to comment on one of Tim's choices last week and offer a couple of hastily assembled choices having forgotten what the time was...Best wishes to my musical friends out there as always

I recognised Tim's choice of "You Gotta Move" by Mississippi Fred McDowel as  "It Hurts Me Too" . Wiki informs that: .....

 The song is based on "Things 'Bout Comin' My Way", recorded by Tampa Red in 1931. The melody lines are nearly identical and instrumentally they are similar, although the latter has an extra bar in the turnaround, giving it nine bars. "Sam Hill from Louisville", one of several pseudonyms of Walter Vinson (or Vincson), recorded "Things 'Bout Coming My Way" in 1931 shortly before Tampa Red. Vinson's version is based on his 1930 recording with the Mississippi Sheiks, "Sitting on Top of the World". Both songs share several elements with "You Got to Reap What You Sow", recorded by Tampa Red in 1929 and by Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell in 1928. The melody lines, played on slide guitar by Tampa Red and sung by Carr, are similar to those in the later songs. Carr and Blackwell's song has elements of their own earlier 1928 song "How Long, How Long Blues". "How Long, How Long Blues" has been described as one of the first blues standards and the inspiration for many blues songs of the era.

In 1949, Tampa Red recorded a variation of "It Hurts Me Too", titled "When Things Go Wrong with You". It was recast in the style of a Chicago blues, with electric guitar and a more up to date backing arrangement. The song was a hit and reached number nine on Billboard's Rhythm & Blues Records chart in 1949. (The original "It Hurts Me Too" was released before Billboard or a similar reliable service began tracking such releases, so it is difficult to gauge which version was more popular, although the former's title won out over the latter's.) Although the song retained the refrain "When things go wrong, so wrong with you, it hurts me too", Tampa Red varied the rest of the lyrics somewhat. This would become the pattern for future versions, in which succeeding artists would interpret the song with some of their own lyrics."

Piers -

"The third Thursday evening of each month finds me hosting a night of usually splendid and always varied acoustic music at the Crown in Fakenham. This week some friends who are becoming regulars at ‘The Jewel Sessions’ turned up.  I have been bumping into them at various singarounds around the county for a good while and I am always impressed by the elegance of their contributions. John and Pauline Pearce usually sing either their own compositions or traditional ballads delicately accompanied by Johns very fine fingerpicked guitar arrangements. Last night they announced that they were going to do something a bit different. Pauline said that although they didn’t usually play blues, they had been experimenting and had found something which they thought I might like. They then paid me a huge compliment by performing an old Memphis Jug Band number (‘Stealin’) which they had learned in order that I might play along with them. I was hugely touched! Needless to say they were right, I loved it and their version really cracked along…"

John -

"Hi RPMers, What a cracking bundle of tunes you gave us last week - a real treat. Here are three tracks I've listened to this week...."

Jayne -

"Dear RPMers, here are my offerings for this week…..a song heard performed by a choral group in a pub, a song performed by an outstanding guitar player and song writer in a village hall, and a song heard on late night radio in the car."

Tim -

"My three, from albums listened to this week..."

'Til Next Time...