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OBITUARY 

Mighty Joe Young     North Side story                                                      By Tony Russell                                                       Burly blues singer and guitarist Mighty Joe                                                      Young, who has died aged 71, was                                                      described by his fellow bluesman Jimmy                                                      Dawkins as 'one of the Midwest's most                                                      gifted guitarists and Chicago's best'. That                                                      was in 1970. If the next three decades                                                      never confirmed the status Dawkins                                                      claimed for him, it was not because Young                                                      lacked talent or commitment. Since 1986                                                      he seldom appeared in public and only as                                                      a singer, having lost sensation in his                                                      fingers after surgery for a pinched neck                                                      nerve. His death in hospital was caused                                                      by complications after an operation which                                                      he hoped would restore his playing ability.                                                      Born in Louisiana, Young grew up in                                                      Milwaukee. In his youth, he spent some                                                      time in Los Angeles as an amateur boxer                                                      before turning to music. In 1955, he moved                                                      to Chicago and spent a decade and a half                                                      scuffling in blues clubs, working as a                                                      sideman with Jimmy Rogers and Otis                                                      Rush, making occasional singles for small                                                      labels and acquiring along the way the                                                      sobriquet Mighty, an acknowledgment of                                                      his boxer's physique and an allusion to the                                                      1940s monster movie Mighty Joe Young.                                                      At the end of the 1960s, he played second                                                      guitar on West Side Soul and Black                                                      Magic, historic sessions for the Delmark                                                      label by singer-guitarist Magic Sam. His                                                      own debut album for Delmark, Blues With                                                      A Touch Of Soul, followed soon after, and                                                      he also impressed with a dynamic                                                      appearance at the 1969 Chicago Blues                                                      Festival with his employer Koko Taylor.                                                      On Blues With A Touch Of Soul, Young                                                      displayed his command of long, rambling                                                      single-string guitar lines in what would                                                      come to be called the West Side style, as                                                      well as an appealingly grainy voice and a                                                      predilection for the crisp orchestration of                                                      1960s soul music. 'I like a beautiful                                                      arrangement,' he remarked, 'not a                                                      traditional sound that's the same all the                                                      time.'                                                      The Chicago blues fixer Willie Dixon, who                                                      often used him on sessions, agreed: 'He                                                      has a traditional sound which he is able to                                                      mix with a very modern style.' Young's                                                      career was shadowed by the greater                                                      success of younger, sexier performers like                                                      fellow West Siders Magic Sam, Otis Rush                                                      and Luther Allison.                                                      Young was a pioneer in bringing blues to                                                      the North Side, a section of Chicago that                                                      was more attractive to white music fans                                                      than the sometimes volatile black                                                      enclaves on the West and South Side.                                                      Many college students remember Young                                                      at North Side blues clubs like Biddy                                                      Mulligan's, Alice's Revisited or the Wise                                                      Fools Pub, as well as his appearances at                                                      the Ann Arbor Blues Festival.                                                      Preferring to be close to his family, he                                                      only occasionally played out of town or                                                      overseas, though he was well received on                                                      visits to Europe, where he cut an album,                                                      Bluesy Josephine, in France in 1976. He                                                      also recorded albums for Ovation and                                                      Sonet and, most recently, a set for Blind                                                      Pig called Mighty Man, with his son, Joe                                                      Young Jr, playing the rhythm guitarist's                                                      role he himself had so often filled.                                                      • Mighty Joe Young, blues musician, born                                                      September 23, 1927; died March 25,                                                      1999.                     Blues Legend  MIGHTY JOE YOUNG  Passes Away At Age Seventy-One   Born: September 23, 1927 Shreveport, Louisiana   Died: March 24, 1999 Chicago, Illinois     We sadly send news that American blues icon, MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, passed away  on March 25, 1999 in Chicago, Illinois. Young was in the hospital since  February. He passed away from phenomena after complications from a spinal  operation he hoped would restore his ability to play guitar again. He was 71.  Mighty Joe Young was one of the first blues artists to break through on the   North Side of Chicago in the very early 1970s, playing to packed clubs and   becoming one of the premier and best-known touring blues artists on the   festival and university circuits. Between tours in 1986 he had taken his   band into the studio on his own money and started to lay down tracks to   finally do a recording - his way. But after recording only three numbers he  shelved the project when in the fall of 1986 he decided to have surgery on   a pinched nerve in his neck. After the surgery he suffered complications  and didn't heal from the operation until after a year after the operation.   It took a year of rehab before he regained his balance for walking, but he   never fully recovered the sensation in his fingers to play guitar. As a   result he made only rare appearances over the last decade. His greatest   hope was to regain his ability to play guitar as he did before his first  operation.  Joe Young was still mighty in his seventieth year. His regular work-outs at  the health club helped maintain his barrel-chested former boxer's physique.  Always a strong family man, he has made his recovery surrounded by children  and grandchildren. He made appearances again as a singer and was on the  schedule for the 1997 Chicago Blues Festival.  Born September 23, 1927 in Shreveport, Louisiana, Young also lived for a  time in Milwaukee and Los Angeles, where in the late 40s he was an amateur  boxer. He began playing in the early 1950s, working clubs in Milwaukee and  then back in his native Louisiana where in 1955 he first recorded for the  tiny Jiffy label.  The next year he came to Chicago where he worked with Joe Little and his  Heart Breakers, Jimmy Rogers, Billy Boy Arnold and Otis Rush. He eventually  recorded a few more singles for Atomic H, Fire (where in 1961 he was given  the "Mighty" moniker), Webcor, Celtex and U.S.A. and appeared on disc with  blues titans Magic Sam (on both Delmark LPs), Willie Dixon, Albert King,  Jimmy Dawkins, Tyrone Davis (including his hit "Can I Change My Mind") and  Koko Taylor (on Chess and Alligator). In 1969, his sensational appearance  with Koko at Chicago's first Grant Park Blues Festival was an enormous  boost to both of their careers. In typically humble fashion Joe Young plays  down his role as one of the first to bring blues to North Side clubs, but  back when blues was new to young, white audiences, he was a huge draw at  Alice's Revisited, Minstrels, Biddy Mulligan's and Wise Fools where he  played 12 straight New Year's Eve engagements. His memorable appearances at  the Ann Arbor Festivals in the early '70s solidified his hold on the  festival and university circuits, and by the mid-1980s Young's successful  career had taken him all over North America and Europe.  Mighty Joe Young will be remembered for his pioneering work as one of the  first Chicago singer/guitarists to meld soul and blues in tight, fresh,  horn-laden arrangements. His music will continue to spark memories of  powerful good-times, nightclubs jam-packed to the rafters, and  Chicago-style soul-blues. Young is survived by his son, Joe Young, Jr., and  other family members.    NY TIMES

