Biography

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Magic Sam
Rockin’ Wild In Chicago
Delmark DG-765

Even though he has now been gone for longer than his 32 year life span, Magic Sam continues to epitomize the “west side” school of Chicago blues musicians. His finger-plucked fleet-fingered long lines, screaming bends and squeezed chords, hand vibrato, driving rhythms and trademark tremolo added up to an explosive package which still draws constant attempts at replication from his many disciples. The quavering melisma in his voice and its counterpart guitar tremolo combined to give his music an ethereal undulating quality. Nobody rocked the blues any wilder than Magic Sam did, especially in front of his home crowd in Chicago. Complete notes enclosed by Dick Shurman

The Copacabana October 2, 1966

Magic Sam, vocals, guitar
Mac Thompson, bass
Odie Payne, Jr., drums
Shakey Jake, vocals (2,6,7)

1. Tremble
2. Call Me When You Need Me
3. How Long Can This Go On
4. Every Night, Every Day
5. Why Are You So Mean To Me
6. Dirty Work Going On
7. Further On Up The Road
8. It’s All Your Fault Baby

The Alex Club November, 1963

Magic Sam, vocals, guitar
Eddie Shaw, tenor sax, vocal (9)
Tyrone Carter, electric piano
Mac Thompson, bass
Bob Richey, drums

and February, 1964 (11)

Magic Sam, vocals, guitar
Eddie Shaw, tenor sax
A. C. Reed, tenor sax
Mac Thompson, bass
Robert "Huckleberry Hound" Wright, drums

9. Looking Good
10. Keep On Loving Me Baby
11. I Found Me A New Love
12. Got My Mojo Working

Mother Blues 1968

Magic Sam, vocals, guitar
unknown bass and drums

13. I Don’t Want No Woman
14. Just A Little Bit
15. Tore Down
16. Rockin’ Wild

We are fully aware that the sound quality of these recordings is not equal to today's standards of high fidelity. The uniqueness and uniform high quality of the musical performances are the rationale for their appearance on the commercial market. We have used every available technique to improve the sound of the original recordings.


Delmark Records
4121 N. Rockwell
Chicago, IL 60618
C P 2002 Delmark Records
www.delmark.com


The Copacabana October 2, 1966

1. Tremble (Albert Collins, Universal Songs of Polygram Inc., BMI)
2. Call Me When You Need Me (Jimmie D. Harris, Prestige Music Co., BMI)
3. How Long Can This Go On (Herman Parker, Universal Duchess Music Corp., BMI)
4. Every Night, Every Day (Jimmy McCracklin, EMI Unart Catalog Inc., BMI)
5. Why Are You So Mean To Me (Albert King, Parker Music, BMI)
6. Dirty Work Going On (Ferdinand Washington, Chevis Publ. Co., BMI)
7. Further On Up The Road (Don Robey/Joe Veasey, Universal Duchess Music Corp., BMI)
8. It’s All Your Fault Baby (Lowell Fulsom, Arc Music Corp., BMI)

The Alex Club November, 1963 and
(11) February, 1964

9. Looking Good (Sam Maghett, Leric Music Inc., BMI)
10. Keep On Loving Me Baby (Otis Rush, Conrad Music, BMI)
11. I Found Me A New Love (Milton Campbell/Bob Lyons, Conrad Music, BMI)
12. Got My Mojo Working (Preston Foster, Dare Music Inc., BMI)

Mother Blues 1968

13. I Don’t Want No Woman (Don Robey, Universal Duchess Music Corp., BMI)
14. Just A Little Bit (Bass/Brown/Thornton/Washington, Fort Knox Music Inc./Trio Music Co. Inc., BMI)
15. Tore Down (Sonny Thompson, Arc Music Corp./Carbert Music Inc., BMI)
16. Rockin’ Wild (Earl Hooker, Su-Ma Publ. Co. Inc., BMI)

Album Production: Robert G. Koester and Steve Wagner
Compiled by: Dick Shurman and Steve Wagner
Photos: Ray Flerlage
Design: Al Brandtner
Special thanks to Bill Lindemann, Pete Kroehler, Dick Shurman and Dave Specter

