Otis Rush, one of the finest of the post-war Chicago blues singer and songwriters, passed away yesterday at age 84. He is remembered as an influence on rock players from Eric Clapton and Peter Green to Dave Hildago and Ronnie Earl, but his real legacy are his songs (Double Trouble, Cant Quit You Baby and All Your Love I Miss loving are blues standards) and his performances, which are as emotionally powerful as any in the blues canon.
Rush (1934) was born in Philadelphia, Miss., in 1934. In 1948, his family moved to Chicago. After hearing Muddy Waters, he became determined to learn how to play guitar. He woodshedded, often driving neighbors to distraction, while driving a truck and working in the steel mills. He released his first single, I Can’t Quit You Baby (But I got to Put You Down for a While) on the obscure Cobra label in 1956. it was clear right away that Rush was not a Muddy clone. His vocals were more influenced by the church than field holler. His guitar playing showed the influences of B.B, King and jazzman Kenny Burrell—both in his runs and the 9th and 13th chord voicings he used in the song.
It was also significant that Rush recorded for Cobra. Chess, THE blues label in Chicago, was much more conservative. They had hits with Muddy and the Wolf and were not keen to deviate from a winning formula. Cobra, founded by TV-repairman Eli Toscano on the West Side, was a primitive affair (artists recorded in a garage) with limited distribution. But, Eli allowed Rush, Magic Sam Maghett and Buddy Guy to cut loose in a way Leonard Chess would not have tolerated.
Rush also sounded different. A lefty, he played flipped over, with the low strings on the bottom. Pulling down instead of pushing up, he got a deeper more groaning sound than BB. Rush’s guitar and amp combo, a Fender Stratocaster and 4x10 Bassman, also contributed to his singular sound, giving him a cutting sustain. Talking about Rush’s playing Robert Palmer notes that “the idea of ''making the guitar talk'' is ..mrooted in the pitch-tone languages and ''talking drums'' of West Africa. The great blues guitarists are gifted with an acute sensitivity to the finest nuances of pitch, the subtlest differences in the attack and tone and decay of every note”. Rush had all that, in spades.
Rush followed up I Cant quit You with Double Trouble (Can't get a job, laid off, I'm having double trouble. Some of this generation is millionaires, I can't even keep decent clothes to wear) and All Your Love I Miss Loving, with its ringing minor chords and ear-catching time change. All Your Love was picked up by a young Eric Clapton, who made it a centerpiece on the Bluesbreacker album that cemented his reputation as a guitar player. Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page (who cut Cant Quit You with Zep) and Peter Green were also picking up on Rush, as were Mike Bloomfield in Chicago, Duane Allman in Florida and Carlos Santana in California.
It should have made him a star, but bad luck dogged his career. Cobra folded in 1959. He bounced from Chess to Duke (where he cut Homework (a staple for the J. Geils Band) to Vanguard. Mourning in the Morning, cut with the Muscle Shoals rhythm section, which played to his soul and gosepl side, but was panned by critics expecting a blues album. Right Place Wrong Time, cut for Capitol, was shelved for 5 years because it was considered too bluesy to be commercial.
Having missed out on the blues rock boom, Rush continued to play in joints, seldom recording. He often traveled along, playing with pickup bands. That, poor management, a tendency toward moodiness, and issues with substances, also worked against him.
The blues boom of the late 80s powered by Stevie Vaughan, The Thunderbirds, and Robert Cray, brought new attention to Rush. That is really when I first began seeking out his music. Unfortunately, that boom, which floated Buddy Guy and John Lee Hooker’s boats, did not lift Rush. He cut a couple of CDs on smaller labels that never quite took off. A stroke in 2003 effectively ended his career.
His legacy remains. He was a true triple threat: a terrific songwriter, a gut-wrenching singer, and a searing guitarist. It is unfortunate that his white blues audience appreciated the fretwork at the expense of his other skills. Again, Palmer: Rush was great not because he could “play more notes per minute than lesser musicians or because of their ability to fashion fancy, flashing phrases, but because they have a surer command of the blues language”. Rest in peace, Otis.