The right hand illustrates the African approach as drum-like rhythmic, where European was melodic. Also, that, as Teavis said, there was a culture of "solo" players who, w/o media, knew of each other even if one was in Mississippi & the other in Texas, and they would eventually meet. Their legend preceded them. This right hand is so different than anything contemporary---it's loose & floppy yet dead-on percussive, getting all kinds of polyrhythms. We were lucky to "rediscover" him in the 60s.
@skankdude5 "We"=earthlings. By the 1960s, Muddy Waters said white people couldn't play his music, cuz the Delta-informed timing was so different...of a different era, style, and age. He also said he couldn't find by that time black people that could play it either, though he did have the white Bob Margolin as his guitar player, so to him (and me), music is colored blind. That said, it was the primarily white Newport Folk Festival that rediscovered so many forgotten musicians, white and black.
This music is alive, you can feel it in your bones while it touches your soul. You cant feel this in any so called modern blues. These guys played the blues, theyre gone but their music lives on. I love this music and Son House is one of my fav's, what a legend. I feel so bad, i wish he had a better life. May peace be with you Son House where ever you are, see you in heaven my brother.
@Steavis I hear what you're talking about but at 0:02 it looks to me like there is another guitarist sitting across from him. My guess would be he was playing those downward runs during this recording. I have no personal knowledge of the recording to back this theory up.
@Steavis I don't know if its a shame. Back in the old days Son House didn't just play solo. He traveled and played with WIllie Brown and even a young Howlin Wolf. In the early 40's Alan Lomax recorded him with a 3 piece band. Personally I think Son sounds energized by having a second guitar who can follow him and add to the song. LIke 'Finally a young man who get's it!'
Son House always terrified me when I was younger. There is a raw, unfiltered potency that halts and chills me to the bone. What happened to honesty and screaming truth without regard? Despite lyrics, to resonate pure emotion that anything alive simply cannot deny.
For those of you whom have not heard Mike Finnigan's cover of Son House's song Death Letter from the mid-70's, you can go to Youtube and type in Mike FInnigan Death Letter.
now this is real blues. muddy and wolf are legends but with son house's music you can really feel the saddness and oppression in his voice and music. i was touched when i first heard this song.
Ronnie Van Zant mentioned Son House by name in Swamp Music and some versions of Son's Preachin' Blues he used the exact same "Alabama Bound" that Ronnie would later use.
i listen to alot of delta blues and son house is one of few where its kind of creepy to listen to. Son House pulled no punches and you cant help put feel some kind of pain in his voice and attack of the guitar
Son House, that ol' boy's voice gives me the shivers every I time hear him. You talk about preaching and feeling the blues. You can hear the emotion in his voice.
Such a great line! This is complex and precise stuff.
Conviction - that's it.
You can't fake it and it puts the record buying public off if it's too pure. Wait 40 years and Seasick Steve will PRETEND to mean it for the modern blues audience...
It worrys me that black people don't listen to this anymore. These guys are the
predecessors of Soul and R&B as well as Rock. I go to a lot of blues festivals and I see only a hand full of black. It's like they have abandoned their musical roots for Rap. It makes me sick
What do you want? You want the 'black folks' to go back to the cotton fields and live in borderline poverty so that they can entertain you with their soulful hollerin'.
The reason I don't listen to a lot of Jimmy Shand these days is that I've developed a taste for 'musical progression'.
Imagine the cheek of the blacks - giving up the old dobros for the mainstream success of 'Rap'.
The blues is awsome! Its great to see the youth listening to the blues, because when I die I want other people to pass on the blues. Son House is my favorite blues artist. I took a class in college called folklore of the blues and I learned so much the instructor was an apprentice to Johnny Johnson who is the father of Rock-n-Roll from my home state of WV.
A distilled verison of the wretchedness of the human condition condensed to sound, that is what Blues accomplishes, and does so more viscerally than most other forms of expression- contemporary popular music being lost, for it doesn't really speak to anything, no human condition, no pathos, etc, just a vacous expression that expresse the latest fashion of the corporate music industry. What shame that art has fallen to the wayside.
@Nittacci .. damn right haha!! suppose it was those years of playing that lead to asbestos hands eh?! no-one attacks the guitar like anymore, a shame really, really adds to the power of the performance!
