This
is the third three-disc volume in Bear Family Records' ambitious
four-volume history of the electric blues, all compiled and annotated by
blues historian and musicologist Bill Dahl. The Gibson guitar company
introduced the first electric guitar in the 1930s, and the advent of
amplification meant the blues could preach louder and longer, which
allowed a country acoustic music to transform itself into its own kind
of powerfully rhythmic pop music. Taken as a whole, this ambitious Bear
Family series traces and surveys that transformation, beginning with
jazz-inspired jump blues tracks and following through to the juncture of
blues and rock, blues and funk, and beyond, on into the 21st century.
This particular volume covers 1960 to 1969, a time when blues and rock
& roll really started to join hands, and it features classic tracks
like Buddy Guy's "First Time I Met the Blues," Jimmy Reed's "Big Boss
Man," Albert King's "Crosscut Saw," and B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby," but
it also collects lesser-known gems like Frank Frost's "Jelly Roll King"
and Junior Parker's "Driving Wheel," then slides into blues and rock
hybrids like the Animals' "House of the Rising Sun," Canned Heat's Henry
Thomas-inspired "On the Road Again," and Janis Joplin's "Ball and
Chain," before closing things out with Stevie Wonder's blues-based "I
Ain't Superstitious" done by the Jeff Beck Group.Disc 1
- So Many Roads, So Many Trains, Otis Rush
- First Time I Met The Blues, Buddy Guy
- Big Boss Man, Jimmy Reed
- Hide Away, Freddy King
- Have You Ever Loved A Woman, Freddy King
- Messin’ With the Kid, Junior Wells
- I Pity The Fool, Bobby Bland
- Come On (Parts 1 & 2), Earl King
- Rockin This Joint To-nite , Kid Thomas
- Shake Your Moneymaker, Elmore James
- I’m A Little Mixed Up, Betty James
- Driving Wheel, Junior Parker
- Doctor Feelgood Willie Perryman Interns
- Boom Boom, John Lee Hooker
- Watch Your Step, Bobby Parker
- You Don’t Love Me, Willie Cobbs
- Cut You A-Loose, Ricky Allen
- Jelly Roll King, Frank Frost
- You Can’t Judge A Book By Looking At The Cove, Bo Diddley
- I’m A Woman, Christine Kittrell
- Help Me, Sonny Boy Williamson
- Too Many Cooks, Jesse Fortune
- Part Time Love, Little Johnny Taylor
- Hidden Charms Howlin Wolf
- Blue Monday, James Davis
Disc 2
- Hi-Heel Sneakers, Tommy Tucker
- Full Time Lover, Little Frankie Lee
- Rock Me Baby, B. B. King
- Gonna Send You Back To Georgia, Timmy Shaw
- Use What You Got, Sugar Pie DeSanto
- Killing Floor Howlin Wolf
- All Night Worker, Rufus Thomas
- Snatch It Back And Hold It, Junior Wells
- Baby Scratch My Back, Slim Harpo
- Wang Dang Doodle, Koko Taylor
- Feel So Bad Little Milton
- Little Bluebird, Johnnie Taylor
- Mustang Sally, Wilson Pickett
- Crosscut Saw, Albert King
- You’re Taking Up Another Man’s Place, Mable John
- Tramp, Lowell Fulsom
- Dr. Feelgood (Love Is A Serious Business), Aretha Franklin
- Born Under A Bad Sign, Albert King
- I’d Rather Go Blind, Etta James
- Mary Had A Little Lamb, Buddy Guy
- Slip Away Carter, Clarence Carter
- One Of These Days, Sonny Rhodes
- A Woman Needs To Be Loved, Tyrone Davis
- What Have I Done Wrong Magic Sam
- Cummins Prison Farm, Calvin Leavy
Disc 3
- Who Do You Love, Ronnie Hawkins
- Baby What’s Wrong, Lonnie Mack
- Gangster Of Love, Johnny Winter
- The House Of The Rising Sun, The Animals
- Bring It To Jerome Mann, Manfred
- Going Down Slow Bloomfield, Michael
- Judgement Day, The Pretty Things
- I Ain’t Got You, The Yardbirds
- Born In Chicago Paul Butterfield Blues Band
- Have You Heard John Mayall’s Blues Breakers
- I Can Tell, John Hammond
- Baby Will You Please Help Me Charlie Musselwhite
- Stevie Blues The Spencer Davis Group
- I Want To Know Ten Years After
- Shake Em On Down, Savoy Brown
- She Caught The Katy (And Left Me A Mule To Ride) Taj Mahal
- On The Road Again Canned Heat
- Ball And Chain Big Brother & the Holding Company
- Black Magic Woman Fleetwood Mac
- Ain’t Superstitious The Jeff Beck Group
