Watch the 1968 Magic Boogie online guitar lesson by Jimmy Vivino from Jimmy's Blues House: Boogie Down

The rock and pop music worlds saw boogie-derived hits throughout the latter years of the 1960s by the Temptations "Get Ready" (1966) the Blues Magoos "We Ain't Got Nothing Yet" (1966), the Yardbirds "Over Under Sideways Down" (1966) and Arthur Conley's "Sweet Soul Music" (1967). Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" (1969) is worthy of particular attention as he reversed a Hooker-type riff to become A-D-C chord changes. Last, but not least, Ten Years After, featuring virtuoso blues-rock guitar hero Alvin Lee, released the smoking studio version of "I'm Going Home" (1969), only surpassed by his devastating performance at Woodstock in August of that year.

1968 Magic Boogie

Sam "Magic Sam" Maghett (1937-69) was one of those tragic "shooting stars" who rises higher and higher and then tragically falls. In this case, not of his own hand. He was one of the "Big Three" of Westside Chicago blues fame, following Otis Rush and preceding Buddy Guy. The sub-genre germinated in the mid-1950s with young guitarists wishing to break free of their often constrictive roles backing harmonica players on the Southside of Chicago as in the bands of Muddy Waters and Howlin Wolf. Instead, they wanted to step out front and solo more like B.B. King. Partly by coincidence, all three gravitated to the Strat and their recordings were marked by a bright, trebly, reverbed sound. Sam's tended to be more rounded as he picked with his bare thumb and fingers. Though one of his first classics, "All Your Love", was cut in 1957, the albums Westside Soul (1967) and especially Black Magic (1968) brought him much wider fame, along with his fabled appearance at the 1969 Ann Arbor Blues Festival.

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