Fenton Robinson - Somebody Loan Me A Dime (1974, 1990)

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Robinson's mellow… dic blues

I generally don't pay much attention to the laudatory praises about any album by the musical critics establishment, as those mentioned in the presentation doc; all I'm interested in is what kind of feeling a song, an album or an artist are giving me. It's not an intellectual matter; it's something closer to animal instinctive behavior (1). And the fact is that Robinson's blues feels me with a groovy spirit.

Fenton Lee Robinson was born in 1935 near Greenwood (Mississippi). He left home at the age of 18, spent a decade in Memphis, where he recorded his first titles, before relocating to Chicago, like so many of his fellow blues musicians, in 1962.

Five years later, he recorded "Somebody Loan Me a Dime" (1967) which became a blues standard. He recorded a new version in 1974, featured on the present album, his first on Alligator Records.

The song opens the album and was used as its title, a way to make clear once and for all that it was written by Robinson following the legal action against Boz Scaggs' record company which had mistakenly credited to Scaggs his 1969 cover.

On the 1974 version Robinson is playing around with his guitar, voluntary emphasizing the tone key changes several times, a trick that gives the song its originality. Baptized the mellow man in Chicago, both his vocal and guitar styles are quite interesting, mixing elegant smoothness and moments of more innovative cutting attacks. His guitar playing sometimes reminds Albert King, some other times B.B. King, with a discreet jazzy T-Bone Walker touch here and there.

Mighty Joe Young

Robinson is surrounded by a group of solid musicians, the most renowned being Mighty Joe Young on rhythm guitar and Bill Heid on piano. The use of a horn section, most likely a remainder from Robinson's Memphis years, brings an extra sound to some titles, particularly the excellent melancholic “You Don't Know What Love Is” or on the original New Orleans style of “Gotta Wake Up”.

Bill Heid

A really cool atmosphere is indeed floating all along the eleven tracks of this album, enhanced by Robinson's smooth soulful vocals on rather melancholic lyrics, among which he wrote those of six of the eleven songs. The others are from Richard Penniman aka Little Richard (“Directly From My Heart To You”), the always mysterious Public Domain 😉 (“Going To Chicago”), Emery Williams (“You Say You're Leaving”), Jackson Toombs (“CountryGirl”), and the threesome Don Robey-Joseph Scott-Larry Davis (“Texas Flood”).

Robinson's version of the latter title closes the album. Almost a decade later Stevie Ray Vaughan recorded his Texas blues version of the song. Robinson survived SRV seven years. He died from a brain cancer in November 1997 after four decades at the service of the blues.

This album is a superb example of the best personal aspects of his style with which Robinson durably enriched the Windy city blues genre. ■

(1) In France, a wine-grower has installed speakers throughout his vineyard to help the vine-stock resist the attacks of a greedy little worm by playing them music.
Cattle farmers also play music to their cows to prevent stress and obtain healthier animals producing more tender meat. Generally, it's classical music, but did they try with blues, and especially from Fenton Robinson ? I believe the results might surprise them !

Videos

● Fenton Robinson 
► “Somebody Loan Me A Dime” : https://youtu.be/HRSgYozJCFQ / https://youtu.be/BO5pcmHepEQ
► “Going To Chicago” : https://youtu.be/2JD70bJBxms
► “Checking On My Woman” : https://youtu.be/aJYJ7SKDUL8
► “You Don't Know What Love Is” : https://youtu.be/pmInSph3jIo / https://youtu.be/qv-BHbirdr8

►“Stormy Monday” : https://youtu.be/_DS4bNWjY90 / https://youtu.be/OR65zC9Bvdc
► “Blue Monday” : https://youtu.be/oCxk351TMBs
► “As The Years Go Passing By” : https://youtu.be/6UDJnXDQzp8
► “I Lost My True Love” : https://youtu.be/vsBhEUejMKE
► “Gonna Be Alright” : https://youtu.be/V7q7W6DA_DA
► At Buddy Guy Legends : https://youtu.be/sGZWD8lWxrs

● The covers

Boz Scaggs

► Boz Scaggs, “Loan Me A Dime” :
→ Montreal, 2013 : https://youtu.be/3-xVZuuenZM
→ Aurora, IL, 2022 : https://youtu.be/BrFUCr0qtsU
► Luther “Snake” Johnson, France, 1973 : “Woman Don't Lie” (00:00), and “Loan Me a Dime” (03:55), mistakenly presented as from L. Johnson : https://youtu.be/yBQy7qc90nU
► Jimmy Johnson, “Somebody Loan Me a Dime”, Chicago, 2012 : https://youtu.be/WHsz8W88gFs
► Shawn Pittman, “Somebody Loan Me a Dime”, Joliet, IL, 2018 : https://youtu.be/8CQa-RWCnJo
► Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters (with Diane Blue on vocals), “You Don't Know What Love Is”, Utah Blues Festival, Salt Lake City, 2019 : https://youtu.be/44UmA7sdHsM

Fenton Robinson, 1935-1997