Alan Wilson and Bob Hite took the band name “Canned Heat” from Tommy Johnson’s 1928 “Canned Heat Blues”, a song about an alcoholic who had desperately turned to drinking Sterno, generically called “canned heat”. Sterno is a fuel made from denatured and jellied alcohol. It is burned directly from its can primarily for use in the food service industry for buffet heating. Other uses are for camp stoves and as an emergency heat source.
Yummy
My parents and I were hangin this weekend listening to the radio and this song came on. My dad asked me if I knew who it was, I guessed Canned Heat but this particular song did not jump out at me…it will from now on. Today, I head back to Chicago after two weeks in Texas. I am on the road again…