I've seen this video a thousand times on YT and just realized the guy to the left in the openingshot isn't holding a camera but a guitar.... Son isn't playing this alone.
You all know that Son wanted to be a Baptist preacher when he was a kid, about 15 or so. The Blues come along and snatched him up, and music was never the same. He preached more when he sang than most folks ever did from behind a pulpit.
@LedZeppelinPage Because the general audience isn't as intelligent today as it used to be then. This kind of music is too complex for an average teenager to like, even if it's just one person and his guitar. This isn't an insult to all teens, for I am 16 and enjoyed music like this since my early childhood.
This was the last living person to know Robert Johnson when he was alive. Robert Looked up to this man, and even, well I think this man was a great influence on Ole Robert. By the way Robert Johnson was noted in being the creator of modern rock, and blues
now this is where its at. Legends like son house. It's a shame he died, even at 83, i think. This man and his voice, helped carry the blues to some of it's highest moments. Robert johnson, willie brown, charley patton, and the likes paly and knew this man. He is a legend.
Yeah this is the raw. As The great Son House reached the peak of his rediscovered popularity, at the end of the sixties/start of the seventies, he started to forget the lyrics to his own songs - like here - the last verse doesnt belong. But for that 4 or 5 years he roared across another generation like a flaming comet. The Great Son House - murderer, alcoholic and preacher. Also, master musician and singer, wise man and fool- the delta blues incarnate. R.I.P. Eddie House jnr.
Imagine you put all the blues of all time - all the cane field hollers, the black gospel blues, the sad laments of every black man and woman who was ever downtrodden - and you put them all in a big old Louisiana whisky still and boiled them down. Well the ESSENCE you would get from this distillation would be Son House and the Death Letter Blues.
Bonnie Raitt said "Son House was the cat, in my opinion. He was the most authentic, scary, deepest cat I've ever heard play the blues."
Absolutely incredible. Comes from somewhere that you either have or haven't got...that stuff can't be taught. Like watching angel getting something off his chest.
That's what true art is about..not no stupid idea or conceptual thing...just plain simple raw talent and real emotional power without being soft..or hard..just being real about himself..but not really knowing it himself..so..he's not acting..he is..blues..
hard to believe this great bluesman had to be a porter on trains this in my opinion is the very best blues song ever!!amazing the sound he got from that old national guitar and tapping his foot!!!bless you son house wherever you are!!!!
Son House was one of the greatest blues players ever recorded. No special effects or editing his music. It's raw & fantastic, makes the hair on my neck stand up.
This really is good stuff, Son House 'lived' songs when he sang them, such emotion. That open palmed right hand style is unique too - always beats me how he didn;t slice his fingertips off doing that!
I'm intrigued by that mysterious word at the end though. Sploo... what can it mean? I may have to start using it at the end of songs with my band, lol...
Agree about the right hand slicing. It's dangerous. But you just can't ever get that sound with a pick. If you ever get a chance, check out one of Son House's protogees -- the phenomenal Rory Block. She refuses to use a pick and has drawn blood at her performances more that once.
Sploo! Never could get on with a pick, I always dropped them so for the last 30 years I've used a fingerpick, it frees up my hand and I can relax into my playing and use other fingers or my thumb when needed, but this looks like the playing of a man who wore away his fingerprints! I'm gonna have to search youtube to see if anyone's done a Son House tutorial... Love the intensity of his performance.
Son House actually preceded Robert Johnson, he of course lived much longer. They knew each other, and Robert Johnson learned some guitar from Son House.
He played with such emotion and raw feeling. Straight to the point. Thats what's great about the blues. Sad to see that music today is nowhere near as good as this.
He aint givin those strings an mercy
MacaDamion8899 2 weeks ago
The right hand illustrates the African approach as drum-like rhythmic, where European was melodic. Also, that, as Teavis said, there was a culture of "solo" players who, w/o media, knew of each other even if one was in Mississippi & the other in Texas, and they would eventually meet. Their legend preceded them. This right hand is so different than anything contemporary---it's loose & floppy yet dead-on percussive, getting all kinds of polyrhythms. We were lucky to "rediscover" him in the 60s.
skankdude5 2 months ago
@skankdude5 Who is this "we" of whom you speak, white man?
