Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Boogie Fever

We're going to go backwards in time to explore the boogie.

First up is Chris Isaak with Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing from 1995.  The production is top-notch.  The bass plus Isaak's voice and then the rockabilly guitar kicking in make it something special.  And it certainly does sound bad, whatever that thing was, which you can confirm by watching the MTV video.

Next is LaGrange by the boys from ZZ Top (1973) who are still rocking in this more recent clip.  And you can't beat that sophisticated lyricism:
Rumour spreadin' a-'round in that Texas town
'bout that shack outside La Grange
And you know what I'm talkin' about.
Just let me know if you wanna go
To that home out on the range.
They gotta lotta nice girls ah.

This is John Lee Hooker with Boom Boom from the early 1960s on British TV.  You can hear where ZZ Top got its vocal stylings.  I saw Hooker play at a club in Worcester, Massachusetts in the 1970s.  The man had a groove. And now you can hear where ZZ Top and Chris Isaak got the beat.  This is John Lee Hooker again doing Boogie Chillen - it's a 1992 live version.  The circle is unbroken!

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