Long Distance Call
In 1967, Chess Records attempted to capitalize on the psychedelic rock boom by putting their three biggest artists (Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Bo Diddley) into Ter Mar Recording Studio to record The Super Super Blues Band. The session had a loosely organized, contentious energy, filled with clashing egos and chaotic jams. On Muddy's classic "Long Distance Call," the underlying tension is audible. The three titans spend the track trading vocal jabs and spoken-word asides, turning a classic Chicago slow blues into a fascinating, competitive summit meeting of the genre's heavyweights.
The floating-verse lineage for this recording (who else recorded it, where the melody or lyric traveled, and how it was adapted) is still being mapped. This section will trace the song's DNA across the archive.
Contributions welcome at OlMrRead@ccblues.com.