There’s a comment under a Muddy Waters clip coming up from Youtube…
I had an album with Rye Cooder and Ali Farka Toure called ‘Talking Timbuktoo’ …give yourself a treat… it’s a wicked album… And as to where did the blues begin? …Africa.
To me this clip is conformation that the blues traveled from Africa to America on the slave ships… it’s American slavery that gave us the blues… and it gave birth to a child… called rock and roll!
Up next is one of the songs that ‘midwifed’ the blues into rock n’ roll…
And here comes an eloquent description of what the blues means from Willie Dixon…
‘the Godfather of the blues… a blues giant…’ SoulTooSoul youtube.
one of the originals… listen to his description of what the blues is about… he’s speaking for all his people… who took their pain and turned it into a whole new industry…
This music was born out of the poverty and discrimination of America’s Negro’s who kept faith with their spirits’ by singing and dancing like no one else on earth… still... turning the pain into art…
This next ones an eye opener… this is where Elvis got one of his first smash hits from…
Big Mama Thornton ft. Buddy Guy - Hound Dog...
It says a lot that it took a pretty white boy to ‘render it’ in a form more acceptable to white audiences… but then they say imitation is the best from of flattery don’t they?
And Elvis rocked on for years with his own version of black gospel and blues singing.
But even though I actually liked Elvis… but he didn’t have that raw passion he tried so hard to imitate… maybe you need to suffer more than he did to get into that blues groove…
There are a couple of nice quotes on youtube…
‘the lyrics to big mama's version were more meaningful. She paints a vivid picture of her shiftless and lazy old man likening him to a hound dog while elvis' version is lame, sappy and simple-minded, singing about an actual dog…’ drlove1972 youtube.
‘ What a shame that Elvis stole it. His version was amazing but hers was in a whole other universe..’. VelvetRope1814 youtube.
So let’s take a look at more of the 'real thing...' mo' blues from Freddie the 'show man...'
Freddie King: Ain`t No Sunshine When She`s Gone...
A comment I liked on this one… ‘girls must be there for men to do music... lol... the reason why notes sound sad is because some girl broke his heart n’ that is what happens to sad people... blessed with sadness…’ yehan44bro youtube.
And isn’t that's what Freddie’s saying…
Next up check out the effect the blues had on the Brits… or should I say on London…the music industry in the States is huge and all over… L.A. Nashville, Detroit Philly… etc etc… While most Brit music comes from one place… London… and it’s rock music history is huge and colorful… if you took the Brit influence out of rock it wouldn’t be the same! ...Rock without the Beatles or The Stones… please!!!
‘English musicians championed our blues artist. Who did they give hommage to? The chicago blues musicians. I'm talking about Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Willie Dixon, Bo Diddley, KoKo Taylor, Willie Dixon etc. SoulTooSoul youtube
It’s true… I grew up in Liverpool and London and we honestly did grow up listening to and collecting ‘imported’ records by these musicians… especially at the art schools…
And then there was the Blues Bros… this next track was a kind of theme of theirs… and it always rocked… enjoy!
Meanwhile Stateside Buddy rocked on… heading towards soul…
From here on things hot up… finally the fine art of black music became as American as apple pie… accepted into main stream culture… Hollywood noticed… and a new definition of cool was born… the beginning of the mixed race bad boys of the blues… lets take a trip boom booming with John Lee Hooker, Elroy and Joliet Jake…
The Blues Brothers - Street Blues...
This movie changed my life… the first time I saw it I new I had no option but to become a ‘Noire’ Roadrunner for life… and I did!
‘what a band. Walter Horton, Willie Big Eyes Smith, Calvin Jones, John Lee Hooker...If nothing else, The Blues Brothers brought together some of the best living musicians of the time and coaxed some amazing performances out of them.’ ...harp2085 youtube.
If I had to survive on one song for the rest of my life, it'd be this one. Love the argument at the end of the clip! Brilliant film.’ …4492 youtube.
This next clip is amazing… the Irish and the Darkies join forces to tell us about a hooker named Gloria… is this ‘She been’ music or what? ...Jeez this track rocks!
John Lee Hooker & Van Morrison...
This clip is really special for me… it actually made me cry… I’m a celt… living in Africa… married to a beautiful Zulu woman who dances like a bitch… the Irish and the blacks have a lot in common… remember the saying from ‘the Commitments…’ ‘the Irish are the blacks of Britain…’we drink tell stories dance cry and sing… turning our history of pain into love and art …and when I first saw this track it struck me it said all that …long live the Irish and the Negroes… without them the world would be a sadder… less brave place!!!! …and these two together… you’re watching a living definition of real soul.
Found a couple of interesting quotes too:
‘This is unbelievably good. Just found out that Van and John Lee had been friends since the 1960s’ tecu32 youtube.
‘I looked cool in the face and John Lee Hooker looked back. Awesome.‘ floydsvoid
So now we come to it… not an old song …but a song that tells the whole story… from the masters… look and listen to a musical definition of the blues
John Lee Hooker & Santana - The Healer ...
That’s it for this posting… I hope you enjoyed watching it as much as I enjoyed putting it all together… I’ll be back with more ‘soultrain’ next posting… I think it’s time to head off from ‘rock’ towards some ‘some sweet soul music’ up next… take care out there… love… the noire outsider !
