On The Road Again (3:25)

“On the Road Again,” a song by the blues group Canned Heat, was released as a single in August 1968. It reached the top ten on the Top 40 popular music charts and appeared on their 1968 album Boogie with Canned Heat as well as the 1969 compilation The Canned Heat Cookbook.

“On the Road Again” was adapted by Alan Wilson from a song of the same name recorded in 1953 by Floyd Jones (July 21, 1917 - December 19, 1989), a Chicago blues musician. Jones’ song was itself an adaptation of “Big Road Blues,” recorded in 1928 by Delta blues musician Tommy Johnson.

With his knowledge of Eastern music, Wilson used a tambura drone to give the song a hypnotic effect and a psychedelic edge. The song features Wilson as the lead singer and harmonica player. The B-side of the single was entitled “World in a Jug.”

The song also appears in the 1998 movie Hideous Kinky.

Harmonica retuning

“On The Road Again” is famous for its harmonica solo, which has a note played in it that is very mysterious as it is not playable without an overblow. Alan Wilson retuned his harmonica’s six hole up a half step.