Original subtitles

Once I had a pretty little girl

I lose my baby, ain't that sad?

Once I had a pretty little girl

I lose my baby, ain't that sad?

Well you know you can't spend What you ain't got

You can't lose What you ain't never had

Well you know you can't spend What you ain't got

You can't lose What you ain't never had

When the records starts off, she didn't even bat an eye...

how the fuck can a song start off like mid stream...

but after the second syllable I'm like Oh, I know what ya talking' about.

Get your hands together for Alligator recording artist, Grammy award winning...

the real deal, I'm talking about Miss Koko Taylor!

Willie Dixon used to always say...

the blues is the roots, and everything else is the fruits.

Tell automatic slim

Tell razor toting Jim

Tell butcher knife toting Annie

Tell fast talking fanny

We're gonna pitch a ball

Down to that union hall

Gonna romp and tromp 'till midnight

We're gonna fuss And fight 'till daylight

We're gonna pitch A wang dang doodle all night long

When I go back to Chicago...

the feeling of the early Chess records...

of the early blues music hits me strong.

It opens up the memories of my youth.

All night long

All night long

We're gonna pitch A wang dang doodle all night

The blues is part of my DNA.

The blues is playing in my head twenty-four hours a day.

When I have a fight with my wife...

a blues line comes up from my deepest depths.

I tell people all the time...

if you studied the recorded history of the Blues...

Soul, Funk, and Jazz, over the last hundred years...

then you'd get a timeline of how black people lived.

The blues are the roots because black people in this country...

didn't have an outlet to have our stories told.

But in our music, we was able to express ourselves and our inner sides.

This is the land of milk and honey, but where is mine, you know?

- How are you? - I'm doing great, and you?

I'm hanging in there.

What can I say... Some days good, some of them bad.

We're still alive, and we made it, a lot of people are gone!

That's the good part!

That's the good part! Some days good and bad.

It's great what's happening to the blues how it's getting all this attention.

- Yeah. It's about time. - About time.

Well I don't know what to do

I sit and cry And sing the Blues

You know, today, looking at MTV, VH1...

music is such a part of the whole world culture of young people.

Yet so few of them know the roots.

Now when I was a young boy

At the age of five

My mother said I was gonna be

The greatest man alive

I was lucky enough to be born in the Chess family...

which became one of the founders of the independent record business.

I want you to believe me honey

Chess Records was a small record company out of Chicago...

that was founded by my father and uncle in 1950.

One of their first artists was the great Muddy Waters.

And then, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf...

Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter...

we had them Beethoven and Bachs of blues and rhythm 'n' blues.

I've got the key

To the highway

Well, I'm billed out And bound to go

I'm gonna leave here running Because

Walking's just too slow

Chess Records froze sentiment, froze understanding...

froze a period of black life here in America.

I looked at Leonard Chess as an innovator of music.

Pretty much making something out of nothing.

I started going around Chess Records at a very young age...

just, I wanted to be around my dad.

He was a workaholic and I was starved for being around my father...

Baby, so long

So long, baby

This is my first road trip, my second road trip with my father...

when I was thirteen...

I'm bound to go this highway

Until the day I die

This I find amusing...

it's a gold record given to my father from Chuck Berry.

This was the making of Electric Mud. With Otis Spann, Muddy and me.

Muddy was a truck driver in Chicago...

when my dad called him in to do Chess 1426, "Rollin' Stone".

They became very close friends.

My fatherjust had this tremendous respect for him.

Well, my mother

Told my father

Just before I was born

I got a boy child's coming He's gonna be

He's gonna be a rolling stone

Sure 'enough, he's a rolling stone

Sure 'enough, he's a rolling stone

Do you ever listen to any of the old Chess records?

Yeah, all the time, yeah, definitely.

It's his job! It's his job!

No, but I've rebought a lot of CDs.

All these, as you know...

are all the Chess records left in the family.

These are the exact concepts, the psychedelic...

The infamous, Electric Mud.

It's a concept album using Muddy Waters as the star.

People hated it, but I loved it...

and my band, Electric Mud Band, loved it...

and Muddy Waters, I think, liked it a lot...

again, Muddy Waters...

The gypsy woman told my mother

Before I was born

You got a boy child's coming

Gonna be a son of a gun

Gonna make pretty women

Jump and shout

Then the world wanna know

What this all about

But you know I'm him

Everybody knows I'm him

Well you know I'm the hoochie coochie man

Everybody knows I'm him

I paid for this Muddy album, eight pager...

of Muddy getting his hair processed.

I just love Muddy, we had the kind of relationship where he'd allow that.

Come on! What kind of man, except a man who was so confident in himself...

would let you do that?

That's why he's a great man, look at him...

under the driers, smoking a cigarette...

getting it done, and final product, there it is!

On the seventh hour

On the seventh day

On the seventh month

The seven doctors say

He was born for good luck

And that you'll see I got seven hundred dollars

I remember Marshall talking about Muddy Waters.

Oh yeah, he was the leader of the man, he was regal...

he would have been a chief, you know?

And I said, well, me and hip hop...

you know, maybe I can try to be a Muddy Waters type...

and I'd get more into studying about Muddy Waters, trying to cop his ways.

Well you know I'm the hoochie coochie boy

The whole round world know me Yeah

I believe that, and I know, by fact...

that it seeped through all the way to hip hop.

Because I got an email from the famous Chuck D of Public Enemy...

saying that Electric Mud...

was one of his most favorite, influential albums...

and that all of the early hip hop guys...

he says that in his email, were very inspired, and got into it.

So, there you go!

This stuff, there's grandsons!

They're out there! They might not even know it, but they're out there!

Yeah

Show that you know how to sing, boy!

What's up?

Man, what's up? How are you?

How you doing, buddy?

- Marshall, I'm moving in. - Alright, you're moving in.

Yep, I'm moving in.

How are you, my friend?

- Good to see ya. - Alright.

I was on the whipping post with Electric Mud...

from the moment I made it, you know, from the moment...

- I been on the whipping post before! - Yeah, right, they wrote...

Worst blues album ever made. Never even made it to be a blues album.

It took Electric Mud to get me to respect...

what Muddy Waters is about.

