tracks.
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1.StopGood Lovin' – Bobby "Blue" Bland 02:24
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2.StopDrifting from Town to Town – Bobby "Blue" Bland 03:02
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3.StopDry Up Baby – Bobby "Blue" Bland 02:00
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4.StopCrying All Night Long – Bobby "Blue" Bland 03:03
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5.StopLove Me Baby – Bobby "Blue" Bland, Little Junior's Blue Flames 03:00
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6.StopBad Women, Bad Whiskey – Little Parker, Jr. 03:01
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7.StopYou're My Angel – Little Parker, Jr. 01:57
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8.StopShe Calls Me Daddy – Earl Forest 02:09
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9.StopI Wronged a Woman – Earl Forest 02:54
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10.StopI Can't Forget You – Earl Forest 02:29
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11.StopSad and Lonely – Earl Forest 02:42
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12.StopRumpus Romp – Earl Forest 02:12
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13.StopTrouble and Me – Earl Forest 03:00
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14.StopI Cried – Earl Forest 04:25
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15.StopMidnight Hours Journey – Johnny Ace 03:32
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16.StopB.B. Boogie – B.B. King 03:21
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17.StopMistreated Woman – B.B. King 02:50
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18.StopThe Other Night Blues – B.B. King 02:52
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19.StopWalkin' and Cryin' – B.B. King 02:56
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20.StopYou're Driving Me Insane – Ike Turner 02:21
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21.StopTrouble and Heartaches – Ike Turner 02:33
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22.StopThat Gal of Mine – Rosco Gordon 02:19
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23.StopSo Tired – Rosco Gordon 03:19
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24.StopRun to Me Baby – Rosco Gordon 03:07
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25.StopShe Rocks Me – Rosco Gordon 03:06
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26.StopDon't Have to Worry 'Bout You No More – Rosco Gordon 03:08
This originally came out as a 1989 LP on Ace; look, however, for the expanded 2000 Ace CD, as it increases the number of tracks from 15 to 26 with the addition of material by B.B. King, Ike Turner, and Rosco Gordon. All of the songs were recorded in Memphis in the early '50s by the Bihari Brothers, and much of it was released on 45s on their Modern, RPM, and Meteor labels, though some of it wasn't issued for decades. This was two or three years before the ascendance of Memphis rockabilly, and blues/RB crossover ruled the roost in the city. The CD is thus a rough snapshot of local electric blues just as it began to be recorded more often, with some of the earliest sides by Bobby Bland, Junior Parker, Johnny Ace, and the aforementioned King, Turner, and Gordon, as well as the nearly unknown Earl Forest. In comparison to the somewhat more famous early Memphis electric blues released in the early to mid-'50s on Sun, this is a little more sluggish, and more tilted toward barroom piano styles. The songwriting, too, is not as sharp and electric as the best Sun stuff. All that taken into consideration, this is still a noteworthy supplement to those Sun recordings, as a document of the sound of Memphis electric blues -- and, by extension, rock roll -- in its infancy. The band plays some serious havoc with timekeeping on Parker's chaotic "You're My Angel," which sounds like a drunken after-hours jam; Bland is well on his way to establishing his foggy urban blues delivery on his two singles. Forest is a typical but unremarkable period bluesman; Ace is represented by just one performance, the 1953 ballad "Midnight Hours Journey"; and Turner turns in relatively rare (and competent) vocal performances on his 1952 single. B.B. King's catalog from this period is actually pretty well represented by reissues, so collectors will be interested to note that the four numbers here are alternate takes of his first two 78 singles for RPM, from 1950. Richie Unterberger, Rovi
- Genre: R&B, Blues
- Subgenre: R&B/Soul, Electric Blues, Country Blues
- Category Soul, Soul-Blues, Electric Blues, Memphis Blues
- Release Date: June 6, 2000
- Artist: Original Memphis Blues Brothers
- Additional Artist: Johnny Ace (Performer), B.B. King (Performer), Ike Turner (Performer), Various artists collection, Bobby "Blue" Bland (Performer), Rosco Gordon (Performer), Earl Forest (Performer)