Ten tunes to honor the Queen of the Blues

June 5, 12:47 PMMiami Jazz and Blues ExaminerBob Weinberg

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Her blues majesty: The Queen, regally attired, delivers the goods with soul.

"Ko-ko Tay-lor, Ko-ko Tay-lor!" If you'd seen the Queen of the Blues live, you've heard or participated in this raucous chant. Usually instigated by her lead guitarist — Vino Louden, in recent years — the shout would start after the band had heated the stage to just the right temperature and the audience was primed and ready for star time (and again when they wanted to coax her back on-stage for an encore). Then, Taylor would prowl in catlike from the wings, usually attired in a spangly, sparkly dress or pants suit, and the excitement would reach fever pitch as soon as she opened her mouth and belted out the first notes of a scorching rendition of a tune like "Evil" or "Come to Mama."

Sadly, those moments will now only linger in the memories of fans — and on DVD and Youtube — as Taylor passed away Wednesday (June 3) at age 80, following surgery for a gastrointestinal bleed. It had been an up-and-down couple of years for the singer and her Blues Machine. Last August, the band's van was involved in a serious accident in Wisconsin, which involved some heavy recovery time after surgery for Taylor's sidemen. Then, in early May, Taylor copped Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year honors at the Blues Music Awards in Memphis, where she also performed her signature tune "Wang Dang Doodle." Twelve days later, she underwent surgery, and never recovered from complications that ensued.

In salute to the woman who rightly wore the Queen of the Blues crown for decades, here are 10 of her best recorded performances. (Got some of your own? Send 'em to the comments section.)

1. "Wang Dang Doodle." Willie Dixon's hard-grooving party invite truly put Taylor on the blues map, going on to sell a million copies for Chess' Checker Records in 1965. With Buddy's Guy's biting guitar; Lafayette Leake's sly, insinuating piano; Gene "Daddy G" Barge's gritty tenor work; and the insistently menacing groove laid down by bassist Jack Meyers and drummer Fred Below behind her, Taylor had the perfect platform from which to unleash her full-throated growl, as she detailed a rogue's gallery of the thieves, thugs and various unsavory characters she was calling on to attend an all-night blow-out.

The tune remained her calling card throughout her career, and even earned her a Grammy in 1984 when she performed it on the 1984 multi-artist recording Blues Explosion, which captured a half-dozen blues artists at the 1982 Montreaux Jazz Festival.

2. "I'm a Woman."  Could a woman take Muddy Waters' signature declaration of manhood and turn it into a (wo-)manifesto that sassed back from the other side of the gender line? Oh hell yes. From her granite-gargling opening, "Oh yeah. Ohhhh yeah. Everything, everything gonna be all right this morning," to boasts like "I can make love to a crocodile," there was never any question. The track was included on the aptly named 1978 Alligator recording The Earthshaker.

3. "Love You Like a Woman." Taylor's debut album, 1969's self-titled Chess release, is a stone classic. Including a cast of Windy City blues elite — Guy, Johnny Shines or Matt Murphy on guitars, Big Walter "Shakey" Horton on harp, Leake or Sunnyland Slim on piano and, of course, Dixon on bass and supporting vocals — it announced a great talent who was at once rooted in Chicago blues tradition but also paying attention to the soul music of the day. On the punchy, horn-fueled opening track, Taylor insists, "I can love you like a woman and fight you like a man."

4. "Insane Asylum." Although bassist Dixon takes the lead vocal on this dirge-like and intriguing tale of woe, Taylor's heartbreakingly emotive chorus elevates it to something especially artful. The 1967 track, with Buddy Guy's paint-peeling licks ringing soulfully, was included on her debut Chess recording.

5. "That's Why I'm Crying." Taylor's stellar career jumped up a notch when she signed with Bruce Iglauer's Chicago-based Alligator imprint in 1975. Eight of her nine recordings for Alligator were nominated for Grammy Awards, including her very first, I Got What It Takes. Taylor's read of Magic Sam's ballad "That's Why I'm Crying" concludes the album on a surprisingly nuanced emotional note.

6. "Evil." Dixon had penned this propulsive pounder for Howlin' Wolf, but Taylor invested just as much menace into her blistering rendition as her male counterpart. A staple of her live show, the tune receives a hackles-raising rip on Taylor's Queen of the Blues recording, with James Cotton along for company.

7. "Don't Put Your Hands on Me." Taylor's 1993 recording, Force of Nature, remains a personal favorite. The singer proves she's no museum piece as she once again updates her sound without sacrificing an ounce of blues cred. Jerry Murphy's sinewy bass line and Ray "Killer" Allison's percussive attack kick this groover into overdrive, as Taylor shouts out a typically self-determined lyric (penned by Rick Estrin): "It's all right to touch me, with sweet things on your mind, but keep your big fists off of me any other time." The surgical-strike guitars of Criss Johnson and Vino Louden underline the sentiment, as does a spanking, Daddy G-arranged horn section.

8. "Something You Got."  On B.B. King's 1993 Blues Summit recording, the King summoned the Queen to Memphis, Tenn., for a spirited romp through Chris Kenner's R&B classic, the pair receiving expert support from B.'s sparkling horn section and some excellent backup singers. The tune culminates with some rich banter in which Taylor declares her love for B., whom she listened to regularly while growing up on a sharecropper's farm outside of this blues capital. The pair toured behind the record — along with Buddy Guy and Junior Wells — and even stopped off in Miami for a memorable show at Bayfront Amphitheater.

9. "Ernestine." This finger-wagging Taylor original became a staple of her show in later years, a bone-rattling warning to the no-good woman of the title to stay away from her man. "I warned you once, girl, without a doubt/Two strikes you lose, third strike you're out/Like a baseball game/You're messin' with a slugger/I hit a grandslam 'cause I'm a bad mutha fuya." Got that right. No mystery why this became a fan fave. Find it on 2000's Royal Blue. Features great harp work from Matthew Skoller and the usual piano mastery of the late Johnny Johnson.

10. "I'd Rather Go Blind." Although this tune is generally associated with Etta James, Taylor's version is equally moving, revealing a stunning vulnerability beneath the brick-tough exterior. That was Taylor's great gift: No matter what she put her pipes to, you never felt she was being anything less than scrupulously honest. The title of the album for which this track was recorded, 1981's From the Heart of a Woman, says it all.