That being the case, and because as you might expect things are going to be fairly quiet around here until Monday, here's a fun and morally uncompromised little project to help us wile away the empty hours until our return:
Best or Worst Post-Beatles White-Boy Blues Performance!!!
And my totally top of my head Top Seven is:
7. Pussy Galore -- Stop Breaking Down
Jon Spencer's low budget, low-fi cover of the Stones' Robert Johnson cover, recorded in a hallway somewhere before there was a Blues Explosion in his pants. I've heard worse, but then again I've been around an awfully long time.
6. John Mayall -- Room to Move
I'm sorry, I know it's not supposed to be funny, but I can't listen to this without cracking up.
5. Wilderness Road -- The Authentic British Blues
"I've got just the thing"Now wait a minute!!!"
To liberate your mind
Some asshole on a sitar
Playing 'My Darling Clementine'"
Tick...tock...tick...tock...
4. The J. Geils Band -- Serves You Right to Suffer
From their great debut album, and this track has been giving me chills for over forty years now. Well, not continuously, of course; that would be rather debilitating, now that I think of it. But a great performance any way you slice it.
3. The Rolling Stones -- Good Times, Bad Times
Astoundingly authoritative -- Keith's acoustic 12-string work almost beggars belief -- and even more remarkable when you consider they were, not to put too fine a point on it, a bunch of pimply post-adolescents when they recorded it.
2. Steppenwolf -- Disappointment Number (Unknown)
From their 1968 sophomore LP, which is one of the most underrated hard rock records of the decade, here's a sort of history of the blues in a concise four minutes.
And the Numero Uno "They've Suffered for Their Art -- Now It's Your Turn" bluesola of them all simply has to be...
1. West Bruce and Laing -- Slow Blues
A performance as emotionally compelling as its title is imaginative.
Alrighty then -- what would your choices be?
