Chicago Blues Documentary (1972)
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- Documentary about Chicago Blues and the migrating black community that brought it there. Made in 1972 the political tensions of the late 60's are still an all pervasive presence but it makes for an edgy and atmospheric portrayal of the era and the music.
With Muddy Waters, Johnnie Lewis, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, J.B. Hutto, Junior Wells, Floyd Jones..
Johnie Lewis was my neighbor when I was a child. The house on this video is where we once lived. The place call Jew town was my home.
I miss that time and place sometimes. I thank God for what I learn there. Mr. Lewis would sing for us little children in the evening we love his songs.
CCX
I was 5 when this was done.lived on damen and Augusta.Wow the memories this brings back.cheers
@@louisjohnson5191 ccpxxc
Thank you for sharing your memories. So beautiful
I'm a guitarist, I've been playing since I was 12 so that means I've been playing for 22 years. I started playing hard rock and heavy metal but I wanted to know the roots of the music I was playing so I went back to classic rock which gave birth to the hard rock and heavier styles that came after it. After awhile I thought to myself: "well, what was the music that inspired the classic rock musicians? " No surprise, it all ties back to the blues. All modern music owes it's existence to the blues in some way, directly or indirectly.
This is the best blues documentary I've ever seen. I was crying from the first minute, when the bus with "Chicago" rolled in. Thank you for superb moments with Muddy. Willie Dixon, J.B. Hutto, Buddy Guy...these comment spaces aren't long enough for all I'd like to say. To put it this way, one night in 1953 at 2:00 a.m., my old radio dial stopped at Muddy's "I'm Ready", & that was the end & the beginning. Took years, waiting on the Lord's timing, til I met Muddy in 1972. Thank you for this documentary treasure. !
Loved it all well and played
Respect.
STFU!! U don't know crap .
Hey Anarchy Won , except 4 the GEE-TAR part, (I'm a vocalist) we share an extremely similar musical scenario. Can't help but feel inundated w/the band name Led Zeppelin right now. But ya', at the end of the day it's all Blues Music, baby. Loomin' large in my life,maybe one of the only constants...
Muddy Waters was one of the man who took the country blues and make the origin of rock and roll (music of today). The silence in his sentences says more than a thousand words, without him there would be no Chuck Berry, Stones, Beatles, Elvis Presley...He gave me peace in my spirit throughout my life and one of the reasons to dedicate my entire life to music.
Blues is a major component in the formation of Old Time Rock N Roll. The rhythm of artists like Fats Domino and Ike Turner also had a huge influence on it, which is not to say Fats and Ike didn't embody the blues, too. The 6/8 time in much of blues music is a bit different than the 4/4 time that dominated early rock. Dissecting genres of music can be fascinating.
Willie Dixon wrote most of muddy and wolfs music.
Muddy Waters change the modern music at an incredibale level.He Literally create the rolling stone, their name is from his song, their top success "I can't get no satifaction" thematic is clearly inspired by "i can't get satisfied" from Muddy Watters etc. .... La Grange of the ZZ top is a boogie woogie from John Lee Hooker " "Boogie Chillen". What is obvious when i saw old documentary on the blues is that they are the first singers sings about their ego, what we see now in Hip Hop. Muddy Watters was in a plantation before persue his dream and then got a really proud style. I saw other shows luxury even gold bars on scene, gold teeth, sings "i'm a man" etc... and i understand That it's the root of the HipHop ego trip too.
Thanks alot. I'm proud to have played with R.L. Burnside for 12 years as his harmonica, and a bit on guitar player. As well as Eddie "Guitar"Burns. I've played with many people for over 46 years, and I'm extremely to have discovered--The Blues--all those many years ago in all it's many variations.
They should be playing this old documentary in schools.
completly agree! thanks for that!