Maafa1619 1 month ago
@skankdude5 "We"=earthlings. By the 1960s, Muddy Waters said white people couldn't play his music, cuz the Delta-informed timing was so different...of a different era, style, and age. He also said he couldn't find by that time black people that could play it either, though he did have the white Bob Margolin as his guitar player, so to him (and me), music is colored blind. That said, it was the primarily white Newport Folk Festival that rediscovered so many forgotten musicians, white and black.
skankdude5 1 month ago
This is a work of art.
vintageleon76 4 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
If you like delta blues, check out Rat Stomp :)
youtube.com/user/ratstompmusic
ratstompmusic 6 months ago
This music is alive, you can feel it in your bones while it touches your soul. You cant feel this in any so called modern blues. These guys played the blues, theyre gone but their music lives on. I love this music and Son House is one of my fav's, what a legend. I feel so bad, i wish he had a better life. May peace be with you Son House where ever you are, see you in heaven my brother.
fIRsTRATmAN 6 months ago
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fIRsTRATmAN 6 months ago
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fIRsTRATmAN 6 months ago
Son House is the boss. A real badass...
fIRsTRATmAN 6 months ago
This sends chills down my spine. He's amazing.
RetroJenny 6 months ago
Ain't nobody can touch this.
wojack1000 6 months ago
@Steavis I hear what you're talking about but at 0:02 it looks to me like there is another guitarist sitting across from him. My guess would be he was playing those downward runs during this recording. I have no personal knowledge of the recording to back this theory up.
JohnnyAmerican 7 months ago
There's a second guitar mixed in this recording.. playing chromatic downward runs that son house is not playing. What a shame
Steavis 7 months ago
@Steavis listen to 0:57.. and see what I mean in case you don't believe it
Steavis 7 months ago
@Steavis I don't know if its a shame. Back in the old days Son House didn't just play solo. He traveled and played with WIllie Brown and even a young Howlin Wolf. In the early 40's Alan Lomax recorded him with a 3 piece band. Personally I think Son sounds energized by having a second guitar who can follow him and add to the song. LIke 'Finally a young man who get's it!'
Odin029 5 months ago 2
Son House always terrified me when I was younger. There is a raw, unfiltered potency that halts and chills me to the bone. What happened to honesty and screaming truth without regard? Despite lyrics, to resonate pure emotion that anything alive simply cannot deny.
Majoritis 7 months ago
Best :D
HermerTV 9 months ago
this could be the GREATEST perfomance EVER
TeamSweepTheLeg 9 months ago 2
For those of you whom have not heard Mike Finnigan's cover of Son House's song Death Letter from the mid-70's, you can go to Youtube and type in Mike FInnigan Death Letter.
beaconmike 10 months ago
Legendary <3
Dan272121 10 months ago
Amazing!!! He sounds like an orchestra.......God music guys......
feverrecords 11 months ago
Oh my god...I need to hear more of this. This is amazing.
DoItYourselfAbortion 11 months ago
son house is pure raw
ostrish 1 year ago
now this is real blues. muddy and wolf are legends but with son house's music you can really feel the saddness and oppression in his voice and music. i was touched when i first heard this song.
breasthound 1 year ago
whatever!!!
LoFerro75 1 year ago
its so hard to love someone that dont love you
dam deepest lyrics and true
cornholio530 1 year ago 3
Damn!! Sounds a lot like Skynyrd's Mississippi Kid!!!!
LoFerro75 1 year ago
@LoFerro75
Ronnie Van Zant mentioned Son House by name in Swamp Music and some versions of Son's Preachin' Blues he used the exact same "Alabama Bound" that Ronnie would later use.
OldScuff1 1 year ago
@LoFerro75 no...skynyrds mississippi kid sounds alot like this you mean
Omnio1506 1 year ago
Lyrics are awsome.
RRCraZy66 1 year ago
One of the all time standards !!!
walkhumbly 1 year ago
i listen to alot of delta blues and son house is one of few where its kind of creepy to listen to. Son House pulled no punches and you cant help put feel some kind of pain in his voice and attack of the guitar
ripsaw 1 year ago
Comment removed
Gorrrz 1 year ago
Son House, that ol' boy's voice gives me the shivers every I time hear him. You talk about preaching and feeling the blues. You can hear the emotion in his voice.
Squeege85 1 year ago
That's conviction. "Looked like 10,000 people standing round the burying ground. Didn't know that I loved her until they begin to let her down."
