5 Songs August 9, 2024

Where Categories Bleed Together

Bessie Smith – “Lost Your Head Blues” 1926 available on The Complete Reccordings Vol. 3. Bessie Smith was beyond doubt the greatest blues singer of her time. In those days, blues and jazz were not as separated as they would quickly become. Especially when it came to the great women singers who played in theaters, the music would be as properly labeled jazz as it would blues. This track features jazz legend Fletcher Henderson on piano, and a particularly bluesy Joe Smith on cornet. Bessie Smith sings of the changes in her man, who loved her when they were poor, but who treats her bad now that he has money. It’s a tour de force vocal, the way she brings nuance to her delivery of a simple blues melody. She shifts rhythmic emphasis, she stretches and slurs syllables, she starts out loud and ends up soft, she makes us feel the sadness but also the determination to get past it. Joe Smith’s cornet follows every line with a stubborn, dark response which only seems to make her more insistent that she deserves to be treated right. Such a great record!

James Brown – “If You Don’t Give A Dogone About It” 1977 available on Mutha’s Nature. Not one of Brown’s big hits – in fact a truncated version was a b-side of a single that also wasn’t a big hit – this is one heck of a great groove from a time when his reputation was at a low ebb. “If you don’t give a dogone about it, then they won’t give a damn.” That’s the gist of the message here, and I guess it can be taken as an ironic comment on his own failing status as an artist beloved by the masses. Because Brown and his new J.B.’s – I’m not sure who was in the band at this point – clearly care about making this record an insatiable banger. The drums are right in the pocket, the bass is bubbling all over, the horns are surging to declarative points, the guitar is chicken scratching good, the clavinet is gurgling, and the vocals by Brown and his responders are all about percussive force. This is as great as anything he did, which means it’s pretty damn great.

Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga – “Nature Boy” 2014 from Cheek to Cheek. I remember the gasps when people found out Lady Gaga was going to do a jazz record of duets with Tony Bennett. But once anybody actually heard it, the only question they had was when would she do another one. (They did do one more album together before Bennett passed away). I’ve written about “Nature Boy” before. It’s one of the most remarkable songs in the Great American Songbook, a ballad with a mysteriously intoxicating melody and lyrics about a strange young man living off the grid somewhere away from society telling us that “the greatest thing you’ll ever learn is to love and be loved in return.” This duet finds Gaga singing quietly with a lot of breath in her voice, and Bennett singing as he so often did, with an exuberantly vigorous full voice. There is a lovely flute solo version of the tune in the middle, presumably by Paul Horn. I saw Bennett a couple times back in the early 90s. I remember sitting near the top of the Fox Theatre – a 4500-seat venue, for you out-of-towners – and Bennett set the microphone down to belt a song out without amplification. I could hear him as if I was right next to him. The man had pipes, but he also had technique, personality, and soul.

Otis Spann & Muddy Waters – “I Wanna Go Home” recorded late 1960s released 1997 on Live the Life. “They say there’s two sides to every story / But there’s only one side to mine.” I’ve never heard Muddy Waters sing a song like this one. It’s more of a gospel feel, a slow, testifying take on loneliness, with Otis Spann responding to every line with his own version of the lyric, and a rippling jazz-ish guitar flowing in between each of them. Spann was a member of Waters’ band for years but I’m not sure if this was recorded before he left in 1968 or shortly after as a guest with the group. Either way, there is plenty of connection between these two major blues titans, and Waters’ band is in complete sympathy with them both. There is both sadness and hope for a better future within this powerful live performance.

Chris Stapleton – “Worry B Gone” 2020 from Starting Over. Stapleton takes this wonderful Guy Clark song from his 2006 Workbench Songs album and revs it up to show off the power grooves his band is capable of delivering. The song celebrates the relief from care coming from one more puff of weed, but it also makes sure to mention the ills that make him want his worries to be gone. “Trouble with the air / Trouble with the water / People ain’t treatin’ one another like they oughta.” You know that “oughta” rhymes with “water,” too. This is probably my fave Stapleton album – he seems a little more relaxed than usual, but still plenty worked up as a singer. This cut has a killer guitar solo, too.