Honkin' On Bobo
Here's some quick notes by Steven on each of the songs
that make up the "Honkin' On Bobo" album
"Road Runner" (Bo Diddley)
"The first time I heard it was on an album by a [British] band called the Pretty Things. It was phenomenal -- and so was the whole album, by the way."
"Shame Shame Shame" (Rueben Fisher/ Kenyon Hopkins)
"Smiley Lewis used to do it. Joe [Perry] brought that one in. It has a guitar line that the Stones and Keith Richards and everybody took, most notably Chuck Berry. He's famous for that guitar line. It's really uptempo."
"Eyesight to the Blind" (Sonny Boy Williamson)
"Somebody else took his name, and so there were two Sonny Boy Williamsons. The first one ended up with a screwdriver in the back of his head. Rumor has it that the new Sonny Boy Williamson was the guy that did it. There's great mystique around all of this. But when I heard the lyrics to 'Eyesight to the Blind,' I thought, 'Oh my God, this is the song that I want to sing to my wife.' [He starts singing:] 'You're talking 'bout your woman, I wish to God, man, that you could see mine. . . . Every time my little girl starts lovin', she brings eyesight to the blind.' And there's harmonica all over it. I thought, 'This is the perfect song.' "
"Baby Please Don't Go" (Big Joe Williams)
"We first did this in Joe's basement, then we started playing it on our last tour. Afterward, we came back and we recut 'Baby Please Don't Go.' . . . We re-did it so Joe could really kick [butt]. It is what it is. Listen to it. It's insane."
"Never Loved a Girl" (Ronnie Shannon)
"Aretha Franklin did that under a different title. It was just something that I pulled out. I was fooling around with it and thought I could do it. I just turned [the gender] around."
"Back Back Train" (traditional)
"It was first performed by the Hunter's Chapel Singers, from Como, Miss. And Fred McDowell did it in 1966. That's the most popular version. And we have Tracy Bonham on it. She played with us when we first opened Mama Kin [the former club on Lansdowne Street]. She was on the bill that night."
"You Gotta Move" (Gary Davis/ Fred McDowell)
"Mississippi Fred McDowell did it in 1964. We changed it around to a Bo Diddley beat. It just was a refreshing thing to do."
"The Grind" (Tyler/ Perry/Marti Frederiksen)
"It was something we wrote in Hawaii during the 'Girls of Summer' writing sessions. It's just a little thing that came out. Joe started playing this typically authentic 1950s [riff] . . . then I wrote more lyrics and we changed the guitar line into something like early Aerosmith or AC/DC."
"I'm Ready" (Willie Dixon)
"It was performed by Buddy Guy and Muddy Waters. It started with some guys rehearsing, and one of them came in early and was in the bathroom shaving. Another guy asked him, `Are you ready?' And the answer was, `I'm ready for you, I hope you're ready for me!' Willie [Dixon] wrote it down as a song and that was that."
"Temperature" (Little Walter)
"I sang it into a bullet mike -- it's a harmonica mike and it goes through a little amp -- and I just sang the [hell] out of it. It's kind of like how I would sing if I was still doing clubs and wasn't fortunate enough to have a schedule of day on, day off. If I was doing the beer circuit, I'd probably still be doing drugs and smoking and drinking. I kind of pretend in my own little world that that's how my voice would sound like."
"Stop Messin' Around" (Clifford Adams, Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac)
"It was just an excuse to get Joe to sing on the record. I argued with him and he didn't want to do it. I said, 'Well, you've done the song for so many years that it has to go on the record.' He wanted to use a live version from several tours ago, but I said, 'No, man.' So we re-did it."
"Jesus Is on the Mainline" (traditional, with lyrics by Fred McDowell)
"It was recorded in my barn called the Bryer Patch with Tracy [Bonham] singing and with Joe playing lap steel . . . and [Aerosmith bassist] Tom [Hamilton] and [drummer] Joey [Kramer] singing and my daughter Chelsea singing, too."
Road Runner
Road Runner
( Ellas McDaniel )
Lady's & Gentlemen...
Step right up...
Let's go see the elephant...
Well I'm a Road Runner Honey... yeaaaoooo yea
I'm a road runner honey
And you can't keep up with me
Well I'm a road runner lover
And you can't keep up with me
You got a green light baby
Maybe baby you will see
Well... move over honey
Baby... let me by
Yeah move over honey
C'mon... let me by
I wanna show you baby... cheers...
Here's mud in yo eye
Wellll... eat my dust
Let's have a road runner wedding
And we gotta get it right
They'll be a road runner wedding
Yeah but it can't be white
Wedding bells tomorrow mornin'
And burn some rubber tonight... huh huh ha ha...
Joe's solo...
Well I'm a road runner honey... beep beep
Well I'm a road runner honey... beep beep
Yeah I'm a road runner honey... beep beep
Well I'm a road runner honey... beep beep
Well I'm a road... run... ner
Well I'm a road... run... ner
Well I'm a road runner
A road runner
A road runner
A road runner... honey
Yeeeeaaahhhhh...
Shame Shame Shame
Shame Shame Shame
( R. Fisher / K. Hopkins )
Shame Shame shame on you Miss Roxy
Shame Shame Shame on you Miss Roxy
Shame shame... shame on what'choo done
Well.. you made me sweat and talk
'Til I was skin & bones
You cause your lovers grief
Oh.. look at me now
Shame shame shame on you Miss Roxy... thats right
Shame shame shame on you Miss Roxy
Shame shame... a shame on what'choo done
You know what ya done
You wanna bump
You wanna what
You wannna... ay ay ay
Yeeeaaahhh... well I was offered dice
I gav'em a touchin' hymn
But then the game broke a loose
Oh... you were the reason
Shame shame shame on you Miss Roxy
Yeah... shame shame shame on you Miss Roxy
Shame shame... a shame on what'choo done... ay ay ay ay
And now you're talkin' back
Well I can tell your plan
You oughta eat my words down on your knees... aar
Shame shame shame on you Miss Roxy
Yeah yeah yeah yeah... shame shame shame on you Miss Roxy
Shame shame... a shame on what'choo done... wellll...
Shame shame a shame on you Miss Roxy
Shame shame shame shame
Shame shame shame shame ... yooh shame on you...
Shame on what'choo done... yeah
Shame shame... shame on what'choo done... who yeah who yeah... yeah...
Eyesight To The Blind
Eyesight To The Blind
( Sonny Boy Williamson )
A haaa...
Well well well well...
You were talkin' bout'chor woman
I wish to God that'choo could see mine
You were talkin' bout'chor woman
I wish to God man... that'choo could see mine
Every time my little girl start to loving... she bring eyesight to the blind
Lord... her daddy musta been a millionaire... 'cause I can tell by the way she walk
Her daddy musta been a millionaire... 'cause I can tell by the way she walk
Every time she start loving... the deaf and dumb begin to talk
Yeah... you know what they say
I remember one Friday morning
We was lying down across your bed
Man in the back room was dying... eyes were sad... and I stroked his head
And I said... Lordy... ain't she pertty... and the whole state knows shes fine... yeah
And every every every time she start to loving... she bring eyesight to the blind
What a woman I got here
This post first appeared on Tommy Raw........................... No Way That Just Happened, please read the originial post: here
