Bitten by the Blues

Book excerpt: Best Blues Book of the Year, Living Blues Readers’ Poll: “A fascinating look at one of the great independent record labels, and producers, of our time.” —Library Journal It started with the searing sound of a slide careening up the neck of an electric guitar. In 1970, twenty-three-year-old Bruce Iglauer walked into Florence’s Lounge in Chicago’s South Side and was overwhelmed by the joyous, raw music of Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers. A year later, Iglauer produced Hound Dog’s debut album in eight hours and pressed a thousand copies, the most he could afford. From that one album grew Alligator Records, the largest independent blues record label in the world. Bitten by the Blues is Iglauer’s memoir of a life immersed in the blues—and the business of the blues. No one person was present at the creation of more great contemporary blues music: he produced albums by Koko Taylor, Albert Collins, Professor Longhair, Johnny Winter, Lonnie Mack, Son Seals, Roy Buchanan, Shemekia Copeland, and many other major figures. Here, he takes us behind the scenes, offering unforgettable stories of those charismatic musicians and classic sessions, in an intimate and unvarnished look at what it’s like to work with the greats of the blues. It’s a vivid portrait of some of the extraordinary musicians and larger-than-life personalities who brought America’s music to life. It’s also an expansive history of half a century of blues in Chicago and around the world, tracing the business through massive transitions as a genre originally created by and for black southerners adapted to an influx of white fans and musicians and found a global audience. Most of the smoky bars and packed clubs that fostered the Chicago blues scene have disappeared. But their soul lives on, and so does their sound. As real and audacious as the music that shaped it, this is a raucous journey through the world of Genuine Houserockin’ Music. “A coming-of-age story; an elegy for a bygone, grittier Chicago; and a case study on the many ways the color barrier was crossed musically in the mid-twentieth century.” —Booklist