Crawling King Snake

[RaZon]

We first hear this classic back in the early 40's, Big Joe Wlliams the daddy, a few months later another Delta player Tony Hollins did a cover, both are powerful. John Lee Hooker having the most famous version, The Doors did a great job with their version as did Buddy Guy.

I discovered this a few weeks ago, in a word.....wow!!!


Big Joe Williams was also the daddy of another much recorded classic.....Please Don't Go. Tons of artists have gave it a shot.

"House of the Rising Sun" was first recorded by hillbillie Clarence Ashley in 1933, as we know The Animals made it famous but like those above tunes many have recorded their version.

Really like that Etta James cover, and she wasn't actually a blues singer.

 

[RaZon]

This has a long history, but this Lloyd Price version the most revered.


Ma Rainey, Hull&Reed....only one record in existence, pre 1930. is where ya start with that one. Taj Mahal does a great cover, outstanding!



The histories behind it all is what interests me, the ifluenses, who influensed who?

 

[RaZon]

It gets no better than Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys.


What a sound, but..........




1930

 

[RaZon]

Love Cream, my fav British band, and they nail this....




1930

 

[RaZon]

Love it.....


But....

 

[RaZon]

Emmett Miller was one of the greats, he performed in blackface and gave us this classic....


Here is who picked up on it......

 

[RaZon]

Lead Belly first recorded in 1934 behind the bars of Angola prison. Hard to believe but he actually sang his way out of prison and he was in there for murder.

So where did this come from in 1927?

 

[RaZon]

"Blind"Tom Wiggins the first black music star...



The death of “Blind Tom” in 1908 was a front-page story in newspapers nationwide. Many readers had seen him perform during his decades of touring, and the published accounts included firsthand stories and tributes. But what the newspapers didn’t report was that Wiggins was buried in an unmarked grave. The brilliant musician who had earned so much for those who exploited him wasn’t even allowed a headstone.

A grave marker was finally erected on his burial spot in 1976. A handful of books and articles have appeared since then, and Wiggins is now more than just a tragic footnote in American music history. But, sad to say, he is inevitably remembered less for his artistry than for the degraded spectacle of his life and times.

But make no mistake, Thomas Wiggins was a music pioneer, and deserving of our respect. In the century following his death, African-American performers would change the whole landscape of global music, some of them rising to the highest peaks of fame and adulation. Thomas Wiggins never enjoyed the same respect, but he was there at the very start. The nation’s first black music star, he helped to set that whole cultural revolution in motion. It’s an extraordinary achievement, and much larger than any stone memorial or public marker could ever convey.

Just sharing....

 

[RaZon]

The first recording by a black performer



You cannot talk the origins of American music without those guys.

 

[RaZon]