[Harp-L] Re: Juke

[scott <checker758@xxxxxxxxx>]

(Lured out of lurk mode...)
 
First, regarding the second chorus of Juke: listen closely, and I think it's evident that it was the guitarist who jumped time at the beginning of the chorus, and Little Walter who adjusts on the fly to follow him, rather than the other way around.  
 
Listen to the rhythmic stabs played on the guitar through the first chorus - they answer the famous lick LW is playing as the head.  LW then starts the second chorus playing a different lick, in perfect time, but the guitar continues playing the same 'answer' lick, which unfortunately is now answering something LW is no longer playing.  As a result, the guitar is now playing OVER what LW is playing, so the guitar jumps time and fumbles around a bit trying to get back in time with LW.  Because LW is playing a one note rhythm lick at the time, he dog-paddles, and hangs on it for a second until the guitar settles back into a recognizable pattern, then rejoins him at the chord change, and is back in synch from then onward.  Also notice that after this slight mishap with the 'rhythmic stabs' idea, the guitarist abandons it and plays it safe with a basic boogie woogie pattern for the rest of the song.  Little Walter knew what he was doing.
 
I'm not sure what Randy is referring to below when he writes about a variance being engineered in post for the pressing.  I've listened to the entire original Juke session tape, and only two takes were ever completed.  The classic version, chisled into granite in the minds of many harp players as the national anthem of blues harp, is in fact the first completed take of the very first song attempted at Little Walter's very first session on his own for Chess.  This is followed by an attempt that breaks down immediately when the band stumbles to a halt as the drummer screws up the intro.  Seconds later they begin the next attempt, which is the vastly different alternate take of Juke that was first released in the 1990s.  And that's it.  No more takes of Juke were attempted, and no more takes exist other than these two, which were released exactly as performed, with no edits or other studio trickery.
 
Randy's right that Juke wasn't a scored piece - LW didn't know what a score was.  But I also think it was something more than a "jam session".  Based on how fully realized both existing takes of Juke are, I think both takes are examples of things they'd been doing on the bandstand - obviously two different themes, but probably both were used as flexible / half-improvised 'break songs' on live gigs.
 
BTW, Hip-O Select is scheduled to releases their 5 CD Complete Little Walter box set in March.  It will contain everything that was on the 1992 4 CD LW box on Charly, plus another full CD of material that was not included in that earlier, allegedly "complete" collection.
 
Back to lurking...
 
Scott
 
 
--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Randy G." <frcn@...> wrote:
>
> There is an extant original recording of the Juke session. Evidently, 
> only one variance was engineered in post for the pressing. I have 
> heard three versions from that session iirc, and they are all 
> different. The two that were not used were not the full tune as L.W. 
> stopped part way through to give the band directions or make 
> comments. IMO, L.W. had a direction he was taking with the tune, but 
> it was more of a jam session than a scored piece, at least to say 
> that this is a reasonable conclusion to reach after listening to the 
> recordings.
> 
> The missing beats (or change in time) was, again IMO, an accident. 
> His band was so accustomed to playing with him they just followed 
> along as opposed to L.W. following the band. I think you will find 
> that Dave Barrett agrees with this (that is where I heard the 
> recordnigs)- The School of the Blues sells a T-shirt that says, "I 
> play Little Walter's Mistakes" which refers to the above.
> 
>         From Randy G. Blues
>    Live to Play  -  Play to Live
> http://www.myspace.com/RandyGBlues
> http://www.myspace.com/PhatBoyzBlue
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
> Harp-L@...
> http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l
>