That's why I'm thrilled! That was the idea!

But I waited twenty-five, thirty years, over thirty years later...

to know the worth of the motherfucker.

That's the great thing about making history...

is that you never know it. You just do your thing...

I mean, if it wasn't for Electric Mud...

I doubt if I would have really checked out Muddy Waters...

because I bought...

I bought...

I bought Muddy Waters. The London Sessions...

- That's right. - Afterwards...

- and I wasn't as happy. - No!

So I had to go further back, and I went further back...

To purer Muddy.

To purer Muddy, and dug that.

- I kind of like dug the "Rollin' Stone". - That's right.

And I worked my way into understanding...

ya know, boom, what it's all about, to the point where, oh, I got hooked.

But the initial hook in the water was Electric Mud.

I understand. That's why I made it!

That's why I was so thrilled to hear that it worked, thirty-five years later!

I want to hear the beats crisp, I want to hear, you know, more up-tempo...

I want to hear, you know, distortion, I want to hear naysay.

And I wanted, and I dug the voice.

I dug the voice.

And I was going

Going to an old land

This Electric Mud Band I was so careful putting together back in the '60s...

they became, like, amazingly well-known, astute players.

Pete Cosey played with Miles Davis...

the drummer, Morris Jennings, with Ramsey Lewis...

the bass player, Satterfield, played with Earth, Wind, and Fire...

and then with Phil Collins. You know, these people have been around.

I said, Wow, let's put 'em back together...

in a spontaneous way, cut one cut, you know...

with you involved.

Make the spark that'll make somebody wants to dig into it.

The fact that kids don't know this today, is disturbing.

Hello. Gene Barge.

- Gene Barge, you're there. - Yes, sir.

I finally found you, man, I already talked to Cosey and Satterfield.

Here's what it is, June 9th through 10th...

that's the weekend of the Chicago Blues Festival...

- Right. - We're coming to town...

all of us, we'll all get together and do the old Electric Mud Band.

The only thing that we don't have on there, is a keyboard.

We had Leake, didn't we?

I don't know, we had Otis Spann, not Leake.

Cause I've got a photo of it on the wall.

- Oh that's right. - We had Spann...

but we'll have to talk about when we're all together.

Cause I want to bring hip hop into this, with turntables...

and samples of Electric Mud and samples of the original Muddy.

This is going to be good, man, I'm more excited about this...

than any project I've done in the last fifteen years.

Beautiful.

Please, for the first time tonight give it up...

for Mr. Otis Rush!

You know, when you got the blues, you always think...

"It's only me that has em".

And it's soothing to know that it's a universal problem...

because it's taken some guy, who just got his girlfriend stolen...

by a big city slicker, you know, up at Pete's Bar and Grill...

it's taken this guy and made him realize it's happened to a lot of people.

That's why I walk The back streets and cry

Whoa, it hurt me so bad It hurt me so bad

To hear the girl I miss Say goodbye

You know, the electric sound never had a chance to build in the South...

because these little juke joints where they played didn't have electricity.

They came out seeming more like the Delta Blues.

And when they got to the big city where they had a plug...

they plugged it into the wall, made it into electric, Boom.

Chess records man, it was full of immigrants...

all the artists came up from the south, and my family, they came from Poland.

When I left out of Georgia in 1934

My baby, she begged me Daddy, please don't go

But I left that town

You know I left that town

When I left out of Georgia I know I was Chicago bound

Black artists came from Mississippi, from Arkansas up...

from Memphis to Chicago.

Our family came from Poland by boat to New York...

and then by train to Chicago.

I'm gonna tell you something That you all should know

Chicago is the best place I ever known

I'll stay in this town

I won't leave this town

My father and uncle came from a small little Jewish village in Poland...

and actually the whole village came to Chicago.

- This is my uncle Phil. - How ya doing? Pleasure to meet ya.

We've talking about Phil...

You know what I've been till's about you. I said, if we've stayed in Chicago...

we've been into rap and hip hop 'cause that, we were so street connected.

And I said you're gonna meet Chuck D...

he's gonna be just like one of our artists would've been.

We had fun there.

Shit the characters that came by there, the creativity...

and you always heard it. In 2120 you could hear it...

because on the stairway we had holes in the floor.

You'd hear a beat, you'd hear, people being excited.

That was a very important time...

because it mixed a lot of different things and cultures.

You know, cuz in this country if somebody's white more often than not...

they ain't living no where near black folks...

so therefore the cultures are never ya know.

But if you have people that come from a different background...

and then you have pretty much everybody and immigrants...

and people from down south living together...

you're gonna see something come up out of it...

that you're not gonna even be able to explain.

It's gonna be like...

Down at a junkyard down at 29th and State...

are you familiar with that area?

Right across the street was a church.

A little bungalow.

- The gospel Black, it was a Black gospel... - Black Gospel.

They'd start like on a Friday night with the hand clapping and...

shouting and man, I'll tell you, that was great.

Me and Leonard would stand there and say we got to go home and eat.

We'll eat later, let's just watch this.

That's when we got...

actually when we got the whole nucleus of the thing started, right there.

Need no power

We need no power

We need no power

We need no power

Power to live right

Power to live right

Power to live right

Need you Jesus

Need you Jesus

Need you Jesus

Need you Jesus

Power

Power

Need you Lord

Maxwell Street was a center for many Jewish immigrants...

selling things, buying things...

and it also attracted the Black people who lived in that area.

Why did you get your Funny little shoe?

You dress so high

I got a huge offer at Maxwell

I got dress up and household

Here's Maxwell Street right, here now, this is it.

This is it.

There's nothing left of Maxwell Street.

Nothing left but them.

Oh, my God.

We got Blues going on Every Sunday afternoon

We got hot good songs going on The Blues, come on

People, don't you wanna go? Well

Back to that old street town Sweet home Chicago

Play that thing now

There's no one here man, it's gone.

This is so typical.

This is the shit, this is how across from Chess was.

This is it. Michigan Ave was like this.

And now it's all gone, man.

I'm upset to see this, man, this is like East Germany or something.

Bombed out.

Yeah, there's a sign over there that says Blacks plus Jews equals Blues.

