{"id":5986,"date":"2025-11-02T10:47:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T15:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=5986"},"modified":"2025-11-02T10:50:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T15:50:12","slug":"hoochie-coochie-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hoochie-coochie-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Hoochie Coochie Man (Willie Dixon\/Muddy Waters)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Hoochie Coochie Man (Willie Dixon)\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/POhq0jE2sms?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I have to start this post with a Dave Van Ronk story: As he told it, he was playing on a blues festival someplace and arrived late, not knowing who else was on the bill. He rushed onstage and did his show, ending with a romping, stomping, macho version of &#8220;Hoochie Coochie Man&#8230;&#8221; and walked off to find that Muddy Waters had been watching from the wings.<\/p>\n<p>Dave was consumed with embarrassment, but recalled, &#8220;Muddy was very gentlemanly, as always. He put a hand on my shoulder and said, &#8216;That was nice, son&#8230; but you know, that&#8217;s supposed to be a <em>funny <\/em>song.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve never been entirely sure I believe that story, but I took it to heart. It&#8217;s the same point John Hammond made about how people miss the humor in Robert Johnson&#8217;s lyrics: like, &#8220;You can bury my body by the highway side\/ So my old restless spirit can catch a Greyhound bus and ride.&#8221; A lot of blues lyrics are funny &#8212; not only funny, but also funny. Like NWA&#8217;s lyrics; a lot of people who thought &#8220;Fuck the Police&#8221; was scary were surprised when Ice Cube started writing comedies, but if you actually listen to it, that record was as funny as it was angry.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-5989\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Muddy-Waters-and-Willie-Dixon-e1761955651631.jpg?resize=303%2C250&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"303\" height=\"250\" \/>Willie Dixon wrote this one and gave it to Muddy, and it changed Muddy&#8217;s career. It was by far his biggest hit, but that wasn&#8217;t the only thing; it was fundamentally different from the deep Delta blues style that originally put him on the map in Chicago. For one thing, his early hits featured his ferociously amplified slide guitar, but he didn&#8217;t play on this one. For another thing, it was clever, and funny.<\/p>\n<p>When it hit, the R&amp;B audience picked up on that. Within a few years, there were lots of other songs that used the trademark &#8220;Hoochie Coochie Man&#8221; riff, and virtually all of them were funny: Ray Charles&#8217;s &#8220;It Wasn&#8217;t Me,&#8221; Ruth Brown&#8217;s &#8220;I Can&#8217;t Hear a Word You Say,&#8221;\u00a0Johnny Guitar Watson&#8217;s &#8220;Gangster of Love&#8230;&#8221; and three that I&#8217;ve already posted about: Chuck Berry&#8217;s &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/no-money-down\/\">No Money Down<\/a>&#8221; and The Coasters&#8217; &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/riot-number-nine\/\">Riot In Cell Block Number Nine<\/a>&#8221; and &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/framed\/\">Framed<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve rarely performed this one, because frankly I felt ill-equipped and silly singing the big, scary, macho lyric&#8230; but it recently occurred to me that I didn&#8217;t have to pretend to be Muddy Waters, or even Dave Van Ronk. So I started fooling around with it, playing with the lyric rather than trying to puff myself up to fit it, and discovered that it was fun. Like it was supposed to be.<\/p>\n<p>Not incidentally, Willie Dixon started out doing funny recitations &#8212; he recalled that as a teenager in Mississippi he printed up a dirty version of the \u201cSignifying Monkey\u201d toast to sell to his schoolmates, and when he moved to Chicago and went professional he bowdlerized it, added a chorus, and made a hit recording with the Big Three Trio that was covered by Cab Calloway and Count Basie as \u201cThe Jungle King.\u201d And there were lots of others: &#8220;Wang Dang Doodle,&#8221; for example, which reworks an older toast, &#8220;The Dance of the Freaks.&#8221; (I get into some of this in my book\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/jellyrollbook.html\"><em>Jelly Roll Blues<\/em><\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have to start this post with a Dave Van Ronk story: As he told it, he was playing on a blues festival someplace and arrived late, not knowing who else was on the bill. He rushed onstage and did his show, ending with a romping, stomping, macho version of &#8220;Hoochie Coochie Man&#8230;&#8221; and walked &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hoochie-coochie-man\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Hoochie Coochie Man (Willie Dixon\/Muddy Waters)<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hoochie Coochie Man (Willie Dixon\/Muddy Waters) - Old Friends: A Songobiography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A classic from Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, with a Dave Van Ronk story and some thoughts about not taking it too seriously.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hoochie-coochie-man\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hoochie Coochie Man (Willie Dixon\/Muddy Waters) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A classic from Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, with a Dave Van Ronk story and some thoughts about not taking it too seriously.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hoochie-coochie-man\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-02T15:47:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-02T15:50:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Muddy-Waters-and-Willie-Dixon-e1761955651631.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/hoochie-coochie-man\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/hoochie-coochie-man\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"headline\":\"Hoochie Coochie Man (Willie Dixon\\\/Muddy Waters)\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-02T15:47:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-02T15:50:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/hoochie-coochie-man\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":575,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/hoochie-coochie-man\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/Muddy-Waters-and-Willie-Dixon-e1761955651631.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/hoochie-coochie-man\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/hoochie-coochie-man\\\/\",\"name\":\"Hoochie Coochie Man (Willie Dixon\\\/Muddy Waters) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/hoochie-coochie-man\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/hoochie-coochie-man\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/Muddy-Waters-and-Willie-Dixon-e1761955651631.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-02T15:47:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-02T15:50:12+00:00\",\"description\":\"A classic from Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, with a Dave Van Ronk story and some thoughts about not taking it too seriously.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/hoochie-coochie-man\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/hoochie-coochie-man\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/hoochie-coochie-man\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/Muddy-Waters-and-Willie-Dixon-e1761955651631.jpg?fit=303%2C250&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/Muddy-Waters-and-Willie-Dixon-e1761955651631.jpg?fit=303%2C250&ssl=1\",\"width\":303,\"height\":250},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/hoochie-coochie-man\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Hoochie Coochie Man (Willie Dixon\\\/Muddy Waters)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\",\"description\":\"Revisiting the songs that have made a home in my head\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\",\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"width\":70,\"height\":85,\"caption\":\"Elijah Wald\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hoochie Coochie Man (Willie Dixon\/Muddy Waters) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","description":"A classic from Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, with a Dave Van Ronk story and some thoughts about not taking it too seriously.