Tres bien!
Tres bien!
This song is part of an evolution of several older Blues songs. Chicago blues musician Floyd Jones recorded a song titled in 1953. It was a remake of his successful 1951 song . Both songs are based on Mississippi Delta bluesman Tommy Johnson's 1928 song (Canned Heat took their name from Johnson's 1928 song "Canned Heat Blues"). Johnson's lyrics include: "Well I ain't goin' down that big road by myself ... If I don't carry you gonna carry somebody else". Jones "reshaped Tommy Johnson's verses into an eerie evocation of the Delta". In "Dark Road" he added:
Whoaa well my mother died and left me
Ohh when I was quite young, when I was quite young ...
Said Lord have mercy ooo, on my wicked son
And in "On the Road Again" he added
Whoaa I had to travel, whoaa in the rain and snow in the rain and snow
My baby had quit me ooo (2×)
Have no place to go
Canned Heat's version of "On the Road Again" was among the first songs Canned Heat recorded as demos in April 1967 at the RCA Studios in Chicago. Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson (vocal, harmonica, electric guitar) used verses from Floyd Jones' "On the Road Again" and "Dark Road" and added some lines of his own:
Well I'm so tired of cryin' but I'm out on the road again, I'm on the road again (2×)
I ain't got no woman just to call my special friend
For the instrumental accompaniment, Canned Heat uses a "basic E/G/A blues chord pattern" or "one-chord boogie riff" adapted from John Lee Hooker's 1949 hit . That might also sound familiar to ZZ Top fans as an influence to "La Grange". Expanding on Jones' hypnotic drone, Wilson used an Eastern string instrument called a tanpura which produces a continuous harmonic drone.
This song is part of an evolution of several older Blues songs. Chicago blues musician Floyd Jones recorded a song titled ["On the Road Again"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7_7lzuqR20) in 1953. It was a remake of his successful 1951 song ["Dark Road"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvuOhVM7KNI). Both songs are based on Mississippi Delta bluesman Tommy Johnson's 1928 song ["Big Road Blues"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU6eLg3GWuA) (Canned Heat took their name from Johnson's 1928 song "Canned Heat Blues"). Johnson's lyrics include: "Well I ain't goin' down that big road by myself ... If I don't carry you gonna carry somebody else". Jones "reshaped Tommy Johnson's verses into an eerie evocation of the Delta". In "Dark Road" he added:
Whoaa well my mother died and left me
Ohh when I was quite young, when I was quite young ...
Said Lord have mercy ooo, on my wicked son
And in "On the Road Again" he added
Whoaa I had to travel, whoaa in the rain and snow in the rain and snow
My baby had quit me ooo (2×)
Have no place to go
Canned Heat's version of "On the Road Again" was among the first songs Canned Heat recorded as demos in April 1967 at the RCA Studios in Chicago. Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson (vocal, harmonica, electric guitar) used verses from Floyd Jones' "On the Road Again" and "Dark Road" and added some lines of his own:
Well I'm so tired of cryin' but I'm out on the road again, I'm on the road again (2×)
I ain't got no woman just to call my special friend
For the instrumental accompaniment, Canned Heat uses a "basic E/G/A blues chord pattern" or "one-chord boogie riff" adapted from John Lee Hooker's 1949 hit ["Boogie Chillen'"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4pp02_GN9A). That might also sound familiar to ZZ Top fans as an influence to "La Grange". Expanding on Jones' hypnotic drone, Wilson used an Eastern string instrument called a tanpura which produces a continuous harmonic drone.
(post is archived)