Various Artists
Plug It In! Turn It Up! Electric Blues - The Definitive Collection, Pt. 1: Beginnings 1939-1954
Plug It In! Turn It Up! Electric Blues - The Definitive Collection, Pt. 1: Beginnings 1939-1954
UPC: 4000127169211
Format: CD (3 disc)
Release Date: Jun 15, 2012
Regular price
$34.95 USD
Regular price
Sale price
$34.95 USD
Unit price
per
Couldn't load pickup availability
FREE SHIPPING
This item is expected to ship between 3 and 6 business days after order placement.
Liner Note Author: Bill Dahl.
Illustrators: R.A. Andreas; Este .
Photographers: R.A. Andreas; Este .
Bear Family's Electric Blues history Plug It In! Turn It Up! may not seem quite as ambitious as some of their projects, but that's only because it arrives in four volumes of three CDs, not a hulking 12-disc, 12X12 box complete with a hardcover book. Taken on its own terms, it is a pretty impressive chronicle of electrified blues from its infancy to its prime. Here in the first volume, the spotlight shines on its birth, opening up with a cut from Andy Kirk & His Twelve Clouds of Joy, a 1939 side called "Floyd's Guitar Blues" featuring a solo by Floyd Smith, and running to 1954, when the jumping, hard-charged sound started to break into the big time. Wisely, Bear Family is happy to repeat artists -- there is no way to limit yourself to just one T-Bone Walker or Muddy Waters song, after all -- and they bend the rules ever so slightly, letting in sides by R&B singers like Fats Domino and Ray Charles, artists who aren't always strictly classified as electric blues but certainly fit this wide definition. Roughly speaking, the first disc here is devoted to the swinging, jumping sounds of the '40s and '50s, with the second finding the rawer, nastier sounds starting to sneak in (Jackie Brenston's 'Rocket '88'," Howlin' Wolf's "How Many More Years," Elmore James' "Dust My Broom," and Little Walter's "Juke" pop up here), and the third concluding with the rise of overdriven Chicago blues and boogie, with Jimmy Reed rubbing shoulders with Wynonie Harris. Perhaps there are some seminal sides from these 15 minutes -- almost certainly there are -- but this first volume of Plug it In! Turn It Up! tells its story expertly and, best of all, it sounds like a party as it does so. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Illustrators: R.A. Andreas; Este .
Photographers: R.A. Andreas; Este .
Bear Family's Electric Blues history Plug It In! Turn It Up! may not seem quite as ambitious as some of their projects, but that's only because it arrives in four volumes of three CDs, not a hulking 12-disc, 12X12 box complete with a hardcover book. Taken on its own terms, it is a pretty impressive chronicle of electrified blues from its infancy to its prime. Here in the first volume, the spotlight shines on its birth, opening up with a cut from Andy Kirk & His Twelve Clouds of Joy, a 1939 side called "Floyd's Guitar Blues" featuring a solo by Floyd Smith, and running to 1954, when the jumping, hard-charged sound started to break into the big time. Wisely, Bear Family is happy to repeat artists -- there is no way to limit yourself to just one T-Bone Walker or Muddy Waters song, after all -- and they bend the rules ever so slightly, letting in sides by R&B singers like Fats Domino and Ray Charles, artists who aren't always strictly classified as electric blues but certainly fit this wide definition. Roughly speaking, the first disc here is devoted to the swinging, jumping sounds of the '40s and '50s, with the second finding the rawer, nastier sounds starting to sneak in (Jackie Brenston's 'Rocket '88'," Howlin' Wolf's "How Many More Years," Elmore James' "Dust My Broom," and Little Walter's "Juke" pop up here), and the third concluding with the rise of overdriven Chicago blues and boogie, with Jimmy Reed rubbing shoulders with Wynonie Harris. Perhaps there are some seminal sides from these 15 minutes -- almost certainly there are -- but this first volume of Plug it In! Turn It Up! tells its story expertly and, best of all, it sounds like a party as it does so. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Tracks:
Disc 1:
1 - Floyd's Guitar Blues
2 - Mean Old World
3 - Strange Things Happening Every Day
4 - Drifting Blues
5 - Ain't That Just Like a Woman
6 - That's All Right
7 - Let Me Play with Your Poodle
8 - Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)
9 - Better Cut That Out
10 - Ramblin' Bill
11 - I Can't Be Satisfied
12 - Boogie Chillen
13 - Blues After Hours
14 - Mary Is Fine
15 - Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee
16 - Hit the Road
17 - Who's Been Jivin' You
18 - Black Angel Blues (Sweet Black Angel)
19 - My Special Friend Blues
20 - Every Day I Have the Blues (Lonely Heart Blues)
21 - Rock Awhile
22 - Bon Ton Roula
23 - Rollin' and Tumblin', Pt. 1
24 - Slippin' and Slidin'
25 - Rockin' All Day (Rockin' and Reelin')
26 - Love Don't Love Nobody
Disc 2:
1 - That's All Right
2 - Midnight Boogie
3 - Black Night
4 - Rock Little Baby
5 - Why Should I Cry?