HogBranch 1 year ago
@HogBranch
Such a great line! This is complex and precise stuff.
Conviction - that's it.
You can't fake it and it puts the record buying public off if it's too pure. Wait 40 years and Seasick Steve will PRETEND to mean it for the modern blues audience...
sleakitweasel 1 year ago
It worrys me that black people don't listen to this anymore. These guys are the
predecessors of Soul and R&B as well as Rock. I go to a lot of blues festivals and I see only a hand full of black. It's like they have abandoned their musical roots for Rap. It makes me sick
crookhunter 1 year ago
@crookhunter I agree with you but also consider this: how many white people listen to classical music, their musical roots?
troubadour0 1 year ago
@crookhunter
I see a lot of comments like this.
What do you want? You want the 'black folks' to go back to the cotton fields and live in borderline poverty so that they can entertain you with their soulful hollerin'.
The reason I don't listen to a lot of Jimmy Shand these days is that I've developed a taste for 'musical progression'.
Imagine the cheek of the blacks - giving up the old dobros for the mainstream success of 'Rap'.
(does anyone still do Rap?)
sleakitweasel 1 year ago
The blues is awsome! Its great to see the youth listening to the blues, because when I die I want other people to pass on the blues. Son House is my favorite blues artist. I took a class in college called folklore of the blues and I learned so much the instructor was an apprentice to Johnny Johnson who is the father of Rock-n-Roll from my home state of WV.
bmccauley3 1 year ago
OH GOOD LORD.
immense
Cannibal78 1 year ago
love this!
MerkabaStar 1 year ago
"The Son House Movie," starring Morgan Freeman... pass it on...
meadowmarc89 1 year ago 21
@meadowmarc89 damn good idea!!
tshippy36 2 months ago
Wonderful! One of the greatest blues voices of them all.
HowlinWilf13 1 year ago
I always loved the cinematography of this. The camera's so simple and smooth while Son's so twitchy and animated.
japhyriddle 1 year ago
A distilled verison of the wretchedness of the human condition condensed to sound, that is what Blues accomplishes, and does so more viscerally than most other forms of expression- contemporary popular music being lost, for it doesn't really speak to anything, no human condition, no pathos, etc, just a vacous expression that expresse the latest fashion of the corporate music industry. What shame that art has fallen to the wayside.
PMishkin 1 year ago 5
Son House's Death Letter is for me the greatest blues song of all time... if I really got to name one :0)
solymar68 1 year ago
thanks for putting this playlist together, its exactly what i needed this morning.
halfbakedshawn 1 year ago
Your listening to the roots of a lot of modern music people. Glad you're here with me!!
journeyisseperate 1 year ago 2
Few men had a soul so troubled. Thank God for this mans life and music. I pray he found that soul to put his arms around
awsell 1 year ago
the man is dying through song, beautiful in its rawness
mike06812 1 year ago
Son u got tha blues in u and off u.................come to my house and play the blues wit me wood u...
teach me...
CPTNZORX 1 year ago
man not only does his fretting hand go crazy but he really pounds it with his strumming hand.... That man is nothing but the blues
Chanbang18 1 year ago 4
KILLER Brother.... Yes YEs YES
geneiv 1 year ago
Happy birthday Son House!
Polde1243 1 year ago
perfect rawness, unbelievable
parhhesia 1 year ago
@Nittacci .. damn right haha!! suppose it was those years of playing that lead to asbestos hands eh?! no-one attacks the guitar like anymore, a shame really, really adds to the power of the performance!
BakedKipling 1 year ago
Love this beautiful sound. Sounds like Richie Havens Grandaddy.
rahilkiani 1 year ago 3
Man, he's teaching that guitar a lesson.
If I tried to play like that my right hand would be shred to tatters.
Nittacci 1 year ago 8
The best video on youtube
buffalobilly 1 year ago
I absolutely love this.
ModernApple 1 year ago
what tuning is he in? open ______
josht619 1 year ago
G, I think.
bub64882 1 year ago
I wish I could play Piedmont Blues half as good a this man......
Chuckster015 1 year ago
I've seen this video a thousand times on YT and just realized the guy to the left in the openingshot isn't holding a camera but a guitar.... Son isn't playing this alone.
I wonder if it was Willy Brown asisting.