And that's what Maxwell St. Is about. People coming together...

all mixes and races learning from each other...

and producing something great from the world.

I'm gonna boogie

Down on Maxwell Street

All I know is that the music...

tells the best stories.

Today the similarities are there...

and we can use some of the aspects from the past to apply to the future...

but if you keep the music away from the past...

people don't have a past to draw to...

and they don't have a future to look forward to...

so everything is Now, now, now, now.

Black folks first coming to Chicago...

coming from up Mississippi still are like...

ok, we're getting the fuck away from Jim Crow...

and we're just gonna try and make it, you know.

They cut my lights off this mornin'

They set my furniture outdoors

I was listening To the weatherman 'while ago

And he's says It's gonna rain and snow

My daughter' got pneumonia

And my son is down with the flu

My whole family's Sufferin' from malnutrition

And I can't even Afford them soup

Hey, angel of mercy

Please look down on me

Oh, angel of mercy

A little mercy is all I need

Before Chess record my dad had the Macomba Lounge in Chicago.

Macomba Lounge was an after hours kind of club...

frequented by musicians, prostitutes and drug dealers...

with live music playing, a rib pit in the back.

Bright lights, big city Gone to my baby's head

I'd tried to tell the woman But she doesn't believe a word I said

My dad took me down there.

On my first trip there I guess I was 5 or 6 years old.

As we walked in there were gun shots...

and he threw me like a football...

over the bar to my uncle, my uncle Phil.

Who caught me and laid down...

on the barroom floor behind the bar, with me under him to protect me.

To this day when I walk in to any old funky bar...

and smell that stale liquor and cigarette smell...

I immediately feel my uncle's weight on top of me...

pressing my little 5 year old face to the floor boards.

I feel good doing' right

But I feel much better doing wrong

I feel good doing' right

But I feel much better doing wrong

I drink and I gamble

Stay out all night long

I go to race track during daytime Go to casinos late at night

When I win a pocket full of money I tell you, I feel alright

I feel good doing right

But I feel much better doing wrong

I drink and I gamble

Stay out all night long

Chicago has so changed, I mean, this used to be funky.

But now we're coming to Michigan Avenue.

Where I'm going to turn right and then we're gonna head down to Record Road.

South Michigan Avenue.

- Where did Veejay used to be? - Veejay used to be up here on the left.

Okay, here we come...

this is 2120, the original Chess building.

The original door is there.

I'm glad it's landmark... it's still here.

This is it.

How many times did I put my hand on this door to come to work?

You see that: Look, worn out! This is it.

That's the original shit.

Let's run one.

Bo.

Let's run one more.

Bo.

Bo.

Let's run one down, Bo.

You know, the Chess sound it was always a raw sound.

Here we go. It's Master AK4.

They did anything to actually get those recordings across.

They'd get everybody to get that take...

and keep the dirt, keep the grit, and make it keep it raw...

you know, get the feel. It's all feel.

Chess Records had the top musicians in Chicago.

Howlin Wolf, one of the biggest, toughest guys I ever met...

hands as big as a baseball glove...

shoes so wide they had to take a razor blade to cut the sides...

you'd always see his socks coming out of the slit, on the side of his shoes.

Well if you're a long way from home

Can't sleep at night

Grab your telephone

Something ain't right

That's evil

Evil is going on wrong

I am warnin'ya brother

You got to watch your happy home

You know, when you don't have no money, no job...

no place to stay, no place to sleep...

you go to work, you gonna take it easy, you gonna think of strong things...

you gonna go out and get some if you have to stick up somebody...

you know what I mean?

So conditions make these things happen today.

Well If ya call her on the telephone

And she goes awful slow

You better grab The first train smokin'

If you have to hobo That's evil

Evil is in your home

I am trying to warn ya brother

You gotta watch your happy home

I was three years old, started calling me Wolf.

My grandfather gave me that name.

He used to sit down and tell me tall stories...

about what the wolf would do...

you know, cuz I was a bad boy, you know.

I was always in devilment.

I say, well what does a wolf do? And he says, 'Howl'.

And you know that would scare me, you know, and I'd get mad about this.

I didn't know this was gonna be a great name for me.

If you make it to your house

Knock on the front door

Run around to the back You'll catch him

Evil Just before he go

That's evil

Evil in your home

I am trying to warn ya Brother

You gotta watch your happy home

I also made a psychedelic album with the Wolf.

I used the same band, the Electric Mud Band...

the same guys who were gonna meet here in Chicago.

Well, long way from home Can't sleep at night

Know another mule Kicking in your stall

You know that's evil

When Wolf first heard it, he hated it.

But I was ballsey enough to admit that he didn't like it...

that I put it right on the album.

I am trying to warn ya Brother

You gotta watch your happy home

That big building there, the end of the block on the left.

That's the Chess building where we recorded Electric Mud.

You see the sign on the left?

That was the WVON sign, when we had that radio station.

- So, I mean, so when you left 2120... - We came right here...

- you see the old Chess letters on it? - Right, wow. Damn.

It was an amazing building, man. Studios, pressing, printing, mastering.

You could record there on Friday morning...

and have a record by Saturday noon.

I tried to flash it on Lee Johnny

But you wouldn't let me pray

I wanted to read Flash John

But woman you know You won't let me play

If you don't be mine to keep The devil gonna get you one day

I was so comfortable being around black people that I had no concept...

that it was very unusual, in the 50s, even in Chicago.

There weren't many, many social functions that had a mixed crowd.

This was before, you know, civil rights, before Martin Luther King.

My bar mitzvah was one of the first interracial big social events...

that took place in Chicago.

It was a big bash, I got a custom-made suit, with stitching down the side...

same tailor that Muddy went to.

We're gonna get married

We're gonna get married

Are you glad?

Oh, yes

Me too

Don't play with my money If I don't get married

Daddy gonna give me Horse and carriage

Mama gonna give you A waiting van

When daddy gonna give you That 8 acres of land

Bo Diddley, another one of those great original creative artists...

that came in off the street into Chess.

My father and my uncle...

were always willing to take a chance on a different sound.

- Tell me baby - Bring it to Jerome

- What you trying to do? - Bring it to Jerome

You ain't seen me humming

This song, "Bring It to Jerome", was about Jerome Green...

who was the maraca player. He was...

