SOD: Canned Heat "Let's Work Together"

Last night at the "Slam Chowder" show in Bayside, Johnny, Davey, and I were talking about the group Canned Heat. Johnny and Venice will be Road Trippin' out to California together, and Davey suggested they listen to Canned Heat's classic song, "Goin' Up The Country," on repeat all the way out there. He even calculated the math, and figured they'd need to listen to the song approximately 1400 times in a row, before they made it. "Completely Doable," I said.

Then I mentioned, maybe they could switch it up once in a while, and throw on a little "On The Road Again," which is probably their second most famous song. You know, at least get a brief reprieve in there. Both songs were written and sung by the great Alan Wilson (writing credits for "On The Road Again" are also given to Floyd Jones), who's vocals are easily recognizable. Davey commented that those two songs were the only really memorable Canned Heat songs, and though I agreed they were certainly the most memorable, I had recalled listening to two other songs quite a bit, but I couldn't remember their names. When I got home that night, I looked it up, and found the two others I enjoyed so much. First was this song, "Lets Work Together," which is a blues song written by Wilbert Harrison in 1962, that Canned Heat made popular. It's actually Bob Hite singing on this one, not Alan Wilson. Wilson provides the slide guitar though. The second, was an old Muddy Waters tune called "Rollin' and Tumblin.'" Muddy's version is a classic, but I think Canned Heat certainly does the song justice. Check it out: "Rollin and Tumblin'" by Canned Heat

Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson was the original brains behind the group. His is the voice we all remember and recognize, and he was the one who wrote the majority of their songs. But Wilson's story is a sad one, and he only made it to the turn of the decade before dying in Los Angeles in 1970. He had tried to commit suicide twice and failed, before joining the fateful "27 Club" when he died of an accidental drug overdose. An unfortunate loss, but even more unfortunately not all too uncommon in this world. However, that does not diminish the work that he completed when he was here, and left us to enjoy still, over forty-five years after its inception.