Normally, I would have posted at least more versions of a song as old and well-covered as I Don't Know, but apparently I'm the only one who has more than two versions. I was able to find the Willie Mabon version on Youtube but only of the sort uploaded by people with fantastic old records. Nowhere could I find the fantastic version of the song that I have with Ruth Brown and Johnny Adams that seems to have inspired the sort of banter that The Blues Brothers included in their own cover.
Now, some folks say the song was written by Mr. Mabon, but one of the versions I've heard has him introducing the song by noting that he had been introduced to it by Cripple Clarence Lofton. Whether he meant the inspiration came from Lofton or the whole song I can't seem to discover. I can find a lot of songs with the same name and clear histories but not I Don't Know.
And so I give you the version that most blues fans already know, a great song in its own right, certainly, but seemingly more overlooked than most of the songs I post here. Let me know if you know where there's a copy on-line of other versions so that I can link them, would you? And if George Thorogood ever did I do believe my head might explode from teh awesome. Tell me anyway.
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