Re: [Harp-L] Little walter didn't write Juke!

["J D Hoskins" <jameshoskinz@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Winslow,

The two studio versions I have that are labelled 'juke' are in the same key, 
beyond that two different heads/ improvisations. The single: recorded may 
12, 1952, w/ Muddy, Jimmy Rodgers and Elgin Evans. The alternate take from 
the the same day same players released on the "Blues with a Feeling" CD.

One thing we've always observed with the old blues greats is they had been 
ripped off without credit so much that there was often an attitude, and 
understandably so. But nobody can ever sort all this stuff out. It's pretty 
well documented that some of these guys would brag and fabricate at times.

You've got Rice Miller, claiming he's "the original sonny boy", Hound dog 
Taylor claimed Freddy King stole Hideaway from him, Jody williams said 
Howlin' Wolfe and Otis Rush stole from him, I've heard that James Cotton was 
doing Rocket 88 before anyone else.............on and on. And then you have 
the later generations stealing from the guys that stole from the guys, and 
on that goes.

Here's what I know,  Little Walter had a hit record with one of his 
recordings of "JUKE", and nobody else did.  It's unlikely he ever played it 
the same way twice. Now how can we steal that?

An old friend that I played music with for 30 years used to say: There's 
only eight notes and the sharps and flats, there's bound to be some 
repitition, it's all about how you play it! Just my 2cents, James
















----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Winslow Yerxa" <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 7:12 AM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Little walter didn't write Juke!


If you listen to the two studio recordings of Juke that little Walter made, 
it's evident that both were improvised, aside from the first verse head. And 
that head is such a cliche of swing - witness the citations of prior art 
coming in on this thread - that it's meaningless to use that one verse to 
indicate authorship of anything. The final released take of Juke is a 
masterpiece of pacing and contrast. Could you find a prior existence for all 
or any of the other verses (as with Freddy King's Hideaway, which took 
several then-popular dance riffs and strung them together in a dynamic 
fashion)? Maybe, maybe not. But if so, nobody ever strung them together in 
that way and to such great effect.

Maybe there's a college thesis for someone in rooting out the possible 
source material for Juke and then contrasting those antecedents with the 
final product.

Winslow

Winslow Yerxa

Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5

--- On Sat, 1/23/10, hazcon <hazcon@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: hazcon <hazcon@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Little walter didn't write Juke!
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Saturday, January 23, 2010, 10:27 PM

http://www.blues.co.nz/features/article.php?id=4


Junior Wells interview in a NZ Blues Mag.Also comments on the Shure Bullet 
(6$!)



Rck
in Z


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