"Farther Up the Road" or "Further On Up the Road" is a blues song first recorded in 1957 by
Bobby "Blue" Bland
Robert Calvin Bland (born Robert Calvin Brooks; January 27, 1930 – June 23, 2013), known professionally as Bobby "Blue" Bland, was an American blues singer.
Bland developed a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B. He was descr ...
. It is an early influential Texas
shuffle
Shuffling is a procedure used to randomize a deck of playing cards to provide an element of chance in card games. Shuffling is often followed by a cut, to help ensure that the shuffler has not manipulated the outcome.
__TOC__
Techniques
Over ...
and features guitar playing that represents the transition from the 1940s blues style to the 1960s
blues-rock style.
The song became Bland's first record chart success and one of his best-known tunes. As a
blues standard
Blues standards are blues songs that have attained a high level of recognition due to having been widely performed and recorded. They represent the best known and most interpreted blues songs that are seen as standing the test of time. Blues ...
, "Farther Up the Road" has been performed and recorded by numerous blues and other artists, including
Eric Clapton who has made it part of his repertoire.
In 2022, Bland's recording was inducted into the
Blues Hall of Fame
The Blues Hall of Fame is a music museum located at 421 S. Main Street in Memphis, Tennessee. Initially, the "Blues Hall of Fame" was not a physical building, but a listing of people who have significantly contributed to blues music. Started in 1 ...
in the 'Classics of Blues Recording – Singles' category.
Background
The songwriting for "Farther Up the Road" is credited to
Joe Medwick Veasey, a Houston-area independent songwriter/broker, and
Duke Records
Duke Records was an American record label, started in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1952 by David James Mattis (WDIA program director and DJ) and Bill Fitzgerald, owners of Tri-State Recording Company. Their first release was Roscoe Gordon singing "Hey ...
owner
Don Robey. In an interview, blues singer
Johnny Copeland
John Clyde Copeland (March 27, 1937 – July 3, 1997) was an American Texas blues guitarist and singer. In 1983, he was named Blues Entertainer of the Year by the Blues Foundation. He is the father of blues singer Shemekia Copeland.
In 2017, Co ...
claimed he and Medwick wrote the song in one night; Medwick then sold it the next day to Robey, with Robey taking Copeland's songwriting credit.
[
] According to Bobby Bland, Medwick wrote the song with no involvement by Robey.
The guitar work on the song has been attributed to three different guitar players:
Pat Hare
Auburn "Pat" Hare was a Memphis electric blues guitarist and singer. His heavily distortion (music), distorted, power chord–driven electric guitar performances in the early 1950s is considered an important precursor of heavy metal music.Robert P ...
,
Mel Brown, and
Wayne Bennett.
However, Bland noted that Hare was the session guitarist, having been chosen by arranger/trumpeter Joe Scott.
It was Hare's only session with Bland, although he was in
's Blue Flames, who sometimes provided backup while Bland was on tour.
Bennett and Brown were Bland's later guitarists.
Composition and lyrics
"Farther Up the Road" has been called a "seminal Texas shuffle" featuring "a style which Bland evolved as his own, with his light, melodic vocals riding over an ebullient shuffle". According to music critic
Dave Marsh, "Bland's deep vocal and Scott's arrangement, which swings as hard as it rocks, links
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...
' big band
R&B to more modern currents in Southern
soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest atte ...
".
[
] Bland's smooth vocals are contrasted with Pat Hare's raucous,
overdriven guitar fills and soloing, a style which prefigured the
blues-rock sound of the late 1960s. Music critic
Dave Marsh adds that the song is "a virtually perfect Texas blues ...
at Hare'ssignature lick provides the missing link between
T-Bone Walker
Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was an American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader, who was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues, West Coast blues, and electric blues sounds. In 2018 ''R ...
and Eric Clapton".
The backing arrangement is provided by the Bill Harvey Orchestra, who added a
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...
-influenced intro and outro as well as
chord substitution
In music theory, chord substitution is the technique of using a chord in place of another in a progression of chords, or a chord progression. Much of the European classical repertoire and the vast majority of blues, jazz and rock music songs a ...
s to the
twelve-bar scheme. The song has been notated in 4/4 time in the key of F with a moderate (108
beats per minute
Beat, beats or beating may refer to:
Common uses
* Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area
** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols
** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men
* Battery ...
) tempo.
Part of the song's success may be due to Bland's "telling a convincing story, making brief lyrical vignettes highly believable with his conversational style". Author Anand Prahlad comments on the song's use of "the theme of reciprocity":
[
]
However, Prahlad adds, "His
land'susage of the proverb contains a philosophical dimension that is absent from the other
ongs with similar themesand a momentary distance from the emotional wound".
The song was Bland's first charting single after several years of recording for various record companies. It became a number one hit during a fourteen-week stay in 1957 in the
Billboard R&B chart
The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...
as well as reaching number 43 in the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 pop chart.
[
] Bland enjoyed nearly uninterrupted chart success for the next twenty years.
"Farther Up the Road" is included on Bland's first album, ''Blues Consolidated'', a co-release with
in 1958 on Duke Records.
[
] The song is included on many official Bland compilations, including ''The Best of Bobby Bland'' and ''I Pity the Fool: The Duke Recordings, Vol. 1''.
Eric Clapton renditions
Eric Clapton recorded several versions of "Farther Up the Road" over the years, usually calling it after its opening lyrics "Further On up the Road".
[
] Clapton uses the lyrics from the original, but the song is performed at a faster tempo as an unembellished shuffle. The song first appeared on his 1975 live album ''
E. C. Was Here''. In 1976, a live version was recorded with
Freddie King
Freddie King (September 3, 1934December 28, 1976) was an American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with Albert King and B.B. King, none of whom were blood related). Most ...
, which is included on ''Freddie King (1934–1976)''. Also in 1976, he performed the song with
the Band in the concert film ''
The Last Waltz
''The Last Waltz'' was a concert by the Canadian-American rock group The Band, held on American Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. ''The Last Waltz'' was advertised as The Band's "farewell concert a ...
''. Another live version was recorded in Japan in 1979 for Clapton's ''
Just One Night''. In 1981, Clapton recorded it with
Jeff Beck during ''
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball was the fourth of the benefit shows staged by the British Section of Amnesty International to raise funds for its research and campaign work in the human rights field. It was the second of many shows to bear ...
'' benefit show. A version with
Joe Bonamassa
Joseph Leonard Bonamassa ( ; born May 8, 1977) is an American blues rock guitarist, singer and songwriter. He started his career at age twelve, when he opened for B.B. King. Since 2000, Bonamassa has released fifteen solo albums through his ind ...
appears on the 2009 video ''Joe Bonamassa: Live from the Royal Albert Hall''. Clapton co-performed the song with
Robbie Robertson during Clapton's third induction at the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 and resurrected it for his 2007 and 2011 Asian, European and American world tours.
References
{{authority control
1957 songs
Blues songs
1957 singles
Bobby Bland songs
Eric Clapton songs
Songs written by Don Robey