Week 35
Otis Rush, The Essential Otis Rush: The Classic Cobra Recordings 1956-1958
(Fuel 2000/Varese Sarabande 061077)

If talent alone were enough to guarantee a high public profile, Otis Rush would arguably be as broadly known as his peer Buddy Guy. Still actively recording and performing, each artist found his first fame in Chicago clubs of the late 1950s, pioneering with other young players an update of the city's renowned electric blues, now commonly referred to as the "West Side Sound."

This small combo approach, in actuality played throughout the city, featured increasingly prominent guitar leads, and often carried multiple horns instead of the amplified harmonica common to electric Chicago blues. The resulting template, taking its cues as much from Memphis' B.B. King as from locals Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters, was and continues to be highly prominent in modern blues. In addition, it was a distinct inspiration for many of the most celebrated guitar players of the British invasion, among them Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.

Page's debt in particular to the West Side Sound was made clear by Led Zeppelin's 1968 cover of Otis Rush's "I Can't Quit You Baby." Rush's first release, it had shot to the upper reaches of the national R&B chart in 1956. A slow number seeped in urban feeling, it is in many ways the prototypical Otis Rush song, an ample showcase for his soaring vocals and ringing guitar style.

Though none of his subsequent Cobra releases were as commercially successful as his first, among them are numerous classics of modern blues. From the minor key emotive ballad of "My Love Will Never Die" to the irresistible Latinate rhythms of "All Your Love (I Miss Loving)," all 16 are gathered on this collection, together with eight alternate versions. While a few are fairly disposable attempts at a more accessible sound, the vast majority remain powerful listening, with an intensity and fervor rarely matched then or since.

Listen: Otis Rush - "I Can't Quit You Baby"
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