The Blues is such a huge field that to try to compile an overview of its history on one 80 minute disc is an impossible task, as I discovered when I attempted it. I intended to encapsulate the British blues boom of the 1960s and contrast the acoustic country blues with the electric blues of the cities that developed long before rock and roll. The decision to split the primer over two discs, the first covering a 25-year period up to 1950, and the second from 1950 to 1975, meant that much of this will happen on the second disc. Although inevitably many essential records are not included I have tried to include the most influential artists and the most important songs in their earliest recorded versions. The first recordings of T-Bone Walker, BB King, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker are included on this disc, so the beginnings of electric blues are represented
Part 1: A HISTORY OF BLUES (1925-1949)
Blind Willie Johnson - Dark was the night cold was the ground (1927/12/3 R)
Blind Lemon Jefferson (1927/3/14)
Hambone Willie Newbern
(1929 R)
Charley Patton
(1929 R)
Blind Willie McTell
(1928 R)
Bessie Smith
(1927/2/17 R)
with James P Johnson (pno)
Mississippi John Hurt
(1928/2/14 R)
Washington Phillips
(1927/12/2 R)
Henry Thomas
(1928/6/13 R)
Tommy Johnson
(1928/2-8 R)
Sleepy John Estes
(1930 R)
Rev Robert Wilkins
(1929)
Kokomo Arnold
(1935)
Robert Johnson
(1936 R)
Tampa Red
(1940/5/10 R)
with Blind John Davis
Jazz Gillum
(1940)
with Big Bill Broonzy (gtr)
Robert Petway
(1941/3/28 R)
Muddy Waters
(1941 R)
Five Women
(1939/5 R)
Dobie Red and Group
(1936 R)
Big Joe Williams
(1941)
with Sonny Boy Williamson and Alfred Elkins
Tommy McClennan
(1939/11/22 R)
(cover of the Picaninny Jug Band)
Memphis Minnie
(1941/5/21 R)
T-Bone Walker - I got a break, baby
(1942)
Muddy Waters
(1948 R)
John Lee Hooker
(1948/11/3 R)
BB King
(1949)
Smokey Hogg
(1949)
(cover of Sonny Boy Williamson I)
A BLUES BREAKING PRODUCTION
T: 79.57
Compiled 16 August 2003-8 August 2004