Long
John Baldry did not want us to back him as he had a good band at
home that he usually toured with. We didn't want to back him because
we thought the material he sent was "too rock." The Blues
Saloon told him they couldn't afford to fly the whole band in so,
unless he agreed to work with us, the date was off. We were told
that the club would cancel some of our other dates if we did not
agree to play the show. Long John Baldry and the Butanes reluctantly
got together on a Thursday night to go over a few 
songs
for the weekend's show. We expressed our disdain for most of John's
favored material (usually the things we thought were too rock for
us) and in turn John said he didn't care for the way we played the
songs of his that we had liked. We took a break from rehearsing,
the band heading to the bar to complain about our star and John
heading to the manager's office to, I imagine, complain about the
band.
Apparently he
found out that we had played with (among many others) Bo Diddley
and Howling Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin. When we reconvened to
try to put some kind of show together John called off a Bo Diddley
song that had not been on his songlist. After a short time it came
together. He tried an old Wolf tune and that also worked out. Just
jamming. He asked about a bunch of other Bo and Wolf songs and when
I assured him we could play them he pronounced rehearsal over. We
were going to wing it on the weekend.
The Blues Saloon
was packed as we called Long John Baldry to the stage Friday night
and we played songs we all knew but were by no means "standards."
As the set was about to end he looked at me and called one of the
songs we had deemed "too rock." I thought "what
the heck" and we launched into it and played it with much
more conviction than we had during the early part of rehearsal on
Thursday. Over the course of the two nights we played a few more
of John's favorites and he called a few of the band's favorites
as well but mostly we played songs that had originally been released
on Chess records by Bo Diddley, Howling Wolf, Chuck Berry and Muddy
Waters. The crowd had a great time and Long John Baldry impressed
us all as a great vocalist and showman.
For
more on Long John Baldry
http://www.johnbaldry.com/
July,
2005. Long John Baldry has died. Here is a link to his obituary:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4709509.stm
