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From album
West Side Soul
Magic Sam Blues Band · 1967 · Track 1
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The story behind
This short but intense song is one of those that doesn't need more than three minutes to stick in your mind. That's All I Need rests on an electric blues that sounds fresh even decades later, as if time had never passed over it. It's not a track that drags or seeks adornments: it goes straight to the point with an energy that seems to escape the record. The main riff, repeated with a hypnotic cadence, is one of those you end up humming without realizing, and Magic Sam's voice infuses it with an urgency that needs no explanation.
They recorded it in 1968 in Chicago, just as the city's blues was mutating to make way for rawer, more electric sounds. The album, West Side Soul, was released by Delmark Records, a label that at the time became a haven for musicians who wanted to sound unfiltered. Robert G. Koester produced it, and the result was an album that not only defined modern blues but also ended up being a bridge between the classic and what was to come. The song itself, at 3:18, is one of those you listen to and already know you won't forget.