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Copyright © 2002-2006
by James P. Hauser except where otherwise noted.  All rights reserved.

Welcome!  This is the Ol' Moondog and I  must confess that, although I do not know your final destination,  I can tell that at this very moment you're in exactly the right place.  And that's because you have just climbed aboard the AKA Blues Connection.  This train is haulin' blues, blues, blues, and is powered by an engine of blues-based rock 'n' roll.  On this ride you will discover the natural fact--rock and roll sprang from the blues and the best rock 'n' roll proudly displays its blues influences. 

It is the aim of this website to record the many connections between these two types of music, giving primary emphasis to documenting the many blues songs that have been recorded by rock musicians. It's also filled with facts, stories, history, and trivia concerning the relationship between blues and rock. And just for good measure, there is even some information about the links between rock 'n' roll and R&B, soul, gospel, and other forms of black music.  (Click here for more about this site.)

Get started by going to the Musician Index.

OR

Read the introductory essay below.

A Daddy They Call the Blues

by Jim Hauser

(This essay appeared originally on the Internet at The Blues Site, www.thebluessite.com, in September 2003.  It is posted here with the permission of Vince Cheney, owner of The Blues Site.)

It’s no big secret that many of today’s blues fans found their way to their favorite music through rock ‘n’ roll.  To quote from a Muddy Waters song, we learned that “the blues had a baby and they named it rock ‘n’ roll”, and—after doing a little musical genealogy—we became hooked on the blues of folks like Jimmy Reed and John Lee Hooker.  I myself learned about the blues by tracking down the influences of The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and Elvis (among others).  Personally, I am fascinated by the connections between the two types of music and have spent many hours studying the relationship between the two.  Although there is nothing unique about looking at rock and blues from this angle, I believe that closely examining the links between them can lead to some unique insights.  For example, this blues to rock perspective has lead me to identify that at probably the two most important performing moments in his career, Jimi Hendrix played a certain blues song from Howlin’ Wolf.  (If I have aroused your curiosity, read on and you’ll find the name of the song and details about these two performances). 

This article is an effort to provoke some thought about the relationship between blues and rock ‘n’ roll by citing certain connections between them.  It focuses on some lesser-known facts and history so that even the most knowledgeable of readers will likely learn a thing or two.  And, hopefully, some readers will go on to discover some as-of-yet unknown links between blues and rock. 

One of the most widely known connections between blues and rock ‘n’ roll is the fact that The Rolling Stones named themselves after a Muddy Waters song titled “Rollin’ Stone”.  But they aren’t the only rock band with a name that comes from the blues.  For example, the Sixties blues-rock band Canned Heat named themselves after the great Delta bluesman Tommy Johnson’s “Canned Heat Blues”.  Syd Barrett came up with the name Pink Floyd for his band by using the first names of two of his favorite bluesmen:  guitarists Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.  (Council worked with Blind Boy Fuller and Anderson appeared in an early sixties film documentary titled The Blues.)  Some sources claim that The Moody Blues are named after the Slim Harpo song “Moody Blues”, but the book Rock Names by Adam Dolgins includes quotes from band members who provide an entirely different explanation for their group’s name. 

Even though the Moody Blues may not have named themselves after a blues song, they actually did start out in the early sixties as a rhythm and blues outfit.  It’s amazing when you look at the number of British rock bands from that decade which had strong roots in the blues and R&B.  It is well-documented that The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Animals, The Who, The Yardbirds, Cream, and Led Zeppelin were all influenced by the music of blues greats such as Muddy Waters and R&B artists such as Little Richard. However, much less is known about the blues connections of other British bands such as The Kinks, The Zombies, and The Troggs.  For example, besides the monster blues riffing on “You Really Got Me”, The Kinks’ first album included a cover of Slim Harpo’s “Got Love If You Want It”, a song which was also recorded by The Troggs.

The Zombies recorded the Muddy Waters tune “I Got My Mojo Working.”  And The Moody Blues did a version of Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Bye Bye Bird”.  (But the fact that they couldn’t top Sonny Boy’s version was no excuse for them to haul off and record stuff like “Nights in White Satin.”)

