Music for the day: Stormy Monday

Music for this Friday evening... 

This is a version of a famous blues song that I had not heard before today and is appropriate in many ways for the week that's been! No play for me this Saturday though.... and I don't pray either! But this has been a stormy week, to say the least! So... Lord... mercy..mercy ..mercy on me! ;-)

"They call it Stormy Monday
But Tuesday's just as bad.
They call it Stormy Monday
But Tuesday's just as bad.
Lord, and Wednesday's worse
And Thursday's all so sad.

The eagle flies on Friday,
Saturday I go out to play.
The eagle flies on Friday,
Saturday I go out to play,
Sunday I go to church,
Gonna kneel down and pray.

Lord have mercy,
Lord have mercy on me.
Lord have mercy,
Lord have mercy on me."

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The first time I heard this song, many many Mondays ago, twas this version by the AMAZING T-Bone Walker

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And then a few years ago I heard this version, which to me, is much better than the Eva Cassidy version above. Etta... o... Etta! What a voice!

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And here's the amazing BB King, who I wish I had seen alive some years back when he was still doing tours and in quite a groove even though nearing 80. Now he's almost retired except for the odd short performance at a White House event or some such... and I can only enjoy him through his records and youtube videos.

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And one last one... a version by the rock group band, Allman Brothers with their heavily blues-influenced guitar playing - I found them quite late in life but really enjoy their music. This is from their session at the Fillmore East in 1971 - an amazing album all round!

 

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I'm a Man - Muddy Waters

As promised, Muddy Waters with Clapton, in a live performance of I'm a man in 1976.

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And Eric Clapton with Muddy Waters again, this one is a live performance from 1978, with Standing Around Crying.

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Here's what Clapton had to say about Muddy Waters in a recent documentary: "The most important music of my life."

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If God listens to and is inspired by Muddy Waters...what can we ordinary mortals do but watch and hear in awe and thank the real God (if she exists) for giving mankind music.

Let's Howl

Howlin' Wolf (aka Chester Arthur Burnett) performs Highway 49 at the Washington D.C. Blues Festival, November 1970.



Muddy Waters (aka McKinley Morganfield) singing I'm A Howlin' Wolf, 1981.



And finally... Muddy Waters with the Rolling Stones singing Baby, Please don't go.





There are a couple videos of Muddy Waters with Eric Clapton also on youtube, which should be a great treat for blues fans but those I'll post later this week.