WHISKEY, CIGARS AND JAPANESE GUITARS IS ALL HOUND DOG TAYLOR NEEDED TO PLAY THE BLUES

As far as blues guitar goes, it never got any rawer and downright unpolished than Hound Dog Taylor. The guy is still a total legend in the eyes of so many american blues and rock guitarists 36 years after his death. His unique and completely original clutter bump style of Chicago blues, where there was not a bass guitar/ist to be seen, was thunderous and belligerent with no production quality whatsoever. You got to have balls to go in without a bass player, but to achieve the degree of noise that Hound Dog did playing notoriously cheap & shithouse japanese Teisco guitars is testament to the over the top enthusiasm that he was able to bring to life on stage in many small clubs in the black neighbourhoods of Chicago. After starting out in Chicago in 1957, he remained virtually unknown outside the windy city until 1970, when he became the first musician to make a recording for the fledgling Alligator Records, which would then go on to become one of the most influential recordings of all time. Stevie Ray Vaughan was just one of many white bluesmen who cite Hound Dog as a major influence, SRV recorded a fantastic cover of the song i chose to go with this article - GIVE ME BACK MY WIG. He would go on to record two more albums for Alligator before his death from lung cancer in 1975, one of which chronicled a great live performance at Boston in 1972, and inspired a very young George Thorogood to pick up a guitar, as well as tour Australia in 1975 in the company of Freddy King & the brilliant guitar/harmonica duo Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Hound Dog Taylor was potent. He was famous for having 6 fingers on his left hand, not even Hendrix could boast that.