FraJa1980 1 year ago
@FraJa1980 I think it's Buddy Guy - they were recorded together in '68 and this could easily be from the same session.
GrilledFishJones 1 year ago
@FraJa1980 Oops! Apparently it's Jerry Ricks.
GrilledFishJones 1 year ago
This was so cool. Thank you for sharing this, K.
StickManJr 1 year ago
This is amazing. This is real music.
irishtreehugger1 1 year ago
You all know that Son wanted to be a Baptist preacher when he was a kid, about 15 or so. The Blues come along and snatched him up, and music was never the same. He preached more when he sang than most folks ever did from behind a pulpit.
Never get tired of listening...
bangwezl 1 year ago
One of the fathers of the blues
getarslim 1 year ago
That gal you love is daed. Wen I got there she was layin on the coolin board. Love it!
s1ygirl 2 years ago
see this is what black people should be doing now days instead of that lil wayne shit.
zerosk8r707 2 years ago
my head's moving and i don't understand one word of what he's saying ... powerful stuff
2001ffrlh2001 2 years ago
Why don't people listen to real music like this anymore.
This makes me shiver. Beauty.
LedZeppelinPage 2 years ago 61
Amen to that
zeppelinpwnes 2 years ago 2
I do. I'd much rather listen to this than any other type of music.
Typicus 2 years ago 2
@LedZeppelinPage Because the general audience isn't as intelligent today as it used to be then. This kind of music is too complex for an average teenager to like, even if it's just one person and his guitar. This isn't an insult to all teens, for I am 16 and enjoyed music like this since my early childhood.
BasementBeginnings 1 year ago
@LedZeppelinPage I listen to it, and I'm 13 >.>
sparkykid68 1 year ago 2
@LedZeppelinPage People are listening to it. You and me both, dude, to say nothing of Jack White.
uchitil 1 year ago
@LedZeppelinPage let the troll music fade out then bring the blues back
cornholio530 1 year ago
@LedZeppelinPage I listen every day my friend!
markstief 1 year ago
Makes me quake.
dommiamm 2 years ago
Anyone knows where to find a video or audio recording of the whole concert?
A CD or DVD would be so great!
armomega 2 years ago 2
brilliant! Anyone know where this video is from? Recording date?
Thanks!
gpsolis 2 years ago
impresionante.
nicorefe 2 years ago 5
Historical influence is awesome.
rfw45 2 years ago 5
make u do things u dont wanna do
amandawho 2 years ago
Look robert Jr lockwood or honeyboy Edwards they both knew robert johnson is wasn't jus son house
GOLDENGOD1967 2 years ago
Pretty much made Eric Clapton, and many of your other favorite rock guitar genuisus.
musicloveyes 2 years ago
This was the last living person to know Robert Johnson when he was alive. Robert Looked up to this man, and even, well I think this man was a great influence on Ole Robert. By the way Robert Johnson was noted in being the creator of modern rock, and blues
musicloveyes 2 years ago
The last living person who knew Robert Johnson is Mr. David "Honeyboy" Edwards, still alive and kicking!!!
MGvideoproductions 2 years ago
The last musician to see Robert Johnson alive was Sonny boy Williams 2, they played together on the night he was poisoned
tarquimSuperbus 2 years ago
Comment removed
hotratslll 2 years ago
q bueno loco
bebutas 2 years ago
Great!
MrTomaatti 2 years ago 2
now this is where its at. Legends like son house. It's a shame he died, even at 83, i think. This man and his voice, helped carry the blues to some of it's highest moments. Robert johnson, willie brown, charley patton, and the likes paly and knew this man. He is a legend.
OMGITSTHEMUSLIM 2 years ago 3
This has been flagged as spam show
This was the top 40 style music back when Son was a young man. So, in a sense, he was the Miley Sirus of his time.
jesseh1 2 years ago
Aahahah except the fact that he isn't a spoiled whore with no talent or inspiration :)
alexicon89 2 years ago 4
This has been flagged as spam show
lo, liek the jonas brothers and miley cyrus
OMGITSTHEMUSLIM 2 years ago
I do say, this is excellent.
cryerkid 2 years ago
If Robert Johnson had to die so young thank god we got to have son house
INTENSETIM 2 years ago 39
@INTENSETIM Son House > Robert Johnson to be honest. In fact he mentored him.
splitenzfreak1980 1 year ago
thats the real deal
rsl84416 2 years ago 8
Yeah this is the raw. As The great Son House reached the peak of his rediscovered popularity, at the end of the sixties/start of the seventies, he started to forget the lyrics to his own songs - like here - the last verse doesnt belong. But for that 4 or 5 years he roared across another generation like a flaming comet. The Great Son House - murderer, alcoholic and preacher. Also, master musician and singer, wise man and fool- the delta blues incarnate. R.I.P. Eddie House jnr.
