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Hound Dog Taylor

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Musician

The Resume

    (April 12, 1915-December 17, 1975)
    Born in Natchez, Mississippi
    Birth name was Theodore Roosevelt Taylor
    Slide guitarist and singer
    Recorded the albums ‘Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers’ (1971), ‘Natural Boogie’ (1974), ‘Beware of the Dog!’ (1976), ‘Genuine Houserocking Music’ (1982) and ‘Release the Hound’ (2004)
    Inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame (1984)

Why he might be annoying:

    He also claimed 1917 as his birth year.
    He spent a decade and a half as a professional musician in Chicago before getting the chance to record an album.
    Before a show in Buffalo, his manager broke into a liquor store and stole a bottle of whiskey, since without booze Taylor would become too shaky to play. (The manager left behind some cash to pay for the bottle.)
    His playing would often get sloppy, with bum notes and out of tune passages.
    Even not counting ‘Best Of’ compilations, he had more albums released posthumously than during his lifetime.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He had six fingers on his left hand.
    He left Mississippi for Chicago after the KKK burned a cross on his lawn (1942).
    Bruce Iglauer was so impressed by him that he took $2500 from his inheritance to launch Alligator Records in order to record Taylor.
    His raw but energetic playing prompted Robert Christgau to call him ‘the Ramones of Chicago blues.’
    George Thorogood was his driver on a couple of East Coast tours.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 6 Votes: 16.67% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 70.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying