Roots of Blues -- Kokomo Arnold „Head Cutting Blues"

„Head Cutting Blues"
(J. Arnold)

Recorded: Chicago,November 3, 1937
Kokomo Arnold (vcl) (g), Peetie Wheatstraw (p)

Kokomo Arnold (15 February 1901 — 8 November 1968) was an American blues musician. Born James Arnold in Lovejoy's Station, Georgia, Arnold received his nickname in 1934 after releasing "Old Original Kokomo Blues" for the Decca label; it was a cover of the Scrapper Blackwell blues song about the Kokomo brand of coffee. A left-handed slide guitarist, his intense slide style of playing and rapid-fire vocal style set him apart from his contemporaries.

Having learned the basics of the guitar from his cousin, John Wiggs, Arnold began playing in the early 1920s as a sideline while he worked as a farmhand in Buffalo, New York, and as a steelworker in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1929 he moved to Chicago and set up a bootlegging business, an activity he continued throughout Prohibition. In 1930 Arnold moved south briefly, and made his first recordings, "Rainy Night Blues" and "Paddlin' Madeline Blues", under the name Gitfiddle Jim for the Victor label in Memphis, Tennessee. He soon moved back to the bootlegging center of Chicago, though he was forced to make a living as a musician after the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution ending Prohibition in 1933. Kansas Joe McCoy heard him and introduced him to Mayo Williams who was producing records for Decca[2].

From his first recording for Decca on 10 September 1934 until his last on 12 May 1938, Arnold made eighty-eight sides, seven of which remain lost. Along with Peetie Wheatstraw and Bumble Bee Slim, he was a dominant figure in Chicago blues circles. His major influence upon modern music is, along with Peetie Wheatstraw, upon the seminal delta blues artist Robert Johnson, a musical contemporary. Johnson turned "Old Original Kokomo Blues" into "Sweet Home Chicago", while another Arnold song, "Sagefield Woman Blues", introduced the terminology "dust my broom", which Johnson used as a song title himself.

Arnold's "Milk Cow Blues" was covered by Aerosmith on their 1977 album, Draw the Line; and became "Milk Cow Blues Boogie", as performed by Elvis Presley.

In 1938 Arnold left the music industry and began to work in a Chicago factory. Rediscovered by blues researchers in 1962, he showed no enthusiasm for returning to music to take advantage of the new explosion of interest in the blues among young white audiences.

He died of a heart attack in Chicago at the age of sixty-seven in 1968, and was buried in the Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Blues
• Roots_of_Blues
• History_of_music
• Vintage_Blues

[MrBuk86]

@fourtoi It is. They should get a pic of Kokomo on there.

[umuuumu]

@fourtoi it's Mississippi John Hurt. I just gotta say Slowtubbi- you really should try to get the photos of the correct musicians lined up with who were listening to....

[2quundar]

@fourtoi  to me too...

[busessuck1]

@1946hastings the best music is from all them years ago - in fact a few decades prior to this when artists like him were in their prime y'know

[1946hastings]

what brilliant music from all those years ago, I would love to purchase the CD from Kelvin in Kent England

[lionking6199zj]

Yup; that's MJH... I know that face, that gracious smile. Additionally, checkin' out some of MJH's fancy guitar work is Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee...

[gitfiddlejim]

Well I recon the bald fellow in back, is Brownie McGhee & Sonny terry to his right, with the ciggy

G

[polarityrecords]

Yeah, you might wanna replace this with a photo of Kokomo instead!

[bluelouwwoz]

The fellow in the back is likely enjoying the music of Mississippi John Hurt.

[effoff22]

That IS Mississippi John Hurt. No doubt about it.