Ohhhh yes
Yeah, an average american kid (even of african descent) has a little or completely no idea what blues music is
They’re too busy listening to gangsta thugs smackin dey bitches and hoes up and idolizing Cardi B and some other ‘magician’. Oblivious to their own culture and contributions to music as they turn their culture back into cages and chains.
J. B. Hutto was my dear dear friend, my slide teacher, my mentor, my everything. I miss him eternally, and Lullabelle. Mama Hutto. God Bless the Dead always.. ......!!! 🙏
Great man. His nephew is a hell of a player too, Lil ed.
What an amazing story. I love JB's music.
Wow Man!!!!! You learned slide from one of the masters!!!!!'
Great story, I saw JB perform in Washington DC in 1982, near the end of his life. Twenty years later I saw nephew Lil Ed play in NC, plus talked with him afterwards. He said the Gibson Firebrand LP guitar left to him by uncle JB had been stolen by a dishonest repairman.
Jb hutto slayed motherfuckers with that slide
Much love to you brother
That footage and interview with Muddy Waters is like having video of the sermon on the mount and walking on water. In his prime and straight killing it!!!!
When I would return home to South Ellis up on the far Southside of Chicago. I would walk the streets blowing my harps. And run into Billy Boy Arnold. He was a bus driver. And a parole officer. I knew Jerome Arnold , his brother who had played for Wolf. Billy Boy Arnold, was fundamental, in my harp teaching. As we would walk and talk and Blow and suck. Wetting the reeds. So very very good to me. Junior Wells knew my mom, my Beautiful aunties, and my Gram. Ruth H. Orr. Damn How I miss Junior, L. C. Thurman at the Checkerboard Lounge. Lefty Dizz. Phil Guy Buddy's brother my guitar teacher. J. B. Hutto. The Myers Brothers Louis and Dave. Bless all of them. They shaped my world wonderfully. So I could live my dreams. And make my living. And my way thru this world. With dignity and class.
Beautyful!
Watched this on TV for +30 years back. Always wanted to see it again! Downloaded! Real music!
I have seen many snippets of this documentary before but hearing Dick Gregory speak you know straight away, this is someone you should listen to.
Best real blues story I have ever seen. The real shit. Hell yeah!!!!!
The red lining of life will give you the blues. That's the shnit.
I wish I had television with such documentaries!
Timeless docu, extraordinary recordings, insightful commentary. 50 years later as urgent as evee
Buddy Guy, my friend who opened my eyes with vinyl records. I have met him a couple of times at clubs in Lincoln Ne and Chicago Il, he is a real nice man. I hope Quinn Sullivan never forgets this.
Well, he's only a nice man with some ppl.
that Quinn Sullivan kid is a good guitarist, but his original music output is just, terrible...
7:30: That little tale by Dick Gregory is just about the best explanation I have ever heard on how social and racial discrimination works and feels.
I love the blues. it's my fave style on guitar, so much emotion.
The great Muddy waters, the great Junior wells and the great Buddy Guy ❤❤❤
Maxwell St.the world stage for the blues!all the recording studios were on the South Side of Chicago.people. from all over the world came to see these people sing Americas National anthem!
im 68 years young.i was there in the middle of it all,so i am truly blessed to live in that era.We are the World Stage!!we just can't see the forest for the trees.....Goat.
The performance by John Lee Hooker and that amazing band in the Blues Brothers on Maxwell street is a glimpse of where it all took shape.
Also is great to see all these shots of Chicago from 45 years ago
holy whiskey sweet drinkin blue feelin give me another its the chicago blues doc. this keeps poppin up and then goin from youtube. its back. so sweet best blues doc i ever seen man
Floyd Jones at 17:49 ... I never saw footage of him like this elsewhere, just playing at home and talking. Great stuff. There's not a lot of recordings around, but the sides with Moody Jones & Leroy Foster are well worth finding.
I want desperately to see this documentary. PLEASE POST IT ALL ! !
It's only 50 minutes long. I've got the DVD from the library right here...
