Okay, here’s a classic old blues tune that’s been recorded by everyone from Delta blues guitarists to Appalachian folksingers to Gospel belters to Western Swing bands to modern jazz artists to Broadway performers to San Francisco acid-rock types.
What do YOU think is the finest rendition?
I’ll have to go with the one the Holy Modal Rounders did on their first album back in the early 1960s…a good basic fiddle and git-tar performance, which included the only appearance I’ve ever heard of the charming verse
I was born in Pennsylvania
I was raised in France
I’m a dirty old man
And I wear silk pants
Tell me how long
Do I have to wait?
Can I get you now
Or, lord, must I hesitate?
and special bonus points for
Got my psychedelic feet
In my psychedelic shoes
I believe Dear Lord
I got the psychedelic blues
Tell me how long
Do I have to wait?
Can I get you now
Or, lord, must I hesitate?
…supposedly the first use of the word “psychedelic” on a recording.
OK, Ike, which is the better recording: “Castle House Rag,” or “Too Much Mustard,” both recorded by James Reese Europe (and both danced to by Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Castle)?
I’LL give ya obscure and esoteric, if that’s the way ya wanna play . . .
I was SURE that Eve was going to make it a hat trick for Hot Tuna. She once confided in me that she had a “thing” for Jorma Kaukonen…
Seriously, Eve, your choice would probably be the version by The Pasadena Roof Orchestra.
In addition to “Hesitation Blues,” their repetoire includes “When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam’,” “She’s a Latin from Manhattan,” and “You Ought to See Sally on Sunday.”
Do they do covers of “Since Maggie Dooley Learned the Hooley-Hooley” or “I’ve Got a Bimbo Down on the Bamboo Isle?”
By the way, that bo’ from the New Leviathan Oriental Foxtrot Orchestra—whom I met at a loft party in New Orleans—never got back to me, so I have no idea where to buy THEIR stuff!
The best I ever heard was at the (now unfortunately defunct) bluegrass jam that used to happen behind the firehouse up the street every third night. (The firefighters arranged the shifts so that all the pickers were on at the same time.) One of the older fellows played the harp and sang; his voice had an eerie, whiny quality to it that I’ve never been able to forget. “Hesitation Blues” is the one of his I remember.
Living in Kentucky is pretty cool sometimes.
(Oh, and Ike–I worked at the Bluegrass Sessions show last week, featuring Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Mark Schatz, Stuart Duncan, and Bryan Sutton . I don’t suppose I need to tell you how cool that was. Got to hang out with Mr. Fleck after the show.)