Wednesday, July 05, 2023

Boogie Woogie: The Left Hand of God

From 1954, and the syndicated teevee show Showtime at the Apollo, please enjoy Amos Milburn, one of the greatest of the original rock piano men, and a to-die-for live version of "Down the Road Apiece."

And in case you were wondering where Mick and the rest of the Stones got it from, look no further. God, what I wouldn't give to be able to play piano like that.

I should add that Milburn is the subject of one of the best chapters in Nick Tosches' Unsung Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll, still the funniest overview of the earliest years of the music ever penned; you can (and should) order a copy over at Amazon HERE. Trust me.

I should also add that I haven't been able to determine the identity of the show host bantering with Milburn in the clip. Whoever he is, however, he's pretty freaking cool himself.

5 comments:

Allan Rosenberg said...

Amos is one of the all-time greats! His left hand is one of the eight wonders of the world.

Thank you for getting this video out there.

Captain Al

Anonymous said...

Fabulous! It's hard to hear enough of Amos.

- Paul in DK

steve simels said...

My summer project is to learn that piano part. I found a video tutorial on YouTube for the left hand and I'm gonna start working on it today.

Seriously.

Anonymous said...

The host was Willie Bryant, who was indeed very talented.

https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.music.tda.5149/
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/willie-bryant-mn0000961904/biography

RobP57 said...

Ian Stewart was with the early Stones and he was a pretty good boogie-woogie piano player himself. I bet he convinced the rest to cover this one.