Sam Maghett was a master of the electric guitar, born in Mississippi and transplanted to Chicago at a young age). As Sam was born in 1937 and a bit younger than the others on the electrified Chicago scene of the fifties and sixties, he took the blues into a whole new bag by incorporating not only the influence of soul but some rockabilly as well (check out his genius track '21 Days In Jail' from 1958). Sam's 1967 LP on Delmark, West Side Soul, is easily among the top ten blues LP's ever cut to wax, and in many ways may be my personal favorite.
On this side, fellow new breed Chicago bluesman Bobby Rush is credited as songwriter and producer. I'm not gonna lie; 'I'll Pay You Back' is essentially a plagiarized rewrite of The Isley Brothers' 'It's Your Thing'. However, the record is bad ass and infectious, and elevated Sam into a whole new thing that matched his always powerful vocals and guitar work into a very contemporary, hard hitting funk bag.
Tragically, this 45 was Sam's final release, as he died of a heart attack on December 1, 1969 at the age of 32 years old. I can only imagine how many more raw, from the gut records he would have given us had he lived.
from 1969...
MAGIC SAM - I'LL PAY YOU BACK
As a bonus, here's an incredible clip of Magic Sam performing live in Europe, probably from 1969 as well. Not only is he demonstrating his earthy, straight from the soul guitar playing, but the opening interview show the man to be a soft spoken gentleman as well.
3 comments:
Great 45! This had a local Chicago release on the Bright Star label.
I Love Magic Sam.
Excellent. I only last month discovered Magic Sam.
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