Other Delmark Albums of Interest:
Magic Sam, West Side Soul (615) with Mighty Joe Young, Odie Payne
Black Magic (620) with Eddie Shaw, Mighty Joe Young, Odie Payne
Live (645) with A.C. Reed, Eddie Shaw, Mac Thompson
The Magic Sam Legacy (651) with Eddie Shaw, Mighty Joe Young
Give Me Time (654) solo informal home recordings
Sweet Home Chicago (618) with Magic Sam, Luther Allison, Louis Myers...
Blues Guitar Greats (697) with Magic Sam, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy...
Eddie Shaw & The Wolf Gang, Can’t Stop Now (698) with Detroit Jr.
A.C. Reed, Junk Food (726) with Albert Collins, Maurice John Vaughn
Syl Johnson & Hi Rhythm, Back In The Game (674)
Syl Johnson, Talkin Bout Chicago (729)
Jimmy Johnson, Johnson’s Whacks (644)
North//South (647)



Even though he has now been dead for longer than his 32 year life span, Magic Sam continues to epitomize the “west side” school of Chicago blues musicians who applied the post-B.B. King model of gospel-rooted vocals and string-bending guitar to the Mississippi mud in the city’s blues, and often added percussive chord fills between lyrics and licks to add size and drive to a skeletal band. His rich, supple voice ranged far into the upper register, and he was as great a master at projecting it as this writer ever saw. On his axe (or whoever’s he’d borrowed after his was stolen yet again, or maybe pawned), his finger-plucked fleet-fingered long lines, screaming bends and squeezed chords, a hand vibrato to which Luther Allison’s particularly strong debt is made clear by these newly issued workouts, driving rhythms, dynamics (including a knack for letting the music breathe) and trademark tremolo added up to an explosive package which still draws constant attempts at replication from his many disciples. The quavering melisma in his voice and its counterpart guitar tremolo combined to give his music an ethereal undulating quality. He was a rare combination of a musician with an instantly identifiable individual identity whose big ears and cover versions also showed a strong understanding of the nuances of the originals, so that he could perform them relatively faithfully and yet make them his own with added sizzle. In retrospect, Sam at least holds his own against his peers like Freddy King, Sam’s early teacher and friend Syl Johnson and Otis Rush, whom we heard once jokingly qualify his own excellence to Syl by saying “I’m the best; Sam’s dead!” For sure, none of those illustrious cohorts rocked the blues any wilder than Magic Sam did, especially in front of his home crowd in Chicago.
The ups and downs of Sam’s short life in 1937-1969 are chronicled in outstanding fashion by Jim O’Neal in his notes to Sam’s Black Magic (Delmark 620), Sam’s good friend Bill Lindemann in his notes to the classic West Side Soul (Delmark 615) and Bill Dahl for The Essential Magic Sam (Fuel Records). Those CDs plus three other Delmark CDs and The Late Great Magic Sam (Optimism Records) pretty much round up his studio output except for the Bobby Rush-produced Isley Brothers answer song on 45 in Sam’s last year. It’s a Hall Of Fame catalog central to appreciation of the blues of Sam’s era and most of it since. But as we noted in annotating Live (Delmark 645), it was on the bandstand that Sam’s local popularity could best be understood, and this new batch of top-form live performances shows why. It’s obvious how, especially at the west side venues in this collection, the screams and coaxing of the crowd pushed Sam and the band to “play on their tiptoes.” Sam’s frequent shouts of exultation and salutation pepper the songs. Even the sidemen got into it between Shakey Jake’s “Look out, Sam!” and Eddie Shaw’s “Easy, Sam, easy!” Drummer Odie Payne Jr. (who once said his main influence was Big Sid Catlett) especially both added and derived major inspiration, cowbell and all; this CD is a reiteration of his greatness and of his best. Bassist Mac Thompson was with Sam literally since Sam’s arrival in Chicago in 1950 and hung his necromantic nickname on him, and money can’t buy the kind of confidence such an association provides. Add Sam’s ability to make three pieces (or five in the case of the Alex Club tapes) sound like as much a powerhouse as the Basie band or a group of rockers with a stage full of Marshall amps, and it makes for compelling listening, even with the limitations of fidelity inherent in these amateur recordings. It’s worthy of celebration that this documentation exists and that interest on the part of Delmark and Sam’s fans carries Delmark’s perpetuation of Sam’s legacy into the new millennium.
