Musical journeys and introduction

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It's sunday here the lovely ranch estates (sounds like a trailer park, doesn't it?). Smow is pretty much everywhere, ran all my honey-do's yesterday, so today, it's taking a musical journey. There's no destination, because it's the journey that counts.

I've been getting into the roots of the songs lately. I've gotten more interested in the people who originated those songs, and what those sounded like in their earlier forms. Some of the earlier versions I like better than the more famous remakes, and some I don't care for.

Here's my journey this morning. Except for the first one, the rest are all remakes of the same song. I'm not sure yet if there was an earlier version of Willie Dixon's version or not. If there is a later version than Ten Years After, I'm not aware of it, though there is a song with the same name, but not the same content by a band called Barefoot Truth.

Charlie Patton "Spoonful Blues"


Willie Dixon "Spoonful"


Howlin' Wolf "Spoonful"


Etta James "Spoonful"


Cream "Spoonful"


Ten Years After "Spoonful"

 

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Movie "Crossroads"

Featuring Steve Vai on guitar and score by Vai and Ry Cooder. I've not seen the movie; never heard of it, but I'll be watching it.

 

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Joe and Eddie - folk, gospel

One of the most underrated music acts in American history.

A little gospel in "Children Go:"



"Walkin' Down the Line" This one is a Bob Dylan original composition that's been covered by the Dillards, Odetta, Jackie De Shannon, Joan Baez and others:



"The Sound of Freedom" Studio version, but very crisp and clear:

 

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Walkin' Down the Line

I thought I'd follow this song for a while. I've always really liked the song, and so many people have covered it. One of the better versions is Ms Jackie De Shannon:



One of the first versions I ever heard was Arlo's. I've seen Arlo in concert, and he really gets the audience into the performance. This audience musta been stoned (surprise...at Woodstock!? Naw! Say it ain't so!):



These are the Dillards. If you don't know who the Dillards are, they were the family of hillbilly muscians featured regularly on the Andy Griffith show:



Reminder:

 

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The Darling family - aka the Dillards

My previous posting got me to wandering, which is the point of this thread. I went back and revisited Andy and the Darling family, who had an outside career performing as "the Dillards." Denver Pyle played their father, Briscoe Darling and Maggie Peterson, who performed with the Dillards occasionally, played their sister Charlene Darling.





This one's an old song that's been done forever. It also features a special guest (Charlene's love interest):

 

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I'll see your ZZ Top and raise you a Stevie Ray Vaughn:

 

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Jack White and his ex-wife Meg on drums (what, you never heard of a two-piece band before!?):

 

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I do this sort of backtracking with a song occasionally; it is awesome to see how a song can evolve and be reinterpreted, yet retain its core parts.

Perhaps my favorite is "In the Pines", a song I first heard on Nirvana's "Unplugged" set. I love their rendition - so chilling - but I listened to it about a hundred times before I paid attention to what Kurt talked about before heading into the song. He says it's from his "favorite performer", Leadbelly. I eventually listened to Leadbelly's version and some of the other variations that have been recorded over time, which are many, and found a whole new appreciation for it as a piece.

 

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