He was a real influence of that African rhythm to Bo...

he was always the sidekick.

I got arrested in Myrtle Beach, SC, recording them live...

Bo Diddley's Beach Party, because he jumped off the stage...

with the maracas, and white girls dancing around him.

They came to me, they threw me against the wall. They said...

"Jew Boy, you messing around with these niggers gonna get you locked up...

where no-one's gonna find you".

I got a baby that's all so

Some call us nigger lovers...

others accuse us of ripping off our artists.

But really we had the same agenda...

we both wanted a better life.

And it was all about making money. It wasn't about record royalties.

If we got it on the radio, you could work that weekend for $350.

$350 then was like five dollars thousand now.

You had a few weekends of $350 an hour, you were driving a Cadillac...

you had a fine bitch at your side.

I look back then, and it's like, you know...

the fact that some of those cats had their bills paid...

they got a new Cadillac here, you know...

you could say that could have been the mentalities of the previous century.

And we call it post-slave mentality.

It wasn't the labels, that said "I want to be the company store".

It was the artists coming in every day: "I need", "I want".

It's backwards, you know, reading stories about Little Walter...

I mean, stories about Little Walter and certain guys in hip hop are so similar.

So similar!

It's like, you could tell the cat, "Look man, you need to calm down".

"No, man, fuck that, man...

really, if it comes down to it I'll blow you out, I mean, eh".

You had these people from Mississippi and Arkansas coming to Chicago...

and they had problems. They had to go to the... my father...

you wanna call him the plantation owner, then call him! Who else!

They would come to him for advice!

I guess your father was like, "Well, fuck it, I'm looking out for you".

When my dad died, there was $150,000 worth of IOUS with a rubber band.

50s, 100s, three hundreds. 95�% of them, to black people.

My uncle, when he went through it...

my dad had so many people at his funeral...

my uncle said, "You see all those motherfuckers?

They're coming to make sure he's dead...

so they don't have to pay back those motherfuckin' notes".

If the Blues was money

I'd be the richest man in town

If the Blues was money People

I'd be the richest man in town

Well since I'm not rich

Blues Please don't let me down

I got the blues so bad

I don't know what to do

I got the blues so bad I don't know what to do

Willie Dixon, well, he was more than just an artist.

Man, he might have been the first Black record executive in the world.

He did everything with those artists: Business, made music, wrote lyrics.

Could fill spoons full of diamonds

Could fill spoons full of gold

Just a little spoon Of your precious love

Will satisfy my soul

Men lies about you

Some of them cries about you

He can write for the character...

the great stuff he did for Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters.

He'd get inside their personalities, and he'd just write just for them.

And then, one of his key discoveries was when he walked in with Koko Taylor.

Ernestine

You'd better leave my man alone

When he found Koko Taylor, who was cleaning houses in Chicago then...

he came in and said, "I've got something hot".

Ernestine

Because of you I can't go on

I told you for the last time

To find you a man of you own

When I came up here I was like 21 years old.

I was living down in Memphis...

I had a job down there...

working on a farm, picking cotton, chopping cotton.

I was tired of picking cotton, so I said, I going to Chicago.

They tell me, you go up there you can find a real good job.

That thing you're playing Makes me want to fight

Went to see Howlin' Wolf, 'cause he was one of my favorite people.

And the Howlin' Wolf got up and made the announcement, he said...

"We got a little Koko in the house.

We gonna see if we can get her up here to do a couple of tunes for us".

So, sure enough, when he got through with his, what he was going to do now...

he wanted to go and get him a little nip, so he goes and calls me up...

and go to the back so he could get that bottle.

Two strikes you lose

I got up there to do two songs.

When I came down, I met this big man...

all tall, reared back and everything, and he goes...

"I'm Willie Dixon. Girl, I like the way you sing them blues".

He said, "I'd like to take you down to Chess".

Next day, Leonard Chess, he listened to my voice and he said...

"Yeah, she got the voice, man".

He said, "I want you to start working on her right away".

Dixon came back with a tune that I'm working on tonight.

That was the 1st tune on Chess records, it was, "I've Got What it Takes".

Yeah I got what it takes

Make a good man A good man into my slave

I got that something that they go

My love got me the right man

I got it

A lot of people think...

blues music is something to make you look sad and look down at yourself...

but I tell everybody, not my blues.

My music is like a therapy.

It's designed to make people look up...

pep up, get up, smile, feel better about themselves.

Yeah I got what it takes

Making love Jelly, jelly, jelly jam

Yeah I got what it takes

Making love Jelly, jelly, jelly jam

I got that same thing to make her

My lay, lay, lay down with a man

I got it

I got it babe

Yeah I got it

Marie, is that you? It's Marshall Chess.

- I knew it was you! - Hi, yeah how are you?

I'm doing good. I'm glad to see you're here.

I didn't know you were going to be here.

- Yeah, I came with my son, Jamar. - Jamar!

Pleased to meet you!

I had to give him a taste of the Chicago blues!

- You got it. - Go by the building and everything...

You didn't make a mistake. You're like your daddy all over again.

That's alright, he was alright.

Talk to me baby On the telephone

Stop what you're doing And come on home

I can't hold out

I can't hold out too long

I get a real good feeling'

Talking to you on the phone

When I was a young kid, both Muddy Waters...

and Howlin' Wolf gave me sexual advice.

When I was a young kid, they'd see me and they'd say...

"Did you get any yet? Did you get any yet?"

I can't hold out

I can't hold out too long

Muddy Waters once wrote me a poem...

that I could change the words to give to a girl I had a crush on.

Buddy Guy brought me a mojo that was to get girls. I used to wear under my shirt.

Really from the Delta!

Talk to me baby

Talk to me baby

Talk to me baby

Come on Talk to me baby

Cause I get a really good feeling Talking to you on the phone

That's all right.

You see somebody out there in the audience...

and when you sing a song about 'em, you look straight at 'em...

because she'll gonna know what you're talking about.

Because I seen three or four of 'em out there today...

I throw a kiss at a couple of them. I wink my eye at a couple of 'em.

