Well Well Well [Explicit Lyrics]

R. L. Burnside | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 27, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Label: M.C. Records
• ASIN: B00005A0MN
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #67,967 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #36 in Music > Indie Music > Blues > Delta Blues

Track Listings

1. Charleston Interview

2. How Many More Years

3. Goin' Down South

4. Staggolee

5. Can't Be Satisfied

6. Boogie Chillen'

7. Nightmare Blues

8. Rolling & Tumbling

9. Grazing Grass Rap

10. Last Night

11. Mellow Peaches

12. Forty Four Pistol

13. Bad Luck Monkey Rap

14. My Babe

15. Poor Boy

16. Just Like A Woman

17. Goin' Away Baby

18. Mojo Hand

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

You might think a collection of bootlegs featuring R.L. Burnside is less than interesting, or maybe even a cynical way for Burnside and M.C. Records to cash in on his current popularity without having to release any new material. You might think that, but you'd be woefully mistaken. A fascinating, scattershot collection of tunes and interviews, recorded between 1986 and 1993, Well...Well...Well offers a uniquely personal window into one of blues music's most gifted performers. Many of the recordings are transferred directly from tapes made in sheds and out-of-the-way venues, with Burnside, often using only his voice and a rusty guitar, playing and telling stories detailing a bluesman's woes.

Check out the risqué, boom-box recording of "Staggolee," a traditional tune that Burnside lays into while boozing it up with fellow bluesmen Jon Morris and Curtis Salgado in an old New Orleans shotgun house. Or Muddy Waters's "Can't Be Satisfied," recorded in the same house by Burnside, this time sober and all by his lonesome. He's nursing a cold, and his voice is grainy, his guitar sublime as he entertains himself with a loose, lonely rendition. There are proper live venue recordings as well, like the slow chug of his own "Nightmare Blues," performed to an enthusiastic crowd at the Queen Street Playhouse in South Carolina. There are also recordings taken from performances in Holland ("Poor Boy" in a large theater at The Hague, and two others recorded in a shed just outside Gieterveen, near the house where his then-girlfriend lived) and Athens, Greece, where Burnside digs into Chester Burnette's "How Many More Years" and Willie Dixon's "My Babe." Taken as a whole, this odd assortment acts an illuminating document of Burnside's dusty Delta roots. --Matthew Cooke

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This stuff is amazing!, April 5, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Well Well Well (Audio CD)

What a great collection! Super raw! I've seen Burnside live many times and this CD captures his personality and music in a nutshell -- unlike anything out there. Burnside is powerful with his group, but "Staggolee" shows just how frightening he can be on his own. Filled with classics: Boogie Chillen, How Many More Years, Mojo Hand, and even My Babe, which I never heard him do. All in a pared down, super raw setting. Beautiful vocals, great guitar. A must buy!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this CD, April 8, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Well Well Well (Audio CD)

I love this CD. It took a couple of listenings to sink in, but then I was hooked. Not since the Smithsonian recordings has there been such a riveting collection of snapshots in time. Burnside is Robert Johnson 2001 -- entertainer, great musician and philospher of humanity.

5.0 out of 5 stars rural burnside, February 19, 2011

By 

Brooks Walsh - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Well Well Well (Audio CD)

a strong - go get 'em attack - on them hill country blues - by the king, using his hypno-bluez riffs akin to mississippi fred mcdowell and john lee hooker only updated for this nasty mod world...long live rural rl burnside !