Story of the Song: Feeling the blues with T-Bone Walker’s Stormy Monday

From The Independent archive: Robert Webb on the 1947 hit ‘Stormy Monday’ by T-Bone Walker

T-Bone Walker found happier work in the blues (Alamy)

Elvis Costello told us we were, “Welcome To The Working Week”, and the Easybeats sang about the fellow who turned up for his dead-end job with Friday on his mind.

For T-Bone Walker, it was not just the job that had given him the blues: his girl had left him and now he could barely get out of bed.

“They call it Stormy Monday but Tuesday’s just as bad”, Walker wails, as he works his way through the worst week of his life. “Wednesday’s worse and Thursday’s also sad”.