![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Oct. 23rd, 2003 03:48 amIt's funny how things work when it comes to the blues. Every blues artist seems to borrow from other blues artists, and often takes credit for what they've borrowed, or simply doesn't bother to credit who they borrowed from, or in some cases may not really know where something was originally borrowed from. And in most cases, a song gets reworked signifigantly enough that it really is partly the work of the current performer, so maybe it doesn't matter if the tune was originated by someone else. At least, it seems that a lot of people don't really care.
For example, on one of my Fred McDowell cds he does a song called "Good Morning Little School Girl". The cd credits the song to him. But I have a T-Bone Walker cd with the same song, only that one claims it was written by T-Bone. I did some research and found out that neither of them wrote it -- it was written by Sonny Boy Williamson. And when I say Sonny Boy Williamson, I mean the first one... after he died, another blues artist came along and decided to call himself Sonny Boy Williamson, and even claimed to be the same one. Both of them are well-known blues artists these days... number one and number 2.
Another tune that Fred McDowell did was "Shake 'Em On Down". This was his signature tune, and people that knew him called him "Shake 'Em" because of it. Some of the artists who learned from Fred or are from his area of Mississippi also cover this song. On my "Burnside on Burnside" cd, RL Burnside covers this song, only with his own unique set of lyrics. On the cd, it claims that he wrote the song -- no credit to Fred. But for all I know, Fred may not have written it either.
"You Got To Move" is one of the really well-known songs that Fred McDowell did. I'd heard it a few times before. In the movie Ghengis Blues, Paul Pena plays this song near the very end of the film. He says something that I didn't really understand before... he says "Freddie had it right when he sang this song". I understand now that he's referring to Mississippi Fred McDowell. But at the end of the movie, they list the songwriting credit for "You've Got To Move" as both Fred McDowell and the Reverend Gary Davis. Now, Fred was a farmer and blues musician from Mississippi, and Gary Davis was a street blues musician for many years in New York, although he may have come from Mississippi when he was younger. So he may have met Fred way back when, or maybe he met him in the sixties when Fred was touring... but I think it's more likely that both of them played this song and nobody really knows which of them originally wrote it... or who might have written it before them. Nor was it probably important to either of them, it's just music geeks and lawyers who get all concerned about who really owns the rights to which song, and who wrote it and recorded it first.
Anyway I got another cd in the mail yesterday and listened to it on the way to work today. Hmmm. Elmo Williams and Hezekiah Early. Well, Elmo is no genius on the guitar, that's for certain. Actually there's a fine line between a semi-professional backwoods blues musician who is a brillian slide guitarist, and a semi-professional backwoods blues musician who mereley likes to pound on his guitar and make noise. Elmo Williams is pretty much the latter... an amatuer hack who got a recording contract apparently because he lives in the right part of the country, where a lot of other supposed amatuer hacks turned out to be fantastic musicians that nobody knew about. Some of the songs are fun, but on the whole I know a lot of people personally who could do as good or better. It sounded better when I listened to one or two sample songs last week on the internet.
Not like my Burnside on Burnside cd. That cd is bloody brilliant. Burnside is a blues master, and his "adopted" son Freddy Brown is also a brilliant slide guitarist, and along with Burnside's grandson Cedric on drums, the three make some fantastic rowdy blues noise. That one is amazing.
Today I got yet another of the cds I ordered a week ago. Paul "Wine" Jones. I'm pretty certain that this one will be worth my time. ^_^
For example, on one of my Fred McDowell cds he does a song called "Good Morning Little School Girl". The cd credits the song to him. But I have a T-Bone Walker cd with the same song, only that one claims it was written by T-Bone. I did some research and found out that neither of them wrote it -- it was written by Sonny Boy Williamson. And when I say Sonny Boy Williamson, I mean the first one... after he died, another blues artist came along and decided to call himself Sonny Boy Williamson, and even claimed to be the same one. Both of them are well-known blues artists these days... number one and number 2.
Another tune that Fred McDowell did was "Shake 'Em On Down". This was his signature tune, and people that knew him called him "Shake 'Em" because of it. Some of the artists who learned from Fred or are from his area of Mississippi also cover this song. On my "Burnside on Burnside" cd, RL Burnside covers this song, only with his own unique set of lyrics. On the cd, it claims that he wrote the song -- no credit to Fred. But for all I know, Fred may not have written it either.
"You Got To Move" is one of the really well-known songs that Fred McDowell did. I'd heard it a few times before. In the movie Ghengis Blues, Paul Pena plays this song near the very end of the film. He says something that I didn't really understand before... he says "Freddie had it right when he sang this song". I understand now that he's referring to Mississippi Fred McDowell. But at the end of the movie, they list the songwriting credit for "You've Got To Move" as both Fred McDowell and the Reverend Gary Davis. Now, Fred was a farmer and blues musician from Mississippi, and Gary Davis was a street blues musician for many years in New York, although he may have come from Mississippi when he was younger. So he may have met Fred way back when, or maybe he met him in the sixties when Fred was touring... but I think it's more likely that both of them played this song and nobody really knows which of them originally wrote it... or who might have written it before them. Nor was it probably important to either of them, it's just music geeks and lawyers who get all concerned about who really owns the rights to which song, and who wrote it and recorded it first.
Anyway I got another cd in the mail yesterday and listened to it on the way to work today. Hmmm. Elmo Williams and Hezekiah Early. Well, Elmo is no genius on the guitar, that's for certain. Actually there's a fine line between a semi-professional backwoods blues musician who is a brillian slide guitarist, and a semi-professional backwoods blues musician who mereley likes to pound on his guitar and make noise. Elmo Williams is pretty much the latter... an amatuer hack who got a recording contract apparently because he lives in the right part of the country, where a lot of other supposed amatuer hacks turned out to be fantastic musicians that nobody knew about. Some of the songs are fun, but on the whole I know a lot of people personally who could do as good or better. It sounded better when I listened to one or two sample songs last week on the internet.
Not like my Burnside on Burnside cd. That cd is bloody brilliant. Burnside is a blues master, and his "adopted" son Freddy Brown is also a brilliant slide guitarist, and along with Burnside's grandson Cedric on drums, the three make some fantastic rowdy blues noise. That one is amazing.
Today I got yet another of the cds I ordered a week ago. Paul "Wine" Jones. I'm pretty certain that this one will be worth my time. ^_^
