OLD SCHOOL #30 Hand Me Down Blues

The birth of Rock and Roll is a modest announcement in music history, often told in romantic human terms. Country and Western music wedded the Blues and the offspring rocked.

There is no specific birthdate. The music combined together over the years like a heartsick gumbo. Take some lowdown hurt feelings, sprinkle in some bad luck and trouble, a pinch of dirty dealing, and a few ‘Fore Day Creeps, let it simmer in Mississippi, and bring it to a boil in Chicago.

The Blues. Let the hard times rock, let the good times roll.

A certain grouping of young rockers of the 50s and 60s, many of them volunteers in the British Invasion, discovered the nearly forgotten scratchy American blues tracks from the Depression and beyond. They plugged in their guitars, and soon their counterparts in the USA were getting reintroduced to their own legacy by a bunch of long hairs who took tea at three.

Many of the new fans didn’t realize that it had all been heard before..

In this episode of Retrofit Old School, we will dig out the originals, then see what happened to them over time. Some clone the bones with astounding accuracy, lacking only the smell of gin beneath the cigarette smoke. Others simply wake the dead.

This is Old School, and here comes the Hand Me Down Blues. Have mercy.

BOOM BOOM John Lee Hooker (1961)

BOOM BOOM The Animals (1965)

BACK DOOR MAN Howlin’ Wolf (1961)

BACK DOOR MAN The Doors (1967)

BULLDOZE BLUES Henry Thomas (1927)

GOING UP COUNTRY Canned Heat (1969)

FLIP FLOP AND FLY Big Joe Turner (1955)

FLIP FLOP AND FLY The Blues Brothers (1978)

DEVIL GOT MY WOMAN Skip James (1931)

DEVIL GOT MY WOMAN Beck (1996)

OUTSIDE WOMAN BLUES Blind Joe Reynolds (1929)

OUTSIDE WOMAN BLUES Cream (1967)

Photo by Ashes Sitoula on Unsplash

LITTLE RED ROOSTER Willie Dixon (1961)

LITTLE RED ROOSTER The Rolling Stones (1964)

MANNISH BOY Muddy Waters (1955)

I’M A MAN The Yardbirds (1964)

STATESBORO BLUES Blind Willie McTell (1929)

STATESBORO BLUES The Allman Brothers (1971

ME AND THE DEVIL BLUES Robert Johnson (1937)

ME AND THE DEVIL BLUES Gil Scott-Heron (2010)

WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe (1929)

WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS Led Zeppelin (1970)

“The past is a blast.”