One Way Out (song) - Under A Different Name

Under A Different Name

In mid-1965, bluesman G.L. Crockett, from Carrollton, Mississippi, released yet another reworking of the song, now called "It's a Man Down There", on Four Brothers Records. It featured a slower tempo, a softer blues vocal line apparently styled after Jimmy Reed, and a hint of rockabilly. "It's a Man Down There" became a big hit in R&B circles, reaching number 10 on the Billboard Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart, and qualified the otherwise obscure Crockett for one-hit wonder status. Songwriting credits on this reworking appear to have been given to Crockett and one Jack Daniels. The Crockett track was memorialized on the Time-Life album "Living the Blues: 1965-69," part of the "Living the Blues" series.

Indeed so much was the vocal style like Reed, that Reed himself then recorded an answer song later that year, entitled "I'm the Man Down There", which became a mild hit.

In the same time period, under the name "The Man Down There", a Swedish band called Melvins recorded a version of this song; it was included on Pebbles, Volume 26.

Next up in 1966, "It's a Man Down There" was given the Tex-Mex music treatment by the Sir Douglas Quintet on their debut album The Best of the Sir Douglas Quintet. The Beatles used the riff of the song during jams in 1969. It is instantly recognizable in a jam titled "My Imagination," featuring Paul shouting simplistic vocals over the main riff for 7 minutes, and later on a jam with Yoko Ono which incorporates the riff occasionally over its 16 minute span. Both tracks remain unreleased.