Let’s Work Together

Today is Robert Ernest Hite’s 70^th birthday – at least it would have been if he hadn’t died of a heart attack in 1981.

And who was Robert Ernest Hite, you ask?  He was aka Bob The Bear Hite, one of the singers and guitarists in Canned Heat, a truly great boogie rock blues band from the late 60’s.  Oh, and he played flute on Going Up the Country, the unofficial anthem of Woodstock, where they also played.  And some harmonica.

This is the band that gave us On the Road Again, the trippiest blues song ever.  But it was their cover of Wilbert Harrison’s Let’s Work Together (originally Let’s Stick Together) I love best.  Straight ahead blues rock and a sentiment that pretty much summed up the way most folks felt at the time.

I mean, why not work together?  ‘Cause:

            Together we will stand and divided we’ll fall

            Come on now people let’s get on the ball

            And work together, come on, come on let’s work together

Maybe it’s good that Bob The Bear died at the tender age of 38.  He’d be pretty sad with the state of things today.

Happy birthday, Bob.  I’m sticking with you.