But, you know...

that means, it doesn't mean that I want them.

It just means that, you know, that I'm trying to tell them something.

They're beautiful lady...

and they need me!

Now you know that, man!

Yeah Talk to me baby

Get a really good feeling

Talking to you on the phone

Good feeling.

In 1963, my senior year of college.

My dad, leaving Chess records, late at night, was robbed and beat up.

When I heard that I flipped out...

and I came home. I quit college and came home.

I'm ready

Ready as anybody can be

I made a big scene about...

I wanted to go to work, you know. I didn't care about college.

I was raised to be a record man, it's time I wanted to be one.

They accepted it.

I got an axe handle pistol

On a graveyard frame

That shoot tombstone bullets

Wearing balls and chain

I'm drinking TNT

I'm smoking dynamite

I hope some screwball

Start a fight Because I'm ready

So I started going to work.

No-one told me what my job was...

no-one paid me.

Week after week, I would come to work.

So, finally, I built up the courage, and I said, "Dad, tell me, what's up?

I mean, where am I supposed to sit?

What's my job going to be at Chess Records?"

He said, "What's your job?

You stupid motherfucker! Your job is watching me!"

And that was all he ever told me. And then I got it, you know.

Alright, Chicago!

About 60 years ago, in Clarksdale, a young man saw a piano player...

playing in a rehearsal, and he decided he wanted to become a musician.

The young man's name was lke Turner and the piano player was Pinetop Perkins.

This afternoon...

we give you Pinetop Perkins and lke Turner and his Kings of Rhythm!

Big fat mama Meat shaking on her bones

Big fat mama Meat shaking on her bones

Time the meat shakes

Old man gotta go

The big fat mama

The big fat mama

It's a very hip mama

The big fat mama

The big fat mama Meat shaking on her bones

Go on, guys.

Big fat mama Meat shaking on her bones

Big fat mama Meat shaking on her bones

Time the meat shakes

Old man gotta go

Pinetop Perkins at ninety four, whatever...

you know, the music keeps you going.

I hope to be some ninety-year old cat rapping one day, who knows.

I'm a musicologist. I've been a big fan of everything!

Especially rock 'n ' roll, rhythm 'n ' blues, rap, of course.

And then, I was introduced to this record, Electric Mud...

Muddy Waters, and I was like, Yo, this Electric Mud is hot...

and it introduced me to the blues. But I would read that, you know, that...

it wasn't the purest record, you know, the purest in dignity.

So I was like, I can't understand it, coz this was what introduced me to it.

So I sent Marshall an email and we just started corresponding.

And then all of a sudden...

We hooked up.

So what happened is, we started thinking about this project...

and I got the idea to put em together again.

Chuck and I, working' on it, we said...

we need some-one to spit, to come up with the lyrics.

And I was like, saying, the cat...

all he had to do was like, Chicago, Chicago blues...

- It's all about Chicago. - Around the world.

- And there's only one cat that signifies. - One cat.

Thank you, man.

Well, I would love to, definitely. Cause I wanna push the music.

And I'm diggin' into some old stuff.

And definitely I like psychedelic stuff, man.

Actually, the whole thing of being able to play with some historical brothers...

is like a blessing. You know what I'm sayin'

- You're perfect. - Thank you.

You're the guy to do this.

It's in my blood. Like Chuck said...

I can't help but have the blues in my blood, you know...

- from where I grew up, you know. - You were born in Chicago?

- Yeah, I was born in Chicago. - What side?

- South side. - Me, too, I was South Side, where?

- 87th, right, 87th and Stone. - Well, that's my old neighborhood.

I started, I was born around 44th and Drexel, you know.

- Around the Horace Mann elevators? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. You lived there?

- God! - What sign are you?

- Pisces. - That's what I am.

- What day? - March 13th.

Oh man, guess what mine is?

- What? - March 13th.

Get outta here.

You weren't born on a Friday, were you? I was. Friday the 13th.

I was, we got the same birthday. We're gonna fly here, our first hug.

Doing' it, doing' it Doing' it, doing' it

Yeah I am doing it Doing it, doing it

I am doing it C, O double M, O to the N

Doing it, doing it Doing it, doing it

Common is the modern day 2003 evolution.

Every generation goes back, goes back, goes back.

I don't want you

To be no slave

I don't want you

To work all day

Even Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, those great early blues guys.

They had fathers: Son House, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson.

These were people that Muddy Waters and Howlin Wolf listened to.

They influenced them as much as Muddy influenced the Rolling Stones...

and as much as the Rolling Stones influenced Chuck D...

and as much as Chuck D influenced Common.

I don't want you

To be no slave

I don't want you

To work all day

I don't want you 'Cause I'm sad and blue

I just want To make love to you

In 1964 I got a call from the Rolling Stones that said...

"We want to come to Chicago and record, in the Chess studio.

We got our name from that Muddy Waters record, "Rollin' Stone".

We want to come record in the studio, can you set it up?"

I went to my father and Uncle Phil and said...

" There's this English group, and they got long hair, ya know...

and they had got a couple big hits, they're doing' all our songs".

He said, " Let em come...

maybe we could put some of our songs to em while they're here".

I said, "Great!" So I set up a session.

They came in the summer of '64 and recorded their second album in Chicago.

He's been called the greatest blues drummer in the world.

He's played with Muddy Waters, James Cotton...

a founding member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band...

appeared on stage...

for the first electric performance with Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival.

The one and only, the legendary, Sam Lay!

I wanna get close to you baby as

White is to rice

Close to you baby as Cold is to ice

Close to you baby As hair on your head

Close to you woman I want to go Please what I say

I want to get close to that woman To death

Don't know what to say or do

Now let me get close to you all

Alright!

I wanna get Closer and closer baby

Closer and closer baby

Closer and closer baby

Closer and closer baby

I want to get close to that woman To death

Don't know what to say or do Alright

That's what I'm talking about!

I want to get close to that woman

Marshall, remember Marshall...

Man.

You look sharper than I ever expected. Shit! It's just good to be next to you.

You know, I miss, I miss it.

I mean, you don't miss your water till the well runs dry.

But I didn't even know that I was thirsty till I came back.

And all the memories start pourin' out.

