Record basics

• Album name: I Am the Blues
• Artist name: Willie Dixon
• Year: 1970
• Number of discs: one
• Label: Columbia Records
• Collection: Friedman
• Buy it on Amazon: $71.17

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

Willie Dixon has come up a few times recently, so I have some familiarity with him, as well as a bunch of these songs, but I have never listened to this record before.

What I expected

Blues musicians are not exactly known for their collective modesty, but “I Am the Blues” is really bringing some “L’État, c’est moi” vibes, so now I’m afraid that if this doesn’t blow me away, I’m going to be disappointed.

What it was actually like

I’m not sure that I would consider this to have been “I Am the Blues” level good, but it was still quite good. There were no bad songs – and no acoustic songs, and they all had much more prominent percussion than I would have expected.

Some highlights included: the guitar on Back Door Man that sounded a bit like a revving car engine, and its strong piano part too; the guitar solo on The Seventh Son; the piano part on I Ain’t Superstitious^[1]; and the extremely distinctive riff on I’m Your Hoochie Cooche Man.

The Little Red Rooster was the record’s most barbecue restaurant song.

I Can’t Quit You, Baby was still good, but in the context of most of the rest of the record that was pretty upbeat, I guess I would consider it my least favorite. You Shook Me had a fine harmonica part, but a similar tempo, and I think it loses out to the Led Zeppelin version because of the latter’s organ part.

Grade

5/5: love it