Various Artists - The Road to Memphis

Soundtrack from director Richard Pearce (The Long Walk Home, Leap Of Faith) traces the musical odyssey of blues legend B.B. King, featuring original performances by B.B. King, Bobby Rush, Rosco Gordon and Ike Turner. Hip-O Records. 2003. Album Description

Not bad, but little connection to numbers in movie

The life of bluesmen on the road on tour buses that took them all over the United States was the basis for the movie The Road To Memphis, focusing on B.B. King and Bobby Rush. The soundtrack to this movie is yet another good collection but more than the others in the series, does not correspond to what was presented in the movie.

Reverend Gatemouth Moore's "Beale Street Ain't Beale Street No More" done live while he's walking on the street, is a summary of his remembrances of the black musical cultural center of Memphis, TN, which now houses a bunch of souvenir shops instead of a place that was described as so happening, that if a white was a black person for one night, he'll never want to be white again.

B.B. King was a major part of the movie and yet he's only heard twice here, in his 1951 breakthrough song "Three O'Clock Blues," which topped the R&B charts. The other is the gospel-tinged "Precious Lord."

Howlin' Wolf (a.k.a. Chester Burnett) is featured in "Moanin' At Midnight" and it's B-side, "How Many More Years" on someone who'd rather be six feet underground rather than being dogged by a woman. Thanks to guitarist Willie Johnson and drummer Willie Steele, producer Sam Phillips has those songs recorded, which leads me to say that before promoting white artists such as Elvis, Phillips spent his time promoting black blues artists. Also, David Johansen and Hubert Sumlin cover Wolf's "Killing Floor," a live new track that didn't appear in the movie.

Rosco Gordon is another musician featured in the movie, and his early 50's piano boogie-woogie record "Rosco's Boogie" is more 40's period material, but he was eclipsed by the likes of Fats Domino and Little Richard when rock took over. The soulful lament of plans and dreams unfulfilled in the sax and piano number "Now You're Gone," also by Gordon, was played at the end of the movie and done in 2000. Six weeks after doing the reunion concert at the movie, Gordon died at his apartment, his bags packed for a Milwaukee tour.

And also here is what some consider to be the first R&R record thanks to a fallen amp that sounded fuzzy as a result, Jackie Brenston's "Rocket 88," featuring Ike Turner on piano. Brenston, like Howlin' Wolf and Rosco Gordon, was also produced by Phillips.

Entertainer Bobby Rush has two songs here, the boogeying "Hoochie Man" with a 50's rock sound, and "Henpecked." Both are notable due to the inclusion of synthesizer keyboards. In a rough James Brown-ish and good-natured voice. The version of "Henpecked" is a studio version and not the live version in the movie that had him doing mischievous theatrics with one of his dancers. He takes the control a woman has on a man's hard-earned pay this way: "I'm not henpecked. I just bin picked by the right hen."

Other selections include Bobby Bland's "I Pity The Fool" the breakthrough single that led him to break away from Junior Parker's band. Bland was part of the Beale St. culture that included Rosco Gordon. Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) does Willie Dixon's "Bring It On Home," done by Led Zeppelin on their second album.

A good CD overall, where the link between selections has to be discerned, whether it be producer Sam Phillips or artists who shared the Beale Street culture. February 24, 2004

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