Mick Hartley

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Play That Thing

Three blues harp players recorded in the early Sixties –

Howlin Wolf – dollar bill in one hand, harmonica in the other. It’s supposed to be “How Many More Years”, but it isn’t. Not that it matters.

Big Walter ‘Shakey’ Horton with Shakey’s Blues.

Finally Sonny Boy Williamson, and the great Otis Spann on piano, with Nine Below Zero. Check out the audience at the end of the clip to see which way the Blues was headed, and why black folks at the time were mostly listening to James Brown.

[To understand how “The Blues” – in particular Delta Blues – developed as a romanticised white view of an undiluted, primal black music, I’d recommend Marybeth Hamilton’s excellent “In Search of the Blues: Black Voices, White Visions“.]

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4 responses to “Play That Thing”

  1. Richard Schwartz Avatar
    Richard Schwartz

    And here’s Little Walter (from, I think, 1967):
    http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gtnJM8iUy38

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  2. dearieme Avatar
    dearieme

    I once went to a Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee concert. They weren’t on speakers and so wouldn’t play together. Twerps.

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  3. Mick H Avatar
    Mick H

    Thanks for that Richard.
    Dearieme – I thought of Sonny Terry when I was preparing the post, and came across this – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuyaf5YBGh8
    It would’ve fitted perfectly with that stuff about the white romanticising of bluesmen as described in Marybeth Hamilton’s book. Good old Pete Seeger’s there in regulation woolly jumper along with Brownie McGhee. You need to sit through till Sonny’s finished a-whoopin’ and a-hollerin’, to the point when Pete leads ’em into a rousing version of “When the Saints Go Marching In”. It’s a classic moment – an embarrassing piece of patronising bullshit typical of the times. But I didn’t include it partly because I didn’t think it was that good and partly because Pete Seeger’s just too easy to take the piss out of, and I’m sure he really deserves better.
    At least it wasn’t “We Shall Overcome”.

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  4. dearieme Avatar
    dearieme

    Patronising BS it certainly was. I clicked through to “Key to the Highway” which is fine: I have that song on an EP of theirs bought in (approx) 1962. They were brought to Britain – or at least to my attention – by the Blessed Chris Barber.

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