The top 40 songs I want to hear on True Blood
posted 9-13-2010 - 2:53 pm

Now don’t get your vampy black lace panties in a twist: this is not going to be a list of top-40 rock, hip-hop or other popular songs aimed at your favorite vampire drama on HBO. Far from it (I’m a responsible deejay, okay?). But when I decided to put together a top-10 list of tunes I’d like to hear on True Blood, well, there were just so many good blues and R&B songs to choose from that the list got out of hand. Besides, you have to admit that the phrase ‘top 40’ has kind of a ring to it, even if I use it here in a surprise-twist, contrarian sort of way; so of course, this selection will be counterintuitive in places.

I should back up a bit and explain.

I’ve never been a big fan of vampire stories in general – aw, c’mon, the frustrated virgin dying to be bitten thing by the handsome but thoroughly evil undead dude is irritatingly predictable, cliche, and wears thin pretty quickly. Still, I do appreciate a wry sense of humor and the penchant to turn expectations if not upside-down, then at least sideways ... and Charlaine Harris’s southern gothic vampire novels featuring the beleaguered but resilient Sookie Stackhouse are in that category. They sure aren’t what one might have expected of typical vampire tales. And Harris’s characters aren’t typical vampire stereotypes, either. Excellent. So naturally, once I got through the first few novels, I quickly became an avid fan of the rest, and of Alan Ball’s beautifully rendered television series based on the novels.

It helps that Sookie isn’t a dumb blonde in the books (being short, blonde, brilliant, and chronically underestimated myself, I can certainly identify and sympathize). Sookie may have been be a bit dewy-eyed, sheltered and naive at first, but she grows up and gets worldly wise in short order, in the process discovering aspects of herself and admirable qualities that she never suspected. And it turns out she has a very determined survival sense, which she needs all too often throughout the series. Whoa – did you see that season finale?? Sookie certainly gives everybody what-for before it’s over. All those who thought she didn’t have a backbone can now officially shut up. But I digress.

Unsurprisingly, then, I’ve watched the TV series pretty faithfully. While watching, I’ve also taken note of the playlists used for seasons 1 to 3, and the musical gears in my head have been turning in the background, pondering other musical possibilities for the soundtrack. And I’ve come up with what I think are some intriguing choices.

I call this playlist Sookie’s Extras. As with the actual soundtrack used to date, my list is almost exclusively blues and R&B oriented with a bit of swamp-rock and a good dose of New Orleans and other Louisiana artists thrown in. Besides being thematically appropriate (lots of tunes about love, death, broken hearts, full moons, and voodoo), it’s music that one would expect Sookie to hear regularly in her neck of the woods. Which I consider appropriate for an overall storyline based in the fictional town of Bon Temps and the surrounding area of north-central Louisiana. In fact, I’ve heard all too much Texas rockabilly so far in the series and not enough Louisiana music, so I made sure to remedy that and add a bit of Mississippi delta blues as well, given that Mississippi is right next door. There are a few surprises here, too, that are a pretty good fit in context. But give a listen and decide for yourself; I think you’ll like it. Feel free to discuss your thoughts in the comments section below.

Jump down to the list ...

For those who aren’t devotees of the blues or New Orleans R&B, there will be some new names here. For listeners unfamiliar with their work, Tinsley Ellis, Devil Doll, Roomful Of Blues, Duke Robillard and Ronnie Earl, Susan Tedeschi, Double Trouble, Jimmie Vaughan, Lou Ann Barton, Imelda May, Lonnie Brooks, Rufus Thomas, Morry Sochat & The Special 20s, and Pinetop Perkins should be a welcome treat. If you want to be schooled in the blues, these are names to know. That goes triple for B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Koko Taylor, and John Lee Hooker. And Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones need no explanation. They’ve already made it onto the True Blood playlist. Then there are the locals: Dr. John, Irma Thomas, the Neville Brothers, Katie Webster, Charles Sheffield; wow, are you in for some good stuff there.

