January is a time, at least for much of the northern hemisphere, for huddling together for warmth, wondering when you will next see more than 40 minutes or proper daylight and bemoaning the length of time left until your next paycheck! That rhyme you use to remember the number of days there are in each month, omits to mention that there are at least 500 days in January.....
So, the easy thing here would be to pull together a playlist full of sunshine and happiness....
But that would be too obvious, so instead we have embraced the January blues full on, with ten top tunes that include the word 'Blues' in the title - but don't worry, these aren't all sad and mopey tunes. But then again, some are.
1. Wah!: The Story Of The Blues
We are going to start with something glorious and uplifting. This was the third song that Pete Wylie released under the name Wah! - and it gave him his biggest hit, when it made number 5 in the UK. Wylie was one of the important figures from the Liverpool scene of the late 1970's and played in a number of punk and post-punk bands with other notable people from that scene, like Julian Cope, Ian McCulloch and Pete Burns. The band name changed several times over the years too - from Wah! Heat, to Wah! and finally to Mighty Wah! - after which, Wylie then went solo and had more success with the song Sinful.
Wah!: The Story Of The Blues (Official music video)
2. Spin Doctors: Jimmy Olsen's Blues
This is the opening track from the Spin Doctors 1991 debut album, and one which includes the line that is used in the album title - "I've got a pocket full of kryptonite". The song is a humorous look at Jimmy Olsen, a character from the Superman world - a journalist friend of Clark Kent and Lois Lane who, in the song, tries to woo her away from Superman. It was the third of five singles released from the record, just about cracking the UK Top40, but not troubling the top end in the US.
Spin Doctors: Jimmy Olsen's Blues (Official music video)
3. Hindu Love Gods: Walkin' Blues
This is an old blues standard written by legendary Delta bluesman Son House in 1930 and with later well known versions made by Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. There had been other songs with that name before then, but they were unrelated. Then, in the early 40's, House would record several more versions that were both different again. Johnson's version, from 1936, retains the first verse but adds new lyrics to the second, and has a third verse taken from an older Mamie Smith tune. We are using a version of that made by the Hindu Love Gods who formed in the 1980s in Georgia, playing occasional gigs with a varying line up that always contained Mike Mills, Peter Buck and Bill Berry from R.E.M. Warren Zevon would play with them occasionally, and when the three instrumentalists joined him to record his 1987 record, Sentimental Hygiene, they also spent one drunken night recording ten mainly blues covers. The album was eventually released as a self-titled Hindu Love Gods album in 1990, and while the album is probably best remembered for their rock version of Raspberry Beret, this was a splendidly solid opening number.
Hindu Love Gods: Walkin' Blues (Audio only)
4. The Jesus & Mary Chain: Blues From A Gun
This is one of the few Jesus & Mary Chain tracks to feature William Reid on lead vocals, rather than his brother Jim. While this, their third album, met with mixed reviews at the time, in large part because a lot of it used synthesized drum and bass parts. Blues From A Gun is a crackling guitar driven track which provided them with their biggest US hit to date, when it reached number one on the Modern Rock Chart (and 32 in the UK). The album is also noteworthy for including the song Head On, which was covered a few years later by Pixies for their Trompe Le Monde album.
The Jesus & Mary Chain: Blues From A Gun (Official music video)
5. Social Distortion: Machine Gun Blues
This was the first single from Orange County punks Social Distortion's seventh album, 2010's Hard Times & Nursery Rhymes, their first new album in seven years. The song was featured in the TV show Sons Of Anarchy and also used by the WWE at one of their events in 2011. Drummer Atom Willard had left the band during early sessions for the album and replacement, David Hidalgo Jr, who would eventually become the new permanent drummer, is credited on the record, but doesn't actually play on it - that was done by Josh Freese (a top, top session man and current Foo Fighter).