As one last example, many of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours-era fans have no idea that when the band first came together in the late sixties, it was heavily into the music of blues slide guitarist Elmore James.  They recorded a whole string of his songs including “Talk to Me Baby”, “Bleeding Heart”, “Madison Blues”, and “I Held My Baby Last Night”. 

There are also a bunch of American bands from the sixties with little known roots in the blues.  For example, the garage rockers The Shadows of Knight (best known for their hit version of Van Morrison’s “Gloria”) were also heavily into the blues.  Their first album included versions of John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom”, Chuck Berry’s “Let It Rock”, three Muddy Waters covers (“I Just Want To Make Love To You”, “I Got My Mojo Working”, and “Hoochie Coochie Man”) plus Bo Diddley’s “Oh Yeah” and “You Can’t Judge a Book By Looking At The Cover”.  Considering that the LP was packed with Chicago blues, they should have just slapped a label from Chicago's famed blues recording company Chess Records on the thing.  But the irony of it all was that even though the group was from Chicago, their brand of blues actually had more to do with The Rolling Stones than Muddy Waters. 

Now, let’s move on from the hairy to the smooth, by taking a look at The Righteous Brothers, another American group from the sixties with a strong blues influence.  Before they teamed up with Phil Spector, this duo recorded a load of great rhythm and blues including versions of Muddy Waters’ “I Just Want to Make Love to You”, Buster Brown’s “Fannie Mae”, Ray Charles’s “This Little Girl of Mine” and Jimmy Reed’s “Baby What You Want Me to Do”.  These guys were not doing a Pat Boone thing; they were serious students of the blues and even had a large following in the African-American community.  Righteous they were! 

The Doors also had roots in the blues as indicated by live albums from the group which include renditions of Muddy Waters’ “Close To You” and Howlin’ Wolf’s “Little Red Rooster” and “Back Door Man”.  Keyboardist Ray Manzarek even grew up in Chicago and frequented the city’s blues clubs as a teenager.  The book Riders on the Storm, authored by the group’s drummer John Densmore, brings out the fact that Jim Morrison always wanted to record John Lee Hooker’s “Crawlin’ Kingsnake”.  It’s my guess that this classic blues song served as the inspiration for Morrison’s Lizard King persona.

Most fans of the music of Johnny Rivers are familiar with his recordings of Chuck Berry’s “Memphis” and Leadbelly’s “Midnight Special”, but only his most devoted followers know that he wrote and recorded a song titled “John Lee Hooker” which was a tribute to the bluesman, or that he covered Arthur Alexander’s “You Better Move On”.  Incidentally, if you’re wondering “who was Arthur Alexander?”, he was a great R&B singer and songwriter whose tunes were recorded by The Beatles (“Anna” and “Soldiers Of Love”), The Rolling Stones (“You Better Move On”), and Elvis Presley (“Burnin’ Love”) to name just a few. 

This article has not touched on fifties rock ‘n’ roll because most rock 'n' roll fans already know about the fact that--as Howlin’ Wolf once said—“Elvis made his pull from the blues.”  But one of my favorite links between blues and rock can be found in Bill Haley’s “See You Later Alligator” which was a hit for him in 1956.  The song was written and originally recorded by a kid from Louisiana named Bobby Charles, who wrote it to the tune of Guitar Slim’s  “Later for You Baby.”  Now here is a little story that will blow your blues-lovin’ mind.  As a young teen, Charles got a chance to audition over the telephone for Leonard Chess.  It went well enough that the legendary producer set up a recording session in New Orleans for his latest discovery.  Chess did not attend the sessions, but he finally met Charles in person when the singer flew to Chicago for some promotional work.  To his great surprise, Chess learned that his exciting new artist was not black, but white.  Nevertheless, he released several records by Charles, making him the first white artist in the great blues label’s catalog.

Of course, Mississippi Delta blues and Chicago blues had their biggest influence on rock ‘n’ roll during the fifties and sixties, and became much less of a direct influence in later years.  Most of the rock musicians that formed bands in the seventies and later decades were exposed to the blues through what might be called "a white rock ‘n’ roll filter."  For example, while Bruce Springsteen loved the R&B of rockers like Chuck Berry and Gary U.S. Bonds, he got doses of Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker through the music of bands like The Rolling Stones and The Animals.  So it’s not surprising that the closest that Springsteen has come to covering a blues song is his drastic reworking of Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Cross My Heart.”  But let’s dig a little deeper to see how some of the Boss’s original songs may have been influenced by the blues.

