You Shook Me

You Shook Me
Muddy Waters
publication	1962
length	2:44
Genre (s)	blues
Author (s)	Willie Dixon , JB Lenoir
Label	Chess
Cover versions
1968	Jeff Beck Group
1969	Led Zeppelin

You Shook Me is a blues songrecorded in 1962by Chicago blues musician Muddy Waters . The melody is sung by Muddy Waters and played in unison by Earl Hooker on the slide guitar . You Shook Me became one of Muddy Waters' best-known singles in the early 1960s and was covered by numerous blues and rock musicians.

background

You Shook Me has a unique story among Muddy Waters ' songs: It is the first of his songs to include his vocals overdubbing over an existing song. That song is Blue Guitar , an instrumental slide guitar blues recorded by Earl Hooker for Chief Records on May 3, 1961 during a recording session . To start the session, Hooker and his backing band played a "warm-up song" that was relatively loosely formed from earlier Hooker songs. A recording was made, apparently without Hooker's knowledge. In addition to Earl Hooker ( slide guitar ), AC Reed and Ernest Cotton ( tenor saxophones ), Johnny "Big Moose" Walker ( organ , piano ), Ernest Johnson ( electric bass ) and Bobby Little ( drums ) played. Occasionally, Willie Dixon ( double bass ), Lafayette Leake or Otis Spann (piano) and Casey Jones (drums) are also mentioned.

Chief Records owner and producer Mel London released the song in 1962 on the sub-label Age Records under the title Blue Guitar , with Earl Hooker as a musician and author. The single became very popular in Chicago and sold unusually well for a purely instrumental blues.

Muddy Waters' song

The Chess Records owner and producer Leonard Chess was aware of a greater potential for the song and went to London by Chief Records zoom to Blue Guitar for the next Muddy Waters to use recordings. There has been an agreement and on June 27, 1962 Muddy Waters took a vocal track with lyrics by Willie Dixon and JB Lenoir , which by overdubbing was placed over Hooker recordings of the 1961st Despite the unnatural nature, it worked surprisingly well, which is in large part due to the musicians' common musical background (both came from the Mississippi Delta). Chess released the recording under the title You Shook Me .

Dixon's lyrics are often compared to other songs he wrote for Chicago blues musicians, such as I Can't Quit You Baby for Otis Rush and Mad Love for Muddy Waters . You Shook Me also tells of the consequences of an affair for a married man:

You know you shook me baby, you shook me all night long (twice)

Oh you kept on shakin 'me darlin', oh you messed up my happy home

For the melody, Muddy Waters simply sang Hooker's slide guitar part, which made the song distinctive. You Shook Me is a moderately slow 12-bar blues , in 12/8 time and D major . Although You Shook Me didn't hit the national charts, it was successful enough that Leonard Chess wanted to repeat the principle. In October 1962, he had Muddy Waters overdubs to three other instrumental songs by Hooker. One of these, You Need Love , was also successful and sold better than Muddy Waters' recordings from the early 1960s.

In 1963, Pye Records released these Muddy Waters / Earl Hooker songs on an EP in Great Britain . The EP was very popular with teenagers at the time, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page . Manager and producer Giorgio Gomelsky claimed he had arranged a meeting at which Dixon (along with Howlin 'Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson II ) recorded unreleased recordings of several songs including You Shook Me and Little Red Rooster , Eric Clapton , Jimmy Page, Brian Jones , John Mayall, and others. Dixon recalled having edited many recordings back then that were later made by the Yardbirds and the Rolling Stones .

Version of the Jeff Beck Group

The British guitarist Jeff Beck picked You Shook Me with the first Jeff Beck Group duty system during the sessions for the album Truth in May 1968. Beck's hard rock arrangement was a highlight of the live performances with its dynamic interplay between Beck's guitar and Rod Stewart's voice. Beck used a fuzz box and wah-wah pedal for his extended fills around Stewart's vocals as well as for his solo. The song ends with guitar amplifier feedback, which Beck describes in the Truth booklet like this:

"Last note of song is my guitar being sick - well so would you if I smashed your guts for 2:28."

