Cycle Babble

So true....even to this day I did not like having to purchase an album so I could listen to the one only good song on it. But there have been other albums I purchased and ended up enjoying the 'B' side more than the 'A' side.

Go figure.

Cougrrcj

To me the 'A' & 'B' sides were on 45s. Singles, not albums. You are over 50, right???

Zinger

Could be an improvised song whose original author is actually unknown. Sometimes old Huddie Ledbetter songs are labeled "traditional" on covered versions. Not sure if royalties were honored for those or not.

Another example is Barrett Strong's "Money" which the Beatles covered exactly like Barrett's. Well John Lee Hooker claims he wrote the song and has a slower gritty version of it in his style. But he doesn't get the royalties for it. Barrett does.

I-Like-To-Bike

A lot of interesting info on the subject of music and lyric credit in Keith Richard's memoir, "Life." Especially interesting is the credit for the music of many of the Chuck Berry songs that Chuck took full credit.

Zinger

Maybellene was actually an improvised and reworded old fiddle tune that Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys made popular originally named "Ida Red". Muddy Waters is who introduced Berry to Chess records and loaned him his improvisation of the song which he had renamed "Ida May".

Speaking of Bob Wills, his lyrics to the Texas Playboys theme song was shared with a 1930 Big Bill Broonzy song named "Eagle Ridin' Papa". Since Wills started that second band up in 1934 I suspect that he probably plagiarized this one from the black artist.

Biker395 

Interesting.

Ida Red has a similar style, but my ear doesn't think them all that similar to Maybellene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFef08YZ6qk

Hear even less of a connection of either song with Eagle Ridin Papa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjM0LluEOHY

Isn't the Internet wonderful?

I very much admire Chuck Berry ... IMHO, he is the true king of Rock and Roll. Gotta get to St. Louis to see one of his shows before it's too late.

Zinger

Yeah I was wondering that myself. Since Bob's version was a cover itself I'm guessing they improvised some other version. At any rate everything was changed so much it's probably valid that either Muddy or Chuck claimed it as theirs.

Yes 'tis but you misunderstood. That was the Texas Playboys Theme song that plagiarized Broonzy's lyrics and that's only one version of the song (others covered the rest of the lyrics). Wills actually used the lyrics from Broonzy's song in several of his own.

You'd better. I got to see Hendrix just before his end.

I-Like-To-Bike

Nothing like seeing the greats live and in person.
Saw James Brown and Buddy Guy in 67; Jimi Hendrix in 69; Bobby Bland and Bo Diddley in clubs in the early 70's.
Saw John Mayall in 69 or 70 but he had already gone soft with too much California mellow sound, no longer the great bluesman that he was just a few years earlier.

cccorlew

Thanks for the Bob Wills links. Too much fun!!!!

My only calim to music cool is that I saw Janis Joplin.
Maybe a few points for CSN&Y, and van Morrison at a community college. And the Kinks at a local high school.

Zinger

Sure thang man. Here's some more I had posted over in the Foo forum:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNP4M85oxIQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IXmPZSM07o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S99Fokasa2Y

I actually had Ida Red posted there too and another that was pulled for copyright violations.

BTW
I had a girlfriend who was a huge John Lennon fan and read an interview by him once where he said he binged on Bob Wills tunes a lot.

Zinger

Oh man you got to see Bobby Bland !

I sure liked Johnny Guitar Watson's Bluesy stuff from the early '50s.....Not so much the later Soul stuff he did.

Biker395 

I loves me some Buddy Guy.

The one I saw just in time was Stevie Ray. OMG.

I-Like-To-Bike

Actually saw two shows, one in 67, and one in 68 just before I was drafted into the Army. He seemed a cross between BB King and Jimi Hendrix. He even played the guitar (well!) with his teeth and behind his head.

Zinger

I foolishly missed seeing him early on while I lived in Dallas as he played there some. I had a date to his concert in San Diego much later and he cancelled. The date was great but we missed SRV.

2nd Mule

I missed the Sullivan show due to being stationed in Korea at the time, returning to US soil in May of 64. But thanks to reruns I finally did see it... Has it really been 50 years. Time to go out for a cold ride and reflect on that.

lakhotason

Saw the Beatles twice in concert on the same day. Tickets were $5.50 each. Still have the ticket stubs.

skilsaw

i had the same impression of Homer Simpson when he first came out. It is only now that I am beginning to see the finesse in that show.