"Going Up the Country" (also "Goin' Up the Country") is a song adapted and recorded by American blues rock band Canned Heat. Called a "rural hippie anthem",[2] it became one of the band's biggest hits and best-known songs.[3] As with their previous single, "On the Road Again", the song was adapted from a 1920s blues song and sung by Alan Wilson.
| "Going Up the Country" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 US single picture sleeve | ||||
| Single by Canned Heat | ||||
| from the album Living the Blues | ||||
| B-side | "One Kind Favor" | |||
| Released | November 22, 1968 | |||
| Recorded | August 6–7, 1968 | |||
| Studio | I.D. Sound Recorders, Hollywood, California | |||
| Genre | Blues rock[1] | |||
| Length | 2:50 | |||
| Label | Liberty | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Alan Wilson (see text) | |||
| Producer(s) | Canned Heat, Skip Taylor | |||
| Canned Heat singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
Background and composition
editCanned Heat, who were early blues enthusiasts, based "Going Up the Country" on "Bull Doze Blues", recorded in 1928 by Texas bluesman Henry Thomas.[4] Thomas was from the songster tradition and had a unique sound,[5] sometimes accompanying himself on quills, an early Afro-American wind instrument similar to panpipes. He recorded "Bull Doze Blues" in Chicago on June 13, 1928, for Vocalion Records.[6]
For "Going Up the Country", Canned Heat's Wilson used Thomas' melody on the quills and his basic rhythm, but arranged it for a rock setting and rewrote the lyrics. In addition to the bass and drum rhythm section, Henry Vestine supplied a "light electric rhythm guitar"[4] and multi-instrumentalist Jim Horn reproduced Thomas' quill parts on the flute.[7]
Although linked to the counterculture of the 1960s' back-to-the-land movement, Wilson's lyrics are ambiguous, leading some to suggest they were about evading the draft during the Vietnam War by moving to Canada:[8]
Now, baby, pack your leaving trunk, you know we've got to leave today
Just exactly where we're going, I cannot say, but we might even leave the U.S.A.
'Cause there's a brand new game that I don't wanna play
Releases and charts
editIn October 1968, Liberty Records first released "Going Up the Country" on Canned Heat's third album, Living the Blues, and followed it with a single on November 22, 1968.[9] The single peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on January 25, 1969, making it the band's best showing on the main U.S. chart.[10] On January 6, 1969, the song reached number 5 on the Canadian RPM charts,[11] and on January 7, 1969, the song peaked at number 19 on the UK Singles Chart.[12]
The song appears on several Canned Heat compilation albums, including Canned Heat Cookbook, Let's Work Together: The Best of Canned Heat (1989) and Uncanned! The Best of Canned Heat (1994).[9] The group performed "Going Up the Country" at the Woodstock music festival in August 1969 and the song is used in the Woodstock film[2] and appears on the original soundtrack album.[13]
The song was also included in the soundtrack for the 2010 skateboarding video game Skate 3.[14]
Certifications
edit| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (BPI)[15] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
|
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
References
edit- ^ Perone, James E. (15 February 2019). Listen to the Blues! Exploring a Musical Genre. ABC-CLIO. p. 17. ISBN 978-1-4408-6615-9.
- ^ a b Planer, Lindsay. "Canned Heat: Living the Blues – Review". AllMusic. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
- ^ Pearson, Barry Lee (1996). "Canned Heat". In Erlewine, Michael (ed.). All Music Guide to the Blues: The Experts' Guide to the Best Blues Recordings. All Music Guide to the Blues. San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books. ISBN 0-87930-424-3.
- ^ a b Greenwald, Matthew. "Canned Heat: 'Going Up the Country' – Review". AllMusic. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
- ^ Shadwick, Keith (2007). "Henry "Ragtime" Thomas". The Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues. London: Quantum Publishing. p. 411. ISBN 978-0-681-08644-9.
- ^ Vocalion no. 1230
- ^ The flute in the album version and single version differ slightly; in one version, the third note is held for only a moment, while in the other, it is held for two or three seconds.
- ^ Glatz, Paul Benedikt (2021). Vietnam's Prodigal Heroes: American Deserters, International Protest, European Exile, and Amnesty. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books. p. 27. ISBN 978-1793616708.
- ^ a b Russo, Greg (1994). Uncanned! The Best of Canned Heat (CD set booklet). Canned Heat. New York City: EMI Records/Liberty Records. p. 23. 7243 8 29165 2 9.
- ^ "Canned Heat: Chart History – Hot 100". Billboard.com. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
- ^ "The RPM 100" (PDF). RPM. Vol. 10, no. 19. January 6, 1969. p. 5. ISSN 0315-5994.
- ^ "Canned Heat – Singles". Official Charts. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
- ^ Jurek, Thom. "Various Artists: Woodstock – Review". AllMusic. Retrieved August 3, 2019.
- ^ Skate 3 (Video Game 2010) - Soundtracks - IMDb. Retrieved 2024-07-15 – via www.imdb.com.
- ^ "British single certifications – Canned Heat – Going Up The Country". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved July 20, 2024.