Update – This was originally posted on August 23, 2016. Mose Allison died on November 15, 2016, aged 89. RIP.

So I was recently watching the terrific Who documentary, The Kids Are Alright, when the band launched into a live version of “Young Man Blues” from the London Coliseum, 1969. Hearing this had two immediate effects – one is that I had to stop the film so I could learn the intro to the song which is one of the best licks ever; and two, I said to myself – Self, there’s an idea for a post. Which, as it happens, is this one.

Whenever you hear anyone (Foo Fighters, Joe Bonamassa, etc.) play “Young Man Blues,” you are effectively hearing their cover of The Who’s cover of Mose Allison. So who is Mose Allison?

Well he is an 88-year old jazz musician from Mississippi whose most well-known tune – apart from “Young Man” – is “Parchman Farm” which John Mayall covered. (“Parchman” itself is based on “Parchman Farm Blues” by Bukka White, a cousin of B.B. King. Parchman Farm is another name for the Mississippi State Penitentiary.)

Allison is pretty well-regarded by blues people and rockers and in fact, his song “Look Here” was covered by The Clash on Sandinista!.

FWIW, It turns out that the actual name of the song is “Back Country Suite: Blues (a.k.a. ‘Young Man’s Blues.)” So what does the original “Young Man Blues” sound like? Here ’tis:

Of Mose, Pete said, “The man’s voice was heaven. So cool, so decisively hip… Mose was my man. I felt him to be the epitome of restrained screaming power.” This song is, of course, about the young man’s place in society. And Townshend went on to say that he would not have written “My Generation” if he hadn’t heard this song.

Oh, well, a young man

Ain’t got nothin’ in the world these days

I said a young man

Ain’t got nothin’ in the world these days

Well, you know in the old days

When a young man was a strong man

All the people, they’d step back

When a young man walked by

But you know, nowadays

It’s the old man

He’s got all the money

And a young man ain’t got nothin’ in the world these days

The all-time Who version of course is on Live at Leeds. (Which if you don’t own, you should immediately go out and buy.) And someone said in the comments that the version below is a “bloody dreadful performance.” But you know what? Let him get up and play it. Listen carefully and can how Pete appropriated the piano intro:

Chris Spedding is a UK guitarist who has a had a heralded, if largely under-the-radar career. Perhaps best known in the UK, he has played with everyone from Jack Bruce to Roy Harper to Joan Armatrading.

From his 2002 album One Step Ahead of the Blues, here is his version of “Young Man Blues”:

Wikipedia: In 2012, Allison was honored with a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail in his hometown of Tippo. On January 14, 2013, he was honored as a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts, the nation’s highest honor in jazz, at a ceremony at Lincoln Center in New York. He retired from touring in 2013.