J.J. Cale’s “Cajun Moon” sounds like emblematic swamp rock that belongs in Louisiana, and it is – but as a song, it’s actually less representative of Cale’s famous Tulsa blues sound than you’d think (no bayous in Tulsa, y’all – it’s Oklahoma). However, Cale’s gotten around over the years, and Cajun/swamp music is in his portfolio, as are other influences; he’s also influenced quite a few musicians himself. If you’ve ever wondered where Eric Clapton got “After Midnight” or “Cocaine,” J.J. Cale would be the source.

Chris Isaac is such a natural fit for this playlist that I marvel his “Wicked Game” hasn’t been used already. It’s one of my all-time favorites by Chris, all broken hearted and moody: “... No, I never want to fall in love with you ...” Really: how did True Blood music director Gary Calamar miss that one? (perhaps Calamar thought “Wicked Game” too overexposed ever since the song got used on a car commercial; but hey, that was several years ago, and it hasn’t been used since – it’s fresh again) Same goes for a few other numbers on the same Isaac album, Heart Shaped World, like “Wrong To Love You.” They just work so well. Hint.

Now that the series has introduced werewolves and werepanthers into the mix, not to mention a brujo (BROO-hoe, which is Spanish for a male witch) for Lafayette’s new beau, songs like The Neville Brothers’ “Yellow Moon” are a no-brainer. Ditto Carlos Santana. Hell, having a brujo on the series just screams for Santana. Can I get a witness here? Same for all the voodoo and ‘supernatural’ titles, like “You Put A Spell On Me,” “Born Under A Bad Sign,” “Two Bones And A Pick,” and “Hoochie Coochie Man.”

Other songs seem so apt that they literally suggest a future episode title: “What Was It You Wanted,” “Another Man Done Gone,” or “I’ll Never Get Out Of These Blues Alive.” And at some point when Sookie has absolutely had it with men in general and vamps in particular, B.B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone” will be highly appropriate, if not literally what’s running through her mind. Uh, come to think of it, they could have easily thrown that one into the season finale, yes? Thought so.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of bad-boy/bad-girl tunes to play: “I’m Bad,” “Mean And Evil Ways,” “Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean,” “Queen Of Pain,” “That Woman Is Poison,” “One Night Of Sin.” That last one is a tune by another famous son of New Orleans, the highly influential Fats Domino – in this instance, sung by a surprising Corinne Bailey Rae as a testament to temptation, ambivalence, romance and regret, the usual staples of blues and R&B. Been there, felt that; haven’t we all? That would be the point. “Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean” from Just Won’t Burn by Susan Tedeschi is another good example – personal, gritty, and much closer to the Ruth Brown blues original than any country/rockabilly version ever recorded. It's also available on The Best Of Susan Tedeschi, Episode 2.

In addition to several fine albums of her own, Tedeschi is also heard on Double Trouble’s sole album, Been A Long Time, singing an acetylene-torch-hot take of “Rock and Roll” that would put Robert Plant to shame. Once you’ve heard Tedeschi’s cover, you might forget the Led Zeppelin version altogether. Led by Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon, Double Trouble is a studio-session assemblage of top blues artists who just wanted an excuse to play together; an earlier trio incarnation of the group with Layton, Shannon and Reese Wynans served as the rhythm section for the late blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. The Double Trouble album session also included Malford Milligan, Doyle Bramhall II, Charlie Sexton, Jonny Lang, Jimmie Vaughan, Lou Ann Barton, Ravon Fuster, Greg Sain, Tommy Taylor, and even Dr. John and Willie Nelson. That’s one impressive crew there. The resulting album was so fine – after all, it did hit #1 on the U.S. blues charts and made #126 on the Billboard 200 – that one wishes they’d just come to their senses and record another.

