Mose Allison

[Pete Townshend]
Uh... we'd like to carry on now, and play a song originally recorded by Mose Allison, who's really a jazz musician, and I did read something on one of his record covers which said he was a "jazz sage." And, uh, quite what that means, I don't know, but, uh—

[Keith Moon]
Just play the tune

[Pete Townshend]
(laughing) And, anyway, we've picked up quite a number of his songs, "Eyesight To The Blind," which is on the Tommy album, we picked up from him, and also this song, which I think has got to be one of his best. It's one of his own compositions, which he wrote when he was about forty—

[Keith Moon]
A teenager!

[Pete Townshend]
Just a mere teenager, and he called it, "Young Man Blues."

- From "Live At Leeds" (1970) 

Mose Allison passed away at his home in Hilton Head, SC, last Tuesday at the age of 89.   Allison inhabited the world of jazz and blues while transmitting his sensibility to the rock generation, through his reinterpretations of blues standards as well as his own compositions.  Along with The Who, his songs have been covered by Bonnie Raitt, Cactus, Leon Russell, Robert Palmer, The Clash, Van Morrison, The Yardbirds and The Bangles, among others.

Let's listen to some of his music.  First up, is his version of Bukka White's delta blues, Parchman Farm, which served as an inspiration for covers by John Mayall & The Blues Breakers and Blue Cheer.


Next up is I'm Not Talking, best know as done by The Yardbirds.

Here's Bonnie Raitt's version of Everybody's Cryin' Mercy. And this is Mose doing Sonny Boy Williamson's, Eyesight To The Blind:

We'll wrap with Mose doing The Seventh Son, which became a hit for Johnny Rivers in the 1960s.