Savoy Brown: I Ain't Superstitious

It’s been a while since I played some straight blues – so how about a little Savoy Brown to satisfy your palate. From their first album “Shake Down” when the band was known as the Savoy Brown Blues Band, they do a raucous rendition of Willie Dixon’s “l Ain’t Superstitious.”

Although the song was penned by Dixon, who wrote many of the hits on the Chess label, it will be forever intertwined with the career of Howlin’ Wolf who recorded it first in 1961. Savoy Brown’s version features the guitars of Kim Simmonds and Martin Stone, the piano of Bob Hall, and Brice Portius on vocals.

By the time of the second album, the personnel of Savoy Brown changed dramatically with only Kim Simmonds and Bob Hall remaining from the original sextet. In fact, Simmonds has been the constant throughout the band’s history and has become synonymous with the Savoy Brown brand.

I don’t think this album was originally released in the US, as I’ve only seen it as import on the British Decca label. I could be wrong about this, but I think that “Getting to the Point” may have been the first North American release by Savoy Brown. If my memory serves me correctly, the first time I saw “Shake Down” was in the import record rack at Cox’s Department store in downtown McKeesport, PA in 1972.

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