HOUND DOG’S HOWLIN AMPS HUMMIN’
The handful of Hound Dog Taylor records have seemed so far to suffice to paint a picture of the Chicago Blues guitarist. He spun a very concise and intense sound, like his lineal antecedents Elmore James and JB Hutto. We only had a few records, but they were pure, and might be enough. If you’d seen him play, you could flesh it out. Yet, it turns out, a bunch of live stuff was in the can – festering, because the production quality of the sound seemed deficient. And this stuff comes out now and IT MUST BE HEARD. The recording is called: “Release the Hound” and it derives mostly from performances in 1974 and 1975 in Cleveland, Evanston, Cambridge and Sydney.
The stuff was sitting around because it sounded rough – but the world – witness the obits last week for Johnny Ramone has become a place more use to the rough sound. With Hound Dog and his House Rockers, the amps were on 11 and the buzz was palpable. But, like Elmore James before him, amplification I was not there just to amplify, it was a means to discover new harmonics.
Hot tracks: What I say? Wild about you, baby, She’s gone, It hurts me too, Things don’t work out right. It hurts me too, if you compare it to Tampa Red’s, then Elmore’s, then Hound Dog’ version, provides an instant lesson in the evolution of abstraction in this blues form. And the direction was always toward higher abstract representation of a feeling.
The House Rockers were a stripped down ensemble on the order of today’s White Stripes. Hound Dog on guitar, Brewer Phillips on guitar, Ted Harvey on drums.You’re your missing a classic piece or two. Don’t worry about the line up they say…go for the sound. Brewer Phillips played a second guitar, but mostly used it for bass parts. But often Brewer used it, something like Jimmie Rogers did in the original Muddy Waters ensemble - for something else altogether. The fourth member of the band at times was those amps, violently humming. But this guitar and blues vocal approach of Hound Dog is what makes it vastly compelling.
Related
Hound Dog - on amazon
Johnny Ramone, 55 - NYT [reg req], Sept 17, 2004
Noted
Back in Korea - NYT, Sept 18, 2004
Sky Capt Reviewed - NYT, Sept 17, 2004
Cacophony of India - NYT, Sept 17, 2004
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Listening to Hound Dog today conjured up a blues:
Maudie
Calling, calling
In the night
Calling, calling
In the night
Let’s go riding
Where the moon
is shining bright
Come with me
Leave the child at home
Come with me
Leave the child at home
I want to ride with you
On the 41 road
Off the highway
We turn the bright lights off
Off the highway
Turn the bright lights off
Turn on the radio
Hear the music from the north.
All night
Counting nothing but the stars
Counting
Counting nothing but the stars
Following amber old chief Pontiac
Ornamenting this old car.
1:54:11 PM 
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