Musical style
The song is a raucous blues song played recklessly by a band that included Al Kooper on organ and Mike Bloomfield on guitar.[4] The guitar part is patterned after older blues riffs by Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton and Big Joe Williams.[5] It also features a backbeat from drummer Bobby Gregg, a bass line from Harvey Brooks, and a soaring harmonica break.[4][6] The song starts with a snare shot that is similar to the opening song of Highway 61 Revisited, "Like a Rolling Stone".[3][6] It is essentially a 12-bar blues pattern, played with power chords, and is notable for Brooks' almost indiscernible substitution of an F in the tenth bar of all but the first verses, while the guitar and organ play the G-chord.
The song is partially based on Sleepy John Estes' 1930 song "Milk Cow Blues", even taking a few lyrics from the older song, but its approach is more similar to The Kinks' version of a Kokomo Arnold song that was also called "Milk Cow Blues".[4]
Cash Box described it as a "rollicking, fast-moving blues-drenched folk rocker."[1]
