Fathers and Sons (album)
Occupation
See section Contributors
Fathers and Sons is a double album of blues musician Muddy Waters, which appeared on the Chicago label Chess Records in 1969. The cover shows based on Michelangelo's ceiling painting The Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel, an elderly black and a younger white man whose fingers are on the verge of touching. This should be implemented figuratively, what was the concept of this plate, namely, the musical merger of older African-American bluesmen with young white rock musicians, all of whom had close links to the blues and to the elders now passed on their musical heritage.
Music history
According to reports, the idea for Fathers and Sons at night shoptalk between Marshall Chess, the son of label co-founder Leonard Chess is, and University of Chicago professor Norman Dayron have originated, who eventually was responsible for the production of the album. In addition to musical considerations it also played a role in the hope that one would be able to sell more records with the help of this concept. Finally, there was the time in which a white audience began to increasingly interested in the blues, and thus a new market for this genre opened, its potential, however, was overestimated at Chess in this case.
From the beginning, we planned a studio and a live album. And so the end of April 1969 came the " fathers " and " sons " initially for three days in the studio together, just one day after completion of these sessions at a meeting held in Chicago's newly renovated auditorium theater event called the Super Cosmic Joy- Scout Jamboree in front of around 2800 enthusiastic audience to record the additional live material. The "fathers" in this case were Muddy Waters (born 1913) and his longtime pianist Otis Spann ( 1930-1970 ); the group of " sons " was made up of Electric Flag guitarist Mike Bloomfield (1943-1981), his former band leader Paul Butterfield ( harmonica; 1942-1987 ) and Stax house bassist Donald " Duck" Dunn ( 1941-2012 ). The rhythm section of drummer Sam Lay completed, had except in the Butterfield Blues band, among others, even for Howlin 'Wolf swinging the drumsticks. With three studio tracks rhythm guitarist Paul Asbell also was one of the party and the opening track All Aboard harp player Jeff Carp, also took the place of Donald Dunn on bass on this song, Phil Upchurch one. Another musician finally joined drummer Buddy Miles in appearance, admitted his place for the Sam Lay, before the band ansetzte at her live gig to a roofed with frenetic applause repetition of Got My Mojo Working.
Musically offered Fathers and Sons so far nothing new, as are all song titles were both in the studio sessions as well as live recordings used that Muddy Waters had recorded during his career before. So presenting the album in a mix of slow blues and up-tempo numbers standards such as Walkin ' Thru The Park, Willie Dixon's I'm Ready or Eddie Boyd's Twenty- Four Hours and on the live album there is, among other things, the Waters classic Baby Please Don 't Go and Honey Bee hearing before the band with Preston Foster composition Got My Mojo Working mounts a furious finale. Above all, this powerful driving title it seemed to the predominantly white audience to have done, many of whom attended her first blues concert ever. As a result, the song was released as Got My Mojo Working, Part One and Got My Mojo Working, Part Two twice on the live LP.
One goal of the recordings was also einzuspielen Muddy classics again under altered receptive technical conditions. Not for nothing pointed Chess on the album cover that in the recordings the then cutting-edge concept had come 12 stereo method used. In addition, the admissions should no longer be subject to the time limitations of the classical single- format. Most consistently, this approach has been implemented in Long Distance Call, which brings it to a playing time of for that time, quite unusual, 6 minutes and 37 seconds.
Almost twenty years after the death of Muddy Waters was Fathers and Sons in 2002 by the Blues Foundation with a WC Handy Blues Award in the category of Historical Blues Album of the Year Award.
Title list
Contributors
- Muddy Waters - vocals, guitar
- Otis Spann - piano
- Michael Bloomfield - Guitar
- Paul Butterfield - Harmonica
- Sam Lay - drums
- Buddy Miles - drums (track 16)
- Jeff Carp - Harmonica (Track 1)
- Paul Aspel - rhythm guitar (tracks 5, 6, 10)
- Phil Upchurch - Bass (Track 1)
Awards
- 2002: WC Handy Blues Award in the category of Historical Blues Album of the Year