''The Real Thing'' is a double

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mu ...

, released in 1971. It was recorded on February 13, 1971, at the

Fillmore East The Fillmore East was rock promoter Bill Graham's rock venue on Second Avenue near East 6th Street in the (at the time) Lower East Side neighborhood, now called the East Village neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan of New York City. ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and features Taj Mahal backed by a band that includes four

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

players.

Track listing

All tracks by Taj Mahal except where noted. # "Fishin' Blues" (

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 ...

) – 2:58 # "Ain't Gwine to Whistle Dixie (Any Mo')" (Chuck Blackwell,

Jesse Ed Davis Jesse Edwin Davis III (September 21, 1944 – June 22, 1988) was a Native American guitarist. He was well regarded as a session artist and solo performer, was a member of Taj Mahal's backing band and played with musicians such as Eric Clapton, J ...

, Gary Gilmore, Taj Mahal) – 9:11 # "Sweet Mama Janisse" – 3:32 # "Going Up to the Country and Paint My Mailbox Blue" – 3:24 # "Big Kneed Gal" – 5:34 # " You're Going to Need Somebody on Your Bond" (

Blind Willie Johnson Blind Willie Johnson (January 25, 1897 – September 18, 1945) was an American gospel blues singer, guitarist and evangelist. His landmark recordings completed between 1927 and 1930—thirty songs in total—display a combination of powerful "ch ...

) – 6:13 # "Tom and Sally Drake" – 3:39 # "Diving Duck Blues" (

Sleepy John Estes John Adam Estes (January 25, 1899 or 1900June 5, 1977),
known as Sleepy John Estes, was an Am ...

) – 3:46 # "John, Ain' It Hard" – 5:30 # " She Caught the Katy (And Left Me a Mule to Ride)" (Taj Mahal,

Yank Rachell Yank Rachell (born James A. Rachel; March 16, 1903 or 1910 – April 9, 1997) was an American country blues musician who has been called an "elder statesman of the blues". His career as a performer spanned nearly seventy years, from the late 192 ...

) – 4:08 #*Omitted from the vinyl issue, added to 2000 CD issue. Studio recording appears on ''

The Natch'l Blues ''The Natch'l Blues'' is the second studio album by American blues artist Taj Mahal, released in 1968. Track listing All tracks composed by Taj Mahal, except where indicated: ;Side 1 # "Good Morning Miss Brown" – 3:13 # "Corinna" (Mahal, Jesse ...

'' (1968). # "You Ain't No Street Walker Mama, Honey but I Do Love the Way You Strut Your Stuff" – 18:56

Personnel

– vocals,

blues harp The Richter-tuned harmonica, or 10-hole harmonica (in Asia) or blues harp (in America), is the most widely known type of harmonica. It is a variety of diatonic harmonica, with ten holes which offer the player 19 notes (10 holes times a draw and ...

chromatic harmonica The chromatic harmonica is a type of harmonica that uses a button-activated sliding bar to redirect air from the hole in the mouthpiece to the selected reed-plate desired. When the button is not pressed, an altered diatonic major scale of the key ...

, National steel-bodied guitar, five-string guitar (banjo),

fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

* Howard Johnson –

(BB♭, F),

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B, though some ...

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use - the bass, contra ...

, brass arrangements * Bob Stewart – tuba (CC),

, trumpet * Joseph Daley – tuba (BB♭),

valve trombone A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fittings ...

* Earle McIntyre – tuba (E♭),

bass trombone The bass trombone (german: Bassposaune, it, trombone basso) is the bass instrument in the trombone family of brass instruments. Modern instruments are pitched in the same B♭ as the tenor trombone but with a larger bore, bell and mouthpiece to ...

* Bill Rich – Electric bass * John Simon – piano,

electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of a piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations ...

John Hall John Hall may refer to: Academics * John Hall (NYU President) (fl. c. 1890), American academic * John A. Hall (born 1949), sociology professor at McGill University, Montreal * John F. Hall (born 1951), professor of classics at Brigham Young Unive ...

– Electric guitar * Greg Thomas – drums * Kwasi "Rocky" DziDzournu –

conga The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest). ...

s Technical *Tim Geelan, Glen Kolotkin, Frank Abbey, Jerry Smith – engineer *Anna Hornisher – cover, artwork, design *Irene Harris – cover photography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Real Thing Live at the Fillmore East albums 1971 live albums Taj Mahal (musician) live albums Columbia Records live albums Legacy Recordings live albums Albums produced by Dave Rubinson Albums produced by Bob Irwin