EVER BROWSED THROUGH Willie Dixon’s songwriting credits? It’s a sobering experience, a Rosetta Stone of popular music crammed with hits that anyone with half a grasp of blues, soul, rock, pop and even punk will recognize: “You Shook Me,” “I Just Want to Make Love to You,” “Hoochie Coochie Man,” “Bring It on Home,” “Talk to Me Baby,” “You Need Love” (which Jimmy Page adapted for Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love”), “I Can’t Quit You Baby,” “Evil,” “Back Door Man”… They are songs that have been immortalized by Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, Muddy Waters, Etta James, the Doors, Canned Heat, UFO, Grateful Dead, Johnny Thunders, Tom Petty, New York Dolls and many others.
Arguably, it was the Rolling Stones who turned the wider world on to Dixon’s most pivotal song. On…