Thank you for posting this. It brings back much nostalgia from my time on the south side...'72-'73 and '77-'79.
Back in 1969 or '70, Jim Osterberg told me his inspiration for creating Iggy (The Stooges) came from watching Howlin' Wolf in concert: "I decided to do for my culture what that man did for his."
Thanks for posting this comment. That makes me love my two heroes even more.
Thank you for uploading this "timeless piece of history...It has brought back so many fond memories of my Great-Uncle..Uncle Wayne and Aunt Odessa the pictures that he had in his home of all of his family and then revered Joe Louis along with the big Jesus pic will be forever etched in my memory...oh and I can't forget the pic of my cousin when he first started golden glove boxing God Bless!
29:15 Now that is what made Chicago Blues stand out and made all Real Rock n Roll guitar and all the legends stand up and change the guitar to what we now have. I am not saying Buddy Guy specifically I just mean that emotion, sound and raw feeling but Muddy was the first for real to do this even before Chuck Berry, he got Chuck his first record deal too. Without the rising of the Chicago blues in the post war era and the 50's bluesmen, R&R would not be as we know it today. No British invasion, no psychedelic rock, Hendrix, Janis or hippies, and even later styles like metal and all else to follow. We would have clean cut rockers playing a white more country bluegrass style pop all about cutesy girls, cheesy things in life and would be very shallow.
I must also say that I never knew that it was common for a black man to make less(50% wow), pay more and if he was a certain kind/type of person the prices changed or were higher for him. I knew there was inequality but not entirely on this level in the urban centres too. How we have not really come so far at all, people say we have but I think it is way too slow. Even my dad in the 70's(Crowbar, Lighthouse, Baldry etc.) would go to gigs and bring in the gear but when the blacks in the band picked up instruments the owners sometimes would kick them out and he would say, "well I guess you have no band this weekend, my guys play together or we all leave." Right on!!! That's how you do it.
What you say is true except that it's not just Chicago blues, it goes back to the earliest days of jazz and blues. All of the cool stuff done by Western Swing and hillbilly boogie white artists in the decades before rock-n-roll was lifted from black blues and jazz. Milton Brown and Bob Wills were cool because of lyrics, songs and melodies borrowed from Tampa Red, Big Bill Broonzy and others. The Big Bill Broonzy/ Hokum Boys song 'Eagle Riding Papa' was modified to be the theme song for both the Light Crust Doughboys and the Texas Playboys. And Milton Brown covered it as 'Easy Riding Papa'. I went crazy for the Milton Brown song 'Somebody's Been Using That Thing' and sure as your born it goes back to Big Bill (or earlier?)
Bob Wills saw a Jimmie Rodgers show as well as Bessie Smith and many many others. He said that Bessie was the greatest. My point is that yes all of the best 'white' music was influenced by black music but it goes a lot further back than Muddy Waters in Chicago.
"Chicago" blues was a bunch of men from Mississippi that went to Chicago and got recorded.
Thank you so much for all this precious knowledge about American music .
Not all country is about cheesy things in life and cutesy girls thats just the mass produced polished crap, check out doc watson, bascom lamar lunsford, ola belle reed, bill monroe, flatt and scruggs for real old country music
Wow even the sun didnt shine! Fabulous Chicago blues born out of bleak harsh existence.
Great documentary. I first saw this in the mid 80s. Thanks for posting.
Fantastic Blues documentary !
Superbe documentaire sur le " Chicago blues " . Merci encore !
25:00 insanity .... man that’s awesomely cool... playing that crazy shaped guitar .... mean slide sound and finger picking ... man what a beautiful sound and voice .... J.B. Hutto if got it right...wow you just got a fan brother , God bless your soul if you already long gone .
Is that a Rick?
Think of how different the London scene would have been without Chicago blues.
Totally
@@johnnyfannucci q+++
Wouldnt have been one.......
