Artist: Koko Taylor
Written: Willie Dixon
Year : 1968
Album/Single: Checker # 1191
Cobra's Version
Song: Insane AsylumReleased: January 6th, 2004
Album: Seven Easy Pieces
Today's selection is the longest song in the Cobra's catalog, clocking in at 4:16, well over their 2:21 average. It is a cover for Koko Taylor's 1968 duet with the songwriter, Willie Dixon. It was Dixon who discovered Taylor and brought her to Chess records in 1963. She hit it big in 1965 with another of composition of of Dixon's, "Wang Dang Doodle" - the last Chess release to hit the R&B top ten. She moved from Chess to Alligator records in 1975 but continued to make records in the Chicago, electric blues tradition. Check out her take of Bo Diddley's / Muddy Water's "I'm A Man" called "I'm A Woman" on her MySpace page ("MySpace, not just for kids anymore"). Lyrics:
(Willie Dixon)
I went out to the insane asylum
And I found my baby out there
I said please come back to me darlin'
What in the world are you doin' here?
Then the little girl raised up her head
Tears was streamin' down from her eyes
And these are the things
That the little girl said
(Koko Taylor)
When your love has ceased to be (Lord, have mercy)
There's no other place for me (Mmmm)
If you don't hold me in your arms (Oh child oh child)
I'd rather be here from now on
Some people have it halfway fair
Without your love I ain't nowhere
Oh I can't eat and I can't sleep (oh child oh child)
Lord I can't even live in peace (Mmmm)
Please take me baby for your slave (Oooh)
And save me from that early grave
Some people have it halfway fair
Without your love I ain't nowhere
(Willie Dixon)
And then sorrow struck my heart
Tears began to stream down from my eyes
The only woman that I ever loved in whole my life
Out here in a place in a condition like this
And I began to thinkin' about what
my mama told me when I was a little boy
She told me when I couldn't help myself,
to get down on my knees and pray
Then I fell down on my knees
And these are the words that I said
(Willie Dixon & Koko Taylor)
Save me save me save me babe,
Save me save me save me dear,
Whoa I don't know just how we made it
But I'm so glad our love is here
But I'm so glad our love is here
But I'm so glad our love is here...
(For the record, this is the first of the 9 posts so far in this blog, in which I was able to actually find the lyrics online rather than having to transcribe them myself.)
Greg Cartwright steps in as Willie Dixon to Rachel's Koko on the Cobra's version. Greg Cartwright, of course, is from Reigning Sound, previously
covered in my "I'll Cry" post. Considering the shoes they are trying to fill, they rise to the occasion quit well. Not surprising, considering "insane Asylum" was a song she frequently sang to herself in her car, long before she sang professionally. Thankfully she took her act out of the car and shared her talents with us all.All pictures previously used in the blog were
pictures I had taken myself. Today's
is not, but it was too delicious to pass up.
Click on it and you will go to the original site
Download it now:
Koko Taylor - Insane Asylum - 1967 - Checker # 1191
Available on - Koko Taylor
Buy "Seven Easy Pieces" by the Detroit Cobras
(Sorry I missed last week's post - I've been busy)
4 comments:
this is a wonderful project. keep it up.
Thank you for the kind words.
I've enjoyed doing it (even if it drives the wife nuts . . . maybe because it does!)
I plan on reviewing all the songs they have released which should keep it going into early 2008.
Thanks again
I just found this blog, love it! Can't wait to read it all. The Cobras are my favorit band!
In all the Detroit Cobras' output, this was the only song of which I had heard a cover before: Kathi McDonald and Sly Stone trading vocals on McDonald's LP titled the same as the song.
(For those unfamiliar with McDonald, she was Big Brother and the Holding Co.'s first choice to "replace" Janis Joplin, and she still performs.)
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