The legendary Chicago blues guitarist died yesterday, at the age of 84:
Rush on Saturday succumbed to complications from a stroke he suffered in 2003, his longtime manager Rick Bates said.
Born in Philadelphia, Mississippi, Rush settled in Chicago as an adult and began playing the local clubs, wearing a cowboy hat and sometimes playing his guitar upside down for effect.
He catapulted to international fame in 1956 with his first recording on Cobra Records of I Can’t Quit You Baby, which reached No 6 on the Billboard R&B charts.
He was a key architect of the Chicago “West Side Sound” in the 1950s and 1960s, which modernised traditional blues to introduce more of a jazzy, amplified sound.
“He was one of the last great blues guitar heroes. He was an electric god,” said Gregg Parker, CEO and a founder of the Chicago Blues Museum.
Rush loved to play to live audiences, from small clubs on Chicago’s West Side to sold-out venues in Europe and Japan.
“He was king of the hill in Chicago from the late 1950s into the 1970s and even the 80s as a live artist,” Bates said.
Here he is, live in Berlin, mid-Sixties, introduced by Roosevelt Sykes:
A fabulous beginning as he steps up to the mike and lets forth with that holler. Then his guitar solo - left-handed guitar, but with the strings set up for a right-hander - messing around and teasing for the first twelve bars before a quick adjustment to the controls and he's off with those glorious bending high notes.
From the same concert, Junior Wells Hoodoo Man Blues, with Rush backing.
"I Can't Quit You Baby" was his first single, in 1956 - later, of course, covered by Led Zeppelin. Other hits included Double Trouble - live in 1986 with Eric Clapton - and All Your Love (I Miss Loving).