Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Sidemen Up Front! (Allstars!)

According to my Golden Decade records, Volumes 1 and 2, Otis Spann played piano on Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me," "No Money Down," and 'Downbownd Train," back in 1955, but author John Collis and Berry himself both say no-- that it was probably Johnny Johnson at that session, along with Chess stalwarts Fred Below and Willie Dixon. Ah well.  If it was Spann, then the trio had already played together on Muddy Waters' "Hootchie Cootchie Man" (the musical ancestor of "No Money Down.") Here Muddy stands back and strums rhythm while Spann takes a starring role.



Read more about Spann right here.

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