Now, you had made my day.

No, you made mine, man, you made mine.

You remember that Fathers and Sons, remember that night...

when Muddy put the guitar down, and did that dance?

That was something, I'd have never seen.

- That was hot. - That was the good old days.

That was the good old days.

Right now we gonna do one more slide tune.

Back in the '60s, Sam recorded this tune...

with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

I got a girl And she just won't be true

I got a girl And she just won't be true

Got to the bridge She won't do a thing I tell her to

She won't shake her moneymaker

Won't shake her moneymaker

Shake her moneymaker

Shake her moneymaker She won't

Sam was just, he was just a young great black drummer...

who somehow got hooked up with these young white guys as well.

And he was on both scenes.

They were all playing together: Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, man...

Sam Lay was on drums.

Butterfield open doors all over the world for blues in general.

That don't mean whether they're black or white or what...

I'm talking about the blues.

I pretty well know that 'cause I was with him, I went in the doors I had to.

You gotta shake your moneymaker

Shake your moneymaker

Shake your moneymaker

Shake your moneymaker

Shake your moneymaker

Oh I love you baby

When we did that famous Chicago recording, Fathers and Sons...

you know, they wanted Sam playing drums.

This is the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Of course we made one of the characters black to represent the fathers.

The sons represent the white younger blues people that were playing.

I noticed it with the Rolling Stones...

I noticed it with Butterfield, Bloomfield, Barry Goldberg.

If they'd had their wish they'd have wanted to be black to sound identical...

to those Chess records that they were covering on stage.

But it came out their way...

they just added that little bit of whiteness to it.

And that little bit of their way...

really made it accelerate into the white market.

I was born in Chicago in 1941

I was born in Chicago in 1941

Well my father told me

Son you had better get a gun

Butterfield was something else.

He was in there, all the way. Butterfield is a blues singer.

There's no white bullshit with Butterfield...

white-colored thing with him.

He's there. If he was green...

it wouldn't make any difference.

If he was a plenaria, a tuna-fish sandwich...

Butterfield would be into the blues.

In 1965...

the sons, Bloomfield, Butterfield...

played with Bob Dylan at the Newport Festival again.

Same kind of electric blues vibe background.

And I think that Dylan got turned on to these early black acoustic records...

and then of course, just by automatic progression...

got pulled into the electric blues.

I ain't gonna work For Maggie's pa no more

No, I ain't gonna work For Maggie's pa no more

Well, he puts his cigar Out in your face just for kicks

His bedroom window It is made out of bricks

The National Guard stands Around his door

Ah, I ain't gonna work For Maggie's pa no more

Alright!

Hey, man.

- How you doing? - This is Morris, Morris Jennings.

- My pleasure! - Oh, my pleasure.

I got your poster at home.

- My poster? Oh man! - Yeah.

My man with the clock.

How you doing?

- Man, better than ever. - That's good.

Usually, I was telling Marshall earlier...

I mean, we're recording now, but once I'm amongst royalty...

I'll just sit back and listen. 'You got something to say or what? '

I'm always sitting, asking questions...

trying to, trying to soak the soul, you know...

because you gentlemen have stories to tell, and they need to be heard.

Young people out there today, they don't...

they don't even really follow artists from five years ago.

No, they don't.

It's like we're trying to, like, reverse some of that. And Electric Mud...

as I was explaining earlier, introduced me to the blues.

Alright!

That's how we hooked up! Over e-mail!

He was right, man, he was right about hookin' that stuff up.

He wanted to hook the hippies up.

I come from New York.

Not only hippies! Anyone that didn't...

I wanted to bring in a new audience to that music, you know...

that was the whole idea there.

Everything, especially Rotary Connection.

- Yeah. - You know, Soulful Strings...

Electric Mud, where'd you even find Electric Mud?

Well, you know, one of my partners, G-Whiz...

was like, 'This is the shit! '

And you know...

Thirty years later, to hear that fucks me up.

"This is the shit. You got the playing..."

"Look, both of them have it".

- My hero! - Common!

- My hero. - One of my heroes.

- What's up? - What's up, buddy?

Why you so clean, man?

He's not clean. He's sharp.

I'm coming to see my best friends!

We knew you'd be the whipped cream on the cake!

- This is Chuck D. - Pleasure, dog.

Much respect, man.

Common, the greatest rapper from Chicago, man, number one.

- My daughters use to braid his hair. - Alright, man.

I can't believe we're all sitting here. It feels good.

I just want to say, I'm really deeply honored to even be amongst y'all...

- sitting at the table. I mean, you know... - We're everyday people, everyday people.

Grocery store, we drive truck.

We told some dudes now that are dead the same thing.

It was amazing the day we met, well, Marshall...

we went to the studio that day...

the engineer had Electric Mud sitting right there.

I was like... I swear to you... Electric Mud sitting right there.

This was at the Jimi Hendrix studio, Electric Lady, I walked in there...

and I just couldn't believe. I said 'That's divine, right here'.

The only thing about us, see, is that we were blessed enough to be born...

to be the best, anything less can't hang...

ain't gonna hang, ain't gonna be at the same stage, we won't allow that.

We won't allow nothing to come in and ruin the groove. Because the groove...

if we don't have groove, forget about the notes!

If the groove ain't there, whatever's in the way of the groove is gone.

We don't allow that. We don't care, he could be writing the check.

So if the thing that's destroying the groove is writing the check...

we play free.

And it's simple as that.

Gospel music was first.

It's not called blues, but it IS blues. I mean, it is if you listen to it.

Let's party now.

Like, I was going back to the old negro spirituals, and they would say...

Oh baby Oh Lord

It was the same music, but the word's changed.

It was a big thing about this. They used to call the blues negative.

Black people, a lot of black, like my grandmother, did not appreciate it.

My grandmother would say, 'I'll not have this boy playin' music...

because the first thing you know, he's gonna be playin' those blues'.

We've got a good thing here and...

the plan is...

to get into the studio for two days, with Chuck and Common, and us...

and do a couple cuts, and if the seed grows.

You keep saying "if". You said if...

Yeh, "when". Right. Forget the "if", I'm going to be more positive.

There is no reason this should not be successful...

simply because we're in a different time...

different molecules.

