Mean Old Frisco Blues time signature?

[tugboat]

I'm trying to learn "Mean Old Frisco Blues" by Muddy Waters. I'm having a surprisingly tough time cause I can't seem to find the groove. This song seems kinda free form. What time signature is this song? My best guess is 2/4 time. 4/4 just doesn't seem to fit.

[tugboat]

Or maybe I'm just counting in on the wrong beat and that's helping to throw me off.

[melody]

With the blues you just can't rush things. If you lay back and let the beat take over you will find a lot of it is free-forum per say. Muddy was a master at it.

[buckaroo]

It is 4/4 but with a 2 "feel". The 2 feel gives it a country vibe. The beat is faster than you might originally think it to be. The groove is more implied rather than formally stated, but it is on 2 and 4.

The version I am referencing is Muddy with Johnny Winter. If you are talking about another version then post a link to it.

[tugboat]

This is the second pure blues song I've attempted. Hideaway was pretty easy (Freddie King version; gonna learn the Bluesbreakers version before too long). It very much follows a pattern. Things begin and end when you expect, and what Freddy does play is easy to anticipate.

With Mean Old Frisco Blues, however, it's like Muddy's playing whatever the heck he feels like playing, whenever the heck he feels like playing it. No pattern to it or anything. For someone like me with meager skills and who depends on memorization it throws me off. I expect him to play one thing and he plays something totally different. It's hard to anticipate what's coming next.

That's probably what's throwing me off on the time signature. I can't for the life of me try to listen to it and keep time and fit the song into nice, neat measures in 4/4 time that make a lick of sense. Unless you hear Muddy play it, of course.

[tugboat]

Still messing around with this song (learned most of it but haven't gotten to the solo yet). I need to count off what Muddy is doing because the timing is still throwing me off when I play with a metronome (my iPad with a drumbeat with the hi-hats hitting on beats 1 and 3). I rarely end the verse where it's supposed to end. I seem to be 2-3 beats off most of the time. I'm not sure if it's a case of Muddy was a professional gigging musician with superb improvisational skills and an impeccable sense of timing awareness and I'm just a man-cave hack playing 2-3 times per week or if I'm really just over thinking it and Muddy was playing whatever the heck he wanted to his own merry little tune.

[ric480]

If it's the Muddy/Winter version, the vocal verses differ from the solo verses. The difference is where the change to the IV chord occurs.

During the vocals, the IV comes in on the "3" count of the 4th group of 1-2-3-4 counts, and lasts for its usual 1-2-3-4 1-2-3-4 duration, then back to the I and on to V as usual.

When the verse starts, count 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4 and then 1-2 and change to the IV chord on the "3" count.

The solo verses are standard 12 bar blues.

[tugboat]

It is the Winters/Waters version. Thanks for the help! It helps actually. I need to better separate out the sections of the song to be able to play along and this will help. It sounds so free form compared to other blues and pop/classic rock songs I've heard and learned, and with the drums having a 2/4 feel it throws me off even more.