Let’s pay homage to the blues in a long tradition with connections, to this man
Blues: La Grande Anthologie 1925 - 1962
Dimples with The Animals
It is at the same time a memory to John Lee Hooker
This really is an astonishingly wicked album, not at all what I expected considering his “pedigree”
Most excellent!
It is indeed!
Hey Gang! Thank you for all the wonderful recommendations you provided here! Many of them made their way into our new Blues-Rock Founders playlist. The accompanying Roon Blog article The Blues: Founders & Followers can be found here and here
In the video “Elvis - One Night With You”, Elvis attempts a brief description as to how (the then) emerging music was based upon the Blues of his early life (Mississippi). While he clearly knew his heart/mind on the topic, it was difficult (for him) to explain how we got to where we are.
Also, music recorded in the States was slow to go abroad (as David Gilmour points out). Gilmour pointed out that his influences (as also revealed by Syd Barrett) were the result of their limited early access to our music.
One cannot help but being moved by the tragedy of Elvis’ life. While it is arguable, he would have stood a better chance of rehab in today’s world with our tools than during those times. (there were two who were responsible for his lack of recovery; spoke to one of them ~10 years ago; there was no expression of regrets).
The Blues of Elvis was quite well done and clearly emotionally meaningful to him in contrast to being directed to record songs lacking in substance (Eg. Blue Hawaii, for example). Even “Blue Christmas” had more substance than the songs made for movies.
This is enjoyable background, but I need to play it louder on my main system. Couple of interlopers called Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Joe Bonnamassa on several of the tracks.
“It’s possible Pink Floyd’s Gilmour is playing somewhere right now. His solos can drag on but never seem to have fans looking at their watches. Like most rock guitar greats, Gilmour harbors a blues influence. He’s technically sound while still keeping the emotion high. The epic, multi-part “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and The Wall highlight, “Comfortably Numb,” rank at the top of Gilmour’s best.”
In the first Reacher novel, our hero was a big fan of old blues songs and players. I was happy to hear that this iteration kept some of that backstory. We will see (hear) if season 2 continues the references.
This is on Qobuz. A slow mellow Blues.
This is a very good synopsis by an excellent pedal designer. It is not without error, but it covers a complex emergence of Rock from the Blues.
ZZ Top (the name came from artists known to that “Lil Ol Band from Texas” who noted artists like BB King, and ZZ Top was more appropriate than ZZ King (which was very briefly considered). (BTW, it had nothing at all to do with ZigZag).
The history of the three guys is a current documentary that can be streamed. They were quirky, and they were innovative.
Over a decade ago, I discussed a screen play with an agent and wanted to use their “Rough Boy” as an intro song. I also had a lesser known actor whom I wanted to play the lead role. I was told in no uncertain terms, “you can reach out and see if his agent has any interest in the story, but you cannot dictate a song be used. You are a writer. You are not a director.”
So with that and other constraints, also legal, the project was abandoned.
But “Rough Boy” plus a case history were my inspirations for what I felt would be a great movie that never came to be.
Billy Gibbons is an excellent and innovative player. Dusty Hill was 72 at the time of death. He was clinically obese, and the dummer Frank Beard had a prolonged period of drug abuse.
I pondered that if you have a group (corporation) that produced millions in revenue…do you have the option/right to demand that your bandmates take care of themselves?
In either case, listen to Rough Boy (again) if you have not heard it recently.
Dusty “The American Dream” Rhodes was a Professional Wrestler.
Dusty Hill was ZZ Top’s bass player, quite a difference.
That first photo is quite scare and should carry a warning label…
Don’t you mean American Nightmare?
Will have trouble sleeping now😂
Second time I made that error.