Boviss1 2 years ago 4
This has been flagged as spam show
shut up
scuba1daniel 2 years ago
nice
bettudont 2 years ago
if anybody ever asks you what the blues is about... just show them this video.
;)
notbendable 2 years ago
You can see the blues in this man's eyes
Fififlan 2 years ago
Imagine you put all the blues of all time - all the cane field hollers, the black gospel blues, the sad laments of every black man and woman who was ever downtrodden - and you put them all in a big old Louisiana whisky still and boiled them down. Well the ESSENCE you would get from this distillation would be Son House and the Death Letter Blues.
Bonnie Raitt said "Son House was the cat, in my opinion. He was the most authentic, scary, deepest cat I've ever heard play the blues."
She was spot on.
greysparrow68 2 years ago 7
Fucking wonderful!
asliceofhell 2 years ago
This has been flagged as spam show
americans are stupids.
i wanna bomb your buildings,
but it´s a fucking great music.
fucking good times
good lucky.
deysongilbert 2 years ago
Comment removed
deysongilbert 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
bad song, just boring 1/5
FamecHiLl 2 years ago
dunno how you can even think that O,o
camisgreat666 2 years ago
Well you can't say it's a bad song, it's legendary
It's no techno shit or rap with bling bling. It's blues to the bone, maybe someday you'll understand. Gotta have respect for son house
wolfske89 2 years ago 6
People like you need to be considerate of the feelings of people who don't have shit taste in music.
GallowayJesse 2 years ago
i just love this!
jessicalynnhowrad 2 years ago
Ole Son House, love that troop, the real deal.....
SECtennesseeSEC 2 years ago 4
any one have the exact tabs of how son house played this and poor boy long way from home
shawnyboie 2 years ago
Music of this calibre is beyond "tabs". Just let it sink in a little.
sunvoltage 2 years ago 6
he was absolutely brilliant ..
oldguy537 2 years ago
warning to all kinds that want to be singer songwriters, and are about to watch this clip.
this shit is to real that you it might discourages you.
dOUBLEDDOULBE 2 years ago 6
good god this is awesome.
rtuzak91 2 years ago 5
This guy is my savior.
bleuskais 2 years ago 8
This is one bad motherfucker.
notbendable 2 years ago 15
Absolutely incredible. Comes from somewhere that you either have or haven't got...that stuff can't be taught. Like watching angel getting something off his chest.
phatbassman 2 years ago 7
Just amazing.
predawntension 2 years ago 5
WHERE & WHEN Was this recorded?? his music is dangerous for its times. I bet he was banned from radio play and feared by white people.
Alphabex8 2 years ago
He really didn't become popular until the blues revival, so his first recordings never really became popular until t hen.
djhijinx 2 years ago 5
Wow. just... wow.
ToronadoCheese 2 years ago 2
does someone knows the tuning of this song?
jobbegoossens 2 years ago
It's in Open G Tuning, along with most of Son's songs.
Low to high- DGDGBd
RocketMcGrane 2 years ago 10
This is the cat that taught robert johnson how to play....before he went down to the crossroad.
cycosteve2006 2 years ago 2
Magical.........
KantorTzarCollectif 2 years ago
no wonder i liked white stripes version so much, because it originated from this gem.
maroonoasis 2 years ago 6
.........."I didn't know I loved her until they began to lower her down....." Good God. Some heart wrenching lyrics.
bunkhouse 2 years ago 8
wow.... I'm kinda speachless right now
trippownz 2 years ago 5
That's what true art is about..not no stupid idea or conceptual thing...just plain simple raw talent and real emotional power without being soft..or hard..just being real about himself..but not really knowing it himself..so..he's not acting..he is..blues..
nilsdiolby 2 years ago 4
Beautiful, plain and simple. Son House has a gift.