Social Distortion: Machine Gun Blues (Blistering live version, Conan, Jan 2011)
6. The Waterboys: Fisherman's Blues
This was the title track of the Waterboys fourth LP, which took them in a new musical direction with the introduction of Irish violinist Steve Wickham (In Tua Nua). In fact most of the sessions for the record were done at Dublin's legendary Windmill Lane Studios across much of 1986 and 1987, not to mention that band leader Mike Scott was also living out in Galway. The lyrics for this track were written by Scott on a flight, with some of it inspired by the W.H. Auden poem, The Night Mail. The song has since been included on a number of movie soundtracks including Good Will Hunting and Waking Ned Devine.
Mike Scott & Steve Wickham: Fisherman's Blues (Live for BBC Radio 4, 2013)
7. Gary Moore: Still Got The Blues (For You)
Gary Moore remains one of the most criminally overlooked British guitarists of, well, pretty much any era. He was a phenomenon who added so much over the years to bands like Thin Lizzy and Skid Row (that's the Irish one from the 60's, not the US hair metal one of the 80's). His solo work crossed hard rock, jazz fusion and particularly dived into the blues. His eighth solo album includes guest appearances from other guitar legends like Albert King, Albert Collins and George Harrison. This title track got him into trouble, with a court case accusing him of plagiarising the lead solo from a 1974 song, Nordrach, by an obscure German prog band called Jud's Gallery. Moore said he didn't know the song, and since it wasn't available on record when he was writing and recording the album, he couldn't have borrowed anything - but it was stated that he could have heard it on the radio etc.and while it was agreed that it might not have been copied directly, copyright infringement doesn't require outright theft. Moore ended up paying damages to the band's leader.
Gary Moore: Still Got The Blues (Live, not sure on year - but listen to that guitar!)
8. The Gun Club: Anger Blues
As one of the You Tube comments astutely says under this song, it is "One of the best blues songs no one knows". Although the Gun Club may have been seemingly far removed from the blues during those early days on the hardcore punk scene of L.A., Jeffrey Lee Pierce always seemed indebted and drawn to it, and there would be many nods to the swampier end of the genre over their albums. But here, ironically on what would turn out to be the last record (Lucky Jim), he totally nails it! From his sublime guitar work, with those big Hammond organ chords, to the haunting vocals... The solos rip unlike anything he had done before, but despite failing health and myriad other issues, it seems that Pierce was often practicing 8 or 10 hours a day at this stage. Dare I say it, but this might be as good a blues tune as anything Clapton or Ray Vaughan ever did!?
The Gun Club: Anger Blues (Audio only)
9. Eddie Cochran: Summertime Blues
Eddie Cochran packed a lot into his twenty one short years, not least being one of the primary architects of rock n roll. Summertime Blues was written by Cochran and his manager Jerry Capehart, and after initially being a B-Side, it was released in August 1958, making number 8 on the Billboard chart and 15 in the UK. Cochran sang both the main vocal and the bass counter ("work-a-late"), as well as all of the guitar parts. Connie Smith played bass and Earl Palmer the drums; the latter credited as being one of the key players in the invention of rock n roll, playing on most of the early Little Richard and Fats Domino hits, amongst others. It was entered into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, and is on the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and Museums list of The Songs That Shaped Rock n Roll.
Eddie Cochran: Summertime Blues (Live, Town Hall Party, 1959)
10. Johnny Cash: Folsom Prison Blues
This song, one of Johnny Cash's signature records, was based on material written by Gordon Jenkins. It was first released as a single in 1955 and then included on his debut album, 1957's Johnny Cash With His Hot And Blue Guitar! He famously played the song during his gig at Folsom Prison in 1968, with this version making it to number one on the US Country chart and 32 on the main Billboard chart. The melody was largely taken from Jenkins' song Crescent City Blues - he wasn't originally credited for this and Cash eventually paid him a settlement in the early 1970's. Cash wrote the lyrics while still in the US Air Force, stationed in West Germany. Watching the film, Inside The Walls Of Folsom Prison, he found himself trying to think of the worst reason someone could up with for killing someone else ("Just to see them die" being the conclusion he ended up with). It was recorded in the legendary Sun Studios with Sam Phillips himself producing.
If you want more, this version, with Willie Nelson, from the VH1 Storytellers series, has Cash explaining a bit of the background to the song at the beginning.
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