Hoochie Coochie Man (Everybody knows I’m here)

I am your Hoochie Coochie man,  cantava Muddy Waters.

Ma chi è questo hoochie coochie man?

Gypsy woman told my momma, before I was born
You got a boy-child comin’, gonna be a son-of-a-gun
Gonna make these pretty women, jump and shout
And the world will only know, a-what it’s all about

Y’know I’m here
Everybody knows I’m here
And I’m the hoochie-coochie man
Everybody knows I’m here

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Intanto due parole sull’uomo, uno dei più grandi canzonieri di tutti i tempi: Willie James Dixon.

Nato a luglio del 1915, a Vicksburg Mississippi, è il settimo di quattordici figli, nutrito a rime e gospels dalla madre Daisy.

On the seventh hour, of the seventh day,
on the seventh month, the seventh doctor said:
“He’s born for good luck, and I know you see;
Got seven hundred dollars, and don’t you mess with me

Y’know I’m here
Everybody knows I’m here
And I’m the hoochie-coochie man
Everybody knows I’m here

 A 17 anni va a Chicago  per fare il boxer (per la gioia della riccia) ma senza troppi successi economici. Non gli rimane che scrivere canzoni, rifiutarsi di servire la patria nelle forze armate, essere arrestato nel 1941 e un anno dopo liberato perché “unfit”. Nel 1952 Muddy Waters registra la sua canzone “Hoochie Coochie Man”  . Il successo è immediato.

Gypsy woman told my momma
Said “Ooh, what a boy,
he gonna make so many women,
jump and shout for joy”

Y’know I’m here
Everybody knows I’m here
And I’m the hoochie-coochie man
Everybody knows I’m here

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Si ma Hoochie Coochie : che cosa significa?

Alla fine dell’ottocento la hoochie coochie era una danza  che introdotta ufficialmente sul mercato nel 1893 alla Chicago World’s Fair, conquistò immediatamente un’immensa popolarità. E sospetto che fosse alquanto fisica, ammiccante ed esplicita nella rotazione dei fianchi e dell’addome,  visto che hoochie coochie iniziò molto presto a significare una ragazza che faceva sesso con tutti, anche a pagamento: “every husband who visits a hoochie coochie ought to be fined $2.75, and if he goes a second time he ought to be fined $2.99..! (da Who is the Hoochie Coochie Man? di Steve Bekes)

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Fino al 1942, non si registrano particolari hoochie coochie. Se non che riappare nei motion pictures danzando nel film “Wine, Women and Song”,  il cui produttore fu arrestato per aver mostrato al grande pubblico delle performance definite “immorali”. Nello stesso anno Paul Whiteman and Gracie Allen scrissero un boogie-woogie intitolato  ”Hoochie-Coochie-Duce,” che parlava di Mussolini e il fascismo. Ma ancora non trovo niente di sonoro a riguardo.

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Insomma che volevo dire? Nel 1954, Muddy Waters registra la canzone di  Willie Dixon e hootchie coochie diventa famosa. Hootchie Cootchie è forse una “danza” erotica che imita i movimenti del serpente. La si incontra, come danza rituale, ad Efeso nel tempio di Artemide, nelle contorsioni e ondeggiamenti della danza del ventre. Nel morso delle tarante e tarantelle. Negli streap tease. E pure le veline sono una chiara eredità di questo fenomeno. The cheerleaders del nostro povero tempo.

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A proposito di “cheersleaders”: Vi ricordate Apocalypse now?

Ecco le Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders in missione al campo Bondsteel, Kosovo. Quattro luglio 2001.

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I got a black cat bone, I got a mojo too
I got John the Conqueror, I'm gonna mess with you
I'm gonna make you, pretty girl, lead me by the hand
Then the world will know, the Hoochie-Coochie Man

Mr. E´s Beautiful Blues

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 La storia continua su BlogMagazine

Bo Diddley beat (Blues Foundation Pioneer)

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Bo Diddley e The Duchess

Bo Diddley (1928-2008) broke new ground in rock and roll’s formative years with his unique guitar work, indelible African rhythms, inventive songwriting, and larger-than-life persona. He will forever be known for popularizing one of the foundational rhythms of rock and roll: the Bo Diddley beat. He employed it in his namesake song, “Bo Diddley,” as well as other primal rockers like “Mona.” This distinctive, African-based 4/4 rhythm pattern (which goes bomp-bomp-bomp bomp-bomp) was picked up from Diddley by other artists and has been a distinctive and recurring element in rock and roll through the decades.Diddley is the author of a body of songs - including “Who Do You Love?,” “Road Runner,” “Mona,” “Before You Accuse Me” and “I’m a Man” - that are among the earliest examples of rock and roll rising out of its source material in rhythm and blues. Diddley married two worlds he knew well - the Deep South and the streets of Chicago - in his music. Born Ellas Bates in McComb, Mississippi, Diddley was raised by his mother’s cousin, Gussie McDaniel, whose surname he legally adopted. The family moved to Chicago when Diddley was seven. His earliest exposure to music came via the church. The first instrument he learned to play was the violin, although hearing John Lee Hooker’s 1949 R&B hit, “Boogie Chillen” inspired him to pick up the guitar. Diddley claimed that playing the violin influenced his muted-string, choke-neck style of rhythm guitar – an early forerunner of funk that can be heard on songs like “Pretty Thing.” “It’s mixed up with spiritual, sanctified rhythms,” he’s explained, “and the feeling I have of making people [want to] shout.”

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Diddley formed a band called the Hipsters (later the Langley Avenue Jive Cats) while in high school and landed a regular spot at the 708 Club on Chicago’s South Side in 1951. He signed with the Checkers label, a Chess Records subsidiary, in 1955. Diddley’s earliest records were contemporaneous with those of labelmate Chuck Berry. His debut single was a two-sided classic that paired “Bo Diddley” with “I’m a Man.” It was the first in a string of groundbreaking sides that walked the fine line between rhythm & blues and rock & roll. Others included “Diddley Daddy,” “Pretty Thing” and “Road Runner,” which were all Top Twenty R&B hits. Oddly, Diddley’s only crossover success came with “Say Man,” a laugh-filled exchange of jive talk between Diddley and his maraca player, Jerome Green. Their verbal sparring derived from the African-American pastime of “signifying’ or “doing the dozens” and foreshadowed the battle rapping of the present day, minus the profanity.

Diddley was also an inventor, devising his own tremolo effect and playing a unique, rectangular “cigar box” guitar that he designed in 1958. His ever-fertile mind also inspired him to set up one of the first home studios. The prolific singer/guitarist released a string of albums whose titles – including Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger and Have Guitar, Will Travel – bolstered his self-invented legend. Between 1958 and 1963, Checker released eleven full-length albums by Bo Diddley. Two Great Guitars, released in 1964, was jointly credited to Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry.

via: Hall of fame

Son House – John the Revelator (from tennesse to revelation)

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Tag: The Spencer Davis Group , Nobody Loves You When You’re Down And Out

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 Spencer Davis Group - Nobody Loves  You

Sposin – Art Tatum

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Art Tatum plays "Sposin". Music by Paul Denniker, lyrics by Andy Razaf in 1929

Let Me Ride – Kissing in the Dark – Frankie Jean (Memphis Minnie )

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Memphis Minnie - Let Me Ride 1935

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Kissing in the Dark -FRANKIE JEAN

Joséphine Baker (Plantation – Lonesome Lovesick Blues)

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Joséphine Baker - Plantation

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Joséphine Baker - Lonesome Lovesick Blues

Lightnin’ hopkins – lonesome road

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That’s All Right Mama

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Elvis That's All Right Mama 1954 version