MU757 James Phillips What are the influences, and how do the two versions of "You Gotta Move"

compare? You Gotta Move was first recorded during 1964 and 1965 in Fred McDowells home in Como and Holly Springs Mississippi.1 The bottleneck style of guitar and vocal technique used by McDowell was typical of blues music from the 1920s and 1930s of the Mississippi Delta region. Rolling Stones covered You Gotta Move on their 1971 Album Sticky Fingers. On the surface, both versions were recorded within a decade apart, sound similar, and not particularly unique from each other. However, a closer examination reveals striking differences in both the influences and musical performance. Religion, African musical traditions, and an emphasis on capturing his live performance influenced McDowells version. The Rolling Stones version was heavily influenced by the psychedelic culture of the 1960s and 1970s and emphasized the recording process over the ability to perform it live. Fred McDowell and Reverend Gary Davis wrote the lyrics to You Gotta Move.2 The simple lyrics expressed a belief in God and his power to move any man or woman regardless of their position in society. According to the song, both rich and poor, criminals and upholders of the law, social elite and misfits would answer to his Gods authority. The lyrics tell the listener that it doesnt matter what position you hold in life, you are equal in Gods eyes. Clearly, social injustice and religion influenced the lyrics contained in You Gotta Move.

1 2

Mississippi Fred McDowell, You Gotta Move, Arhoolie Records CD304 (CD), 1993. Jimmy Miller, Liner Notes, Sticky Fingers, Rolling Stones, Virgin Records 39525, 1971.

Musically speaking, McDowells version was played on an acoustic guitar while he sang. The recording process focused on capturing McDowells live unaltered sound. Although McDowell lived in the Memphis Tennessee and North Mississippi area for much of his life, his music exhibited characteristics of the Mississippi Delta blues style.3 According to Palmer, African musicians frequently divided music into three pitch ranges (low, middle, and high) to suggest words and sentences.4 This allowed African musicians the ability to make their instruments talk. As explained below, it is clear that McDowell divided the strings of the guitar into three ranges to produce this effect. McDowell tuned his guitar to open D tuning. In this way the open strings produced a D major chord when played without fretting a string. The subdominant and dominant chords could be played by using a bottleneck slide positioned at the fifth and seventh frets on the guitar. Throughout the song, McDowell used a droning technique on the sixth string of the guitar by executing a pull-off on the fourth fret with his thumb. This produced the bass line of the song while the third, fourth, and fifth strings of the guitar were played open. This produced a first inversion tonic chord. By using his thumb to play the bass line and the open strings to create the chordal harmony, McDowell simultaneously played two guitar parts. McDowell used the bottleneck slide to mimic the lyrics on the first string of the guitar. During guitar solos, he would imitate the lyrics contained in the verse one octave lower on the third and fourth string before imitating the lyrics you gotta move, you gotta move one octave higher on the first string. Thus, McDowell incorporated three separate guitar parts on a single guitar.
David Evans, review of Fred McDowell by John Ullman, American Folklore Society 90 no. 355 (January 1977): 111, http://www.jstor.org/stable/539040 (accessed July 18, 2012).
4 3

Robert Palmer, Deep Blues, (New York: Penguin, 1981), 29.

African influences such as buzzing, falsetto, and call and response are prevalent through McDowells version. Palmer noted that African musicians prefer muddy sounds over clear tones, and will go out of their way to make an instrument buzz when it is not designed to do so.5 Many times, McDowell pressed the bottleneck slide tightly against the fingerboard of the guitar. By doing so, the string was pressed between two frets and the bottleneck. This produced a buzzing sound that distorted the sounding pitch. Throughout the song, McDowell imitated the lyrics word for word with the bottleneck slide. The majority of his imitation on the guitar occurred on the fifth and seventh frets. This was important because these frets implied the subdominant and dominant chords. At the very end of the song, McDowell used the bottleneck at the twelfth fret of the guitar that created a falsetto effect that is frequently found in African music. 6 The 1971 recording of You Gotta Move by the Rolling Stones came as the band released Sticky Fingers, which was the first album that they owned the exclusive rights to.7 During the 1960s, they experienced pressure to record music that was selected for them by record companies. The psychedelic drug culture of the 1960s and 1970s had a huge influence on rock n roll recording artists, including the Rolling Stones. By forming their own record company in 1971, the Rolling Stones could freely choose what music to include on their records. You Gotta Move was reinvented as a psychedelic blues song. In the Rolling Stones version, the recording process was emphasized as more important than the ability to capture a live performance. In comparison, McDowell
5 6 7

Ibid., 30. Ibid., 28.

Holly George-Warren and Jon Pareles, eds.,The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001), 114.

performed the entire song by himself, while the Rolling Stones implemented three guitars, one piano, percussion, and multiple vocalists in their version.8 The Rolling Stones performed the song in open C tuning at a slower tempo. The vocals had a subdued and possibly drugged effect. Two guitars carried out the duty of playing the bass line and chordal accompaniment while another electric guitar (played slide) imitated the vocal part. However, the slide did not contain the buzzing as in McDowells version. The band relied on recording techniques such as overdubbing guitars into the song, vocal effects, and mixing one guitar exclusively to the left speaker. The percussion part consisted of an out of tune timpani and a small splash cymbal. During the guitar solos in between verses, the vocalists used tribal-type chants to imitate the guitar. The end of the song contains a falsetto note in the vocal part as opposed to the guitar part contained in McDowells version. The culmination resulted in a song that sounded somewhat psychedelic and hypnotic in nature. In conclusion, McDowells recorded version focuses on capturing the live sound of the blues. McDowell incorporated the African influences of buzzing, falsetto, and call and response into the guitar part. The lyrics assert that God has the power to make any person move, regardless of social status. The message of McDowells version is clear and direct. The Rolling Stones version is a product of recording studio techniques that focus on a recorded product, rather than capturing a live performance. The lyrics become secondary and the listener is swept up in the mystic and psychedelic effect.

Miller, Sticky Fingers, 1971.

Bibliography Evans, David, Review of Fred McDowell by John Ullman, American Folklore Society 90 no. 355 (January, 1977): 111-113. http://www.jstor.org/stable/539040 (accessed July 18, 2012). George-Warren, Holly and Jon Pareles, eds. The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001. McDowell, Mississippi Fred, You Gotta Move. Arhoolie Records CD304 (CD), 1993. Miller, Jimmy, Liner Notes, Sticky Fingers. Rolling Stones. Virgin Records 39525. 1971, compact disc. Palmer, Robert, Deep Blues. New York: Penguin, 1981.