THE LIFE OF BUDDY GUY
• George Buddy Guy was born in rural Louisiana on July 30, 1936.
• He grew up in a shack house on a plot of farm land that his family worked for their living.
• They were so poor that it wasn’t till he older that the house even had electricity or indoor
plumbing. The house didn’t have windows, but wire mesh that served to keep the bugs out.
(Guy, 4)
• The one thing that Buddy Guy did have though, was deep love of music, especially the Blues
that was coming out of New Orleans and Chicago.
• Buddy’s father bought him his first guitar from a man named Coot when he was a teenager
for $4.50.
• Since then he spent his days when he wasn’t working in the fields, listening and practicing
the music that he heard on the radio with his new guitar. Buddy couldn’t read music from
sheets, but Coot taught him the notes and Buddy developed a talent of recognizes the notes
of a song and playing them exactly as he heard them.
• When he bought that guitar and played the songs of the musicians he idolized, at the time
he had no idea that he just began the journey of becoming one of those great musicians
himself.
• On September 25, 1957, Buddy Guy left his home town of Lettsworth, Louisiana and got a
train to Chicago, Illinois.
CHICAGO
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When Buddy Guy first arrived in Chicago he only a briefcase of clothes and $700 to his name.
He had hoped that he would be able to find viable work to make a living on, but in the first several months
he didn’t find any and quickly ran out of money.
It wasn’t all bad as he knew a guy that was letting him stay at his home until he found his way. This same guy
was also his key in getting to know the men involved in the recording industry.
He spent a lot of time shipping a demo tape he had made around to the various producers around Chicago,
but no one paid the young black man from rural Louisiana any attention (Guy, 72).
It got to the point where Buddy was going to give up on his dreams of being a musician and go back home
and work on his family’s farm.
Before leaving, Buddy Guy decided to go to the local blues club one last time. That night, Buddy’s fortune
changed.
• That night a bluesman named Otis Rush was playing up on the stage.
• Buddy Guy’s drunken friend challenged Otis that Buddy could “kick his ass sideways” on the
guitar (Guy, 75). Otis accepted and Buddy Guy played his heart out that stage and the crowd
went wild for it. So much so that the club owner offered him a gig to play at the club.
• Just because he had a job now didn’t mean that Buddy Guy had it easy. He only made a few
bucks a night, but it was a good step to getting his name out there and for producers to pay
attention to his talents (Guy, 82).
• A positive side affect of this was that some of his childhood heroes, B.B. King and Muddy Waters
came to see him play. They became mentors to him and guided him through his early years in
Chicago.
• His first recording deal was with a company called Cobra Records led by Eli Tuscano.
Unfortunately, Eli owed money to people and the company went bankrupt and Eli was found
dead in the 1960’s Buddy didn’t make any money for his songs recorded at Cobra (Guy, 108).
• After his unfortunate time with Cobra Records, Buddy Guy was featured on records made
by other artists for awhile before making out on his own with both Chess and then later
with Vanguard Records.
• While growing his name, Buddy Guy became good friends with many of his Idols and
played with many of them. He started to go on tour across America and Europe. He even
started to run clubs of his own (buddyguy.com).
• After the 1980’s Buddy Guy really started to come into his own as a well-known artist. He
started to play with other popular musicians such as Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray
Vaughn, and Carlos Santana, just to name a few.
• Buddy Guy went from dreaming about amongst the greats to actually being one himself. Of
course, if you said that to him he will deny it.
SONG BIOGRAPHIES AND LISTENING
GUIDE
CHOSEN SONGS
MUSTANG SALLY
FIRST TIME I MET THE BLUES
A MAN AND THE BLUES
MUSTANG SALLY
• Not an original song by Buddy Guy. It was first written and recorded by R&B artist Sir Mack
Rice in 1965 (songfacts.com)
• It is about a man who gifted his lover a Mustang sports car and immediately regrets it,
because she spends all the time racing around in it instead of spending time with him.
• Buddy Guy’s version featured on his 1991 album Damn Right, I got the Blues which was
produced by Silvertone Records (allmusic.com)
LISTENING GUIDE
0:00 – Percussion kicks the song off with a heavy pickup beat that sends the song directly into quadruple meter with simple division.
The song is in B flat Major Key. The brass section lets out a big blast that is held through the rest of the first major. Then the guitar
chips in. They repeat the same measure twice before the first verse.
0:10 – “Mustang Sally” starts the first verse. The rest of the band follows the same rhythm and melody that was established in the first
few measures.
0:30 – Again with “Mustang Sally,” but this time the bass leads with a brief melody that signals the rest of the band to go up in pitch.
0:48 – begins the Pre-chorus that is repeated throughout the song with slight text variations. The first line of text starts a crescendo
with the Brass section which concludes with heavy beats by the drummer. The resolution of which is solo text “I guess I'll better put
your big feet on the ground.” Before the end of the phrase, there is another pickup by the percussion which returns the rest of the
band with the normal melody, except for the Brass. They play a series of gradually decreasing whole notes for four measures into the
Chorus.
1:05 – The chorus begins without much change in the melody or rhythm of the song. What does change is that it introduces new
vocalists to the song, who sing “Ride Sally Ride,” after Buddy Guy sings, “All you wanna do is ride around, Sally.”
1:41 – a repeat of the pre-chorus with same brass and percussion structure, but with different text. The descending notes of the brass
section leads into another verse rather than a chorus.
1:59 – The second verse begins with the singer explaining that he bought Sally this vintage mustang. The music is, again, similar to the
rest of the song; just a steady beat that only comes in when in it needs to. This puts emphasis on the story of Mustang Sally. The verse
concludes with the singer lamenting that Mustang Sally doesn’t let him ride in the car, but that he hopes that she does.
