Hound Dog

September 28, 2003 12:24 PM

Theodore Roosevelt 'Hound Dog' Taylor
posted by wobh (8 comments total)

Don't miss this interview with Bruce Iglauer for whom Hound Dog Taylor is the beginning.
posted by wobh at 1:07 PM on September 28, 2003

I like: Genuine Houserocking (esp. "Fender Bender").

also: pancakes and bunnies.
posted by victors at 1:42 PM on September 28, 2003

How can you make a post on this guy without mentioning he had SIX FINGERS on each hand???
posted by pjdoland at 2:51 PM on September 28, 2003

Nice find, wobh. It' rare music that's more beautifully raw and bristly blues than the Hound Dogs. "Don't Blame Me" was always my fave, but his cover of "You Can't Sit Down" (!) is astounding too.
posted by jonmc at 3:38 PM on September 28, 2003

How can you make a post on this guy without mentioning he had SIX FINGERS on each hand???

I wondered that too, but the photos on this site seem to show that he had four fingers and a thumb.

On the other hand (no pun intended), he did amazing things with those four fingers and thumb. I bought "Hound Dog Taylor & the Houserockers" (Alligator, 1971) purely for the cover photo. I'd never heard of him, but what a fabulous album!

If you like Taylor (or Elmore James, for that matter), you'll love L'il Ed and the Blues Imperials. Bruce Iglauer produced their early stuff (same guy who produced Taylor's Alligator recordings). From the liner notes of "Roughhousin"...

The band - never having been in a recording studio before - treated the studio like a club, playing live to Iglauer, the engineer, and all the people on the other side of the glass. After recording just two songs, the Alligator staffers in the control room were on their feet begging for more. Two songs later, complete with Ed's signature toe walking and back bends, even the engineer was dancing. Iglauer offered the band a full album contract on the spot. The end result of the session was 30 songs in three hours with no overdubs and no second takes. Twelve of those songs became the band's debut album, Roughhousin', released in September of 1986.

posted by 327.ca at 3:42 PM on September 28, 2003

Read any bio on the guy. He was born with six fingers on each hand. He cut one finger off his right hand with a razor blade. But he always had six fingers on his left hand.
posted by pjdoland at 4:54 PM on September 28, 2003

"Looky here, We been here, uh, what time is it? It's two, it's five minutes to two. So I just feel lucky, and I don't know how you feel, but you know, when we left the hotel, everybody had a shower today, and it's not the idea, it's the thing, really. I just wanna get funky for you. You feel like getting funky, Mr. Brewer? Let's get funky for a little while."

- "Let's Get Funky" (Genuine Houserocking Music)
posted by planetkyoto at 5:46 PM on September 28, 2003

I'm thrilled to see so many Hound Dog fans here. He's awesome. There's a video of him on the Alligator anniversary CD that's great.
posted by trigfunctions at 2:08 PM on September 29, 2003