I think I speak for all of Popdose, going through a painful migration to the latest version of Wordpress, that we have had the freeeeeeekin’ blues this week. To my compadres at the site, I offer this phenomenal cut, “A Man of Many Words,” from one of the tastiest blues records of the 20th century, Buddy Guy & Junior Wells Play the Blues.
The album finds both artists are at their absolute, positive critical and popular peak. In fact, you just can’t go wrong buying any of their legendary collaborative albums from this period, most of which have been re-released on Rhino.
The sad thing for us writers is that, in the end, this song isn’t about writing. Buddy really isn’t sympathizing with us and our tribulations. The writing in this song — itself a transparent rewriting of the Stax/Otis Redding joint “Hard to Handle,” later remade by the Black Crowes — has nothing to do with pens, quills, keyboards or Black-freakin-berries. In fact, it’s just another song about the protagonist’s stamina in the sack.
Anyway, it’s a blues song. It’s about writing. It fits our week here at Popdose. If you don’t have this record, go get the sumbitch. Here’s a video of Buddy Guy performing the song live sans Wells, which if you had any doubt about how blues evolved into rock (and how Hendrix learned his entire fucking act at the altar of Buddy Guy) you got it all in one sweet little clip. It also is proof that the most Wordpress-ig’nant writer of the staff can embed YouTubes in the new era…if it indeed shows up in this post:
