Tag: Willie Dixon

Movie Music Monday – The Color of Money

Born today in 1925, the legendary Paul Newman. He was in so many great movies. One of my favorites was the 1961 film The Hustler. Newman played “Fast Eddie” Felson who is a small time pool hustler who challenges Minnesota Fats played by Jackie Gleason. He would reprise that role again 25 years later in The Color of Money.

In the sequel, “Fast Eddie” isn’t as fast as he used to be. He has given up the game and is now a liquor salesman. He comes across a guy who is a skillful pool player and approaches him and his girlfriend and tells them they’d be pretty good at hustling. The trio then head out for six weeks of travel and hustling.

The soundtrack of the film is filled with great music from Willie Dixon, Robert Palmer, BB King, Don Henley, Robbie Robertson, Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton. It has a very bluesy feel to it which fits the feel of the film. One of my favorite tracks is It’s In the Way That You Use It by Clapton.

(From Songfacts.com) Clapton wrote this with Robbie Robertson, whose work with The Band in the ’60s encouraged Clapton to get away from the long, heavy solos he was playing with Cream. Robertson was in charge of the music for The Color Of Money, but because he was not finished with his first solo album, his record company would not let him sing on any of the songs. He got around it by contributing instrumental songs to the soundtrack.

Billboard magazine called the tune a “neatly executed rocker [that] strongly recalls his mid-’70s.”

Here is the song, with some clips from the film featuring birthday boy, Paul Newman:

The Monday Blues – Matt’s Guitar Boogie #2

Happy Heavenly Birthday to one of the great Blues guitarists – Matt “Guitar” Murphy. He was born in this day in 1929 in Mississippi.

While many know him from playing in the Blues Brothers Band, he was also know for playing along with Memphis Slim and Howlin’ Wolf. The list of names that he’s recorded with is a Who’s Who of the Blues: Chuck Berry, Koko Taylor, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Buddy Guy, Etta James, Willie Dixon, and Freddy King – just to name a few.

In the 1970’s he played with James Cotton and his harmonica. They recorded six albums together. Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi attended one of their performances and subsequently asked Matt to join the touring band of The Blues Brothers. He would appear in both movies as Aretha Franklin’s husband. He toured with the band until 2000.

He recorded three solo albums: His debut was 1990’s Way Down South. That was followed by 1996’s The Blues Don’t Bother Me and finally Lucky Charm in 2000. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2012.

He suffered a stroke in 2002, but he was able to return to playing. In June of 2018, Matt passed away after suffering a heart attack. He was 88.

Let’s celebrate him today with a cut from “Way Down South,” – Matt’s Guitar Boogie #2: