Song of the Week: "Done Somebody Wrong", Elmore James

Listen - Elmore James performs Done Somebody Wrong

Elmore James is the man. It doesn't take much more than that to describe James and his great, great recordings. Back in about 1983 or 1984, I was preaching the gospel of the Yardbirds like an itinerant preacher possessed by the big man himself. Then a kid from school named Justin Hibbard came up to me in the halls of our high school. He looked like the crazed preacher I looked like. "Have you ever heard of Elmore James?", he asked. "It's where The Yardbirds got everything. I was going through my dad's record collection and found a record of Elmore James and John Brim. It's great."

These were fighting words, but his invitation to come by after school to hear the record he was carrying down from the musical Mount Sinai eased my anger. He was right. On every count. In fact, today's SOTW, is one of those songs from which The Yardbirds, shall we say, "found inspiration." The song is Done Somebody Wrong and it features the patented Elmore James kick ass slide guitar for which he is so famous. In fact, his fame as a slide guitarist can sometimes irk me. Not because he wasn't a great guitarist. Nope. It's more that James is such a huge figure in post war blues slide guitar -- defining the new electric tone and the new electrified attack -- that listeners too often miss his extremely great voice. His gravel voice matches the tone of his electrified Kay hollow body flat top guitar beautifully. Just the way Elmore James says "Oh Yeah" makes me happy. As he finishes his sentence, his guitar responds. Together they fill out a song as nicely as Bettie Page filled out a sweater. Listen as Elmore fills in grunts and moans to match his guitar in the last verse, and then again in the outro lead. Two instruments harmonizing perfectly in concert. I particularly like it as he finishes the first sentence and throws in an "uh" to match his guitar dropping down.

My mother told me these days would surely come, but I wouldn't listen to her said I got to have some fun, uh. Mmm, I must of did somebody wrong. Ehh, It's all my fault I must have did somebody wrong.

Song of the Week: "You Don't Love Me", Willie Cobbs

Today's Song of the Week brings you one of the Flip-Side's favorite riffs ever recorded. We first heard this riff on Manfred Mann's killer song, L.S.D. as released in 1965. That same year, Dutch band Cuby+the Blizzards, who were featured with a Song of the Week back in December of '08, cut a great version of the Manfred Mann tune as well. The Tell-Tale Hearts, the Lionhearted and the Mossmen also covered L.S.D.

But today's SotW is the original incarnation (we think). It's by Arkansas bluesman, Willie Cobbs and it was recorded across the river in Memphis in 1961. Cobbs' original composition is called You Don't Love Me and it is a real gem. Saxophone, muddy guitar with a nifty lead posited right in the middle of the song, sleepy vocals and that undeniable killer riff makes it easy to understand why so many bands lifted parts or all of this song over the years. We also think this original version is the best of them all. Though Tommy Raye's slow, organ heavy version recorded for Penn Records is also a gem. Keep watching these pages as that may make an appearance on SotW soon. Incidentally, the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers covered Cobbs' song giving this riff a life well beyond that of most songs. Click here to listen to Willie Cobbs perform You Don't Love Me.

Thanks for stopping by.