6 - Rocket '88'
7 - How Many More Years?
8 - Boogie Woogie Nighthawk
9 - Baby Let's Go Down to the Woods
10 - Kansas City Blues
11 - Pontiac Blues
12 - Dust My Broom
13 - I'm in the Mood
14 - Cold Cold Feeling
15 - Ramblin' on My Mind
16 - Please Send My Baby Back
17 - Trust in Me
18 - Juke
19 - Me and My Chauffeur Blues
20 - Five Long Years
21 - Lonesome Train
22 - Hound Dog
23 - Chocolate Pork Chop Man
24 - Woke Up This Morning
25 - Evening Sun
26 - Cryin' Shame
Disc 3:
1 - Messin' Up
2 - Please Love Me
3 - Forty Cups of Coffee
4 - Ice Cream Man
5 - Losing Hand
6 - Hydramatic Woman
7 - Feelin' Good
8 - One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer
9 - Tiger Man
10 - Blues with a Feeling
11 - Piggly Wiggly
12 - TV Mama
13 - Things That I Used to Do
14 - Shim Sham Shimmy
15 - Dirty Work at the Crossroad
16 - You Don't Have to Go
17 - I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man
18 - Sloppy Drunk
19 - Shake That Thing
20 - Wine, Women, Whiskey
21 - I'm Gonna Murder My Baby
22 - Pet Cream Man
23 - Reconsider Baby
24 - Don't Have to Worry (Jumpin' in the Heart of Town)
25 - Boogie Disease
1 - Floyd's Guitar Blues
2 - Mean Old World
3 - Strange Things Happening Every Day
4 - Drifting Blues
5 - Ain't That Just Like a Woman
6 - That's All Right
7 - Let Me Play with Your Poodle
8 - Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)
9 - Better Cut That Out
10 - Ramblin' Bill
11 - I Can't Be Satisfied
12 - Boogie Chillen
13 - Blues After Hours
14 - Mary Is Fine
15 - Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee
16 - Hit the Road
17 - Who's Been Jivin' You
18 - Black Angel Blues (Sweet Black Angel)
19 - My Special Friend Blues
20 - Every Day I Have the Blues (Lonely Heart Blues)
21 - Rock Awhile
22 - Bon Ton Roula
23 - Rollin' and Tumblin', Pt. 1
24 - Slippin' and Slidin'
25 - Rockin' All Day (Rockin' and Reelin')
26 - Love Don't Love Nobody
Disc 2:
1 - That's All Right
2 - Midnight Boogie
3 - Black Night
4 - Rock Little Baby
5 - Why Should I Cry?
6 - Rocket '88'
7 - How Many More Years?
8 - Boogie Woogie Nighthawk
9 - Baby Let's Go Down to the Woods
10 - Kansas City Blues
11 - Pontiac Blues
12 - Dust My Broom
13 - I'm in the Mood
14 - Cold Cold Feeling
15 - Ramblin' on My Mind
16 - Please Send My Baby Back
17 - Trust in Me
18 - Juke
19 - Me and My Chauffeur Blues
20 - Five Long Years
21 - Lonesome Train
22 - Hound Dog
23 - Chocolate Pork Chop Man
24 - Woke Up This Morning
25 - Evening Sun
26 - Cryin' Shame
Disc 3:
1 - Messin' Up
2 - Please Love Me
3 - Forty Cups of Coffee
4 - Ice Cream Man
5 - Losing Hand
6 - Hydramatic Woman
7 - Feelin' Good
8 - One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer
9 - Tiger Man
10 - Blues with a Feeling
11 - Piggly Wiggly
12 - TV Mama
13 - Things That I Used to Do
14 - Shim Sham Shimmy
15 - Dirty Work at the Crossroad
16 - You Don't Have to Go
17 - I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man
18 - Sloppy Drunk
19 - Shake That Thing
20 - Wine, Women, Whiskey
21 - I'm Gonna Murder My Baby
22 - Pet Cream Man
23 - Reconsider Baby
24 - Don't Have to Worry (Jumpin' in the Heart of Town)
25 - Boogie Disease