Other performances will be a revelation. “Baby, Step Back” and “Baby, It’s Allright” fit right in when you hear them. The jolt comes when you realize they’re by Canadian folk-rocker Gordon Lightfoot, whom Bob Dylan calls one of his favorite songwriters. Because Lightfoot has had a number of crossover hits on the top-40 and western charts, some listeners consider him either a minor pop star (“Sundown”) or a country musician (nothing of the sort – no more so than, say, Paul Simon). Another eye-opener is “One Kind Favor,” an old folk-blues song also known as “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” and recorded under the latter title by B.B. King on his 2008 album One Kind Favor. This version, however, is spookier than the King track and is by none other than Peter, Paul and Mary, folk singers who took the folk genre, complete with its traditional and blues roots, quite seriously. Here, they play a straightforward, unadorned acoustic arrangement of the traditional folk dirge – and it works.

One particularly welcome surprise is “Pretty Polly” (from Who Knows Where The Times Goes), a song about an innocent woman who unfortunately falls for a man who murders her and can’t be bothered to bury her. We get the definite impression, however, that he’ll get his due shortly as the devil will be calling for him soon. Likewise a traditional folk song, it’s sung by Judy Collins with a very effective Stephen Stills on second guitar. Collins has always been a very capable guitarist and has deep roots in traditional music. You can hear the tension building right up to when the solos bust out in the middle and again near the end, as well as the song's definite Anglo-Saxon roots; but I doubt they ever played it quite that way in West Virginia. This is still my favorite version of the song: the arrangement knocks you off your feet but never interferes with the song itself or alters its mournful mood. [And yes, in case you were wondering, Stills wrote Crosby, Still & Nash's hit "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" for her. End of rock trivia.]

Pinetop Perkins, a well-known Chicago blues piano player, does a fine version here of the New Orleans blues standard “Trouble In Mind,” from the album of duets titled Ladies' Man. Normally, that wouldn’t raise any eyebrows – were it not for the fact that he has Odetta singing along, rendering a most excellent blues instead of the folk music usually found on her other recordings. When you think about it, though, the blues is a form of American folk music and therefore not really a stretch for folk musicians well versed in the genre. Which explains Lightfoot and PP&M as well.

Morry Sochat & The Special 20s is another Chicago group that I happen to like. They specialize in blues and swing, and I’ve often heard them live and danced to the band in my other guise as a Lindyhopper and swing dancer. With blues in their portfolio, the boys naturally have their share of songs about romance gone wrong, and “Mean & Evil Ways” is one slow-and-low-down example. On swing tunes, The Special 20s can also hold their own against the rockabilly set and then some, so they certainly belong on any True Blood playlist.

Trouble abounds on True Blood, especially during Season 3. Roomful Of Blues is another group that really sends me, so naturally, I’ve included their take of “I Smell Trouble” as well as “She Put A Spell On Me.” Roomful and Duke Robillard have a connection: Robillard was one of the group’s founders way back in 1967. The group’s had some changes of personnel since then, and Robillard is off on his own now – he left Roomful in 1990 for The Fabulous Thunderbirds, whom he hung with for three years – but Duke and Roomful still collaborate now and then. Here, Robillard jams with fellow Northeasterner and blues guitarist Ronnie Earl on “Lookin’ For Trouble.”

Earl is another Thunderbirds alumnus who in 1979 joined Roomful Of Blues for eight years as their lead guitarist. If you get the feeling that the blues end of the music business is somewhat incestuous, you’re right: sooner or later, nearly everybody plays with everybody else, whether or not they’re formally in the same group. Kinda like playing jazz in Chicago; you play on enough gigs of different kinds, and you have a good chance of making a living. Stick to one group? Not so much.

The John Lee Hooker track included here, "I’ll Never Get Out Of These Blues Alive," is from one of the soundtrack discs from director Martin Scorsese’s documentary series on the blues, originally produced for public television. If you haven’t seen the multi-part Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues, I highly recommend it. Different directors filmed different episodes; Clint Eastwood, for example, shot the one on blues piano players. It’s all available on DVD and maybe at your local public library, too.