I 🎵 love ❤ Buddy Guy's guitar 🎸 playing. He is easily 😊 one of the best 🏆 ever to play.🍻
Buddy Guy looks so young in this film. Nice live footage of Buddy here.
Though in my book thats a few years after his prime already, watch the few 1960s clips.
Juat starting to listen to blues am 37 years old ..i really want to learn .this music touches me different
The further back you go, the better it gets. The Alan Lomax field recordings capture something special and real. He discovered Muddy while looking for Robert Johnson. He promised to send him a copy when it was pressed and Muddy wrote him twice practically begging for it. When Muddy finally got it and heard himself on record compared to Robert Johnson, Son House, and Charlie Patton gave him the confidence to pack his bag and hit the City of New Orleans on the Illinois Central Railroad, the mainline of mid America, to Chicago and modern music as we know it was influenced. I highly suggest the book The Land Where Blues Began. Man I’m excited for you because some of the discoveries yours gonna make are gonna blow your hair back and touch your soul.
This is human...it's real...Dick Gregory and Johnnie Lewis are great. We all need real people like them in our lives...
Muddy's band is unique because it's tight and prominently features both harp and piano. Very different from everyone else in Chicago, and from most current bar bands.
all of the other people were changing over from rock and roll 2 the electric blues more than just 1 kind person did enjoy and listen 👂 2 this music 🎶 alit of the younger people who listen 2 rock and roll they did also make the change over and started 2 the electric blues and alot of the other people was looking 4 the new sound and it was the blues it was the driving sound of the blues and the electric guitar 🎸 they loved it and they didn't go back it was the music 🎶 that they knew they should've been listening 👂2 then they knew it was part of there heart 😊❤ and soul then they got back 2 the real roots of there music 🎶 then it was in heart 😊❤ and soul 4 life it was the raw power 2 express your self playing the electric guitar 🎸 it was the music 🎶 that is your heart 😊❤ and soul that's how U feel 😊😅😮🎉😂❤ /😊😊🎉😊❤🎉🎉 TLC/OMG 7 8 2O23
Wonderful footage of Muddy & Buddy.
This was incredible. Very powerful. Personally, the blues has always been there in music that I've loved since a child. But the meaning of the blues, only is starting to show it's face later in my life. It is the greatest gift America has given the world. Thank you.
Correction: Native Black American Negros created and gave Blues to the world. You should properly credit its creators.
Great documentary, thanks very much!
This film is great for the footage. Muddy Waters is a Prophet and knows and knew exactly what he was doing. As much as anyone ever does.
,
This little gem is as good a film about the (electric) blues as they come. Authentic, insightful and packed with great music that helps the viewer feel and understand what it's all about in an intimate and personal YOU-ARE-THERE format. The film is copyright 1970 (released in 1972), meaning these performances are most likely vintage 1969 and 1970. The film industry database IMDb lists it at 59 minutes not the 49 running minutes here. 5 Stars.
I have a library copy of the DVD, it says 50 minutes. But there are some songs separately. I haven't got there yet.
Excellent, thank you very much 👍🏻🎸🇨🇭🇫🇷🎶
Excellent historical compilation of cultural musicology.
Maxwell street in chicago is the birthplace of chicago blues IMO
This is amazing ✌🏿🎼🎶🎤🎸🎥💯
best blues doc ive ever seen. better than scosese
less talk tho. but hell this is real
Who is "scosese?"
The audio just DIES, completely DIES, at 47:48. And it does not come back. At all.
While this documentary may essentially be over the moment the music cuts out, it's still wrong to do it like that! This is an excellent documentary. The only thing wrong with it, actually, does not have anything to do with this documentary itself; it only has to do with this specific file that has that dead audio. Any version of this documentary that does not have that dead audio, or anything else wrong with it, uploaded by somebody would be awesome!
Somebody, please upload that file with this perfect audio! I beg of you.