Different minds are in control of things...

different minds are out there, more receptive, understand?

These young men here...

found their way back to the roots of our American music...

through the gateway, which was Electric Mud.

People who pander it, critics, we have to keep in mind one thing...

most critics don't do anything.

They can't create anything...

so what they do is they criticize, they dump on things.

This has been throughout time...

they did the same thing to Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Parker...

John Coltrane.

I've always figured that critics were probably...

re-incarnations of the mob that crucified Christ.

There you go.

Hip hop and rap: It's not always pretty...

just like the blues isn't always about beauty, it's not always pretty.

You could tell a sad story, you could tell a tragic story...

you can also tell a joyous and a happy story.

And with that connection, it's like father-son, brother-brother...

it is absolutely connected, it's just a matter of what you put up under there.

Like there used to be a sort of a schism...

between the jazz musicians and the blues musicians.

Well, I would think the only difference between Muddy and Miles was...

Miles was real thin, and Muddy was kind of chunky.

And Miles spoke like this: "Yeh, what's happening?"

And Muddy spoke like: "I don't know what, I don't know, what, what, what?"

- Alright! - Other than that...

Miles played the blues!

Are you gonna buy some vinyl in there?

I'll buy some shit.

A lot of blues!

'Jazz Casual. John Coltrane. Not Seen In Over 25 Years'

This looks crazy! See that? This is the kind of shit I buy!

My man is wearing pink gear that shit, that shit is crazy right there!

I'm buying it!

This is the used blues area.

Art 'Blues Boy' White.

My man got a bronze phone and a bottle of Hennessy.

You know what I'm saying? This is like a rap cover.

This is like a rap cover, but the guy's old enough to be the guy's Pops.

And that's the only difference.

That's how I draw my parallels, you know what I'm sayin'.

How many times you seen a rapper on top of a car?

You may have heard of jalopies You heard the noise they make

Let me introduce you To my Rocket '88

Yes it's great, just won't wait

Everybody likes my Rocket '88

Baby will ride in style Moving all along

You know, clothes and cars were a big symbol for the same immigrant crowd...

that I'm calling on my dad and our artists.

It was the same symbol of success.

In fact, Muddy Waters!

The first time I saw Muddy Waters, young kid, out in front of the house...

big black Cadillac pulls up.

I looked up, this tall guy came out, and I looked at him, I was shocked...

he had on this bright green, electric green suit.

I looked down, and his shoes, they had like, fur...

you could see the hairs, of a pinto-pony or a cow!

Why I say hip hop and blues are cousins, first cousins.

I bought this record specifically for the cover!

Yeah, that's a great cover! Alligator does do its covers.

I mean, to me that's what hip hop is. Hip hop is what you're feeling.

To me, hip hop is whatever makes me move.

A lot of stuff in here makes me move, so to me, this is hip hop.

Well, rap doesn't it pretty much have its origin in the Dirty Dozens?

Well, yeah, but...

I've gotta give you a copy of Special Red's Dirty Dozens.

This guy made the first record.

I had your sister I had your mother too

I woulda had your father But the son of a bitch flew

Alright, guys, so here's the original Muddy, the first one, you know?

I'm gonna play you some of that, and then we'll start groovin!

Check it out! Check out the master here singing.

- Now when I was a young boy - Yeah.

- At the age of five - Ok.

My mother said I was gonna be

The greatest man alive

But now I'm a man

A man way past 21

I want you to believe me Honey

I had lots of fun

I'm a man

When we got into the studio...

it was like nothing had changed. It was like...

it was just the same...

it's just that middle period hadn't existed, it could have been yesterday...

we were in the studio at Chess. We were all the same, you know?

We're ready! We're ready in here!

We're rolling!

Here it is!

This is definitely like the hardest audience we ever had.

I know, man, it's like "Yo, we've heard it all!"

The cadence is going like this...

Natural born Let's get it on

Age of one Just big gun

To understand what it took To be a man, yeah

Got my groove back Mudcats Come on gimme gimme some of that uh!

Gimme some of that Gimme some of that

On the one, on the drums y'all Come and get some MJ

Can you come and get some of this

Here the drums can you come And get some of this man-child

Everything gonna be alright, y'all

Everything gonna be alright now

Everything gonna be alright y'all

Everything gonna be alright chil'

There's serious misconceptions We got brothers in the wrong direction

Talking' 'bout doing it For their own damn protection

So what's the premise? You got to be all up in this

Time for him to be a man and Start handling his business

Money don't make the man But how he makes the money does

So let's get back to the root And give it up to what it was

Good Lord!

Everything gonna be alright now

Everything gonna be alright child

- Everything gonna be alright now - Oh child

Everything gonna be alright

The flavor is rising up!

Oh yeah

Oh yeah

Oh yeah

I gotta do this, man, I gotta do this.

I gotta pay homage.

I gotta pay homage to the masters.

I've just retired...

I'm done, I'm done.

I'm still not afraid to make the worst blues album ever made.

Because you gotta take risks.

I found that out a long time ago from my father.

He said, "If you're gonna be listening to everyone else...

you're never gonna do anything special.

You've gotta go with your own feelings".

You know, my father...

Now, lookin' back, I see that he was trying to shape me into being...

a record man or maybe he was just shaping me into being a man.

Obviously your dad moved on to different areas, of course, and you were like...

"Ok, you know, I'm going to be running this building".

I know it had had to seep into your mind a couple of times but...

I'm gonna be... I'm not so much running the building.

- I was... no... - Get records out and...

I was really, I was so integrated into it at such a young age...

that that never entered my mind.

That's why when he sold, it was like a guillotine...

even though I was supposed to get this piece of money...

- I was going to start my own thing. - Right.

It was like taking an Olympic event away from me...

after training for twenty years for this event...

you know, then all of the sudden they cancel the Olympics!

Something told me it was over

When I saw you And her talking

Something deep down

In my soul said 'Cry, girl'

When I saw you And that girl

In 1969 my father died, he died at fifty-two years old.

I was devastated.

I was on a plane, coming back from LA, spoke with him right before I left.

Landed, found out he was dead.