008ophiuchus800 3 years ago 4
his right hand technique is outta control. iv never seen anything like it.
Flanneljack 3 years ago 7
Excellent taste whoever this is!
styankendall 3 years ago 2
Preacher boy does a great version of this on his album "demanding to be next" there is a short clip on here somewhere too
waitsfan 3 years ago
The source, the power, forever and ever
Glaeken1961 3 years ago
amazing
waffen2 3 years ago
hard to believe this great bluesman had to be a porter on trains this in my opinion is the very best blues song ever!!amazing the sound he got from that old national guitar and tapping his foot!!!bless you son house wherever you are!!!!
garymichaelc 3 years ago 4
not hard to believe if you know any American history
Diomedes22 3 years ago 2
yup, mind blowing. that man is the genuine article.
madmatt1 3 years ago 2
1st time i heard this...wow nice
glennish1972 3 years ago 2
What an incredible performance - vocals, playing, lyrics, passion. Son House, we are not worthy!
g4pei 3 years ago
oh my god : 0
liedowninthelight 3 years ago
Incredible,thanks for sharing.
walesdad 3 years ago
Am i strange for liking this so much? :)
Kalmthemc 3 years ago
No way man. You have superb taste.
g4pei 3 years ago
Hell yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kalmthemc 3 years ago
I love Son House, and I love this song.
HowlinWilf13 3 years ago
Son House was one of the greatest blues players ever recorded. No special effects or editing his music. It's raw & fantastic, makes the hair on my neck stand up.
Faroutdog 3 years ago 4
CAN ANYONE PUT A DATE ON THIS?
bangwezl 3 years ago
Maybe early 1960s, after people tracked him down after being "retired"...doesn't matter it's still timeless.
crazymikeburles 3 years ago
This really is good stuff, Son House 'lived' songs when he sang them, such emotion. That open palmed right hand style is unique too - always beats me how he didn;t slice his fingertips off doing that!
I'm intrigued by that mysterious word at the end though. Sploo... what can it mean? I may have to start using it at the end of songs with my band, lol...
knobstick 3 years ago
some idiot announcer overriding the end sayin 'blues'...
bangwezl 3 years ago
It's Son House saying 'blues' :\
karl198 3 years ago
Agree about the right hand slicing. It's dangerous. But you just can't ever get that sound with a pick. If you ever get a chance, check out one of Son House's protogees -- the phenomenal Rory Block. She refuses to use a pick and has drawn blood at her performances more that once.
Peace
buskersworld 3 years ago
Sploo! Never could get on with a pick, I always dropped them so for the last 30 years I've used a fingerpick, it frees up my hand and I can relax into my playing and use other fingers or my thumb when needed, but this looks like the playing of a man who wore away his fingerprints! I'm gonna have to search youtube to see if anyone's done a Son House tutorial... Love the intensity of his performance.
knobstick 3 years ago
his entire right hand must have been one big callous, almost like a brick layers hands. Pretty good stuff
Het81 3 years ago
Pluck n slap n slide n wail d blues from cradle to grave, oh lord av mercy.
notdeadjustlazy 3 years ago 2
for a moment I thought I was looking at the lost footage of robert johnson. This could be the best video on youtube.
buffalobilly 3 years ago
Son House actually preceded Robert Johnson, he of course lived much longer. They knew each other, and Robert Johnson learned some guitar from Son House.
a55john 3 years ago
As did Muddy Waters. House is bedrock blues, the best there ever was.
Chancelander 3 years ago
I wish music was still this beautiful.
TheGrouchDnD 3 years ago 4
this is great blues
Mixmaatti 3 years ago
Goosebumps, I've got goosebumps
Rollinleddoor28 3 years ago
damn right. "A low down shakin' chill"
God rest you Son House
jekk23 3 years ago 3
This has been flagged as spam show
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suprovalco 3 years ago
This is absolutely classic, and one of my favorite cuts of this tune. When I die, I want to meet Son House in Heaven.
wanketta 3 years ago 4
It gives me Chills!Deep downhearted Pure Blues!See how Son House sweat out the words!A True story from
this mans life!Son House will live for ever in our heart and souls!
zsylvana 3 years ago 3
He played with such emotion and raw feeling. Straight to the point. Thats what's great about the blues. Sad to see that music today is nowhere near as good as this.
Thebumguy 3 years ago 4