Little Walter

Sears was never the best place in the world to get records, but at one time they had a serious record department. I got my first record there. Well, we had the odd Lp or 45 that our parents had gotten for us or that one my sisters had gotten here or there, but this was the first time I was in the store buying a record. I was 12, and it my parents bought it for me, but I asked them to; it was “Bad Moon Rising” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. That was at the Polo Park store.

They were Simpsons Sears back then, and I don’t know exactly when they dropped the Simpsons but they did. There was a store closer home, at Garden City Shopping Centre, that opened in 1970. It seems that I got a lot of clearance items and cutouts there.

That’s where I got Boss Blues Harmonica by Little Walter. It was a double album, a best of, and it cost $1.98. It is the only copy I’ve ever seen.

Little Walter (Walter Jacobs) played harmonica, he played on his own records and on others'; and he sang. Compared to, say, Muddy Waters, he was a second tier blues artist, but he was no slouch. And I don’t think he was so little.

About half the songs on this collection are instrumentals. the other half are not.

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Little Walter:

• My Babe – A Willie Dixon song. Ricky Nelson did this, so did Gerry & The Pacemakers, and so did dozens more.
• Sad Hours
• Just Your Fool
• You’re So Fine – not the Falcons song
• Last Night – not the Mar-Keys song
• Blues With A Feeling
• Can’t Hold Out Much Longer
• Juke
• Mean Old World - Chuck Berry covered this on his early 70s London album, the one that had "My Ding-A-Ling."
• Off The Wall – not the Michael Jackson song
• You Better Watch Yourself
• Blue Lights – not to be confused with “The House Of Blue Lights”
• Tell Me, Mama – not the Bob Dylan song, at least not as far as I can tell
• Back Track
• It’s Too Late Brother
• Just A Feeling
• Teenage Beat
• Flying Saucer – not the Buchanan & Goodman stuff
• I Got To Go
• Shake Dancer
• Too Late
• Thunderbird
• Ah’w Baby
• Boom, Boom, Out Go The Lights – a lighthearted song about domestic violence. It was covered by King Biscuit Boy.