The end of each line of text in this verse aligns with the melody that the brass plays.
2:35 – Yet, another repeat of the pre-chorus structure of before. However this time the lyrics fit more into what the first pre-chorus
was, “I guess I'll better put your big feet on the ground.” Instead of “wipin’ your weepin’ eyes.” The same descending pattern of the
brass lead into the chorus.
2:50 – this time the leading pattern ends with a big drum fill that sets up the chorus.
2:52 – the chorus is little more upbeat this time around with the background vocalists also accompanied by a heavy guitar riff that
follows the text pattern, whilst the brass section follows Buddy Guy’s sing parts.
3:28 – a repeat of the post-chorus that came after the first chorus. Instead of leading into a verse or chorus, this time it leads into a
guitar solo.
3:45 – A guitar solo begins that acts like a coda for the song. Accompanying this there is some simple vocal parts that repeat the
phrases, “Sally,” and “ride Sally Ride.” The solo leads the song to a Decrescendo conclusion.
FIRST TIME I MET THE BLUES
• This is another song that wasn’t written by Buddy Guy, but by early 20th century Jazz pianist
Eurreal Montgomery.
• Buddy Guy’s version debuted on his album I was Walking through the Woods in 1974 on the
Chess Record label. The song itself reminded him of being back home in Louisiana (Guy,
138).
• It is about a man who encounters the physical manifestation of the blues while he was
walking through the woods. “Mister Blues” follows him home and visits everyday.
LISTENING GUIDE
0:00 – The song begins with a pickup beat with the guitar and leads into a series of staccato eighth
notes with piano that lasts a full measure before another measure that acts as a bridge between the intro
and the first verse. This song is quadruple, simple. The introduction sets the tone for the rest of the
song in that the guitar is going to have dominance over the rest of the band.
0:10 – The verse begins with the text, “the first time I met the Blues.” In this song the percussion and
the brass sections have the rhythm parts, while the guitar and piano have a more a freeform structure in
the song.
The guitar plays a rhythmic riff pattern while the vocalist sings. Whenever there is a break,
however, the guitar really shines. He plays small solo sections that highlight Buddy Guy’s skill with the
guitar. In contrast, the piano continuously plays a sort of freeform melody that combines arpeggios and
chordal patterns in a seemingly random pattern.
0:47 – this section serves as the chorus of this song. It begins with guitar playing its solo
theme over the piano, brass and percussion doing quarter notes for a full measure. It then
leads into the chorus with, “The blues got after me.”
0:57 – “the blues got after me.” Starts the chorus. The guitar continues to play small solos in
between the text. The piano still has its freeform style, however, for the chorus it is more in
beat with the rest of the band.
1:27 – the end of the chorus. The staccato notes come back from before the chorus with the
same prominence of the guitar.
1:35 – the last verse of the song has the piano cease its freeform style and is now playing
continuous eighth note chords. The guitar keeps up with the same style of playing when there
is no text.
2:08 – This begins the coda of the song which has the brass and percussion play a crescendo
into a final measure of all parts playing a wild coda till the end.
A MAN AND THE BLUES
• Debuted on Buddy Guy’s first solo album A Man and the Blues in 1968. it was produced by
Vanguard Records in Chicago (Guy, 195).
• This song is somber and true to the blues. It is about a man who gets the blues so deep that
he feels like killing himself and how he misses his home in the South.
LISTEN GUIDE
0:00 – A brief pickup with the guitar leads into a small solo section accompanied by the piano
playing blues scale. This sets the song up to be slow and in simple/quadruple.
0:54 – Here begins the text of the song with, “What can a man do?” The text of this song as with
many of Buddy Guys song is separated by brief guitar parts that showcase Buddy Guys ability with
the guitar, His fingers move quickly up and down the frets creating beautiful, seemingly
improvised short solos.
1:04 – the trumpets join in the piece playing continuous whole notes.
1:30 – the trumpets ascend a few notes but keep the whole note progression.
1:46 – a new part begins that is focused on both the piano and the guitar, which are both playing at
the same time. This a big guitar solo and the piano player follows along with what the guitar is
doing. At this point the trumpets are now playing a new theme that goes long note cut short by a
different short note.
2:20 – Begins the end of the solo. The trumpets are now playing higher and longer chord progression. Every
other instrument is beginning a slight crescendo into the next phase.
2:37 – the beginning of the next text part. IT begins without the guitar and the piano plays staccato chords
with one hand on the low end and a long trill with the other hand in the high end.
2:50 – The guitar come back in with the saying, “gasoline.” Same structure as before, text, guitar, text guitar.
3:35 – after the text another solo part begins, this time for the piano, which drops an octave or so from what it
was regularly doing and plays dark rich notes.
4:12 – the end of the solo as before in 2:20, yet with the piano leading the way.
4:25 – another text part begins with a down beat played on the guitar. This time the piano is only playing a
long, high note trill. The trumpets start playing loud note bursts on every other beat. Same structure as before.
5:23 – “Let me have it now.” Begins the final phase of the song. No more text, just the guitar and the piano
playing with one another with the trumpets, bass, and percussion playing the rhythm.
6:08 – thus begins the end of the song, a loud crescendo into a piano glissando and two final chords played on
the guitar held until finished.
REFERENCES
• "Damn Right, I've Got the Blues - Buddy Guy | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards | AllMusic."
AllMusic. All Media Network LLC. Web. 18 Feb. 2015.
• Guy, Buddy, and David Ritz. When I Left Home: My Story. Boston: De Capo, 2012. Print.
• "Mustang Sally by Wilson Pickett Songfacts." Mustang Sally by Wilson Pickett Songfacts.
SongFacts LLC. Web. 18 Feb. 2015.
• Photo by Larry Philpot, www. .soundstagephotography.com.