Then to see you walk away From me, child, no

So you see I love you so much

That I don't wanna watch You leave me, baby

Most of all

By pure coincidence, someone called me up and said...

they hear the Rolling Stones...

were looking for a whole new way to do their business. A new record label.

So, I ended up going to London...

and then spent seven years running the Rolling Stones company.

It's funny My life has changed

It's funny, funny, Funny, funny

It's funny how

It's funny

It's funny

It's funny

Hello! It's Marshall! All right!

You gotta get moving, you've got to be up there in the next thirty minutes.

But then, my nightmare kept happening. One sister died...

another year and a half went by, other sister died.

And shortly after, my mother died. And then that was...

that was it: My whole family was gone.

Oh I felt so sad, so Ionesome

That I could not help

But cry

I began on the sex-drugs-and-rock'n'roll.

And the drugs eased a little bit of that pain.

Finally I was...

with the Stones almost seven years at that time.

I wasn't happy with my life, so I quit.

But then I met my wife, and I began to have my own family...

and once you start your own family...

you sort of see that your father's still within you, and within your kids...

and you just pass that along.

And my dad never complimented me.

But he did once tell me that he was confident I could survive.

He thought that was his main job, you know...

to get me to be able to survive.

When my children ask me about my father, I always say...

well, the moment he would have just been amazed at...

is when Voyager I and Voyager II went into outer space, sifting for aliens...

they put a disk on there with all famous music.

His mother told him "Someday you will be a man

And you will be the leader Of a big old band"

They put on "Johnny B. Goode" by Chuck Berry.

I tell my kids...

"Your grandfather produced a record that represents the Earth to aliens.

What could be better than that for a Jewish immigrant from Poland?"

Go go Go Johnny go

Go go go Johnny go

Go go go Johnny go

Go

Johnny Be Good

What's up, Common! Big day!

They are downstairs.

Birthday boy! You made it, finally!

My prayers have got answered.

Alright, I'm gonna go sit over there with Pete now.

I liked that. I liked that.

It could be good.

It's a "under-band", ya know.

All you looking for me is just for some freestyle?

Freestyle on the 2nd half of this album. It's like, two minutes max, not even.

Alright.

C'mon baby, let's do it

You know what?

Everything gonna be alright, y'all

Everything gonna be alright

Everything gonna be alright

Everything gonna be alright, y'all

We talking about the man

A man's world

We talking about a man

A man's girl

Being full blown in his home

Take care responsibility And his own

Talking about a man Exploring himself

Knowing that his body Is worth more than wealth

Talking about a man Having scriptures on his shelf

Check me when I was a young boy.

Pete.

That's me, that's Pete. See Pete? With the big afro?

They wanted to call them, remember? Electric Niggers...

that's what you were gonna call yourselves.

My father says, "You want to get us killed?"

Some where a place Where we understand God but we know

Everything gonna be alright, y'all

Everything gonna be alright

Everything gonna be alright

Everything gonna be alright, y'all

Talking bout a man And his children

Talk about a man Right here in his building

Talk about a man Expressing his feelings

Ain't got no time For robbing or stealing

There's no doubt that there's a connection.

Hip Hop is definitely a child of the blues.

And I think you've got to know the roots to really grow.

It's knowing your parents, man, it's like knowin'your culture...

so you can be proud of that culture...

and take it to the world.

Like hey, "This is where it came from, this is where we're taking it.

We're utilizing the origins of this, to take it somewhere else.

We pay homage, we're taken it to a new place.

What can make a man Feel like a man in this world?

Feeling like a man understanding Him and his girl

Walking through the mud Not letting it get him down

Same place where he is lost Now he's found

So I definitely want to be a vessel for the blues to get to the youth.

Jimi definitely was a vessel.

I was lookin' at Jimi like, man, I know the blues just meant so much to him.

Have you ever heard of Mississippi?

Have you ever heard of Muddy Waters?

You know the story behind Jimi the cat, right?

It pretty much goes that the spirit of Jimi Hendrix is inside the cat.

Hendrix was able to take the blues and put it on steroids.

Now, if you're a musician looking at Jimi Hendrix...

do you copy his techniques? No!

But you copy his mindset.

That's something that's always helped me making rap music.

Okay, yeah, it's rap music. It's rap over music, that's already been defined.

But can you understand the definition, and can you redefine...

where it can go?

I'm a man!

I'm a man!

Shorty did it first But now we got a grand new burst

Got a new breed on the proceed That was planted before the hearse

So slow Buried deep under ground

Now Common, Chuck and Kyle Gonna bring it all back around

With the help the godfathers Better plan to be a son

Be the new kings of Chess Bring the blues back to one

Come on, baby, yeah

I'm talking about men baby, yeah

I'm a man!

I'm a man!

I'm

I'm a man!

Marshall was like one of those guys at right place at the right time...

that took advantage of that timing.

And he's at the center of the swirl.

Look at me, forty years and I'm still loving being in front of a board.

- I know, I've seen it. - And messing with you motherfuckers.

Can't you see it in his face, man?

- You seen his face? - He's sitting with gleam in his eye.

And still getting a buzz, like, when you go down, and when Kyle this and that...

You know, I don't care if it sells one, the buzz is already down.

I mean, that's the good shit, and I still get the buzz going'

From the first email. This is for the film.

From the first email you buzzed me...

Oh, now, come on, man! We're not doing' it for the film, fuck the film!

This is real!

This is for fucking real!

All night long

All night long

Muddy, Will, Little Walter, John Lee Hooker...

Chuck Berry, Bo Diddly and here it is Koko Taylor...

still doing it!

These are the legends.

This is the roots of it all, as Willie Dixon said.

It's the roots that make the fruits.

If you

Use your day you mind

And you're

And you're ten year and no time

Bye

Bye bye, baby, bye bye

Everybody singing!

Bye

Bye bye, baby, bye bye

Yeah

Bye

Bye bye, baby, bye bye

Bye Bye bye, baby, bye bye

Bye Bye bye, baby, bye bye

Bye Bye bye, baby, bye bye

Bye Bye bye, baby, bye bye

Bye Bye bye, baby, bye bye

Bye Bye bye, baby, bye bye

Bye Bye bye, baby, bye bye