Hound Dog

Well, since we recently got a new dog, I though I'd bring up my favorite dog related music/musician.

 

The new dog

 No, not Elvis and his cover of Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog", no not Rufus Thomas and "Walkin' the Dog", no, not Snoop Dogg, nor George Clinton's "Atomic Dog", not Nazareth's "Hair of the Dog" not even The Beatles "Hey Bulldog" or "Martha my Dear".

Who I want to talk about is the guy who said, "When I die, they'll say, 'he couldn't play shit, but he sure made it sound good!' "

Of course that means the late, great, polydactyl slide guitar player, Theodore Roosevelt "Hound Dog" Taylor.

Hound Dog with Dog



Hound Dog's Polydactyl Hand

 

What's that you say, you're not familiar with Hound Dog Taylor? Well, get with the program man!

 Do you like blues? No I don't mean "blooze", that overproduced "Blueshammer" crap, I mean raw blues, blues played on a cheap guitar through a cheap amp using a slide sawed off of a kitchen chair leg. Don't have a bass player? Don't need one, the second guitar can play the bass parts. Drummer, sure, drumkit, well only the most basic three piece set. The sound... well great gosh 'a mighty, can you say pure unadulterated blues played with undeniable joy and rocking harder than many rock bands. All produced by three men; Hound Dog, Brewer Phillips, and Ted Harvey, playing on minimal equipment... which just shows you that it's not what you play, but how you play it.

 

 

 Complicated, well not really, original, well that depends on how you look at it, the music not so much, but Hound Dog was a complete original. Hound Dog's influences were, well...Elmore James, but he took that music and played it with passion and joy, not perfection, and when you listen to it, you can't help but get a smile on your face.
 

Hound Dog died in 1975, and only released two albums during his life, but his music still holds up today. J.B. Hutto who played a similar Elmore James style of music "inherited" Hound Dog's band The Houserockers, Hutto's nephew Lil' Ed (and the Blues Imperials) plays in a similar style. George Thorogood, who drove Hound Dog to gigs on some east coast tours, was directly influenced by Hound Dog (check out this interview), and The Black Keys also cite him as an influence. Not to mention that Alligator records was formed for the sole purpose of recording Hound Dog.

For more information on Hound Dog, check out this site
http://www.keno.org/hound_dog_taylor/hdhomepage.htm

I could keep writing the stories about Hound Dog, that he cut off the sixth finger of his right hand one drunk night, that he would wake up his bandmates with the command, "wake up and argue" that he shot Brewer Phillips during an argument... but I wasn't there, so check out some of those stories here and here, from Bruce Iglauer who was.


So let's check out some music videos...

Give Me Back My Wig

 

 

It Hurts Me Too

Talk To My Baby

The Sun Is Shining

Hound Dog with Little Walter and Koko Taylor

Hound Dog and Little Walter

 

 

Roll Your Moneymaker

 Check this out...two live sets from 1972

Enjoy!!!