mail: daniel_fjall@hotmail.com
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natural boogie
Natural Boogie Born in 1915 Hound Dog Taylor (Theodore Roosevelt Taylor) belongs to the first generation of true bluesmen together with Leadbelly, Robert Johnson and Elmore James. Since it took him until 1971 to record his first album after years as a studio musician his name is not as well-known as it could have been. However, with an album such as Natural Boogie on your hands, it is probably worth the slight underground stamp. If he, as his peers, would have recorded in the 30’s or 40’s I doubt he would have been able to produce an album this good. Back then the engineers and producers were quite conservative and surely would have tried to clean up Hound Dog Taylor. That would have instantly erased his trademark sound, which is his wild, raw and dirty slide guitar playing. It is intense to the extreme and I, for one, have never heard anything quite like it previously. Sure, there are great blues guitarists out there, out of control and gritty, but never like this. Only Elmore James springs to mind, but Taylor takes it yet a step further. Then again, maybe Elmore James would have sounded like this if he too had recorded in the 70’s, in a time where Jimi Hendrix had broken down most of the traditional misconceptions of the electric guitar’s limitations. We will never know that, though. Now, Natural Boogie is amazing, especially the instrumentals are climactic, but also up-tempo numbers like “Roll Your Money Maker” and “Talk To My Baby” comes off as particularly strong. The performances are always intense and the adrenaline rushes hits you with a never weakening flow. Natural Boogie defines what the Chicago blues was about. Not only about feeling sad or down and out, but the blues is a perfect way to have fun too. This is the music they played in the bars and pubs in Chicago in the 40’s and 50’s, and listening to it makes one understand why they played it.
[SHORT NOTE: what sounds like a poorly recorded bass, is in fact a great recorded guitar.]
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