Katie Webster - I'm Bad

This is a live performance by blues legend Katie Webster performing her song "I'm Bad" live in the 90's, the performance is from Tromsø in Norway.
Katie Webster is known as a prominent artist within the boogie-woogie and swamp blues genres.
I actually only recently discovered who Katie was. She is not one of the most well known people and by that I mean that if you're just getting into blues you'll discover her, but not at first. I discovered her from the SRV album "Solos, Sessions & Encores" where Stevie plays guitar on one of Katie's songs at a live show. It's a great album and I highly recommend it. And if you're a fan of blues it'll probably introduce you to a couple of new artists.
The studio version of this song appears on Webster's 1991 album "No Foolin'!". There's no doubt that the song's lyrics borrow heavily from other blues songs, such as: Mannish Boy, I'm in the Mood and I'm Bad Like Jesse James. It's sort of Katie's own take on all of these classics showing them appreciation and doing her own thing with it.
It's a great performance. The only thing that sort of spoil it a little is the fact that an announcer speaks over the last part of the song. It's a TV recording, but still it's a shame. A great performance though!

Enjoy ; )

George Thorogood and the Destroyers – Bad to the Bone

This is a live performance by George Thorogood and his band the Destroyers performing his infamous song “Bad to the Bone”.
The song originally appeared on Thorogood’s album of the same name released in 1982. Upon the songs original release it wasn’t a big hit, but it later became a big hit due to it being featured in various films, TV-shows and commercials.
The songs structure borrows from that of traditional blues and early rock ‘n’ roll. Songs like “I’m a Man” by Bo Diddley that is very similar. (Bo Diddley famously appeared in the music video for the song, he’s playing a game of pool in the video) Also Muddy Waters’ songs “Mannish Boy” and “She Moves Me” have similar chord structured. The riff is also very similar to that off Chuck Berry’s song “No Money Down”.
This is a great way of taking old blues references and taking them into new territory with a great song like this.

Enjoy ;-)

Muddy Waters - Mannish Boy

This is a live performance by blues legend Muddy Waters playing the classic song Mannish Boy. It was released by Waters in 1955 on Chess records.
The song is an arrangement of and an answer song to Bo Diddley's song "I'm a Man". (Click here for a previous post of this song) Diddley's song on the other hand was heavily inspired by Muddy's song "Hoochie Coochie Man" written by Willie Dixon. "Mannish Boy" borrows the one chord stop-time arrangement and is also partially credited to Diddley.
It's quite a famous song and it's been done by other artists as well. It's been done live by both Roger Daltrey and Queen. Also Jimi Hendrix has done a version of this song. And it was recently featured in a H&M commercial sung by a woman who quite frankly slaughters the song. It's just so wrong to see a blues number covered and featured in a fashion commercial, plus why the hell did they hire a woman to record it. Does it make much sense for a woman to sing "now I'm a man"? No of course not!
So yeah listen to the original and listen to both Diddley's and Waters' version of this great composition. And avoid the H&M commercial like the plaque!

Enjoy ; )

Bo Diddley - I'm a Man

This is a live performance by rock, R&B and blues legend Bo Diddley performing his classic song "I'm a Man", the performance is from 1992.
The song was originally recorded by by Bo Diddley in 1955. The song is a moderate slow blues with a stop tempo inspired by earlier blues recordings. The song was inspired by Muddy Water's Hoochie Coochie Man from 1954 written by Willie Dixon. After the release of the song Muddy recorded an "answer song" titled "Mannish Boy", a pun on Diddley's younger age.
The song has been done by quite a few artists and a version of Muddy and Diddley performing the song together was also recorded at one point. It was also done by The Yardbirds in 1965 when Jeff Beck was with the group. A live version was recorded as well with Clapton on guitar in 1964 before he left the band. The version with Beck did very well in the US pop charts.
A lot of songs have also taken inspiration from this classic simple song structure. Songs like "Whole Lotta Rosie" by AC/DC and "Bad to the Bone" by George Thorogood. They both have the stop time thing and the same chord shifts as Diddley's song as well as a rhythm that strikes resemblance to Diddley's song.
Also really love the guitar solo Steve Cropper delivers. It's really good and not too long, he knew Diddley was centre stage, but still very nice indeed.
A great performance of this amazing blues song.

Enjoy ;-)