Every Blues fan has their "go to" recordings. When there is an urgent need to hit the road, these are the ten tunes that will smooth out any trip. Crank them up!.
Billed out and bound to go, I'm gonna leave here running, Walking is most too slow...Legendary Bluesman Big Bill Broonzy best captured that "I got to get out of town" urge in this great traveling song. First recorded by Jesse Fuller, and then by Big Bill and Count Basie a year later, it is the classic tale of total optimism out arising from total despair.
I won't be back no more... Even though Brother Ray was blind, that didn't mean he couldn't escape. He was actually once busted for driving a car,
after the wreck. His 1960 hit was written by Percy Mayfield and is loved by the women for the opposite reason it's loved by the men.
And don't cha come back no more...Composed by Joe Medwich Veasey and Don D. Robey, this roller and it's a comparatively new tune. Made most famous by Eric Clapton, it has been become a standard for every local Blues band around the world.
Baby, just you wait and see...
Robert Johnson is credited with the first version of this tune, but
Magic Sam has the definitive version. The signature guitar lick is probably the most recognizable instrumental line in the Blues, and when it kicks in the traveling will officially start.
C'mon...Baby don't you want to go. Bonnie Raitt wrote this for her 1989 smash record
Nick of Time and it spells out the women's point of view on splittin' town, as in some people just can't help it.
When I hear that siren call, I just can't help myself...Blues guitarist Elvin Bishop wrote and recorded a tune in the late 1970's that merges a great groove with the exasperation of being forced out on the road by a woman. It does contain the controversial line,
I'm gonna get Hank Aaron's baseball bat, and tenderize her head. Well, it was the '70's and Albert Collins was singin about putting a brick upside a woman's head. That'll keep ya between the ditches.
While most tunes on this list deal with the good and bad reasons to hit the road. This classic, written by Jackie Brenston and first recorded by Bill Haley in 1954, celebrates just what you're gonna hit that road with, as in your car.
Baby we'll ride in style, move it on along...Every traveler has to boogie and John Lee Hooker's classic will instigate the most violent of boogie-age. This is not the tune you put on first, it is the tune you play when you are getting a spell of highway hypnosis. Guaranteed to snap you out of it, but could lead to a speeding ticket if not careful.
...Let the boy boogie.Jimmy Reed put his magic swing to this road tune that tells all about
having to get someplace.
...I'm goin; if I have to walk. This would be a great one for the Ipod when you really have to walk.
When winter is digging in, this tune will point you south. This is the tune you want playing while you negotiating da man looking for speeders, or driving on black ice as it's lazy groove won't send you over the edge.
...Where the sun shines damn near every day.
