Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep with the record.

— Paul, Vinyl Curator

Buddy Guy & Junior Wells

Drinkin' T.N.T. 'N' Smoking Dynamite

1981-82 · Red Lightnin' RL 0034 · Stereo · UK · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Red Lightnin'
Catalogue number	RL 0034
Year	1981-82
Mono / Stereo	Stereo
Country	UK
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Blues - Chicago Blues
Producer	Bill Wyman
Musicians	Buddy Guy (vocals, guitar), Junior Wells (vocals, harmonica), Bill Wyman (bass guitar), Pinetop Perkins (piano), Dallas Taylor (drums), Terry Taylor (rhythm guitar)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  LYN-10518 STERLING RL-034-A (ALI)
Side B:  LYN-10519 STERLING RL-034-B

Condition

Cover: NM-
Vinyl: NM

Variant chronology

1981/82 - UK Red Lightnin' RL 0034, Lyntone factory stamp in the runout  <- this copy
1981/82 - UK Red Lightnin' RL 0034, Sterling-only runout (no Lyntone stamp)
1982 - US/Canada Blind Pig BP 91182 / BP 1182
1984 - US Blind Pig BP1182 reissue
1984 - UK Sonet SNTF 920 reissue - no documented sale found
1984 - France Sonet 520395 reissue - no documented sale found
2008 - US Blind Pig BPLP 1182 180g remastered reissue
2015 - Europe Edsel Records EDSX 3028 - no documented sale found
2019 - Europe Demon Records DEMREC536 reissue - no documented sale found

This Pressing

1981/82 UK Red Lightnin' stereo pressing - etched RL-034-A/B Sterling lacquer bearing a Lyntone factory stamp in the runout, the mark that places this copy ahead of the otherwise label-identical Sterling-only RL 0034 pressing.

The Album

Buddy Guy and Junior Wells had been playing together in Chicago's South and West Side clubs since the early 1960s, Guy a self-taught guitarist who came north from Louisiana and Wells a harmonica prodigy who had already passed through Muddy Waters's band before leading his own groups. This set captures them live at the Montreux Jazz Festival on June 28, 1974, on a bill where they were backing Muddy Waters and were given their own spot once Waters's set ended. Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman, present at the festival, was struck by the performance and years later took on the project of mixing and releasing the tapes, bringing in Pinetop Perkins, Dallas Taylor and Terry Taylor to round out the core duo's sound on the finished record. The material draws on the deep Chicago blues songbook associated with both men, including Wells's own "Hoodoo Man Blues" and the Sonny Boy Williamson staple "Checking On My Baby," alongside Guy and Wells originals. The album stands as a document of the duo at the peak of their long club-honed partnership, a pairing widely regarded as one of the great double-acts of postwar Chicago blues. It has endured as a favorite among blues collectors for its loose, electric, in-the-room energy, capturing a performance style that influenced a generation of blues-rock guitarists who came after Guy.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Ah'w Baby/Everything Gonna Be Alright (4.00)
2. How Can One Woman Be So Mean (6.18)
3. Checking On My Baby (4.50)
4. When You See The Tears From My Eyes (6.00)

Side 2

1. Ten Years Ago (8.43)
2. Messing With The Kid (3.28)
3. Hoodoo Man Blues (5.34)
4. My Younger Days (2.35)

The Label

The side labels show the grey/black Red Lightnin' design with the red running-figure logo and the 'Britain and Europe's finest Post-War Blues Label' strapline, SIDE 1/2, catalogue number RL0034, an MCPS box and 33 1/3 RPM STEREO printed in the lower white panel; this design carries no pressing-plant address and is identical across both known UK pressings of this catalogue number, so it does not by itself separate them. The runout carries the etched RL-034-A/B cut alongside a Lyntone factory number, a mark that places this copy with the Red Lightnin' pressing physically run off by Lyntone rather than the otherwise label-identical Sterling-only pressing of the same number and year. No deep groove, promo marking or other hand-written tell appears on the labels or in the grading beyond the standard grade, so the Lyntone stamp in the runout is the only basis for ranking this copy ahead of the Sterling-only pressing.

Fidelity

The album was mixed by Bill Wyman at Pye Studios in London in March 1980 from the 1974 Montreux tapes, with mastering and lacquer cutting done at Sterling Sound in New York in September 1980; this copy's lacquers were then pressed through Lyntone in the UK. Collectors rate the Sterling cut as a clean, well-balanced transfer of a decent-quality audience/soundboard live recording, though the source tape itself is understood to have some inherent limitations typical of a 1970s festival live recording. This Red Lightnin' pressing and its Sterling-only sibling are considered sonically equivalent to each other and are generally preferred by collectors over the later Blind Pig and Sonet reissues, none of which carry audiophile-grade mastering credits.

Notes

This is the UK Red Lightnin' RL 0034 pressing, stereo, with the matrix etched RL-034-A/B and a STERLING mastering stamp. The runout additionally carries a Lyntone factory number, which identifies it as the Lyntone-pressed version of this catalogue number rather than the otherwise identical Sterling-only Red Lightnin' pressing. No pressing-plant address appears on the grey/black Red Lightnin' labels themselves, so the Lyntone stamp in the runout is the decisive marker for this copy's place in the pressing history.

Documenting collections

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