Ah now, trying on Bobby Womack for size was one thing, but it takes a different set of stones altogether for a bunch of skinny white boys to tackle a Willie Dixon song made famous by Howling Wolf. Of course, this 'red rooster' was an euphemism for what was swinging between the Wolf's legs, but while a leering Jagger obviously 'get's' the metaphor,* in comparison his would be laconic drawl is akin to the school bully calling out Mike Tyson for a ruck with a self confidence based on nothing more than cockiness (Jim Morrison fell into similar territory in 1971 when The Doors recorded John Lee Hooker's similarly penile 'Crawling King Snake'). The band behind him are rather more successful at summoning up the steamy atmosphere of predatory menace (with some fine bottleneck from Brian), but on the whole I give this the time of day more because it introduced a genuine blues sound to a wider audience ( fact - it's still the only blues song to have ever made number one in the UK) then for any inherent worth of its own.* Funnily enough, I can remember writing a piece on King Kurt a few years back and struggling to come up with a way of discussing their 'Big Cock' album in a family newspaper. It was through my musing that I managed to 'get' the joke behind Supergrass's 'Mansize Rooster', albeit ten years after it was released.
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