First of all, Springsteen’s “Ain’t Got You” was probably influenced by either The Animals’ or Yardbirds’ covers of Billy Boy Arnold’s “I Ain’t Got You” (Springsteen was a fan of both British bands).  While the lyrics and the melody of Springsteen’s song are different from those on the Arnold record, the two songs are similar in that both consist of several verses where the singer recites a laundry list of all the things he “got” and then ends the list with the lament “but I ain’t got you”.  Similarly, Springsteen’s “Cover Me” from Born in the USA seems to be influenced by Percy Sledge’s “Cover Me”.  Again, the music and lyrics are different, but the lyrical themes of both songs are similar:  Springsteen asks his woman to cover and protect him from the cold, cruel world, and Sledge asks his lover to cover and protect him from other women (which is quite understandable when you think about how women must have reacted to him singing his monster hit "When a Man Loves a Woman" in concert).  As one last example, Springsteen’s R&B-soaked “The Fever” surely owes a great deal to Little Willie John’s “Fever”.  (I’ve always thought that Etta James and Springsteen’s sax player, Clarence Clemons, could cook up a medley of these last two songs that would add at least a few degrees to that whole global warming thing.)

The point I’m trying to make in discussing Springsteen’s music is that all rock musicians, even if they exclusively (or almost exclusively) record original songs, owe a big debt to the blues because its influence is there one way or another.  Of course, blues fans already know this.  However, many rock fans don’t know it.  Even some rock musicians do not know it.  A great case in point is Dion, the musician who had big hits with “The Wanderer” and “Runaround Sue.”  He wasn’t even aware of the blues element in his music until John Hammond asked him about it.  Hammond, who had a hand in putting together Columbia’s legendary first Robert Johnson album, hipped Dion to the music of Johnson and other bluesmen.  He prompted the young rock star to realize that the source of the blues influence in his music was his first guitar teacher, a janitor named Willie.  After Hammond opened his eyes, Dion went on to become a serious student of the blues and even took guitar lessons from Reverend Gary Davis. 

Let’s start to wrap things up by returning to Jimi Hendrix and revealing the answer to the question raised earlier in the article--what song did he play at the two most important moments in his career?  The answer:  Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killin’ Floor”.  The first of these two special moments occurred when Hendrix met Eric Clapton for the first time.  The meeting took place after he had gone to England to try to make a name for himself.  At that time, Clapton was already a big star.  The then-unknown American strapped on a guitar to sit in with Clapton’s Cream bandmates Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce and ripped into a version of “Killin’ Floor” which blew everyone away including Clapton, whose jaw practically dropped to the floor.  Needless to say, it wasn’t long before England had itself a new guitar god. 

The second crucial time that Hendrix played this song was at the Monterey Pop Festival.  After becoming a star in England, he returned to the U.S. with Monterey scheduled for his first performance.  He had left the States partly because he was having trouble establishing himself as a musician there, and he appeared at Monterey anxious to win over the American audience.  After taking the stage, he launched his supersonic guitar, set the dial to “Killin’ Floor”, and a few riffs later, he was well on his way to becoming a superstar.

Of course, Hendrix was a big fan of the blues, and an interesting piece of evidence of his love for the blues was his record collection.  The April 1996 issue of Guitar Player magazine included an article about it by James Rotondi titled “Jimi Hendrix’ Personal Record Collection.”  According to the article, the lion’s share of the collection was blues albums.  It included LPs from Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf, Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson--standard stuff for rock musicians interested in the blues.  Less obvious items in the collection included:

Blind Blake’s Bootleg Rum Dum Blues

Lowell Fulsom’s self-titled album on the Arhoolie label

Leadbelly’s Take This Hammer

Smokey Smothers’s  The Driving Blues of Smokey Smothers

Washboard Sam’s Classic Blues

Charlie Musselwhite’s Stand Back.