 

 

BIOGRAPHY

Born: September 23, 1927; Died March 24,1999   Although physical problems have curtailed his guitar playing in recent years, there was a time during  the late '70s and early '80s when Mighty Joe Young was one of the leading blues guitarists on Chicago's budding North side blues circuit.  The Louisiana native got his start not in the Windy City, but in Milwaukee, where he was raised. He  earned a reputation as a reliable guitarist on Chicago's West side with Joe Little & his Heart  Breakers during the mid-'50s, later changing his onstage allegiance to harpist Billy Boy Arnold. Young recorded with Arnold for Prestige and Testament during the '60s and backed Jimmy Rogers for Chess in 1958.  After abortive attempts to inaugurate a solo career with Jiffy Records in Louisiana in 1955 and Chicago's Atomic-H label three years later, Young hit his stride in 1961 with the sizzling "Why Baby"/"Empty Arms" for Bobby Robinson's Fire label. Young gigged as Otis Rush's rhythm guitarist from 1960 to 1963 and cut a series of excellent Chicago blues 45s for a variety of firms: "I Want a Love," "Voo Doo Dust," and "Something's Wrong" for Webcor during the mid-'60s; "Something's Wrong" for Webcor in 1966; "Sweet Kisses" and "Henpecked" on Celtex and "Hard Times (Follow Me)" for USA (all 1967); and "Guitar Star" for Jacklyn in 1969. Young even guested on Bill "Hoss" Allen's groundbreaking 1966 syndicated R&B TV program The Beat in Dallas. Late-'60s session work included dates with Tyrone Davis and Jimmy Dawkins.  Delmark issued Young's solo album debut, Blues with a Touch of Soul, in 1971, but a pair of mid-'70s LPs for Ovation (1974's Chicken Heads and an eponymous set in 1976) showcased the guitarist's blues-soul synthesis far more effectively. Young's main local haunt during the '70s and early '80s was Wise Fools Pub, where he packed 'em in nightly (with Freddy King's brother, Benny Turner, on bass). -- Bill Dahl, All-Music Guide

 

 LINKS

Mighty Man Review