Excellent Documentary Thanks for sharing
Fantastic! True genius within a hard and unfriendly world.
i love the blues, from dublin ireland
And your native land gave us one of the best ever in rory gallagher. Cheers!
Bless Rory Gallagher indeed one of the finest....
JB Hutto just blew my mind...
9:16 Muddy. If anyone personifies Chicago blues it's Mud.
trying to find this set .. do you know when / where it was ?
I would say hell yea but the entire chess records stable as well.in fact the label itself brought black artists to the mainstream . Cobra records as well buddy guy .ike turner and Otis rush too
Dick Gregory was really insightful.
It was his fruitarian phase allegedly...
Always love this documentary. Anybody know the group and song name for the tune that starts at 33:47?
Too Much Woman (for a Henpecked Man) Ike & Tina Turner& The Ikettes
Good documentary, but how do you make a documentary on Chicago Blues without Howlin' Wolf? Him and Muddy were Chicago Blues
Imagine how different music would look if there was no city of Chicago.
Would love to see some full length footage of these live performances.
Try the DVD, it seems to have that option.
Library got it.
VERY HUMBLING. THANKS.
To all millenials, snowflakes and easily offended people. These resilient men and women endured in their lifetime more than what your limited brains dare to imagine. Long live the Blues.
Chill out dude. Lean back, drink a beer and enjoy the music
This stuff is great thank you for posting this one. Chicago Blues is my favorite music (next to the Beatles)
Super performances...
Blues is my life
Thank you. ❤
The housing projects at 38:40 onwards look at first glance quite similar to what we have here in central-eastern Europe, just whole city districts of high-rise concrete. If I didn't know that footage was from Chicago I would have guessed it was somewhere in the former eastern bloc.
DickGregory was the man!He may be gone but he still THE MAN!!!
The father of bluegrass said that when he developed bluegrass he would always put blues in every song he wrote. We’d still be doing the minuet in America without the blues.
Excellent documentary
The 1972 date is inaccurate, as the end of the vid states - 1970. I actually recorded the soundtrack off the telly in january 1971, and played it a lot, but I haven't heard if for over fifty years. Is everybody happy ? You bet your life we are ..........................................
With the sad part about this is nobody's living the life we should this music is like no other don't be mistaken his feeling emotions and a badass hook
Buddy Guy basically rules this documentary
Yes to that. Why can't he play like that more often? He's just ON. No sloppy drunk jive here. Junior, too.
+TheGuitarMusicFan That's why Junior Wells had to hold his guitar and stop him from playing, because he was playing nonsense.
TheGuitarMusicFan says you. Covers a lot of ground.
Buddy Guy "forgot" how to play the blues about 1970 and still hasn't gotten it back.
@@redeyecalendar4968 You forgot how to use your brain in 1970 and still haven't gotten it back.
This man is speaking on it and it is deep because living in it a bad neighborhood pretty soon your insurance on your car will go up God Bless America
Not until ONE admits ONE's mistake, can we them heal. Till then the hate and suffering continues its cycle. God bless
bornflex2975 the ride in the white mans cart is over.
Only one of the greats still left
Buddy Guy
That Muddy Water's performance in the beginning at about 12:00 minute....man, that was some intense emotion.
The man is a true master
Buddy Guy and Junior Wells are musical geniuses - and I use the word in its precise meaning: to accomplish or create perfection without precedent. They created the electric blues idiom.
But Jesus - what a god-awful city Chicago is! No human being should have to live in such hideous buildings in such hideous surroundings. It looks like Hell on Earth.
......I'm sure you speak of South Chicago.
Listen to T-Bone Walker and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Come to Chicago and tell me it's an ugly city. We have some of the most remarkable architecture in the world.
+willie otoole I think you are being a bit dramatic. Certainly they are good at their craft but genius? They owe a great deal to Son House, Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, Leadbelly, Blind Lemon Jefferson, John Lee Hooker, Robert Johnson and a whole host of others, as most musicians do, who went before them.