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hoochie-coochie-man\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hoochie Coochie Man (Willie Dixon\/Muddy Waters) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","og_description":"A classic from Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, with a Dave Van Ronk story and some thoughts about not taking it too seriously.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hoochie-coochie-man\/","og_site_name":"Old Friends: A Songobiography","article_published_time":"2025-11-02T15:47:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-11-02T15:50:12+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Muddy-Waters-and-Willie-Dixon-e1761955651631.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Elijah Wald","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ElijahWald","twitter_site":"@ElijahWald","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Elijah Wald","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hoochie-coochie-man\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hoochie-coochie-man\/"},"author":{"name":"Elijah Wald","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"headline":"Hoochie Coochie Man (Willie Dixon\/Muddy Waters)","datePublished":"2025-11-02T15:47:13+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-02T15:50:12+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hoochie-coochie-man\/"},"wordCount":575,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hoochie-coochie-man\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Muddy-Waters-and-Willie-Dixon-e1761955651631.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hoochie-coochie-man\/","url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hoochie-coochie-man\/","name":"Hoochie Coochie Man (Willie Dixon\/Muddy Waters) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hoochie-coochie-man\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hoochie-coochie-man\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Muddy-Waters-and-Willie-Dixon-e1761955651631.jpg","datePublished":"2025-11-02T15:47:13+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-02T15:50:12+00:00","description":"A classic from Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, with a Dave Van Ronk story and some thoughts about not taking it too seriously.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hoochie-coochie-man\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hoochie-coochie-man\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hoochie-coochie-man\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Muddy-Waters-and-Willie-Dixon-e1761955651631.jpg?fit=303%2C250&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Muddy-Waters-and-Willie-Dixon-e1761955651631.jpg?fit=303%2C250&ssl=1","width":303,"height":250},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hoochie-coochie-man\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hoochie Coochie Man (Willie Dixon\/Muddy Waters)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/","name":"Old Friends: A Songobiography","description":"Revisiting the songs that have made a home in my head","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9","name":"Elijah Wald","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","width":70,"height":85,"caption":"Elijah Wald"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1"}}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1468,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/riot-number-nine\/","url_meta":{"origin":5986,"position":0},"title":"Riot in Cell Block Number Nine (The Coasters)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"June 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Though my record-buying at Dayton\u2019s focused on prewar blues, there were a handful of notable exceptions \u2013 most significantly, a trio of reissue albums on the Atlantic label featuring the Drifters, the Clovers, and \u2013 far and away most memorably \u2013 the Coasters. Aside from Chuck Berry and Ray Charles,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Coasters","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Coasters-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":891,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/no-money-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":5986,"position":1},"title":"No Money Down (Chuck Berry\/John Hammond)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"April 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"One of Chuck Berry's less familiar masterpieces, going back to his roots in Muddy Waters, which I originally picked up from John Hammond's Newport Festival recording.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"blues at newport","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/blues-at-newport.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2535,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/framed\/","url_meta":{"origin":5986,"position":2},"title":"Framed (Robins\/Leiber &#038; Stoller\/racism)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"February 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanks to cell phone videos and Black Lives Matter, it has become a lot harder for white Americans to ignore how badly black Americans are routinely treated by the US legal system... though that doesn't mean everybody now gets it, or wants to get it. One way people don't get\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Robins-for-framed-300x196.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2697,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/come-back-baby\/","url_meta":{"origin":5986,"position":3},"title":"Come Back, Baby (Walter Davis)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"April 8, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Walter Davis's masterpiece is a good example of the disconnect between blues in its time and the way the music's history has been reshaped and misunderstood: one of the biggest hits in the genre, by a major recording star, it has often been treated as an anonymous folk song and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Walter-Davis-293x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":886,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/memphis\/","url_meta":{"origin":5986,"position":4},"title":"Memphis (Chuck Berry)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"April 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Probably the first Chuck Berry song I learned to play, thanks to the Kweskin Jug Band... which really is not the way it should have been, but I was young.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Chuck-Berry.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5295,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/pearline-son-house\/","url_meta":{"origin":5986,"position":5},"title":"Pearline (Son House)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"July 13, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"To me, Son House will always be the defining Delta blues musician, and in some ways the defining blues musician, period. That is partly a statement about his talents and partly about when I heard him and how he affected me, personally. Like most people who were around in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Son-House-LP-e1720864029890.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5986"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5994,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5986\/revisions\/5994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}