Hendrix owned five albums from Lightnin’ Hopkins, more than any other artist.  He also owned three John Mayall LPs including the Bluesbreakers album with Clapton.  Surprisingly, the collection contained no albums from B.B. King or Buddy Guy, two of Hendrix’s biggest influences.  The explanation offered by the article is that certain records may have been loaned out to friends and never returned. 

I don’t listen to much of today’s rock music.  For me, it strays too far from the blues, and is often too dark and angry.  But every once in a while, a current generation rock performer catches my blues ear.  For example, about five years ago I discovered the music of Beck.  I read an interview in which he pointed out that his song “Devil’s Haircut” was about the legend of Stagger Lee.  A few years after he recorded "Devil's Haircut", he did a version of “Stagolee” for a tribute CD to Mississippi John Hurt, one of his biggest influences.  This kind of thing gives me hope that today’s teens will get some exposure to the blues and gain an appreciation for it.

What excites me most about current rock music is a duo called The White Stripes, a band whose critically-acclaimed CD Elephant is a top seller this year.  They dedicated one of their earlier albums, titled De Stijl, to Blind Willie McTell; the album includes their versions of McTell’s “Your Southern Can is Mine” and Son House’s “Death Letter.”  The White Stripes are on the verge of becoming superstars, possibly the biggest band since Nirvana.  Certainly, by now, thousands of their fans have used the Internet to find out about McTell and House.  And I’m sure that some have even searched Yahoo or Google for a definition of “coolin’ board.”  When I think about The White Stripes, I can’t help but smile.  Because in turning kids on to McTell and House, they are also, of course, teaching them that rock’s roots stretch back well beyond Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, and Elvis—all the way back to the Mississippi Delta and a daddy they call the blues.

Notes and Selected Sources:

The All Music Guide series, published by Miller Freeman Books, is a great source for learning thousands of tidbits of information on how your favorite rock musicians have been influenced by the blues and blues musicians.  The All Music Guides are readily available from bookstores and the publisher has a great website at www.allmusic.com.

Two of my other favorite sources for learning about how rock ‘n’ roll was influenced by the blues are:

What Was the First Rock ‘n’ Roll Record by Jim Dawson and Steve Propes, published by Faber and Faber in 1992, and

Blues on CD: The Essential Guide by Charles Shaar Murray, published in Great Britain in 1993 by Kyle Cathie Limited (London)

Additional sources are listed below.

 Jimi Hendrix sources:

1. Shapiro, Harry.  Jimi Hendrix: Electric Gypsy.  New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991.

2. Rotondi, James.  “Jimi Hendrix’ Personal Record Collection.”  Guitar Player,  April 1996, v30 n4 p37(4).

Shapiro’s book describes, in some detail, both of Hendrix’s performances of “Killin’ Floor” which I cited in my article.  Several different albums of Hendrix’s historic performance at Monterey have been released over the years.  Some of these albums sequenced the songs differently from the order in which they were actually played.  Jimi Plays Monterey on the Reprise label sequences the songs as they were performed—with “Killin’ Floor” starting off the nine-song set.

Bobby Charles sources:

1. Bernard, Shane K.  Swamp Pop: Cajun and Creole Rhythm and Blues.  Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1996.

2.  Grendysa, Peter.  Liner notes to Blues Masters: The Essential Blues Collection, Vol. 11: More Jump Blues.  Compact disc R2 71133.  Rhino Records, 1993.

You can hear Bobby Charles singing his own fine version of “See You Later Alligator” on Rhino’s More Jump Blues CD.  Although he has recorded some excellent music himself, he is better known as a songwriter.  He wrote “Walking to New Orleans” and “(I Don’t Know Why) But I Do” which were big hits for Fats Domino and Clarence “Frogman” Henry.  Muddy Waters recorded his composition “Why Are People Like That?”

Dion sources:

Sculatti, Gene.  Liner notes to Dion’s Bronx Blues: The Columbia Recordings (1962-1965). Compact disc CGK 46972.  Columbia, 1991.

Many years ago, Dion was a teen idol, classified in the same group as Fabian and Frankie Avalon.  Today, he is seen as a major figure in popular music who has influenced musicians such as Billy Joel, Lou Reed, and Dave Edmunds.  

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