Those buildings are long gone, and so are most of the people who lived in them. These days, if you can't afford a $500,000 dollar condo, you are not welcome in Chicago. Doesn't matter what color you are, or how long you've lived here, if you are not at least very well off, you are no longer welcome.
33:48 ….what song is this? Badass groove. Also, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells play their asses off in this documentary
"Too much woman for a Henpecked Man - ike and Tina Turner. Also played by the Faces. Both versions are dope
As usual, it seems it took a foreign film company to document what was going on here already - nobody too close to home wanted to look at what was going on?! As Muddy Waters said, "Kids crying for bread and they had it in their own back yard" (meaning the blues music not the actual bread, but a great analogy just the same).
It was made by Harry Cork liss who was from Chicago but he went to film school in London.
Let`s here it for the Blues, YEAH!
33.47 bad ass groove man !!!
+yawn jones - Sounds like "Too Much Woman for A Henpecked Man" by Ike Turner.
+Brandy “Nu Skool Sings Old School” Sanders
*It sounds slower & much heavier on here, is it the same version as the original?*
*or maybe its because of the quality of the upload. Sounds better like this.*
NO, it's not the original. But I believe that's the song. It sounds like the song has been remixed.
Fun seeing the way the CTA looked years ago. Interesting seeing the way the city has changed compared to today. In the footage, the city looks spacious, today certain areas are filled in. Kinda cool!!!
RIP Harp Player Paul Oscher - just passed from Covid...
Mike Bloomfield learned from these legends and helped them get more recognition from white audiences.
Junior Wells=fire!!
buddy guy king of blues
Did God say machines were gonna take the place of men? And what's your substitute for bread and beans? Do engines get rewarded for their steam? ... Johnny cash
BUDDY GUY !!!!!
Attempted political statements aside, there are lot of interesting personalities and truly great music in this doc. I quite liked it.
The blues is magic music..
no its not; its real music.
What is the song at 34 minutes?! What a groove...I love this doc, I’ve watched it several times!
WHAT?! - You cut the sound to the meanest jam of the whole documentary (at the end, by Buddy Guy)?! - It was the most cooking part of the whole thing! Why would you simply kill the sound then?!
I agree - I remember seeing this at somebody's house and to be this close to that ending free-form jam by Buddy is PAINFUL!
It probably got pulled.
There is a record called “Chicago the Blues Today” not sure if it still available!
anyone know what song comes on at 33:48? shazam and soundhound are both vexed
or if there's any full recording of "the first time i met the blues" at 41:22? unbelievable
Too Much Woman for a Henpecked Man
"Too much woman for a Henpecked Man" Ike and Tina Turner. Also played by the Faces, both versions are dope
First time ii saw Arivilla Grey on film. Very rare.
What a depressing documentary - very well done, but very depressing. I could listen to Dick Gregory all day - he speaks the truth. Just look at those housing projects in Chicago - they do look like prisons. All they need is the barbed wire and the electrified fences. No past, no present, no future.
The barbed wire and electrical were there---mentally.
Buddy Guy and Junior Wells - two badass cool mutherfuckers.
33:47 does anyone know the name of the song? It is spectacular
@Gus THANK YOU VERY MUCH, LONG LIVE THE BLUES BROTHER! GREETINGS FROM FORMOSA - ARGENTINA.
The link i was listening 2. When you chimed inn. This am
All the greats BB KING ALBERT KING FREDDIE KING ROBERT JOHNSON MUDDY WATERS BUDDY GUY ELMORE JAMES LIGHTNING HOPKINS so many to name
Lil Milton!!! His metaphors were Genius. Example: "Pouring water on a drowning man" My Parents are Albert and B.B. superfans.
I always thought BB was overrated.
muchisimas gracias por publicar esta documental y esta musica tan maravillosa