Aired on Treasure Island Oldies – May 4, 2025

When it comes to the music that launched in the 50s & 60s many say that the “blues were the roots.”

Such was the case for a blues rock group whose biggest hit came from adapting a 1928 blues song by Henry Thomas. Ironically, the name of the group also came from a 1928 blues standard.

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The LA-based blues rock group started out as a jug band and was formed in 1965 by two blues enthusiasts, Alan Wilson and Bob Hite.

The group’s first big live appearance was at the Monterey Pop Festival on June 17, 1967.

The group soon began to garner notoriety as “the bad boys of rock” for being jailed in Denver, Colorado, after a police informant provided enough evidence for their arrest for drugs. Band manager Skip Taylor was forced to obtain the $10,000 bail by selling off the band’s publishing rights to Liberty Records president Al Bennett.

Their name seemed to endorse their image somewhat as they were named after Tommy Johnson’s 1928 “Canned Heat Blues,” a song about an alcoholic who had desperately turned to drinking Sterno, generically called “Canned Heat.”

In August of 1969 Canned Heat played Woodstock. Their set included their best known song which became the title track in Michael Wadleigh’s 1970 documentary, even though the band’s performance was not shown.

The song was almost a note-for-note copy of Henry Thomas’ 1928 “Bull-Doze Blues” with band member Wilson rewriting the lyrics with a simple message that caught the “back-to-nature” attitude of the late 60s. The song was a hit in numerous countries around the world, peaking at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Although linked to the counterculture of the 60s, some suggest that Wilson’s lyrics were about evading the draft during the Vietnam War by moving to Canada:

Now, baby, pack your leaving trunk, you know we’ve got to leave today

Just exactly where we’re going, I cannot say, but we might even leave the U.S.A. ‘Cause there’s a brand new game that I don’t wanna play

Well one thing is for sure – Canned Heat was bent on “Going Up The Country,” this week’s Tom Locke moment in time.

YouTube listing of the song:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eQMA_noRYQ

This “Moments In Time” story is yet another example of a “golden oldie” or forgotten favorite that earned its place in the evolution of Rock & Roll.