"Going Up the Country" (also Goin' Up the Country) is a song adapted and recorded by American blues rock band

Canned Heat Canned Heat is an American band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1965. The group is noted for its efforts to promote interest in blues music and its original artists and rock music. It was founded by two blues enthusiasts Alan Wilson and Bob ...

. Called a "rural hippie anthem", it became one of the band's biggest hits and best-known songs. As with their previous single, " On the Road Again", the song was adapted from a 1920s blues song and sung by Alan Wilson.

Background and composition

Canned Heat, who were early blues enthusiasts, based "Going Up the Country" on "Bull Doze Blues", recorded in 1928 by Texas bluesman

Henry Thomas Henry Jackson Thomas Jr. (born September 9, 1971) is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor and had a lead role in the film ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (1982), for which he won a Young Artist Award and received Golden Globe ...

. Thomas was from the

songster A "songster" is a wandering musician, usually but not always African-American, of the type which first appeared in the late 19th century in the southern United States. Songsters in American culture The songster tradition both pre-dated and co-exi ...

tradition and had a unique sound, sometimes accompanying himself on quills, an early Afro-American wind instrument similar to

panpipes A pan flute (also known as panpipes or syrinx) is a musical instrument based on the principle of the closed tube, consisting of multiple pipes of gradually increasing length (and occasionally girth). Multiple varieties of pan flutes have been ...

. He recorded "Bull Doze Blues" in Chicago on June 13, 1928, for

Vocalion Records Vocalion Records is an American record company and label. History The label was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Company, a maker of pianos and organs, as Aeolian-Vocalion; the company also sold phonographs under the Vocalion name. "Aeolian" was ...

. For "Going Up the Country", Canned Heat's Wilson used Thomas' melody on the quills and his basic rhythm, but arranged it for a rock setting and rewrote the lyrics. In addition to the bass and drum rhythm section,

Henry Vestine Henry Charles Vestine (December 25, 1944 – October 20, 1997) a.k.a. "The Sunflower", was an American guitar player primarily known as a member of the band Canned Heat. He was with the group from its start in 1966 to July 1969. In later years ...

supplied a "light electric rhythm guitar" and multi-instrumentalist

Jim Horn James Ronald Horn (born November 20, 1940) is an American saxophonist, woodwind player, and session musician. Biography Horn was born in Los Angeles, and after replacing saxophonist Steve Douglas in 1959, he toured with member Duane Eddy for f ...

reproduced Thomas' quill parts on the flute. Although linked to the counterculture of the 1960s'

back-to-the-land movement A back-to-the-land movement is any of various agrarian movements across different historical periods. The common thread is a call for people to take up smallholding and to grow food from the land with an emphasis on a greater degree of self-suffic ...

, Wilson's lyrics are ambiguous, leading some to suggest they were about evading the draft during the Vietnam War by moving to Canada:

Releases and charts

In October 1968, Liberty Records first released "Going Up the Country" on Canned Heat's third album, ''

Living the Blues ''Living the Blues'' is the third album by Canned Heat, a double album released in late 1968. It was one of the first double albums to place well on album charts. It features Canned Heat's signature song, "Going Up the Country", which would late ...

'', and followed it with a single on November 22, 1968. The single peaked at number 11 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart on January 25, 1969, making it the band's best showing on the main U.S. chart. On January 7, 1969, the song peaked at number 19 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. The song appears on several Canned Heat compilation albums, including ''Canned Heat Cookbook'', '' Let's Work Together: The Best of Canned Heat'' (1989) and ''

Uncanned! The Best of Canned Heat ''Uncanned! The Best of Canned Heat'' is two-disc CD set issued in 1994, features various tracks from previous albums and some previously unreleased tracks. Highlights include an alternate, longer take of " On the Road Again," and the first rel ...

'' (1994). The group performed "Going Up the Country" at the

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...

music festival in August 1969 and the song is used in the ''

'' film and appears on the

original soundtrack album Originality is the aspect of created or invented works that distinguish them from reproductions, clones, forgeries, or substantially derivative works. The modern idea of originality is according to some scholars tied to Romanticism, by a notion t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Going Up the Country Songs about hippies 1968 songs 1968 singles Canned Heat songs Liberty Records singles Hippie movement