I Can't Quit You Baby

Looking to build a roster for Eli Toscano's newly formed Cobra Records, producer and songwriter Willie Dixon recruited a young, left-handed guitarist named Otis Rush. For Rush's debut, Dixon penned "I Can't Quit You Baby," a slow, agonizing blues. Rush delivered an incredibly intense, emotionally drained vocal performance, punctuated by his weeping, heavily vibratoed guitar solos. The track was a defining moment in the creation of the West Side Sound: a more modern, minor-key approach to Chicago blues that stood in contrast to the gritty, Mississippi-rooted style dominating the Chess label across town.