"With the last note of the song, my guitar is fed up - you would too if I hit your guts for 2:28 minutes."

- Jeff Beck

Beck biographer Martin Power adds:

"Jeff's solo at the end of 'You Shook Me' indeed lived up to his claim, vomiting all over Rod's shoes at the conclusion"

"Jeff's solo at the end of" You Shook Me "lives up to his claim to spew everything over Rod's shoes at the end."

- Martin Power

For the recording, studio musician John Paul Jones (who plays bass on Beck's Bolero and Happenings Ten Years Time Ago by the Yardbirds ) contributed the organ part, which he will later play for the version of Led Zeppelin . Although Columbia distributed a 45 rpm "demonstration record" of You Shook Me , a single was never released for the general public. The song is part of Truth and various Jeff Beck collections.

Version of Led Zeppelin

The British rock band Led Zeppelin took You Shook Me for her debut album Led Zeppelin of the year 1969. It has been described as a piece of post-psychedelic blues rock, with a healthy dose of theatrical singing from Robert Plant and guitar fireworks from Jimmy Page . At 6:28 minutes, this recording is significantly longer than the recordings of Muddy Waters or Jeff Beck . Except for the pauses during the guitar solo, Led Zeppelin uses a simple twelve bar blues arrangement but plays at a slower pace.

During the beginning and end vocal parts, Page takes Earl Hooker's slide guitar melody and expands it with a generous amount of guitar effects to match Plant's vocal note by note. Plant uses Willie Dixon's opening words, but also uses words from Robert Johnson's Stones in My Passway : “I have a bird that whistles and I have birds that sings” (Eng .: “I have a bird that whistles and I have a bird that sings "). The instrumental part consists of three twelve-bar parts in which John Paul Jones (organ), Robert Plant (harmonica) and Jimmy Page (guitar) play solo. The accompaniment has been described as very well arranged, as John Bonham limits the use of the cymbal to one beat in each measure and the hi-hat plays in unison with his bass drum.

Jones recorded his part once on the organ and on an electric piano. Page used his "backward echo" technique for Plant's voice and guitar towards the end. The production technique involves an echo that can be heard before the actual sound can be heard. This is achieved by flipping the tape and recording an echo on a separate track. Then the tape is turned over again and the echo precedes the sound. Page originally developed this method when he recorded the single Ten Little Indians with the Yardbirds in 1967. As he later told:

"I said," Look, turn the tape over and employ the echo for the brass on a spare track. Then turn it back over and we'll get the echo preceding the signal. " The result was very interesting - it made the track sound like it was going backwards. "

"I said," Come on, turn the tape over and put the echo for the brass on a separate track. Then turn it back and we'll have the echo before the signal. " The result was very interesting - it made the title sound like it was running backwards. "

- Jimmy Page

Led Zeppelin performed You Shook Me during their concert tours until October 1969, and only occasionally after that as the band began to incorporate more and more material from the following album into their live performances. Two versions from 1969 and 1971 are included on their album BBC Session . The 1970 Led Zeppelin DVD contains a performance from the Royal Albert Hall. Jimmy Page performed the song on his 1999 tour with The Black Crowes. This version can be heard on the album Live at the Greek .

Dispute over influence

Since their version was released nine months after Beck's and both versions had similarities, Led Zeppelin was accused of stealing Beck's idea. Page attributed this to coincidence, as he and Beck had similar backgrounds and tastes, and denied hearing Beck's version. Page stated in 1977:

“[Beck] had the same sort of taste in music as I did. That's why you'll find on the early LPs we both did a song like "You Shook Me." It was the type of thing we'd both played in bands. Someone told me he'd already recorded it after we'd already put it down on the first Zeppelin album. I thought, "Oh dear, it's going to be identical," but it was nothing like it, fortunately. I just had no idea he'd done it. It was on Truth but I first heard it when I was in Miami after we'd recorded our version. It's a classic example of coming from the same area musically, of having a similar taste. "

