Twelve fingered rough and ready blues maestro.

Theodore Roosevelt "H… Read Full Bio ↴Twelve fingered rough and ready blues maestro.

Theodore Roosevelt "Hound Dog" Taylor (April 12, 1915 - December 17, 1975) was an American Chicago blues guitarist and singer.

Career

Taylor was born in Natchez, Mississippi in 1915 (although some sources say 1917). He originally played piano, but began playing guitar when he was 20. He moved to Chicago in 1942.

He became a full-time musician around 1957 but remained unknown outside of the Chicago area where he played small clubs in the black neighborhoods and also at the open-air Maxwell Street Market. He was known for his electrified slide guitar playing roughly styled after that of Elmore James, his cheap Japanese Teisco guitars, and his raucous boogie beats. He was also famed among guitar players for having six fingers on his left hand.

After hearing Taylor with his band, the HouseRockers (Brewer Phillips on second guitar and Ted Harvey on drums) in 1970 at Florence's Lounge on Chicago's South Side, Bruce Iglauer - at the time a shipping clerk for Delmark Records - tried to get him signed by his employer. Having no success getting Delmark to sign Taylor, Iglauer formed a small record label with a $2500 inheritance and recorded Taylor's debut album, Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers, on his fledgling Alligator Records in 1971. It was the first release on Alligator, now a major blues label. It was recorded in a studio in just two nights. Iglauer began managing and booking the band, which toured nationwide and performed with Muddy Waters and Big Mama Thornton.[citation needed] The band became particularly popular in the Boston area, where Taylor inspired a young protégé named George Thorogood. A live album Live At Joe's Place documented a Boston appearance from 1972.

Their second release, Natural Boogie, was recorded in late 1973, and led to greater acclaim and touring. In 1975, Taylor and his band toured Australia and New Zealand with Freddie King and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. His third Alligator album, Beware of the Dog, was recorded live in 1974 but was only released after his death. More posthumous releases occurred as well, including Genuine Houserocking Music and Release the Hound, on the Alligator label as well as some bootleg live recordings.

Taylor died of lung cancer in 1975, and was buried in Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.

Taylor was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1984.[citation needed]
Discography

Hound Dog Taylor and The HouseRockers (1971)(Alligator Records)

Natural Boogie (1974)(Alligator Records)

Beware The Dog! (1976)(Alligator Records)

Genuine Houserocking Music (1982)(Alligator Records)

Hound Dog Taylor - Deluxe Edition (1999)(Alligator Records)

Release The Hound (2004)(Alligator Records)
Legacy

George Thorogood dedicated "The Sky Is Crying" (song 9) to "the memory of the late great Hound Dog Taylor" on his Live album (EMI America CDP 7 46329 2).

Crossroads
Hound Dog Taylor Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

(Robert Johnson)

I was standing at the crossroad
My head hung down and cried
Standing at the crossroads
My head hung down and cried
I was looking for my babe
And I know she can't be found

I was standing at the crossroad
She treats me like a king
Yeah I was standing there one night
Boy she treats me like a snake
I know she's tired of living
I'm gonna but her low in the grave, allow me

I was standing at the crossroads
Wondering where she is
I was standing there wondering about my woman

Yeah can you hurt me so bad, lord it hurts to be alone
Lookout girl

Overall Meaning

In Hound Dog Taylor’s song Crossroads, he covers the Robert Johnson classic tune of the same title. Taylor’s version is a stripped-down blues track with raw, gritty vocals and a heavily distorted guitar riff. The song’s lyrics speak of a man who is lost in love and searching for his woman at the crossroads. He is heartbroken and looking for answers as to why she left him. The line “My head hung down and cried” emphasizes the sense of despair that the man is feeling. He is looking for closure but knows deep down that his search is futile as he will never find his lost love.

In the second part of the song, the lyrics become darker as the man speaks about his woman treating him like a king at one point, but now treating him like a snake. He acknowledges that she is tired of living and decides that he will bury her low in the grave. This line suggests that he may have had a hand in his woman’s demise. The song ends with the man still wondering about his woman and musing on the pain of being alone.

Overall, Crossroads is an emotional song that speaks of loss and the search for closure. Taylor’s raw, unfiltered delivery adds to the authenticity of the song and reinforces the intense emotions that the man is experiencing.

Line by Line Meaning

I was standing at the crossroad
I found myself at the intersection of two roads

My head hung down and cried
I was sad and dejected

Standing at the crossroads
Still at the intersection, not sure which direction to take

My head hung down and cried
Feeling hopeless and desperate

I was looking for my babe
Searching for my lover

And I know she can't be found
Realizing that she is gone for good

She treats me like a king
When she is with me, I feel important and highly valued

Yeah I was standing there one night
At the time of my realization

Boy she treats me like a snake
She has betrayed and hurt me deeply

I know she's tired of living
She has lost interest in life

I'm gonna but her low in the grave, allow me
I will end her life and bury her