The importance and influence of Aaron Thibeaux “T-Bone” Walker cannot be understated. If you listen to the Blues, Rock and Roll, Rock, or even Jazz, this man has had a major influence since the late 1940’s. And this song of his is one reason most of us know about him.
Let’s take a look at this classic that has influenced many artists and the music you’ve listened to since then. Let’s start with just the name of the song. “Call It Stormy Monday But Tuesday Is Just As Bad” is what was printed on the label of his original release. No parenthesis, as many articles submit.
Black & White Records released “Call It Stormy Monday But Tuesday Is Just As Bad” in November 1947. Due to its length, and the first change to the title, “Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)” is shortened to “Call It Stormy Monday” or most often “Stormy Monday”. Confusingly, it is also sometimes referred to as “Stormy Monday Blues”, the same title but different song, as the 1942 song by Billy Eckstine and Earl Hines. According to T-Bone Walker, he specifically gave his song the longer name to set it apart. However, trouble ensued when other artists began recording it using these shortened names. Walker blamed Duke Records owner Don Robey for giving it the wrong title for his artists, including Bobby “Blue” Bland’s 1962 rendition, which appeared as “Stormy Monday Blues”. Bland’s version, which was an R&B and pop chart hit, was subsequently copied by other artists, who also used the incorrect title. Bland introduced a new arrangement with chord substitutions, which was later used in many subsequent renditions. His version incorrectly used the title “Stormy Monday Blues” and as a result, Walker lost out on royalties when his song was misnamed and the payments were forwarded to Eckstine, Hines, and Crowder.
Walkers original composition and recording took place in Hollywood, California, and was produced by Black & White’s Ralph Bass. There are conflicting accounts about the recording date for “Call It Stormy Monday But Tuesday Is Just as Bad”. In an interview, Walker claimed that he recorded the song in 1940 “just before the war” (the U.S. entered World War II December 7, 1941), but that it was not released because of war-time material restrictions. Journalist Dave Dexter, who worked for Capitol Records in the early 1940s, believed that Walker recorded it for Capitol before the Eckstine/Hines song (March 1942), but that it was not released because of the unavailability of shellac and the recording ban. However, Walker’s first single as a band leader, “Mean Old World”, which was recorded in July 1942, was released in 1945 by Capitol. One sessionography places the recording of “Stormy Monday” on September 13, 1947, during his third session for Black & White Records. Blues writer Jim O’Neal noted that blues discographies do not show a recording date before 1947.
“Stormy Monday” was performed in a “club combo” or West Coast-blues style with a small back-up band. The style, as heard in “Driftin’ Blues” (one of the biggest hits of the 1940s), evokes a more intimate musical setting than the prevailing jump-blues dance-hall style. Accompanying Walker is pianist Lloyd Glenn, bassist Arthur Edwards, drummer Oscar Lee Bradley, and horn players John “Teddy” Bruckner (trumpet) and Hubert “Bumps” Myers (tenor saxophone).
A key feature of the song’s instrumentation is Walker’s prominent guitar parts, including the extensive use of ninth chords, which gives the song its distinctive sound.
Author Aaron Stang explained:
The real sound of this riff is based on starting each 9th chord a whole step (2 frets) above and sliding down. If we were to analyze this movement, the first chord is technically a 13th chord resolving down to a 9th chord.
Guitarist Duke Robillard (founded the band Roomful of Blues and was a member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds) added:
The guitar chord line, it’s a little guitar ninth chord figure. That was a unique thing and it became T-Bone’s signature. And that chord line seems to have grabbed everybody because everybody plays it with that line in it. And it’s almost like a law, that you have to, when you play ‘Stormy Monday.’
Walker also plays twelve bars of single-string guitar solo, which writer Lenny Carlson has described as “remain[ing] largely in the middle register, but it contains some gems, particularly in the use of space, phrasing, and melodic development”. The placement of a guitar as the prominent, lead instrument was also a notable “first”, primarily due to T-Bone pioneering the use of an electric guitar and amplification which allowed the guitar to take center-stage when it had been previously relegated to only a rhythm instrument in the backing instrumentation.
The song is also significant in that it opened up, and crossed over, the traditional Blues of Black artists (commonly called “race records” at the time) and exposed and invited White audiences into the genre. The lyrics perfectly capture the essence of the blues and what it strives to portray. “They call it stormy Monday, but Tuesday’s just as bad. Wednesday’s worse, and Thursday’s also sad.” These lyrics outline what every working-class individual, regardless of race, has to deal with week after week.
Walker’s legacy spans many years and he influenced some of our favorite players like Hendrix, Chuck Berry, the Allman Brothers, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and B.B. King, who said that “Stormy Monday was his inspiration for getting an electric guitar.” He “thought Jesus Himself had returned to Earth playing electric guitar”.
Later audiences were probably made aware of this song in 1971 when the Allman Brothers released their famed 1971 album “At Fillmore East”. As the title indicates, the recording took place at the New York City music venue Fillmore East, which was run by concert promoter Bill Graham. It was recorded over the course of three nights in March 1971 and features the band performing extended jam versions of songs, and this was one of them. “At Fillmore East” was the band’s artistic and commercial breakthrough, and has been considered by some critics to be one of the greatest live albums in rock music. At 10 minutes and 39 seconds, it takes T-Bones original, adds the arrangement of Bobby “Blue” Bland’s version, to another new height.
Other great blues versions include Albert King with Stevie Ray Vaughan (“In Session” 1983, a must listen blues album), John Mayall and the Blues Breakers on their album featuring Eric Clapton, and played by Cream at their ‘Reunion Concert’ in 2005 released as “Live At Royal Albert Hall”.
In 1983, T-Bone Walker’s original “Call It Stormy Monday But Tuesday Is Just As Bad” was inducted into the Blues Foundation Blues Hall of Fame in the “Classic of Blues Recording — Single or Album Track” category. Writing for the foundation, Jim O’Neal called it “one of the most influential records not only in blues history, but in guitar history”. In 1991, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame which “honor[s] recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance”. The song was included as one of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. The U.S. National Recording Preservation Board selected the song in 2007 for inclusion in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry of “sound recordings that are culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”. T-Bone is also included on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarists list at number 67.
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