“Beck had the same kind of taste in music as I did. That's why you find songs like "You Shook Me" on the early LPs of both of us. That was the kind of thing we both played in bands. Somebody told me they recorded it after we put it on the first Zeppelin album. I thought, "Oh dear, it will be the same!", But luckily it wasn't. I just had no idea he'd recorded it too. It was on truth , but I didn't hear it until I was in Miami after we recorded our version. It's a classic example of coming from the same field of music, of having similar tastes. "

- Jimmy Page

Nevertheless, Beck confirmed during an interview with Billy Altman of NME in 1976 that Page had accompanied Peter Grant to various concerts by the Jeff Beck Group when they first played in America. Rod Stewart made a similar claim about Page on a radio show in the 1980s. Beck and Stewart both remembered Jimmy Page traveling on their US tour and apparently hearing all of their material.

Led Zeppelin biographer Mick Wall points out in When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin that Peter Grant gave Jimmy Page a copy of Truth weeks before it was published and that it is inconceivable that John Paul Jones didn't think that he would also play the Hammond organ on the Truth version.

Performances by notable musicians

Several blues and rock musicians have recorded a version of You Shook Me : The Blues Band , Willie Dixon , Etta James , BB King , George Lynch , Artimus Pyle , Mick Taylor , Led Zeppelin and Jeff Beck .

literature

• Annette Carson: Jeff Beck - Crazy Fingers . Backbeat Books, 2001, ISBN 0-87930-632-7
• Sebastian Danchin: Earl Hooker: Blues Master . University Press of Mississippi, 2001, ISBN 1-57806-306-X
• Willie Dixon, Don Snowden: I Am the Blues . Da Capo Press, 1989, ISBN 0-306-80415-8
• Robert Gordon: Can't Be Satisfied - The Life and Times of Muddy Waters (1st. Ed.) . Little, Brown and Company, 2002, ISBN 0-316-32849-9
• Mitsutoshi Inaba: Willie Dixon: Preacher of the Blues . The Scarecrow Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8108-6993-6
• Martin Power: Hot Wired Guitar: The Life of Jeff Beck . Omnibus Press, 2011, ISBN 978-1-84938-869-6
• Keith Shadwick: Led Zeppelin - The Story of a Band and Their Music 1968–1980 (1st. Ed.) . Backbeat Books, 2005, ISBN 978-0-87930-871-1
• Mick Wall: When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin . St. Martin's Griffin, 2010, ISBN 978-0-31259-039-0

Individual evidence

1. ↑ On the original Chess single only Dixon is mentioned.
2. ↑ Inaba 2011, list of titles.
3. ^ Muddy Waters - The Chess Box (Booklet). Muddy Waters. Chess Records. 1989. p. 29.
4. ^ The Complete Muddy Waters Discography . By Phil Wight and Fred Rothwell. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Song Review by Bill Janovitz . Retrieved January 4, 2014.
6. ↑ Danchin 2001, p. 139.
7. ↑ Apart from being named as an author, there is no information about Lenoir's involvement. Lenoir is best known for the songs he recorded - he didn't record You Shook Me .
8. ↑ Gordon 2002, p. 182.
9. ↑ Inaba 2011, p. 191.
10. ^ Hal Leonard Corporation: The Blues . Hal Leonard, 1995, ISBN 0-79355-259-1 , pp. 249-251.
11. ↑ ^{a b} Danchin 2001, p. 140.
12. ^ Wall, p. 57.
13. ^ Dixon, Snowden 1989, p. 135.
14. ^ Dixon, Snowden 1989, p. 134.
15. ^ Power 2011, p. 163.
16. ^ Truth (booklet). Jeff Beck. Columbia. 1968.
17. ^ Power 2011, p. 155.
18. ↑ Shadwick 2005, p. 49.
19. ↑ Interview with Jimmy Page . Retrieved January 5, 2014.
20. ↑ Interview with Jimmy Page . Dave Schulps. Trouser Press . Retrieved January 5, 2014.
21. ↑ Power 2011, pp. 163-164.
22. ↑ Carson 2001, p. 85.
23. ^ Wall 2008, p. 57.
24. ↑ - Search results for You Shook Me on allmusic.com . Retrieved January 5, 2014.