Recorded on June 14, 1929, in Richmond, Indiana — the "father of the Delta blues" Charley Patton at his most primal. Percussive guitar slaps and a hoarse, sandpaper voice pressed the heat of the juke joint straight onto the record. His biggest hit, it became one of the songs most passed on by the Delta bluesmen who followed.
Patton's student Howlin' Wolf recut the tune as "Saddle My Pony" in 1952 at Sun Studios in Memphis. Keeping the skeleton of "Pony Blues," the electric sound and growling voice bridged the primal Delta to the postwar Chicago blues.