In the 1980s I had successfully run the first adult education courses on the history of Rock Music. I had a collection of 11,500 vinyl albums and thousands of C90 tapes. Music was my life. Loved it. I set about writing it up into a four volume book and snagged an agent and publisher. They wanted it condensed into one volume. This is that!
If you want to know about Rock Music – all the major players, genres and tracks – This is your book! It’s magic! Give it a try!
Rock Routes: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781514873090: Books
Extract:
City Blues
Following the economic depression of the 30s many black farm workers began to migrate north to the big cities such as Chicago and Detroit where the burgeoning motor industry and factories were providing job opportunities. There was a line of migration up from New Orleans, through Louisiana and Mississippi to Memphis Tennessee and then on to Chicago. Work on the plantations had dried up and with it the money to pay musicians. They drifted up to Memphis where Sam Philips scouted the best of the talent for the Chicago labels of Chess and the Bihari Brothers. They took their music with them to the cities.
The cities had a different feel to the country. People were different. There was a hardness and edge to life. The country Jukes were replaced with hot steamy night-clubs in the basements of down-town Chicago skyscrapers. After a day on the assembly line the kids just wanted to let off steam. They wanted to dance and have fun. These were the days following the depression and the austerity of the war years. They craved excitement and wildness. Their music had to reflect this. It had to swell with the urban harshness and have a beat and ‘Go’. There was a lot of pent up tension and it had to come out.
Partly to satisfy this new demand for excitement and partly just so they could be heard over the loud hub-bub of the sweaty Blues Clubs with their packed audiences of rowdy drinkers, the old Bluesmen bought amplifiers and turned electric. They formed bands based around guitar, bass and drums with amplified harp and vocals and optional brass sections. All of a sudden the cities were jumping.
White folks could waltz to their ‘Twenty Little Fingers’ by the Stargazers but black folks knew how to rock to Howlin’ Wolf!
Chicago became the major centre for this new city blues with stars like Muddy Waters, Elmore James, B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, Otis Rush, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, John Lee Hooker, Shaky Horton, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Jimmy Reed and Billy Boy Arnold recording for Chess, Vee-Jay or Modern. These labels were mainly based on the talent sent up to them from talent scouts down south. Sam Philips was one of those. He was based in Memphis and attracted in talent from as far afield as New Orleans and Texas. He is best remembered for discovering Elvis and his role in inventing rockabilly but was primarily responsible for recording black R&B and Blues singers and white Country & Western. He discovered Ike Turner, Rufus Thomas, Junior Wells and Howlin’ Wolf. He decided that rather than just discover them and send them up to Chicago to make money for others he could do better by recording them. He set up his famous Sun Studios.
The change from Country Blues was easy to make. The basic structure of the music was not altered. The sound was louder and delivered with a heavy beat. In particular it was the Delta Blues bottle-neck style that proved most receptive to amplification. The most searing, driving style of city blues, as with Elmore James and Muddy Waters, was played in this style.
The Country Blues had been the music of a rural black community overshadowed by poverty and slavery. The City Blues was more vibrant. Black people were becoming more assertive and confident. They were no longer slaves per se but were still very much the victims of intense discrimination and economic slavery. Their labour was sought but they were still severely persecuted, cheaply rewarded and awarded few rights. They were trapped in ghettos of poverty, violence and oppression.
To white youths of the 60s it appeared more real. Black City Blues reflected this new brashness and self-assurance. They might be poor and persecuted but they were now walking tall, and with style. Their lives had few of the pretensions of white middle classes. They knew how to let their hair down and enjoy themselves. The music oozed with pride verging on arrogance, it reeked of sex, drink and having a good time without recrimination or guilt. They dressed sharp, like gangsters, with flash coloured suits, big hats, rings and cars. There were guns, knives, drugs, booze and prostitution. They lived big.
The emotion was still there. It was infused with a raw rhythm and earthy sexuality with a heavy driving beat, thumping bass and searing guitar runs. On its faster cuts it was the merest fraction away from being Rock ‘n’ Roll. Indeed the astute younger exponents – Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley – sized up the white teenage market and adapted their style to move into it. A hugely important Rock ‘n’ Roll style came storming out of the City Blues.
| Artist | Stand out tracks |
| Muddy Waters | Got my mojo working Hoochie Coochie man I just want to make love to you I’ll put a tiger in your tank I can’t be satisfied Mannish boys Big leg woman Same thing Honey bee Can’t lose what you ain’t never had I’m ready I want to be loved Good morning little school girl |
| Howlin’ Wolf | Smokestack Lightnin’ Do the do I asked her for water Moaning at midnight Backdoor man Spoonful Killing floor Wang dang doodle Little red rooster Built for comfort 300 pounds of joy Evil How many more years Shake for me Tail dragger Howlin’ for my darling |
| Jimmy Reed | Bright lights big city Big boss man Aint that lovin you baby Aw Shucks Hush your mouth Baby what you want me to do Honest I do Shame shame shame You got me dizzy |
| John Lee Hooker | Dimples Boom Boom I’m mad again I’m in the mood Boogie Chillun Crawlin’ King snake Sallie Mae This is hip No more doggin One bourbon, one scotch one beer Big legs tight skirt House rent boogie Hobo blues |
| BB King | Lucille The thrill has gone Every day I have the blues 3.00 clock blues Why I sing the blues |
| Albert King | Born under a bad sign Cross cut saw The hunter |
| Albert Collins | Ice man |
| Elmore James | Dust my broom Shake your money maker I believe my time ain’t long It hurts me too Held my baby last night I can’t hold out Stranger blues The sky is cryin’ Anna Lee Sunnyland Fine little mama Done somebody wrong Wild about you One way out Mean mistreating baby I’m worried |
| Little Walter | My Babe Juke |
| Billy boy Arnold | I wish you would I ain’t got you |
| Sonny Boy Williamson | Bringing it all back home Fattening frogs for snakes The bird Nine below zero Help me baby Eyesight to the blind Downchild Don’t start me talking One way out Cool disposition Your funeral & my trial |
| Buddy Guy | First time I met the blues Damn right I’ve got the blues Gully Hully Stone free |
| Freddie King | Hide away San-Ho-Zay You’ve got to love her with feelin’ |
| Junior Wells | Hoodoo man |
| Magic Sam | All your love |
| Otis Rush | So many roads |
| Lightnin’ Hopkins | I feel like ballin’ the jack Got me a Louisiana woman Evil hearted woman Bald headed woman Gotta move One kind of favour |
| Hound Dog Taylor | Roll your moneymaker Sadie Aint got nobody |
| Robert Nighthawk | Sweet black angel |
| Etta James | I’d rather go blind I just want to make love to you |