Skip James: I'm So Glad (1931)

Previously we posted Otis Rush's original of All Your Love which became one of Eric Clapton's defining versions in '65 (the kind of piece that got the "Clapton is God" graffiti writers going). So here now is Skip James with I'm So Glad which became simply an improv vehicle for Clapton in Cream just a few years later.

James -- from Mississippi -- was one of the many bluesmen who all but disappeared after their first flourish in the Thirties or Forties, only to be hailed and rediscovered in the Sixties when the British blues explosion rolled around.

He started playing folk and blues festivals in Europe and suddenly the old boy (who was in his mid 60s but seemed even older) was a hero to a new generation. And a white generation too.

Unfortunately he didn't live long enough to fully enjoy the royalties that came his way after Cream covered (and regularly played live) I'm So Glad. He died in late '69 and it was only after his passing that many of his early recordings, like this one, were released. 

For more one-off or unusual songs with an interesting backstory see From the Vaults.