Customer Reviews

It's My Life Baby

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Most respectable Blues fans own Hoodoo Man Blues, and most Junior fans also have all the tracks he recorded prior to Hoodoo Man. If that's you, then here is your next Junior Wells purchase: It's My Life, Baby. In terms of Junior's highly regarded live albums, the vibe on this live set is far superior to that of Southside Blues Jam. On all the tracks there is great interaction between the band members, and, as usual, Buddy Guy is just killing it. The high point of the album is, without question, "(I Got A) Stomach Ache". I think I fell unconscious the first thirty times I heard it.

What a time. What a place. What a showman. The late 40's to the late 60's, Chicago's south side, the incomparable Junior Wells... Muddy, Elvis, Wayne Cochrane, Sonny Boy all rolled into one tough little cookie. This album is one sweet treat after another. If you can stay still listening to "Stomach Ache," you are clinically dead. It's a true joy listening to Junior and Buddy Guy but I really envy people in the future; they might be able to transport themselves back to 1964 and see Junior live in Pepper's Lounge.

Thanks to the two previous reviewers I checked this cd out and it is burning! Part of it was recorded live at Pepper's Lounge on Chicago's south side and the other at Universal studios in the same city. The live numbers add to the feel and excitement of the cd even though the studio tracks are just as good. This came out a year after the classic "Hoodoo man Blues" cd that established Junior as a Blues Force. A favorite at The Crazy Coyote Blues Power Show 1490 KOTY AM Yakima Nation Reservation Radio in south central Washington state.

Like beans and cornbread, Junior Wells and Buddy Guy simply belong together, and this CD shows you why. Blending traditional blues with South Side Chicago style, (plus a smidgen of James Brown influenced funk), It's My Life, Baby! offers listeners a master class blues tutorial that sounds good, feels good, and satisfies the soul. "The Blues" is a very big tent with many camels trying to sneak in. Some think Robert Johnson sitting at the crossroads is the beginning and end of the blues. Others, (God help them), think that long-haired, drug-addled white boys in spandex smashing up hotel rooms is the blues. While the blues may be hard to define, it's not quite that hard, and, at the very least, blues isn't blues unless it's authentic. That is the real beauty of this CD, not just the exceptional singing and "blues harp" work of Junior Wells, and outstanding Buddy Guy guitar, but the complete lack of artifice.

Novice collectors take note. Junior Wells and Buddy Guy are both head of the class, but not everything they recorded is wonderful. There are plenty of clunkers out there, insist on this CD and Hoodoo Man Blues, featuring the same dynamic duo. Buddy Guy, in particular, is capable of wandering far into the woods for no apparent reason. The time I saw him perform he appeared to be intent on doing a very bad, and very loud, Hendrix impression. (Buddy Guy has quite a resentment against Hendrix, claiming he discovered and perfected the use of feedback long before Jimi.) You'll have to walk a very long way down a very rough road to find another blues singer with more force and authority than Junior Wells, and, short of Little Walter, it would be difficult to find anyone better able to make a blues harp weep and moan. Quite simply, It's My Life, Baby - and Hoodoo Man Blues - are as good as it gets.

I had this album before I had Hoodoo back in the 60s. I like Hoodoo Man well enough but it seems tame compared to this one. This has so many great performance by Junior and especially Buddy. This and the five tracks they recorded for Chicago/The Blues/Today are all so great. Buddy plays not just with passion but with great creativity. His early Vanguard playing is unique, more creative than either his early Chess stuff or later Vanguard and beyond recordings. Stomach Ache is a great ride. Look How Baby is like beating the strings with a rock. It's My Life Baby is smooth as silk. And Junior is smooth and committed, not trying to be James Brown, but established in his own blues territory. The sound is clean and open like those mid 60s Vanguard records were. Southside Blues Jam has never captured me like this one and Hoodoo Man Blues has always been a fairly distant second place.

Junior Wells was the inspiration that changed the lives of John Mayall and Eric Clapton. Wells paid his dues in urban Southside Chicago behind frontman Muddy Waters. His harp style developed from greats like Sonny Boy Williamson, and his vocals electrified even fellow bluesmen. Buddy Guy can usually be found on the guitar credits for many of his albums. This album is a must have for any blues fan.

This has got to be one of the best blues albums ever recorded. I was introduced to the album by love of the song Stormy Monday Blues. Junior's version is sweet and soulful. It has it all, ballads with slow drums and the effortless guitar work of Buddy Guy, Fast blues, James Brown-esqe funky R & B. My title isn't a joke. I've actually purchased serveral copies of this CD fearing it will someday go out of print. Don't let that happen to you.

Essential, essential blues recordings. Ambiance and realism pour forth from every track. Buddy Guy gives guitar lessons from which aspiring white blues guitarists could learn plenty. This is not some ghastly abomination of black blues filtered through a stack of Marshall amplifiers with a white singer displaying his belly button while butchering another blues rendition, this is the genuine article (OK, the Blues Breakers Mayle/Clapton did good). 'It's My Life Baby!' and Hoodoo Man Blues' are must haves. Junior (rest his soul) and Buddy made careers out of playing together and all blues aficionados have really benefited from it. Rating: Content **** 1/2 audio quality ***1/2

A bit disappointing, this first Vanguard album by Junior Wells. It was recorded not long after Junior's classic "Hoodoo Man Blues" album, but the music isn't quite as tight and certainly not as original or as innovative or, well, good.

Buddy Guy is onboard on both the live and the studio tracks, which is nice, and there are certainly some good moments here:
Junior's harp is too often absent, but you can't complain about his voice, and his rendition of "You Lied To Me" (which is actually Jimmy Rogers's "That's All Right") is excellent, as is the live "Early In The Morning" and the swaggering "Everything's Going To Be Alright". Whether or not "Stomach Ache" is funky or just silly is a matter of taste, I suppose.
Taken on its own terms, this is a respectable effort, at times revving up the energy for an infectious bounce like "Country Girl", which stands in peppy contrast to the relatively sleepy slow tunes, and "Shake It Baby" also revives some of the soul(ish) feeling of the "Hoodoo Man Blues" sessions.

The sound could've been better, though, particularly on the live recordings (made at Pepper's Lounge in Chicago), and too many of the supposed "original" compositions are slightly altered versions of previously recorded blues tunes for this album to be really top-notch (Junior's version of Rice Miller's "Checkin' Up On My Baby" is particularly inferior to the original).
Casual fans should go for "Blues Hit Big Town" and "Hoodoo Man Blues", and maybe "The Best Of The Vanguard Years", but diehards will certainly want this one as well. There are enough good moments to make "It's My Life, Baby" worth more than just one listen, even if it is a little too predictable and lacks some more grade-A material.