Going Up the Country

"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",[1] it became one of the band's biggest hits and best-known songs.[2] As with their previous single, "On the Road Again", the song was adapted from a 1920s blues song and sung in a countertenor-style by Alan Wilson.

"Going Up the Country"
Single by Canned Heat
from the album Living the Blues
B-side"One Kind Favor"
ReleasedNovember 22, 1968 (1968-11-22)
RecordedAugust 6–7, 1968
StudioI.D. Sound Recorders, Hollywood, California
GenreRock
Length2:50
LabelLiberty
Songwriter(s)Alan Wilson
Producer(s)Canned Heat, Skip Taylor
Canned Heat singles chronology
"On the Road Again"
(1968)		 "Going Up the Country"
(1968)		 "Time Was"
(1969)

Background and composition

Canned Heat, who were early blues enthusiasts, based "Going Up the Country" on "Bull Doze Blues", recorded in 1928 by Texas bluesman Henry Thomas.[3] Thomas was from the songster tradition and had a unique sound,[4] 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.[5]

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"[3] and multi-instrumentalist Jim Horn reproduced Thomas' quill parts on the flute.[6]

Although linked to the counterculture of the 1960s' back-to-the-land movement, Wilson's lyrics are ambiguous:

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

"Going Up the Country" was first released on Canned Heat's third album, Living the Blues, in October 1968.[7] Liberty Records released the song as a single on November 22, 1968,[7] which peaked at number 11 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on January 25, 1969.[8] "Going Up the Country" was Canned Heat's highest charting single in the US.[8] On January 7, 1969, the song peaked at number 19 on the UK Singles Chart.[9]

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).[7] The group performed "Going Up the Country" at the Woodstock music festival in August 1969 and the song is used in the Woodstock film[1] and appears on the original soundtrack album.[10]

References
  1. Planer, Lindsay. "Canned Heat: Living the Blues – Review". AllMusic. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
  2. Pearson, Barry Lee (1996). "Canned Heat". In Erlewine, Michael (ed.). All Music Guide to the Blues. San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books. ISBN 0-87930-424-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  3. Greenwald, Matthew. "Canned Heat: 'Going Up the Country' – Review". AllMusic. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
  4. Shadwick, Keith (2007). "Henry "Ragtime" Thomas". The Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues. London: Quantum Publishing. p. 411. ISBN 978-0-681-08644-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  5. Vocalion no. 1230
  6. 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.
  7. 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.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  8. "Canned Heat: Chart History – Hot 100". Billboard.com. Retrieved May 21, 2018.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  9. "Canned Heat – Singles". Official Charts. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
  10. Jurek, Thom. "Various Artists: Woodstock – Review". AllMusic. Retrieved August 3, 2019.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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