But enough delaying. Here’s my list; inspect it and listen for yourself, then tell me this doesn’t rock your genuine-imitation fangs off. One note: these are not ranked in order of preference, but rather put together as a playlist set meant for listening pleasure – which means there’s a certain sense from a deejay’s point of view about which songs follow one another and where they come in the set. Feel free to rank them yourself. Enjoy!


Sookie’s Extras – 40 songs I want to hear on True Blood, in no particular order:

1. Things Have Changed – Bob Dylan, The Essential Bob Dylan
2. Yellow Moon – The Neville Brothers, Uptown Rulin’: The Best Of The Neville Brothers
3. Lookin’ For Trouble – Duke Robillard and Ronnie Earl, The Duke Meets The Earl
4. Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean – Susan Tedeschi, Just Won’t Burn
5. Dirt Road Blues – Bob Dylan, Blues
6. Baby, Step Back – Gordon Lightfoot, Gord’s Gold, Volume II
7. You Put A Spell On Me – Devil Doll, Queen Of Pain
8. Wrong To Love You – Chris Isaak, Heart Shaped World
9. The Thrill Is Gone – B.B. King, B.B. King & Friends
10. Another Man Done Gone – Irma Thomas, After The Rain
11. What Was It You Wanted – Bob Dylan, Oh Mercy
12. Voodoo Daddy – Lonnie Brooks, Alligator Records 35x35, disc 1
13. One Night Of Sin – Corinne Bailey Rae, Goin’ Home: A Tribute To Fats Domino, disc 1
14. I’m Bad – Katie Webster, No Foolin’!
15. Wicked Game – Chris Isaak, Heart Shaped World
16. Pretty Polly – Judy Collins (Stephen Still, second guitar), Who Knows Where The Time Goes
17. One Kind Favor – Peter, Paul & Mary, Peter, Paul And Mary In Concert, disc 1
18. Tombstone Blues – Bob Dylan, MTV Unplugged
19. Speak No Evil – Tinsley Ellis, Speak No Evil
20. It’s Your Voodoo Working – Imelda May, Love Tattoo
21. She Put A Spell On Me – Roomful Of Blues, Standing Room Only
22. Born Under A Bad Sign – Koko Taylor, Deluxe Edition
23. Cajun Moon – J.J. Cale, The Very Best Of J.J. Cale
24. Trouble In Mind – Pinetop Perkins (Odetta, vocal), Ladies’ Man
25. I’ll Never Get Out Of These Blues Alive – John Lee Hooker, Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: Warming By The Devil’s Fire (documentary series film soundtrack)
26. Evil Ways – Santana, Ultimate Santana
27. Mean & Evil Ways – Morry Sochat & The Special 20s, Swingin’ Shufflin’ Smokin’
28. Queen Of Pain – Devil Doll, Queen Of Pain
29. That Woman Is Poison! – Rufus Thomas, That Woman Is Poison!
30. Two Bones And A Pick – Duke Robillard and Ronnie Earl, The Duke Meets The Earl
31. Baby, It’s Allright – Gordon Lightfoot, If You Could Read My Mind
32. It’s Your Voodoo Working – Charles Sheffield, Louisiana Gumbo
33. I Been Hoodood – Dr. John, In The Right Place
34. Voodoo – The Neville Brothers, Louisiana Gumbo
35. (I’m Your) Hoochie Coochie Man – Muddy Waters, 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection – Best Of Muddy Waters
36. Back Water Blues – Irma Thomas, Our New Orleans 2005: A Benefit Album
37. In The Middle Of The Night – Double Trouble (Lou Ann Barton and Jimmie Vaughan, vocals), Been A Long Time
38. Play With Fire – The Rolling Stones, Out Of Our Heads
39. I Smell Trouble – Roomful Of Blues, There Goes The Neighborhood
40. Trouble – Bob Dylan, Shot Of Love


Virtually all these tracks can be found on Amazon MP3 downloads and iTunes. A few exceptions can be downloaded from CD Baby or CD Universe.