Rockin’ Wild In Chicago finds Sam on home turf, excelling and stretching out in excerpts from three Chicago club recordings, presenting some staples and some familiar associates and adding some songs new to his canon. The first half of the program emanates from legendary dj and promoter Big Bill Hill’s club The Copacabana, at 3258 West Roosevelt Road. Sam’s business interests were intertwined with Bill’s, no doubt adding to his status as a regular at the club and on Hill’s live radio broadcasts on WOPA (1240 AM). Bill Lindemann made these tapes on October 2, 1966, capturing some remarkably powerhouse music by Sam, Mac, Odie and Sam’s mentor Shakey Jake. On Albert Collins’ “Tremble,” Sam more than fills the roles by himself that the horns and keyboard did on Collins’ original, dials the intensity into the red zone with the band at full throttle and turns it into an unmistakably west side tour de force (plus cowbell); it was a frequent theme song for Sam and says as much about his style as an instrumental could. Sam hits a pinnacle accompanying Jake on a reprise of his first recording “Call Me When You Need Me” (one of two songs on the CD mentioning different women named Catherine; Jake’s domestic situation had clearly shifted in the eight years since the studio version when he named an earlier wife, Sam’s aunt Lilly ), and Jake adds covers of Bobby Bland and Little Joe Blue while Sam digs in to push them to another level and beg the question of why Sam wasn’t on Jake’s two Prestige Bluesville LPs. Sam sings on bows to Jimmy McCracklin, Albert King and Junior Parker before reminding us on “It’s All Your Fault Baby” of the Lowell Fulson underpinnings of Sam’s best known melodic motif. The overall vitality of both the music and the milieu add to regret over the passing of both. Are there any documented live Chicago blues performances more rousing than these?
Pete Kroehler, a young friend of Sam’s whose tragic sudden death in his 30s just as his Alex Club tapes were seeing their first release in 1981 eerily echoed Sam’s, brought his 1963 and 1964 reels from evenings at Sam’s longtime home base at 1400 West Roosevelt Road to Delmark. They were a revelation then; highlights comprised the first half of Live. These four songs are no less brilliant, with an augmented band to show that Sam didn’t always work as a trio. The three blistering 1963 outings include Eddie Shaw’s vocal on Sam’s signature “Lookin’ Good” which didn’t make it onto the CD version of Live for lack of space (the complete unedited performance is issued here for the first time), and nods to Muddy Waters and Otis Rush (the second “Cathy” reference) showcasing scorching guitar vibrato. The horn section on “I Found Me A New Love” from early ’64 adds depth to one of his slow blues perennials; while the song was Little Milton’s, the arrangement of the solo was Sam’s.
From Bill Lindemann come the final four songs, from a set with the same approximate vintage as West Side Soul from the pioneering Old Town blues club Mother Blues, at 1305 N. Wells. Sam is back in a trio setting; the unidentified rhythm section is again most likely Thompson and Payne. “I Don’t Want No Woman” was previously on Blues Guitar Greats (Delmark 697). “Tore Down” showcases some especially fancy picking, distancing it a bit more from originator Freddy King. “Just A Little Bit” receives an unusual minor key, “Help Me” treatment. At least the stop time turnaround to the closing instrumental comes from Earl Hooker’s “Rockin’ Wild,” but Sam jazzifies and countrifies it to take things out on an eclectic, facile and jumping note.
One cannot help feeling a mixture of joy and sadness while experiencing Rockin’ WIld In Chicago. Sam’s monumental gifts graced stages for only fourteen short years, and thanks to him and two dedicated friends (among the many whom Sam’s kindness and openness brought him) we can renew and expand our appreciation for those gifts. At the same time, there’s no pleasure in remembering that Sam would be only 65 today, and probably with a trail of acclaim, renown and maybe even some affluence behind him. It’s also difficult facing the reality that the bandstand he loved helped bring him down and kill him. Its irresistible lure led him (like Junior Wells) to go AWOL from the Army and endure devastating punishment and imprisonment when he should have been building a career. In the last autumn of his too-short life, it led him to forsake the bed rest that doctors prescribed while he was hospitalized after collapsing during a summer of scuffling on the road. He may have sensed the probable toll, but the chance to make his first trip to Europe with the 1969 American Folk Blues Festival weeks before such exertion was approved was too compelling. Like tour mate Earl Hooker (whose guitar he borrowed for those shows in not atypical Sam fashion), he got his cherished taste of international validation– and both never bounced back physically, dying within months. In Sam’s case, a stressful trip to California and heart disease finished the job in sudden fashion at home on December 1, 1969. Maybe the best and most poignant thing to say about the wonderfully evocative and ambient music on Rockin’ Wild In Chicago is that the magnitude of enjoyment it affords us is commensurate with the awful magnitude of Magic Sam’s premature loss.


Dick Shurman

Thanks for research assistance by Robert Pruter and Juli Janovicz.