Jimi Hendrix, "Rock Me Baby"

B.B. King was not a metal musician by anyone's standard, even if he was badass enough to earn an obituary on MetalSucks. But his music is timeless and influential enough to help shape metal into what it is today, as heard in "Rock Me Baby", one of King's reworkings of several standard blues lyrics and progressions. As with many of King's songs, components of it can be heard in numerous other tunes, but it's King's genre-bridging version which reached the headbangers, as heard in covers by Blue Cheer, Deep Purple and best of all Jimi Hendrix, whose version at the Monterey Pop Festival was the first I ever heard. The blues had a baby, Muddy Waters noted, but the grandkid was metal.

Hårdrockens Historia

For Malik Bendjelloul.

Song of the Day: Deep Purple, "Hush"

I don't usually like keyboard metal, Joe South (who also wrote "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden") or Deep Purple. But thanks to Jon Lord, I enjoy "Hush."



Other than Ray Manzarek, I can't think of a major '60s rock organist who was so vital to his band. Lord's grasp of the rhythm here makes me wonder if he also played drums. His solo reminds me of the best guitar playing, where the space between the notes is just as important as actual notes. "Rick Wakeman, eat your heart out," Jello Biafra once said on Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death. Jon Lord beat him to it, and he didn't even need words.

For Jon Lord, 1941-2012.