Willie Dixon

The Chess Box

Willie Dixon is an institution in Blues' history. And Rock and Roll's too. The first LP I ever bought was Led Zeppelin’s 1st. The one with the burning Hindenburg on the cover, and the band's picture on the back. This picture lists the band member’s names and the instruments that they play. The back-cover also list the songs on the album, and the credits to each song. Two of these songs were credited two a Willie Dixon, who was not on the picture. At thirteen years old, the name was a mystery to me. Who was Willie Dixon? Later on I learned that The Doors, Cream, and The Rolling Stones also sung songs credited to Willie Dixon. This increased the mystery. I wanted to know who he was.

It wasn’t until the great CERN invention, the World Wide Web, that I found who Dixon was. This album was my first ever on-line purchase. It includes a great collection of British Invasion Rock and Roll classics that, ironically, were written in the US. Among them are “You need love”, the source of influence to Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole lotta love”, “Spoonful”, covered by Cream. And “I Ain't Superstitious”, covered by the Jeff Beck Group, with Rod Stewart on vocals. Dixon was a songwriter and a bass player. This album is a multi-artist one, with Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Bo Diddley doing most songs. This is a great album that I treasure in my collection.

Sinfónico