Episode 4 - Willie Dixon - The Songbook Beneath Rock

Pull out the first Rolling Stones, Cream, Doors, and Led Zeppelin albums and read the small print — the
same songwriter's name is on every one. He was a six-foot-six former boxer playing upright bass in a
Chicago studio. The series question this time: whose songs provided the vocabulary?

• Vicksburg to Chicago: his mother's rhymes, gospel harmony, Golden Gloves boxing, a tin-can bass, and a wartime stand as a conscientious objector
• Chess Records:  producer, talent scout, session bassist, and staff songwriter — and the bridge from last episode, as Howlin' Wolf moves from Sam Phillips's Memphis room to Chicago
• The breakthrough: "Hoochie Coochie Man" for Muddy Waters, then "I Just Want to Make Love to You" and Little Walter's "My Babe"
• The bassist: Chuck Berry's "Maybellene," early Bo Diddley sessions, and a callback to last season's bass episode
• Cobra Records and Otis Rush's "I Can't Quit You Baby"; the great Howlin' Wolf run
• How the songs crossed the ocean: the American Folk Blues Festival, with future Stones and Jimmy Page in the seats
• Listening Spine (original vs. cover): Muddy Waters "Hoochie Coochie Man" → the Allman Brothers; Howlin' Wolf "Spoonful" → Cream; "Little Red Rooster" → the Rolling Stones; Bo Diddley "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover" → the Yardbirds; "Back Door Man" → the Doors; "You Need Love" beside Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love"
• Blues Progression: rock took architecture, not just a feel — riff, stop-time, hook, swagger, and space
• Credit and money: publishing and Arc Music, the 1977 suit, "Bring It On Home," the "Whole Lotta Love" settlement and later credit — facts as sourced, with the host's opinion clearly marked
• The Blues Heaven Foundation and the old Chess building at 2120 South Michigan Avenue