Hound Dog Taylor
Hound Dog Taylor - Deluxe Edition
The raw power and glory of Chicago's legendary, joyous slide guitar master. Includes "Walking The Ceiling," "The Sun Is Shining," plus two previously unreleased live songs. Remastered in 20-bit audio, with rare photos and mini poster.
Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers:
Theodore Taylor, Guitar and Vocal
Brewer Phillips, Guitar
Ted Harvey, Drums
Tracks 1, 5, 8, 13 and 15 produced by Bruce Iglauer, Wesley Race and Hound Dog Taylor at Sound Studios, Chicago, IL, 1971.
Tracks 3, 6, 7, 9 and 12 produced by Bruce Iglauer, Wesley Race and Hound Dog Taylor at Sound Studios, Chicago, IL, 1973.
Tracks 2, 4, 10 and 14 produced by Bruce Iglauer, recorded live at the Smiling Dog Saloon, Cleveland, OH, Nov. 22 - 24, 1974 for WMMS--FM, Cleveland.
Track 11 produced by Bruce Iglauer, recorded live at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, Jan. 18, 1974 for WXRT--FM, Chicago.
Engineers: Stu Black (1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 15); Richard Whittington, Whisker Recording (2, 4, 10, 14); Ken Rasek (11)
Mixer: Stu Black
Disclaimer:
In remastering some of the material for this album and especially the new live tracks, some distortion in the original recordings, some tape hiss, and the actual distortion of Hound Dog's and Phillips' amp speakers has been enhanced, along with making the sounds a little more true. Even 24 years after his death, his music has to be ragged to be right!--BI
Deluxe Edition Series produced by Bob DePugh, Bruce Iglauer and David Forte
Design by David Forte
Essay by Bruce Iglauer
Booklet and inlay inside photos by Diane Allmen
Back inlay photo by Jeff Nield
Hound Dog Taylor and The HouseRockers didn't care about the niceties of the blues. Amps should spit out sheets of distortion (how else to make a trio with no bass player sound huge?) and tuning was something done by consensus. With Hound Dog's ultra-cheap Japanese guitars and Sears Roebuck amps, Brewer Phillips alternating between ever-changing bass lines and wild leads on his battered Fender Telecaster, and Ted Harvey picking up the tempo on almost every song to keep the dancers moving, they created a joyful wall of noise and rhythm, with Hound Dog's high-pitched voice shouting the blues over the top.
Theodore Roosevelt Taylor came to Chicago from the Mississippi Delta at the age of 25 in 1942 (just one step ahead of some angry local Klansmen). He had only been playing guitar for a few years, but he had pounded the piano at juke joints and house parties. He and his slide found a home playing on Sundays in the outdoor Maxwell Street market, competing with Muddy Waters and Robert Nighthawk.
In the late '50s, Hound Dog quit his last day job and began barnstorming the blues clubs of Chicago's black ghetto. He and the HouseRockers played almost every night; with only three pieces they could underprice almost every band in town. Hound Dog's show, stomping both feet, throwing his head back, pouring out sweat and telling indecipherable jokes, all while sitting on a folding chair drinking Canadian Club and puffing on Pall Malls, made him one of the city's best loved bluesmen. When I first heard them, at the wild and wooly Florence's Lounge on the South Side in 1970, the rush of the music was so great that I started Alligator Records specifically to record Hound Dog Taylor and The HouseRockers.
In the four years between the release of their debut album and Hound Dog's death, they found an audience among the new generation of white blues fans. Hound Dog became the best-loved performer at the fledgling Ann Arbor Blues Festivals, and was thrilled to share a stage with B.B. King and tour Australia and New Zealand with Freddie King, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.
But Hound Dog's music and his show never changed. Whenever he plugged in his guitar, pulled up his folding chair, slipped his slide on the fifth of his six fingers and ripped into a pounding boogie or a hard-as-nails slow blues, he brought the essence of the South Side clubs with him. It was Genuine Houserockin' Music, and it rocks as wonderfully hard today as it did then.
HOUND DOG TAYLOR AND THE HOUSEROCKERS
AL 4701
The record that launched a label! "Live wire exuberance and hard-as-nails force." --ROLLING STONE
Includes Give Me Back My Wig, It's Allright, more.
NATURAL BOOGIE
AL 4704
A classic of no-holds-barred Chicago slide guitar boogie and blues. "No fan of Chicago blues can afford to miss this one!"--BLUES UNLIMITED
Includes Hawaiian Boogie, Sadie, more.
BEWARE OF THE DOG
AL 4707
Live! Recorded in club performances. "Natural for partying, drinking and talking loud."--ROLLING STONE. Grammy nominee includes Dust My Broom, Let's Get Funky, more.
GENUINE HOUSEROCKING MUSIC
AL 4727
Two platters of vinyl couldn't hold all the boogie laid down in Taylor's two recording sessions, so we had to put the rest on a third! "...the raunchiest." THE RECORD
TRIBUTE TO HOUND DOG TAYLOR
AL 4855
A quarter century later, and the house is still rockin'! Genuine Houserockin' performances by Luther Allison, Son Seals, Cub Koda & The Houserockers, Gov't Mule, more.
